3 Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon,
with beautiful
branches overshadowing the forest;
it towered on high,
its top
above the thick foliage.
4 The waters nourished it,
deep springs
made it grow tall;
their streams flowed
all around
its base
and sent their channels
to all the
trees of the field.
5 So it towered higher
than all
the trees of the field;
its boughs increased
and its
branches grew long,
spreading
because of abundant waters.
6 All the birds of the sky
nested in
its boughs,
all the animals of the wild
gave birth
under its branches;
all the great nations
lived in
its shade.
7 It was majestic in beauty,
with its
spreading boughs,
for its roots went down
to abundant
waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God
could not
rival it,
nor could the junipers
equal its
boughs,
nor could the plane trees
compare
with its branches—
no tree in the garden of God
could match
its beauty.
9 I made it beautiful
with abundant
branches,
the envy of all the trees of Eden
in the garden
of God.
10 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the great cedar
towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud of its height,
11
I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal
with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside,
12 and the
most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the
mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of
the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it.
13 All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild
animals lived among its branches. 14 Therefore no other trees
by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick
foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are
all destined for death, for the earth below, among mortals who go down to the realm
of the dead.
