Ezekiel 31:6-9
The Message
The Funeral of the Big Tree
31 1-9 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat:
“‘Who do you, astride the world,
think you really are?
Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar,
beautiful limbs offering cool shade,
Skyscraper high,
piercing the clouds.
The waters gave it drink,
the primordial deep lifted it high,
Gushing out rivers around
the place where it was planted,
And then branching out in streams
to all the trees in the forest.
It was immense,
dwarfing all the trees in the forest—
Thick boughs, long limbs,
roots delving deep into earth’s waters.
All the birds of the air
nested in its boughs.
All the wild animals
gave birth under its branches.
All the mighty nations
lived in its shade.
It was stunning in its majesty—
the reach of its branches!
the depth of its water-seeking roots!
Not a cedar in God’s garden came close to it.
No pine tree was anything like it.
Mighty oaks looked like bushes
growing alongside it.
Not a tree in God’s garden
was in the same class of beauty.
I made it beautiful,
a work of art in limbs and leaves,
The envy of every tree in Eden,
every last tree in God’s garden.’”
Ezekiel 31:6-8
New International Version
6 All the birds of the sky
nested in its boughs,
all the animals of the wild
gave birth(A) under its branches;
all the great nations
lived in its shade.(B)
7 It was majestic in beauty,
with its spreading boughs,
for its roots went down
to abundant waters.(C)
8 The cedars(D) in the garden of God
could not rival it,
nor could the junipers
equal its boughs,
nor could the plane trees(E)
compare with its branches—
no tree in the garden of God
could match its beauty.(F)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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