EZEKIEL 31

Egypt is compared to defeated Assyria

1 Almost eleven years after we had been taken to Babylonia, on the first day of the third month of that year, Yahweh gave me another message. He said, 2 “You human, say to the King of Egypt and all of his people,

‘You think that there is [RHQ, IRO] no country whose power is as great as the power of your country.

3 You think that your country is as great as Assyria was:

Assyria was previously like [MET] a tall cedar tree in Lebanon;

it was as though it had big beautiful branches

that provided shade for other trees in the forest.

It was very tall;

its top was above the leaves of the other trees.

4 Water came 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.

5 That huge tree grew very tall,

higher than all the other trees around it.

Its branches grew very thick and long [DOU]

because of the abundant water at the base of the tree.

6 Birds built their nests in the branches,

and wild animals gave birth to their babies under those branches.

And it was as though people of all the great nations lived in the shade of that tree.

7 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.

8 The cedar trees in my garden in Eden were not as great as that tree,

and the branches of the pine/cypress 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.

9 Because I caused that tree to become very beautiful

with its magnificent green branches,

all the leaders of other countries represented by [MET] those other trees in Eden envied the country represented by that tree.’

10 Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: ‘That tree, which represents Assyria, grew very tall, and its top was higher than the other trees, and it became very proud because of being very tall. 11 Therefore, I enabled another mighty nation to conquer it and to destroy it as it deserved to be destroyed. I have already discarded it. 12 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. 13 Birds ◄settled/went to live► on the fallen tree, and wild animals lived among its branches. 14 The result of what I have done is that no other trees, even if they have plenty of water, will ever grow very high and become proud, and lift their tops above the branches of other trees. I do not want any other tree to grow high like that cedar tree did; trees will all certainly die and decay in the ground, like people die and go down to their graves.’

15 This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: ‘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. I caused the mountains in Lebanon to become black, and all the trees there to wither. 16 I caused the people of other nations to tremble when they heard that tree fall to the ground. They realized that it would decay, like all people who die and are buried decay. And all the leaders of other countries represented by other beautiful trees in my garden in Eden and in Lebanon, were like beautiful trees that were very proud. They were ones which had roots that grew down deep into the ground where there was plenty of water. They were comforted when the king represented by [MET] that cedar tree was there with them in the place where the dead people are. 17 The leaders of other countries represented by [MET] trees that grew in the shade of the huge tree, the allies of the great nation that the cedar tree represents, had also joined those who had been killed by the sword and gone down to where the dead people are.

18 This parable is about you people of Egypt. You think that [RHQ, IRO] there is no other nation that is as great and glorious as yours is. But your nation will also be destroyed, as Assyria was, 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 people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have predicted it.’ ”

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