Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 It happened in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
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In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God's Message came to me:
2 Son of man, tell Par`oh king of Mitzrayim, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?
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"Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat: "'Who do you, astride the world, think you really are?
3 Behold, the Ashshur was a cedar in Levanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.
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Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar, beautiful limbs offering cool shade, Skyscraper high, piercing the clouds.
4 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.
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The waters gave it drink, the primordial deep lifted it high, Gushing out rivers around the place where it was planted, And then branching out in streams to all the trees in the forest.
5 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.
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It was immense, dwarfing all the trees in the forest - Thick boughs, long limbs, roots delving deep into earth's waters.
6 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.
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All the birds of the air nested in its boughs. All the wild animals gave birth under its branches. All the mighty nations lived in its shade.
7 Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
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It was stunning in its majesty - the reach of its branches! the depth of its water-seeking roots!
8 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.
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Not a cedar in God's garden came close to it. No pine tree was anything like it. Mighty oaks looked like bushes growing alongside it. Not a tree in God's garden was in the same class of beauty.
9 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.
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I made it beautiful, a work of art in limbs and leaves, The envy of every tree in Eden, every last tree in God's garden.'"
10 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: 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;
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Therefore, God, the Master, says, "'Because it skyscrapered upwards, piercing the clouds, swaggering and proud of its stature,
11 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.
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I turned it over to a world-famous leader to call its evil to account. I'd had enough.
12 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 eretz are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
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Outsiders, unbelievably brutal, felled it across the mountain ranges. Its branches were strewn through all the valleys, its leafy boughs clogging all the streams and rivers. Because its shade was gone, everybody walked off. No longer a tree - just a log.
13 On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches;
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On that dead log birds perch. Wild animals burrow under it.
14 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 eretz, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.
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"'That marks the end of the "big tree" nations. No more trees nourished from the great deep, no more cloud-piercing trees, no more earth- born trees taking over. They're all slated for death - back to earth, right along with men and women, for whom it's "dust to dust."
15 Thus says the Lord GOD: In the day when he went down to She'ol 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 Levanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
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"'The Message of God, the Master: On the day of the funeral of the Big Tree, I threw the great deep into mourning. I stopped the flow of its rivers, held back great seas, and wrapped the Lebanon mountains in black. All the trees of the forest fainted and fell.
16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to She'ol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of `Eden, the choice and best of Levanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the eretz.
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I made the whole world quake when it crashed, and threw it into the underworld to take its place with all else that gets buried. All the trees of Eden and the finest and best trees of Lebanon, well-watered, were relieved
17 They also went down into She'ol 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.
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- they had descended to the underworld with it - along with everyone who had lived in its shade and all who had been killed.
18 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 eretz: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Par`oh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD.
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"'Which of the trees of Eden came anywhere close to you in splendor and size? But you're slated to be cut down to take your place in the underworld with the trees of Eden, to be a dead log stacked with all the other dead logs, among the other uncircumcised who are dead and buried. "'This means Pharaoh, the pompous old goat. "'Decree of God, the Master.'"
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.