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Now it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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"Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: 'Whom are you like in your greatness?
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Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, With fine branches that shaded the forest, And of high stature; And its top was among the thick boughs.
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The waters made it grow; Underground waters gave it height, With their rivers running around the place where it was planted, And sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field.
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'Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field; Its boughs were multiplied, And its branches became long because of the abundance of water, As it sent them out.
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All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young; And in its shadow all great nations made their home.
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'Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches, Because its roots reached to abundant waters.
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The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; The fir trees were not like its boughs, And the chestnut trees were not like its branches; No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.
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I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, So that all the trees of Eden envied it, That were in the garden of God.'
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"Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height,
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therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness.
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And aliens, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.
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'On its ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens, And all the beasts of the field will come to its branches--