Egypt Will Fall like Assyria

1And it came to pass, in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, that the word of YHWH came to me, saying: 2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

‘To whom do you compare

your greatness?

3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,

beautiful of branches and giving shade to the forest

and high of stature,

and among the clouds was its top.

4The waters made it grow,

the deep gave it height

with her rivers running around the place of her planting,

and her conduits she sent out to all the trees of the field.

5Upon thus its height was exalted

above all the trees of the field,

and its boughs were multiplied,

and its branches became long

from the abundant waters

in its sending forth.

6In its boughs made their nests

all the birds of the heavens,

and under its branches gave birth

all the beasts of the field,

and in its shade dwelt

all the great nations.

7And it was beautiful in its greatness,

in the length of its branches,

because its root was

to abundant waters.

8The cedars could not darken it

in the garden of God;

the fir trees† were not like unto its boughs,

and the plane trees† were not like its branches;

there was no tree in the garden of God,

not any like it in its beauty.

9Beautiful I made it with an abundance of branches,

and envied all the trees of Eden

that were in the garden of God.’

10Therefore, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Because that you became great in height, and it set its top to among the thick boughs,† and was lifted up its heart in its height, 11so I will give it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he will deal severely with it according to its wickedness!

I have driven it out, 12and foreigners have cut it down, the most ruthless of the nations. And they have left it on the mountains, and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken by all the rivers of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone out from its shade, and they have left it.

13On its carcass will dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches will be all the beasts of the field, 14in order that not any trees by the waters will exalt in their height, and they will not give their tops to among the thick boughs. All those drinking from the waters should not reach their oaks to their height, for they all have been given to death, to the land far below, in the midst of the sons of men, with those going down to the Pit.’

15Thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘On the day of its going down to Sheol, I caused mourning; I covered over it the deep, and I held back its rivers, and were cut off the great waters; and Lebanon I caused to mourn over it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16At the sound of its fall, I made the nations quake, in My casting it down to Sheol together with those going down to the Pit.

And were comforted in the land below all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all those drinking the waters. 17They also went down with it to Sheol, with those slain by the sword—and its arm who had dwelt in its shade in the midst of nations.

18To whom, then, will you be compared, in glory and in greatness, among the trees in Eden? You also will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the land below; in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie, with those slain by the sword. That is Pharaoh and all his multitude, a declaration of the Lord YHWH.’”