Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 On the first day of the third month of the eleventh year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me.
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It happened in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2 "Mortal man," he said, "say to the king of Egypt and all his people: How powerful you are! What can I compare you to?
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Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 You are like a cedar in Lebanon, With beautiful, shady branches, A tree so tall it reaches the clouds.
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Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.
4 There was water to make it grow, And underground rivers to feed it. They watered the place where the tree was growing And sent streams to all the trees of the forest.
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The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers of it ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
5 Because it was well-watered, It grew taller than other trees. Its branches grew thick and long.
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Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth.
6 Every kind of bird built nests in its branches; The wild animals bore their young in its shelter; The nations of the world rested in its shade.
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All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations.
7 How beautiful the tree was - So tall, with such long branches. Its roots reached down to the deep-flowing streams.
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Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
8 No cedar in God's garden could compare with it. No fir tree ever had such branches, And no plane tree such limbs. No tree in God's own garden was so beautiful.
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The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful, with spreading branches. It was the envy of every tree in Eden, the garden of God.
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I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.
10 "Now then, I, the Sovereign Lord, will tell you what is going to happen to that tree that grew until it reached the clouds. As it grew taller it grew proud;
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Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11 so I have rejected it and will let a foreign ruler have it. He will give that tree what it deserves for its wickedness.
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I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12 Ruthless foreigners will cut it down and leave it. Its branches and broken limbs will fall on every mountain and valley in the country. All the nations that have been living in its shade will go away.
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Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13 The birds will come and perch on the fallen tree, and the wild animals will walk over its branches.
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On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches;
14 And so from now on, no tree, no matter how well-watered it is, will grow that tall again or push its top through the clouds and reach such a height. All of them are doomed to die like mortals, doomed to join those who go down to the world of the dead."
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to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "On the day when the tree goes to the world of the dead, I will make the underground waters cover it as a sign of mourning. I will hold back the rivers and not let the many streams flow out. Because the tree has died, I will bring darkness over the Lebanon Mountains and make all the trees of the forest wither.
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Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers of it; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16 When I send it down to the world of the dead, the noise of its downfall will shake the nations. All the trees of Eden and all the choice, well-watered trees of Lebanon who have gone to the world below will be pleased at its downfall.
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I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
17 They will go with it to the world of the dead to join those that have already fallen. And all who live under its shadow will be scattered among the nations.
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They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations.
18 "The tree is the king of Egypt and all his people. Not even the trees in Eden were so tall and impressive. But now, like the trees of Eden, it will go down to the world of the dead and join the ungodly and those killed in battle. I have spoken," says the Sovereign Lord.
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To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.