23 The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for Tyre is laid waste, without house or haven!
From the land of Cyprus
    it is revealed to them.
² Be still, O inhabitants of the coast,
    O merchants of Sidon;
your messengers passed over the sea^[a]
3     and were on many waters;
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
    the harvest of the Nile;
    you were the merchant of the nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
    the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither travailed nor given birth,
    I have neither reared young men
    nor brought up virgins.”
⁵ When the report comes to Egypt,
    they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶ Pass over to Tarshish,
    wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷ Is this your exultant city
    whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
    to settle afar?
⁸ Who has purposed this
    against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
    whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
    to defile the pride of all glory,
    to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
¹⁰ Overflow your land like the Nile,
    O daughter of Tarshish;
    there is no restraint any more.
¹¹ He has stretched out his hand over the sea,
    he has shaken the kingdoms;
the Lord has given command concerning Canaan
    to destroy its strongholds.
¹² And he said:
“You will no more exult,
    O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;
arise, pass over to Cyprus,
    even there you will have no rest.”

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
    for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁶ “Take a harp,
    go about the city,
    O forgotten harlot!
Make sweet melody,
    sing many songs,
    that you may be remembered.”

24 Behold, the Lord will lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
² And it shall be, as with the people,
        so with the priest;
    as with the slave, so with his master;
    as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
    as with the lender, so with the borrower;
    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;
    for the Lord has spoken this word.

¹¹ For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony;^[a]
distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated^[b] the difficulties.
¹² For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason;
¹³ and the inner expectation of help, being weak,
prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
¹⁴ But throughout the night, which was really powerless,
and which beset them from the recesses of powerless Hades,
they all slept the same sleep,
¹⁵ and now were driven by monstrous specters,
and now were paralyzed by their souls’ surrender,
for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them.
¹⁶ And whoever was there fell down,
and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron;
¹⁷ for whether he was a farmer or a shepherd
or a workman who toiled in the wilderness,
he was seized, and endured the inescapable fate;
for with one chain of darkness they all were bound.
¹⁸ Whether there came a whistling wind,
or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches,
or the rhythm of violently rushing water,
¹⁹ or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down,
or the unseen running of leaping animals,
or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts,
or an echo thrown back from a hollow of the mountains,
it paralyzed them with terror.
²⁰ For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light,
and was engaged in unhindered work,
²¹ while over those men alone heavy night was spread,
an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them;
but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves.

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

“The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner,”

“A stone that will make men stumble,
a rock that will make them fall”;