Open your gates, Lebanon, so that the fire may consume your cedars. ¹ 

For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. ¹  They were as tall as cedars ²  and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches ³  and their roots in the ground. ⁴ 

The Lord’s shout breaks ¹  the cedars, the Lord shatters ²  the cedars of Lebanon. ³ 

I have seen ruthless evil men ¹  growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ² 

So now order some cedars of Lebanon to be cut for me. My servants will work with your servants. I will pay your servants whatever you say is appropriate, for you know that we have no one among us who knows how to cut down trees like the Sidonians.”

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹  ‘With my many chariots ²  I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars, and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, ³  its thickest woods.

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees ¹  match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it ¹  went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. ²  I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.