Ezekiel 31 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his vast throngs: Who could you even compare yourself to in your greatness?

Think of Assyria — once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches casting deep shade, towering in height, its crown threading through the clouds.

The waters made it grow tall, the deep springs lifted it high, sending their rivers flowing around where it was planted, channeling their streams to every tree of the field.

So it towered higher than every other tree in the field. Its boughs multiplied, its branches stretched long, spreading wide from the abundant water.

All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs, all the wild animals gave birth beneath its branches, and every great nation lived in its shade.

It was stunning in its greatness, in the reach of its limbs, because its roots went deep into abundant water.

The cedars in God's own garden could not rival it. No cypress could match its boughs, no plane tree could compare to its branches. No tree in God's garden was as beautiful.

I made it beautiful with its abundant branches, and every tree in Eden — God's garden — was envious of it.

"So this is what Yahweh, the Lord, says: Because it towered so high, lifting its crown into the clouds, and its heart grew arrogant with its height —

I handed it over to the most powerful ruler among the nations. He dealt with it as its wickedness deserved. I drove it out.

Foreigners — the most ruthless of nations — cut it down and left it there. Its branches fell on the mountains and in every valley, its boughs lay broken in every ravine of the land. All the peoples of the earth withdrew from its shade and abandoned it.

On its fallen trunk, every bird of the sky settled, and among its branches, every wild animal made its home —

so that no tree by the waters would ever grow so tall again, or push its crown into the clouds, and no tree that drinks deep would ever reach that height. Because all of them are handed over to death, to the underworld, among the children of mortality who go down to the pit.

"This is what Yahweh, the Lord, says: On the day it went down to the grave, I made the deep springs mourn — I held back their rivers, and the great waters were stopped. I dressed Lebanon in darkness for it, and all the trees of the field wilted with grief.

I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the grave with those who descend into the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and finest of Lebanon, all that drank deeply — they were comforted in the underworld.

They too went down to the grave with it, to join those killed by the sword — its allies who had lived in its shade among the nations.

"Which of Eden's trees was your equal in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the underworld. You will lie among those who were never set apart, with those killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his vast throngs," declares Yahweh, the Lord.