¹Then it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me and said, ²“Son of Adam, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his horde,

‘Whom do you resemble in your greatness?

³Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,

With beautiful boughs

And having foliage giving shade.

And it was of great height,

And between its branches was its crest.

⁴Water made him great;

The deep water elevated him,

With its rivers flowing around its plantations.

And it has put out its channels

To all the trees of the countryside.

⁵That is why its standing was higher

Than any tree of the countryside,

And its boughs were numerous

And its foliage was extensive

– Because of the large amount of water present

When it put out shoots.

⁶All the birds of the sky built their nests on its boughs,

And all the wild animals gave birth under its foliage,

And all kinds of great nations dwelt in its shade.

⁷And it became beautiful as it grew,

Through the length of its branches,

For its root was at much water.

⁸Cedars did not conceal it in the garden of God;

Cypresses were not similar to it in its boughs,

And plane trees were not like it in its foliage.

No tree in the garden of God was like it in its beauty.

⁹I made it beautiful with its many branches,

And all the trees of Eden

Which were in the garden of God

Were jealous of it.

¹⁰Therefore this is what my Lord the Lord says: «Because you have made yourself of high standing, and he has put his crest among the boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his self-exaltation, ¹¹I will deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. They will certainly engage him. I will drive him out according to his wickedness. ¹²And fierce people from the Gentiles will cut him off and abandon him. His branches will fall off onto the mountains and in all the valleys, and his foliage will be broken up in all the gullies of the land, and all the various peoples of the earth will come down from his shade and abandon him. ¹³All kinds of birds of the sky will live in its ruins, and all kinds of wild animals will be in its foliage, ¹⁴because no aquatic trees will exalt themselves in their height, nor will they put out their crest among their boughs, nor will the mighty ones among them stand having great height – all which drink water – for they are all consigned to death, to the underworld, among the sons of Adam, to those who go down into the pit.» ¹⁵This is what my Lord the Lord says: «On the day when he went down into the grave, I caused mourning, I covered him with the deep, and I held back its rivers, and much water was restrained, and I caused Lebanon to mourn gloomily over him, and all the trees of the countryside were languid. ¹⁶At the sound of his fall I made nations tremble. When I brought him down to the grave with those who go down to the pit, all the trees of Eden were consoled in the underworld – the choice and best of Lebanon, all those which drink water. ¹⁷They also went down to the grave with him, to those struck through by the sword, including his arm – those who lived in his shade among the nations. ¹⁸Whom do you resemble in honour and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the underworld. You will lie among the uncircumcised with those struck through by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all of his horde, says my Lord the Lord.» ’ ”