New Living Translation | New International Version |
1On June 21, during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD: | 1In the eleventh year, in the third month on the first day, the word of the LORD came to me: |
2“Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes: “To whom would you compare your greatness? | 2"Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes: "'Who can be compared with you in majesty? |
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. | 3Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage. |
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. | 4The waters nourished it, deep springs made it grow tall; their streams flowed all around its base and sent their channels to all the trees of the field. |
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. | 5So it towered higher than all the trees of the field; its boughs increased and its branches grew long, spreading because of abundant waters. |
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. | 6All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs, all the animals of the wild gave birth under its branches; all the great nations lived in its shade. |
7It was strong and beautiful, with wide-spreading branches, for its roots went deep into abundant water. | 7It was majestic in beauty, with its spreading boughs, for its roots went down to abundant waters. |
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. | 8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the junipers equal its boughs, nor could the plane trees compare with its branches-- no tree in the garden of God could match its beauty. |
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. | 9I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God. |
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, | 10"'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because the great cedar towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud of its height, |
11I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it. | 11I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside, |
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. | 12and the most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it. |
13“The birds roost on its fallen trunk, and the wild animals lie among its branches. | 13All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild animals lived among its branches. |
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. | 14Therefore no other trees by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are all destined for death, for the earth below, among mortals who go down to the realm of the dead. |
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. | 15"'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day it was brought down to the realm of the dead I covered the deep springs with mourning for it; I held back its streams, and its abundant waters were restrained. Because of it I clothed Lebanon with gloom, and all the trees of the field withered away. |
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. | 16I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the realm of the dead to be with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below. |
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. | 17They too, like the great cedar, had gone down to the realm of the dead, to those killed by the sword, along with the armed men who lived in its shade among the nations. |
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!” | 18"'Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in splendor and majesty? Yet you, too, will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. "'This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Sovereign LORD.'" |
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. | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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