Ezekiel 26

The Voice

Israel and Judah are not the only nations infuriating God with their conduct. The surrounding countries—Ammon in the northeast, Moab in the east, Edom in the southeast, Philistia in the west, and Tyre in the northwest—have often been at odds with Israel and Judah. So when Judah falls, they celebrate in the streets and begin to figure how they might maneuver around these political and economic changes. Judah’s fall might be a windfall for them. As the Judean exiles are forcibly marched out of their land, their neighbors mercilessly mock them for their crushing defeat. But God takes all of this very personally. He will not tolerate their disrespect of His people, which amounts to disrespect of Him too. So God takes His own revenge and punishes those who delight in Israel’s and Judah’s tragedies.

26 During the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Eternal came to me regarding Tyre.

Eternal One: ²Son of man, Tyre has delighted in the news of Jerusalem, saying,

        Hurray! The gateway to the nations is broken,
    And now it is open for me to receive all of her commerce.
        My markets will be full now that she is in ruins.

³Therefore I, the Eternal Lord, am telling you that I am your enemy, Tyre, and I will gather many nations and march them against you, just as the sea marches its waves against the unsuspecting shore. ⁴The waves of the nations will demolish the city walls of Tyre and crumble her towers. After the city is pummeled, I will sweep away all of her rubble and leave nothing but a bare rock. ⁵In the loneliness of the ocean, she will become a desolate island, used only for drying out fishnets. She will become prisoner and slave to all the nations, ⁶and her villages on the mainland will be massacred in battle. Then they will know that I am the Eternal One.

⁷I am going to bring the great Babylonian king, the king of kings named Nebuchadnezzar, against Tyre. He will charge down from the north with strapping horses and indestructible chariots, master horsemen, and an enormous army. ⁸He will dispatch his soldiers to destroy your villages on the mainland and then lay siege against you with ramps against your walls and shields raised to deflect your opposition. ⁹He will demolish your walls with his siege machines and dismantle your towers with axes. ¹⁰You will be covered with dust from the galloping of his war horses. Your walls will shake from the tumult of the horses, wagons, and chariots when he breaches your walls and comes storming into the city. ¹¹His rampaging horses will trample all your streets. He will slaughter everyone in the battle and topple every strong pillar to the ground. ¹²They will loot your wealth and claim your goods! They will tear down your walls and fine houses, and they’ll toss the wood and stone and rubble into the sea. ¹³I will use My avenger to silence your lutes and harps and put an end to your songs. ¹⁴I will leave you a bare rock in the lonely ocean, a desolate island used only for drying out fishnets. I promise you will never be rebuilt. Never. I, the Eternal Lord, declare this.

¹⁵(continuing to Tyre) Don’t you think the coastlands will shake at the sound of your fall, at the groans of the injured, at the great massacre that takes place inside your walls? ¹⁶Then the princes from the other coastal cities will step down from their thrones, give up their royal robes, and remove their embroidered garments. They will clothe their nakedness with sheer terror and sit on the ground, constantly shaking with horror at what happened to you. ¹⁷Then they will sing a dirge over you:

    How you are destroyed, O famous city!
        City of sea people!
    You and your kind were a great force on the seas;
        you terrorized all who lived around you.
¹⁸    Now, the coastlands will quake on the day when you fall,
        and the cities along the shore will be terrified by your passing.

¹⁹When I destroy you and empty your streets, when I drown you and bury you within the ocean depths, ²⁰I will sink you down into the pit where those people from long ago sleep in death. I will make you stay there, in the lower parts of the earth among the ancient ruins with those who dwell in the pit of the dead, and you will never be inhabited again. You will never resurface in the land of the living where I rest My glory. ²¹I will terrify you, and you will meet your end. You will be sought, but you will never be found again.

This is what the Eternal Lord declares.