1. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third {cf15i month}, in the first {cf15i day} of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2. Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
3. Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
4. The waters nourished him, the deep made him to grow: her rivers ran round about her plantation; and she sent out her channels unto all the trees of the field.
5. Therefore his stature was exalted above all the trees of the field: and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long by reason of many waters, when he shot {cf15i them} forth.
6. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by many waters.
8. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the plane trees were not as his branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty.
9. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10. Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: Because thou art exalted in stature, and he hath set his top 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: upon 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. Upon his ruin all the fowls of the heaven shall dwell, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
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 in their height, {cf15i even} all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15. Thus saith the Lord GOD: In the day when he went down to hell 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 hell with them 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 hell with him unto them that be slain by the sword; yea, they that were his arm, {cf15i that} dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.
18. To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.