¹ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah 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, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs.

⁴ The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets unto all the trees of the field.

⁵ Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of great waters, when he shot forth.

⁶ All the fowl of the heavens 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 the great nations.

⁷ Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters.

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

⁹ I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

¹⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

¹¹ I have given 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 in 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 fallen [trunk] do all the fowl of the heavens dwell, and all the beasts of the field are upon his branches:

¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their top amidst the thick boughs, and that none of them that drink water stand up in his height by himself; for they are all given over unto death in the lower 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 Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I made Lebanon black 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 them that go down into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁷ They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that were slain with the sword, and [that were] his arm, 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 lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹ Then Yahweh said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

² It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go forth? Then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

³ I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

⁴ I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

⁶ You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.

⁷ I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn't return from their ways.

⁸ Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

⁹ She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; [yet] everyone of them does curse me.

¹¹ Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹² Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

¹³ Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

¹⁴ I will make [them] to pass with your enemies into a land which you don't know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.

¹⁵ Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

¹⁶ Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.

¹⁷ I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

²⁰ I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.

²¹ I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.