Egypt Will Be Brought Down to Sheol

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

‘To whom do you liken yourself in your greatness?

3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon

With beautiful branches and forest shade

And lofty in height,

And its top was among the [†]clouds.

4The waters made it grow; the [†]deep made it high.

With its rivers it was going all around its planting place

And sent out its conduits to all the trees of the field.

5Therefore its height was loftier than all the trees of the field,

And its boughs became many and its branches long

Because of many waters [†]as it spread them out.

6All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs,

And under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,

And all great nations lived under its shade.

7So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its foliage;

For its [†]roots extended to many waters.

8The cedars in God’s garden [†]could not match it;

The [†]cypresses [†]could not liken themselves with its boughs,

And the plane trees were not like its branches.

No tree in God’s garden [†]could liken itself with it in its beauty.

9I made it beautiful with the multitude of its foliage,

And all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, were jealous of it.

10‘Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because [†]it is lofty in height and has put its top among the [†]clouds, and its heart is high up in its loftiness, 11therefore I will give it into the hand of a [†]dominant one of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away. 12Strangers—ruthless ones of the nations have cut it down and abandoned it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its foliage have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and abandoned it. 13On its downfall all the birds of the sky will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches 14so that all the trees by the waters may not be lofty in their height, nor put their top among the [†]clouds, nor their dominant ones—all the [†]well-watered ones—stand in their loftiness. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”

15‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I covered it with the [†]deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon [†]mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it. 16I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the [†]well-watered ones, were comforted in the earth beneath. 17They also went down with it to Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its [†]strength lived under its shade among the nations.

18“To which among the trees of Eden do you thus liken yourself in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. So is Pharaoh and all his multitude!”’ declares Lord Yahweh.”