An Oracle concerning Tyre

23 The oracle concerning Tyre.

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people; it was not Assyria. They destined it for wild animals.^[f] They erected their siege towers; they tore down her palaces; they made her a ruin.^(I)

¹⁵ From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:^(K)

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.^{(L) 18} Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits^[g] will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.^(M)

¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre having supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.^{(A) 12} But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. ¹³ Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul^[a] to this day.^{(B) 14} But Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

⁴ What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.^{(A) 5} For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.^{[a] 6} You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. ⁷ But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads.^{(B) 8} I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.^(C)

Proclamation against Tyre

26 In the twelfth year,^[a] in the eleventh^[b] month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ² Mortal, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem,

³ therefore, thus says the Lord God:

I have spoken, says the Lord God.

Then they shall know that I am the Lord.^(E)

⁷ For thus says the Lord God: I will bring against Tyre from the north King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings, together with horses, chariots, cavalry, and a great and powerful army.^(F)

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter goes on within you?^{(L) 16} Then all the princes of the sea shall step down from their thrones; they shall remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling and shall sit on the ground; they shall tremble every moment and be appalled at you.^{(M) 17} And they shall raise a lamentation over you and say to you:

¹⁹ For thus says the Lord God: When I make you a city laid waste, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you, ²⁰ then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of long ago, and I will make you live in the world below, among primeval ruins, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or have a place^[g] in the land of the living.^{(P) 21} I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more; though sought for, you will never be found again, says the Lord God.^(Q)

⁸ Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting Lebanon timber. My servants will work with your servants^{(A) 9} to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am about to build will be great and wonderful. ¹⁰ I will provide for your servants, those who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of crushed wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths^[a] of wine, and twenty thousand baths^[b] of oil.”^(B)

¹¹ Then King Huram of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them.”^{(C) 12} Huram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son endowed with discretion and understanding who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.^(D)

¹³ “I have dispatched Huram-abi, a skilled artisan endowed with understanding, ¹⁴ the son of one of the Danite women, his father a Tyrian. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your artisans, the artisans of my lord, your father David.^{(E) 15} Now, as for the wheat, barley, oil, and wine of which my lord has spoken, let him send them to his servants.^{(F) 16} We will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you as rafts by sea to Joppa; you will take it up to Jerusalem.”^(G)

¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar trees and carpenters and masons who built David a house.^(A)

²¹ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.^(A)