the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Ezekiel 31
1 And it came to pass 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 Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?3 Look, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.4 The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers thereof ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.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.6 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; and under its shadow dwelt all great nations.7 Thus it was fair in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.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.9 I made it fair by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.
10 Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top to [reach] among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;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.12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone down from his shadow, and have left him.13 On his ruin all the birds of the heavens shall dwell, and all the beasts of the field shall be on his branches;14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top to [reach] among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all that drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the sons of man, with those that go down to the pit.15 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 thereof; 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 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth.17 They also went down into Sheol with him to those that are slain by the sword; yes, those that were his arm, [that] dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.18 To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
Updated Bible Version
Scripture quotations are from the UPDV® Updated Bible Version 1.9, Copyright © 2003-4 by Updated Publishers. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.