"Thus saith the Lord God; . . . He hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:

Assyrerrigets herlighed var såre stor og dybt dets fald. Profeten Ezekiel sammenlignede det også med et ædelt cedertræ og forudsagde rent ud, at Assyriens fald skyldtes dets stolthed og grusomhed. Han sagde: