NOW it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 "Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: 'Whom are you like in your greatness?

3 Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fine branches that shaded the forest, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

4 The water made it grow; underground waters gave it height, with their rivers running around the place where it was planted, and sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field.

5 'Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field; its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long because of the abundance of water, as it sent them out.

6 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; and its shadow all great nation made their home.

7 'Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches, because its roots reached to abundant waters.

8 The cedar in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.

9 I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, so that all the tree of Eden envived it, that were like garden of God.

10 "Therefore thus say the Lord GOD; 'Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height,

11 'Therfore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness.

12 'And aliens, the most terrible of nations, have cut it down and left it; branches have fallen on the mountains and in all valleys; it boughs lie broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth have gone under its shadow and left it.

13 'On the ruin will remain all the bird of the heavens, and all the beasts of the field will come to its branches -

14 'So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drink water may ever be high enough to reach up to them. 'For they have all been delivered to death, to the depths of the earth, among the children of men who go down to pit.

15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'In the day when it went down to hell, I cause mourning. I covered the deep because of it. I restrained its rivers, and the great water were held back. I caused Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.

16 'I made the nation shake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to hell togather with those who decend into the Pit; And all trees of Eden, the choice and best Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the depths of the earth.

17 'They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

18 "To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brough down with trees of the Eden to the depths of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,' says the Lord GOD. EZEKIEL 31