Eze 31 | EE | STEP | The LORD spoke to me on the first day of the third (3rd) month. That was in the eleventh (11th) year.

Ezekiel 31

1 The LORD spoke to me on the first day of the third (3rd) month. That was in the eleventh (11th) year. 2 ‘Son of man’, he said, ‘Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his soldiers:

Nobody is as great or powerful as you are.

3 Think about Assyria. It was like a great cedar tree before.

It had beautiful branches that covered other trees.

It was very tall and it had many leaves.

4 Waters fed the tree and streams made it grow tall.

The streams went round it. And they sent some water to all the other trees.

5 So it became taller than any of the trees in the field.

Many long branches grew from it.

They grew because it had so much water.

6 All kinds of birds lived in its branches.

Under its branches, the wild animals gave birth to their young animals.

It kept safe all the great nations.

7 It was as beautiful as a king in his best clothes.

It drank the deep waters.

8 It was more beautiful than the cedars in God’s garden.

The pine trees were not as tall.

Other trees had fewer branches.

No other tree in God’s garden was nearly as beautiful.

9 I made the tree beautiful and I gave it its branches.

All the trees in Eden (God’s garden) wanted to be as beautiful as the cedar.’

10 So this is what the LORD God says:

‘Assyria was like that tree. It knew that it was very tall. And it thought that it was more important than any other tree. These thoughts were bad thoughts. 11 So I made the ruler of the nations punish it. I have destroyed it because it was so bad. 12 Cruel foreigners cut it down and they went away. They broke all its branches. Its branches fell on the mountains and in the valleys. The nations that it had kept safe all went away from it. 13 The birds sat on the tree that had fallen. And the wild animals walked over its branches. 14 I will never again let a tree become so tall. No tree that grows by the waters will grow as big. It grew taller than other trees. Its top was in the clouds. So it thought that it was more important than the other trees. All the trees will die, like men. They will die even when they have much water. They will never grow so high again. They will die like men. And other men will bury them in the ground.’

15 This is what the LORD God says: ‘They buried the tree. Then I made the deep streams cover it. But I will stop the rivers from sending streams of water to the earth. I will make the mountains of Lebanon dark. All the trees in the forest will become dry and they will die. 16 The nations will shake when they hear the tree fall. They will bury the tree with all those in the earth below. After I have done this, the other trees in the earth will become happy. They were the trees from God’s garden (Eden) and from Lebanon. 17 Some trees are already in the earth. Men will bury the cedar tree with those trees. I will send the people who lived under the tree to live in other nations.

18 The king of Egypt and all his people are also like a tree. You are great and powerful. But I will cut you down like the trees of Eden (God’s garden). Men will bury you with your dead soldiers. You will lie with those that men have killed with swords.

This is what I will do to Pharaoh and all his armies,’ says the LORD God.