Ezekiel 31:3-13

‘Behold (listen carefully), Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon With beautiful branches and with forest shade, And of high stature, With its top among the clouds. ‘The waters nourished it, the deep [underground waters] made it grow tall. Its rivers ran all around the place where it was planted, Sending out its streams to all the trees (other nations) of the field. ‘Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the forest And its boughs multiplied and its branches grew long; Because there was so much water they spread outward. ‘All the birds of the sky made their nests in its twigs, And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth [to their young], And all of the great nations lived under its shadow. ‘So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; For its roots extended [downward] to great waters. ‘The cedars in the garden of God could not hide or rival it; The cypress trees did not have boughs like it, And the plane trees did not have branches like it. No tree in the garden of God was like it in its beauty. ‘I made it beautiful with the great mass of its branches, So that all the trees of Eden which were in the garden of God were jealous of it (Assyria). ‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Because it is high in stature and has set its top among the thick boughs and the clouds, and its heart is proud of its height, [2 Kin 18:31-35] I will hand it over to a mighty one and a mighty one of the nations; he will most certainly deal with it. I have driven it away in accordance with its wickedness. Alien tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; its foliage has fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys and its branches have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the nations of the earth have come from under its shade and have left it. All the birds of the sky will nest in its ruins, and all the animals of the field will rest on its fallen branches