1 Peter, an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

² Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be ^[a]realized in and through Christ, ^[b]freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].

³ Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵ Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that ^[c]final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time.

⁶ [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,

⁷ So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

⁸ Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.

⁹ [At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation.

¹¹ They sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow [them].

¹² It was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very] angels long to look!

¹³ So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.

¹⁴ [Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel].

¹⁵ But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.

¹⁶ For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.^(A)

¹⁷ And if you call upon Him as [your] Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, [then] you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence [on the earth, whether long or short].

¹⁸ You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold,

¹⁹ But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot.

²⁰ It is true that He was chosen and foreordained (destined and foreknown for it) before the foundation of the world, but He was brought out to public view (made manifest) in these last days (at the end of the times) for the sake of you.

²¹ Through Him you believe in (adhere to, rely on) God, Who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him honor and glory, so that your faith and hope are [centered and rest] in God.

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27 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,

² Now you, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre,

³ And say to Tyre, O you who dwell at the entrance to the sea, who are merchant of the peoples of many islands and coastlands, thus says the Lord God: O Tyre, you have thought and said, I am perfect in beauty.

⁴ Your borders are in the heart of the seas; your builders have perfected your beauty.

⁵ They have made all your planks and boards of fir trees from Senir [a peak of Mount Hermon]; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.

⁶ Of the oaks of Bashan they have made your oars; they have made your deck and benches of boxwood from the coasts of Cyprus, inlaid with ivory.

⁷ Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be an ensign for you; blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah [of Asia Minor] was the [ship’s] awning which covered you.

⁸ The inhabitants of Sidon and [the island] of Arvad were your oarsmen; your skilled and wise men, O Tyre, were in you; they were your pilots.

⁹ The old men of Gebal [a city north of Sidon] and its skilled and wise men in you were your calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise and trading.

¹⁰ Persia and Lud and Put were in your army as your men of war; they hung the shield and helmet in you; they gave you beauty and splendor.

¹¹ The men of Arvad with your army were upon your walls round about and valorous men [of Gamad] were in your towers; they hung their shields upon your walls round about; they have perfected your beauty and splendor.

¹² Tarshish [in Spain] carried on traffic with you because of the abundance of your riches of all kinds; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded for your wares.

¹³ Javan (Greece), Tubal, and Meshech [in the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian Seas] traded with you. They exchanged the lives of men [taken as slaves] and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.

¹⁴ They of the house of Togarmah (Armenia) traded for your wares with [chariot] horses, cavalry horses, and mules.

¹⁵ The men of Dedan [in Arabia] traded with you; many islands and coastlands were your own markets; they brought you in payment or as presents ivory tusks and ebony.

¹⁶ Aram (Syria or Mesopotamia) and Edom traded with you because of the multitude of the wares of your making. They exchanged for your merchandise emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and agate or rubies.

¹⁷ Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders; they exchanged in your market wheat of Minnith [in Ammon], olives or early figs, honey, oil, and balm.

¹⁸ Damascus traded with you because of the abundance of supplies of your handiworks and the immense wealth of every kind, with wine of Helbon [Aleppo] and white wool [of Sachar in Syria].

¹⁹ Vedan also and [Arabic] Javan traded with yarn from Uzal [in Arabia] for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were exchanged for your merchandise.

²⁰ Dedan supplied you with precious [saddle] cloths for riding.

²¹ Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants in lambs, rams, and goats favored by you; in these they traded with you.

²² The merchants of Sheba and Raamah [in Arabia] traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the choicest of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold.

²³ Haran and Canneh and Eden [in Mesopotamia], the merchants of Sheba [on the Euphrates], Asshur, and Chilmad [near Bagdad] were your traders.

²⁴ These traded with you in choice fabrics, in bales of garments of blue and embroidered work, and in treasures of many colored rich damask and carpets bound with cords and made firm; in these they traded with you.

²⁵ The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise, and you were replenished [Tyre] and were heavily loaded and made an imposing fleet [in your location] in the heart of the seas.

