The Word Am I

The Prophet Ezekiel

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- Chapter 31 -

1
Almost eleven years after the Babylonians had taken us Israelites to their land, Yahweh gave me another message, on the first day of the third month of that year. He said,
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“Son of man, say to the king of Egypt and to the immense numbers of his people, ’You think that there is no country whose power is as great as the power of your country.
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You think that your country is as great as Assyria was. Well, Assyria was like a tall cedar tree in Lebanon; it had big beautiful branches that provided shade for other trees in the forest. It was very tall; and the branches of the tallest trees made a treetop that was a roof over the forest.
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Water came to it from deep springs, and as a result that cedar tree grew tall and very green. Then water flowed around the base of the tree into channels that took water to other nearby trees in the open countryside.
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That huge tree grew very tall, higher than all the other trees around it. Its branches grew very thick and long because of the abundant water at the base of the tree.
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Birds built their nests in the branches, and wild animals gave birth to their young under those branches. And it was as though people of all the great nations lived in the shade of that tree.
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It was majestic and beautiful; its branches spread out widely because the roots of the tree grew down into the ground where there was a plentiful supply of water.
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The cedar trees in my garden in Eden were not as great as that tree, and the branches of the fir trees were not as long and thick as the branches of that cedar tree. And the branches of the plane trees were not as long and thick, either. No tree in my garden was as beautiful as that cedar tree.
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Because I caused that tree to become very beautiful because of its magnificent green branches, all the leaders of other countries represented by those other trees in Eden envied the country represented by that tree.’
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Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: ’That tree, which represents Assyria, grew very tall; its top was higher than the other trees, and it became very proud because it was so tall.
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Therefore, I enabled another mighty nation to conquer it, to destroy it as it deserved to be destroyed. I have already discarded it.
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A foreign army, one that has caused people of other nations to be terrified, cut it down and left it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in the valleys. Some of its branches lay broken in all the ravines in the land. All the people of other nations came out from being under its shade and left it.
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Birds of the sky settled on the fallen tree, and wild animals lived among its branches.
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As a result, no other tree, even if the tree has plenty of water, will ever grow to such great height, or lift its top above the branches higher than other trees. They will all certainly die and decay; they will go to the place of the dead; they will go to the grave.’”
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This is what Yahweh the Lord says: “When that great tree was cut down, it was as though the springs that watered it mourned for it, because I caused the plentiful water from the springs to dry up. It was as if I had caused the mountains in Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees there to weep.
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I caused the people of other nations to tremble when they heard that tree fall to the ground, when they heard that Assyria had been destroyed. All the other people groups had also been like beautiful, well-watered trees in Lebanon, but they were comforted when the king represented by that cedar tree arrived among them in the place where they were as dead people.
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The people represented by the trees that grew in the shade of that huge tree, the allies of the great nation that the cedar tree represents, had also died and gone down to where the dead people are.
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This parable is a warning to you people of Egypt. You think that there is no other nation that is as great and glorious as yours is. But your nation will also be destroyed, along with those other nations. Your people will be there among the other people who are not fit to worship me, people who have been killed by their enemies’ swords. That is what will happen to the king of Egypt and all his many people.” This is what Lord Yahweh has declared will happen.
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1
In the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,
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“Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt and his multitude: ‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
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Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.
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The waters nourished it. The deep made it to grow. Its rivers ran all around its plantation. It sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
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Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied. Its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it spread them out.
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All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow.
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Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
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The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
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I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’
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“Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: ‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick branches, and his heart is lifted up in his height,
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I will deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.
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Foreigners, the tyrants of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. His branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow and have left him.
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All the birds of the sky will dwell on his ruin, and all the animals of the field will be on his branches,
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to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, and don’t set their top among the thick boughs. Their mighty ones don’t stand up on their height, even all who drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.’
15
“The Lord GOD says: ‘In the day when he went down to Sheol,(a) I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers. The great waters were stopped. I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
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I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol (b) with those who descend into the pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
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They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, who lived under his shadow in the middle of the nations.
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“‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Footnotes

(a)31:15 Sheol is the place of the dead.
(b)31:16 Sheol is the place of the dead.
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