| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1On June 21, during the eleventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD: | 1In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, |
| 2“Son of man, give this message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his hordes: “To whom would you compare your greatness? | 2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: ‘Who can be compared to your greatness? |
| 3You are like mighty Assyria, which was once like a cedar of Lebanon, with beautiful branches that cast deep forest shade and with its top high among the clouds. | 3Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds. |
| 4Deep springs watered it and helped it to grow tall and luxuriant. The water flowed around it like a river, streaming to all the trees nearby. | 4The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field. |
| 5This great tree towered high, higher than all the other trees around it. It prospered and grew long thick branches because of all the water at its roots. | 5Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long as it spread them out because of the abundant waters. |
| 6The birds nested in its branches, and in its shade all the wild animals gave birth. All the great nations of the world lived in its shadow. | 6All the birds of the air nested in its branches, and all the beasts of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade. |
| 7It was strong and beautiful, with wide-spreading branches, for its roots went deep into abundant water. | 7It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its limbs, for its roots extended to abundant waters. |
| 8No other cedar in the garden of God could rival it. No cypress had branches to equal it; no plane tree had boughs to compare. No tree in the garden of God came close to it in beauty. | 8The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty. |
| 9Because I made this tree so beautiful, and gave it such magnificent foliage, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden, the garden of God. | 9I made it beautiful with its many branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God.’ |
| 10“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because Egypt became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds, | 10Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Since it became great in height and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height, |
| 11I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it. | 11I delivered it into the hand of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with it according to its wickedness. I have banished it. |
| 12A foreign army—the terror of the nations—has cut it down and left it fallen on the ground. Its branches are scattered across the mountains and valleys and ravines of the land. All those who lived in its shadow have gone away and left it lying there. | 12Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. |
| 13“The birds roost on its fallen trunk, and the wild animals lie among its branches. | 13All the birds of the air nested on its fallen trunk, and all the beasts of the field lived among its boughs. |
| 14Let the tree of no other nation proudly exult in its own prosperity, though it be higher than the clouds and it be watered from the depths. For all are doomed to die, to go down to the depths of the earth. They will land in the pit along with everyone else on earth. | 14This happened so that no other trees by the waters would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the depths of the earth, among the mortals who descend to the Pit.’ |
| 15“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When Assyria went down to the grave, I made the deep springs mourn. I stopped its rivers and dried up its abundant water. I clothed Lebanon in black and caused the trees of the field to wilt. | 15This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the day it was brought down to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep because of it; I held back its rivers; its abundant waters were restrained. I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. |
| 16I made the nations shake with fear at the sound of its fall, for I sent it down to the grave with all the others who descend to the pit. And all the other proud trees of Eden, the most beautiful and the best of Lebanon, the ones whose roots went deep into the water, took comfort to find it there with them in the depths of the earth. | 16I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below. |
| 17Its allies, too, were all destroyed and had passed away. They had gone down to the grave—all those nations that had lived in its shade. | 17They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies they had lived in its shade among the nations. |
| 18“O Egypt, to which of the trees of Eden will you compare your strength and glory? You, too, will be brought down to the depths with all these other nations. You will lie there among the outcasts who have died by the sword. This will be the fate of Pharaoh and all his hordes. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!” | 18Who then is like you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You also will be brought down to the depths of the earth to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.’ ” |
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