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A Message for Tyre

26 On February 3, during the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,[a] this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir! Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy!’

“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am your enemy, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the waves of the sea crashing against your shoreline. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. I will scrape away its soil and make it a bare rock! It will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their nets, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign Lord. Tyre will become the prey of many nations, and its mainland villages will be destroyed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I will bring King Nebuchadnezzar[b] of Babylon against Tyre. He is king of kings and brings his horses, chariots, charioteers, and great army. First he will destroy your mainland villages. Then he will attack you by building a siege wall, constructing a ramp, and raising a roof of shields against you. He will pound your walls with battering rams and demolish your towers with sledgehammers. 10 The hooves of his horses will choke the city with dust, and the noise of the charioteers and chariot wheels will shake your walls as they storm through your broken gates. 11 His horsemen will trample through every street in the city. They will butcher your people, and your strong pillars will topple.

12 “They will plunder all your riches and merchandise and break down your walls. They will destroy your lovely homes and dump your stones and timbers and even your dust into the sea. 13 I will stop the music of your songs. No more will the sound of harps be heard among your people. 14 I will make your island a bare rock, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken. Yes, the Sovereign Lord has spoken!

The Effect of Tyre’s Destruction

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: The whole coastline will tremble at the sound of your fall, as the screams of the wounded echo in the continuing slaughter. 16 All the seaport rulers will step down from their thrones and take off their royal robes and beautiful clothing. They will sit on the ground trembling with horror at your destruction. 17 Then they will wail for you, singing this funeral song:

“O famous island city,
    once ruler of the sea,
    how you have been destroyed!
Your people, with their naval power,
    once spread fear around the world.
18 Now the coastlands tremble at your fall.
    The islands are dismayed as you disappear.

19 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will make Tyre an uninhabited ruin, like many others. I will bury you beneath the terrible waves of enemy attack. Great seas will swallow you. 20 I will send you to the pit to join those who descended there long ago. Your city will lie in ruins, buried beneath the earth, like those in the pit who have entered the world of the dead. You will have no place of respect here in the land of the living. 21 I will bring you to a terrible end, and you will exist no more. You will be looked for, but you will never again be found. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Footnotes

  1. 26:1 Hebrew In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar year. Since an element is missing in the date formula here, scholars have reconstructed this probable reading: In the eleventh [month of the twelfth] year, on the first day of the month. This reading would put this message on February 3, 585 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.
  2. 26:7 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.

Ezekiel Prophesies Against Tyre

26 And it was in the eleventh[a] year, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came[b] to me, saying,[c] “Son of man,[d] because[e] Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Ah! The gates of the peoples are broken; it has swung open to me; I shall be filled, for it lies in ruins!’ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring up against you many nations like the stirring up of the sea stirring up its waves.[f] And I will destroy the walls of Tyre, and they will demolish its towers, and I will scrape away its earthen dirt from it, and I will make it into a bare rock.[g] It will become a place for spreading out dragnets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken,’ declares[h] the Lord Yahweh. ‘And it will become as plunder for the nations, and its daughters who are in the field with the sword, they will be killed; and they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am bringing to Tyre Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, from the north, the king of kings, with horse and with chariot and with horsemen and his assembly and many people. Your daughters he will kill in the field with the sword, and he will place[i] against you siege works, and he will build against you a siege ramp, and he will raise against you a shield, and the thrust of his battering ram he will direct against your walls, and your towers he will break down with his weapons. 10 From the abundance of his horses he will cover you with their fine dust; at the sound of horseman and wheel and chariot your walls will shake, at his coming into your gates like the entrance of a city that is being broken through. 11 With the hooves of his horses he will trample all of your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong stone pillars[j] will tumble down to the earth. 12 And they will plunder your wealth, and they will loot your merchandise, and they will break down your walls, and the houses of your delight they will break down, and your stones and your timbers and your earthen dirt they will cast into the midst of the water. 13 And, I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the sound of your lyres will not be heard any longer. 14 And I will make you into a bare rock,[k] a place for the spreading out of dragnets. You will not be built again, for I, Yahweh, I have spoken,” declares[l] the Lord Yahweh.

15 Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre, “Will not the coastlands shake from the sound of your downfall, at the groaning of the wounded, at people being killed[m] in the midst of you? 16 And all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, and they will remove their robes, and their beautiful garments[n] of finished cloth they will take off. With terror they will be clothed, and on the ground they will sit, and they will tremble continually,[o] and they will be appalled over you. 17 And they will raise a lament over you, and they will say to you,

‘How you have been lost who was inhabited from[p] the seas;
    the city that was praised, that was strong.
It is located on the sea,
    and its inhabitants imposed their terror on all of its inhabitants.[q]
18 Now the coastlands will tremble
    at the day of your downfall,
and the islands that are in the sea
    will be horrified because of your departure.’”

19 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when bringing up over you the deep, the great surging waters[r] will cover you. 20 And I will bring you down with those who are going down to the grave,[s] an ancient people,[t] and I will cause you to dwell in the world[u] of the depths, in the ruins from of old with those who are going down to the grave,[v] so that you will not be inhabited and have a place[w] in the land of the living. 21 Sudden terrors I will bring on you, and you shall no longer exist; and you will be sought, and you will not be found again forever,”[x] declares[y] the Lord Yahweh.

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 26:1 Literally “one ten”
  2. Ezekiel 26:1 Literally “was”
  3. Ezekiel 26:1 Literally “to say”
  4. Ezekiel 26:2 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
  5. Ezekiel 26:2 Hebrew “because that”
  6. Ezekiel 26:3 Literally “with respect to its waves”
  7. Ezekiel 26:4 Literally “to barrenness of rock”
  8. Ezekiel 26:5 Literally “declaration of”
  9. Ezekiel 26:8 Hebrew “give”
  10. Ezekiel 26:11 Literally “the stone pillars of strength your”
  11. Ezekiel 26:14 Literally “to barrenness of rock”
  12. Ezekiel 26:14 Literally “declaration of”
  13. Ezekiel 26:15 Literally “at being killed a killing”
  14. Ezekiel 26:16 Literally “the garments of beautiful finished cloth”
  15. Ezekiel 26:16 Literally “for moments”
  16. Ezekiel 26:17 Or “on”
  17. Ezekiel 26:17 Literally “to all of its inhabitants”
  18. Ezekiel 26:19 Literally “the waters the many”
  19. Ezekiel 26:20 Or “pit”
  20. Ezekiel 26:20 Literally “a people of eternity/endless ages”
  21. Ezekiel 26:20 Or “land”
  22. Ezekiel 26:20 Or “pit”
  23. Ezekiel 26:20 Hebrew “and I will give beauty in the land of the living”
  24. Ezekiel 26:21 Literally “to eternity/endless ages”
  25. Ezekiel 26:21 Literally “declaration of”