²⁶ Your rowers have brought you out into great and deep waters; the east wind has broken and wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

²⁷ Your riches, your wares, your merchandise, your oarsmen and your pilots, your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise, and all your men of war who are in you, with all your company which is in your midst, sink in the heart of the seas on the day of your ruin!

²⁸ The waves and the countryside shake at the [piercing] sound of the [hopeless, wailing] cry of your pilots.

²⁹ And down from their ships come all who handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand upon the shore

³⁰ And are heard wailing loudly over you, and they cry bitterly. They cast up dust on their heads; they wallow in ashes,

³¹ And they make themselves [utterly] bald for you and gird themselves with sackcloth, and they weep over you in bitterness of heart and with bitter mourning and wailing.

³² And in their wailing they take up a lamentation for you and lament over you, saying, Who was ever like Tyre, the destroyed (the annihilated), [who has become so still] in the heart of the sea?

³³ When your wares came forth from the seas, you met the desire, the demand, and the necessities of many people; you enriched the kings of the earth with your abundant wealth and merchandise.

³⁴ Now you are shattered by the seas in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and all your crew have gone down with you.

³⁵ All the inhabitants of the isles and coastlands are astonished and appalled at you, and their kings are horribly frightened and shudder greatly; their faces quiver.

³⁶ The merchants among the people hiss over you [with malicious joy]; you have become a horror and a source of terrors. You shall be ^[a]no more [forever].

28 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,

² Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is lifted up and you have said and thought, I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas; yet you are only man [weak, feeble, made of earth] and not God, though you imagine yourself to be almost more than mortal with your mind as the mind of God;

³ Indeed, you are [imagining yourself] wiser than Daniel; there is no secret [you think] that is hidden from you;

⁴ With your own wisdom and with your own understanding you have gotten you riches and power and have brought gold and silver into your treasuries;

⁵ By your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches and power, and your heart is proud and lifted up because of your wealth;

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have imagined your mind as the mind of God [having thoughts and purposes suitable only to God Himself],^(A)

⁷ Behold therefore, I am bringing strangers upon you, the most terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom [O Tyre], and they shall defile your splendor.

⁸ They shall bring you down to the pit [of destruction] and you shall die the [many] deaths of all the Tyrians that are slain in the heart of the seas.

⁹ Will you still say, I am a god, before him who slays you? But you are only a man [made of earth] and no god in the hand of him who wounds and profanes you.

¹⁰ You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God.

¹¹ Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹² Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: You are the full measure and pattern of exactness [giving the finishing touch to all that constitutes completeness], full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

¹³ You were in ^[b]Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the carnelian, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, beryl, onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and your settings and your sockets and engravings were wrought in gold. On the day that you were created they were prepared.^(B)

¹⁴ You were the anointed cherub that covers with overshadowing [wings], and I set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God; you walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire [like the paved work of gleaming sapphire stone upon which the God of Israel walked on Mount Sinai].^(C)

¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity and guilt were found in you.

¹⁶ Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned; therefore I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.

¹⁷ Your heart was proud and lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, that they might gaze at you.

¹⁸ You have profaned your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities and the enormity of your guilt, by the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; it has consumed you, and I have reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who looked at you.

¹⁹ All who know you among the people are astonished and appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and shall never return to being.^(D)

²⁰ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹ Son of man, set your face toward Sidon and prophesy against her.

²² And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will show forth My glory and be glorified in the midst of you. And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord when I execute judgments and punishments in her, and am set apart and separated and My holiness is manifested in her.

²³ For I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets, and the wounded shall be judged and fall by the sword in the midst of her on every side, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

²⁴ And there shall be no more a brier to prick the house of Israel or a hurting thorn of all those around them who have treated them with contempt, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

²⁵ Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and I shall be set apart and separated and My holiness made apparent in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.

²⁶ And they shall dwell safely in it and shall build houses and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell securely and with confidence when I have executed judgments and punishments upon all those round about them who have despised and trodden upon them and pushed them away, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord their God [their Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].