1 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:
“Whom are you like in your greatness?
3Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
with beautiful branches and forest shade,
and of towering height,
its top among the clouds.
4The waters nourished it;
the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow
around the place of its planting,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the field.
5So it towered high
above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long
from abundant water in its shoots.
6 All the birds of the heavens
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field
gave birth to their young,
and under its shadow
lived all great nations.
7It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down
to abundant waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
neither were the plane trees
like its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was its equal in beauty.
9I made it beautiful
in the mass of its branches,
and all the trees of Eden envied it,
that were in the garden of God.
10“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 12Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. 13On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field. 14All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit.
15“Thus says the Lord God: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. 17They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.
18 “Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.
“This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.”
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This prophecy, dated two months after the previous one (30:20), is addressed to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The reference to the Assyrian in 3 raises difficulties. The RSV omits it altogether, assuming it to be a mistake, and no part of the original text, but the NEB follows the AV here, recognizing that Ezekiel is using the Assyrians as an illustration: as it was with Assyria, he means, so it will be with Egypt, and with every great power that raises its head in pride. One sees immediately the similarity of the vision to that concerning Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, the principle and the message being the same in both cases. Assyria, the empire and world-power preceding Babylon, Egypt and Babylon were all alike, and the same nemesis was to overtake each. God always deals with the proud nations of the world in this way (see Note on 29:1-21). The imagery continues in 15ff, where the trees of the field, representing the smaller surrounding nations, are struck with consternation and mourning, not to say fear, when they see great and proud Egypt come crashing down in ruins under the judgment of God, as if to say, 'If this happens to the greatest and most impregnable of nations, what will come upon lesser nations like ourselves?' We should not miss the contrast between the splendour and magnificence of Egypt, represented by the fair image of the cedars of Lebanon, and the final doom of being cast down into the pit, into the lowliest place of hell. As Jesus said, 'The first shall be last, and the last shall be first'. It is the idea of total reversal that is in view. It is, as the hymn says, 'the day in whose clear, shining light all wrong shall stand revealed' - as wrong, and put in its proper place.