12 Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations,(A) cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it. 13 All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs. 14 This happened so that no trees planted beside water would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and so that no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the underworld, among the people[a] who descend to the Pit.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 31:14 Or the descendants of Adam

12 and the most ruthless of foreign nations(A) cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys;(B) its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it.(C) 13 All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild animals lived among its branches.(D) 14 Therefore no other trees by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are all destined(E) for death,(F) for the earth below, among mortals who go down to the realm of the dead.(G)

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