Holman Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
1In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: " | 1On June 21, during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD: |
2Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes: Who are you like in your greatness? | 2“Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes: “To whom would you compare your greatness? |
3Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and shady foliage and of lofty height. Its top was among the clouds. | 3You are like mighty Assyria, which was once like a cedar of Lebanon, with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade and with its top high among the clouds. |
4The waters caused it to grow; the underground springs made it tall, directing their rivers all around the place where the tree was planted and sending their channels to all the trees of the field. | 4Deep springs watered it and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant. The water flowed around it like a river, streaming to all the trees nearby. |
5Therefore the cedar became greater in height than all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long as it spread them out because of the plentiful water. | 5This great tree towered high, higher than all the other trees around it. It prospered and grew long thick branches because of all the water at its roots. |
6All the birds of the sky nested in its branches, and all the animals of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade. | 6The birds nested in its branches, and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth. All the great nations of the world lived in its shadow. |
7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its limbs, for its roots extended to abundant water. | 7It was strong and beautiful, with wide-spreading branches, for its roots went deep into abundant water. |
8The cedars in God's garden could not rival it; the pine trees couldn't compare with its branches, nor could the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with it in beauty. | 8No other cedar in the garden of God could rival it. No cypress had branches to equal it; no plane tree had boughs to compare. No tree in the garden of God came close to it in beauty. |
9I made it beautiful with its many limbs, and all the trees of Eden, which were in God's garden, envied it." | 9Because I made this tree so beautiful, and gave it such magnificent foliage, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden, the garden of God. |
10Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Since it became great in height and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height, | 10“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because Egypt became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds, |
11I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations; he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness. | 11I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it. |
12Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations, cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth's ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. | 12A foreign army—the terror of the nations—has cut it down and left it fallen on the ground. Its branches are scattered across the mountains and valleys and ravines of the land. All those who lived in its shadow have gone away and left it lying there. |
13All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs. | 13“The birds roost on its fallen trunk, and the wild animals lie among its branches. |
14This happened so that no trees planted beside water would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and so that no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the underworld, among the people who descend to the Pit." | 14Let the tree of no other nation proudly exult in its own prosperity, though it be higher than the clouds and it be watered from the depths. For all are doomed to die, to go down to the depths of the earth. They will land in the pit along with everyone else on earth. |
15This is what the Lord GOD says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol. I closed off the underground deep because of it: I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. | 15“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When Assyria went down to the grave, I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt. |
16I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I threw it down to Sheol to be with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, all the well-watered trees, the choice and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the underworld. | 16I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of its fall, for I sent it down to the grave with all the others who descend to the pit. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the most beautiful and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, took comfort to find it there with them in the depths of the earth. |
17They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies they had lived in its shade among the nations." | 17Its allies, too, were all destroyed and had passed away. They had gone down to the grave—all those nations that had lived in its shade. |
18Who then are you like in glory and greatness among Eden's trees? You also will be brought down to the underworld to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his hordes"--the declaration of the Lord GOD. | 18“O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!” |
Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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