Ezekiel 28:1-19

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

“Because your heart is proud,
    and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
    in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god,
    though you consider yourself as wise as a god—
³ you are indeed wiser than Daniel;
    no secret is hidden from you;
⁴ by your wisdom and your understanding
    you have gotten wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
    into your treasuries;
⁵ by your great wisdom in trade
    you have increased your wealth,
    and your heart has become proud in your wealth—
⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Because you consider yourself
    as wise as a god,
⁷ therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you,
    the most terrible of the nations;
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
    and defile your splendor.
⁸ They shall thrust you down into the Pit,
    and you shall die the death of the slain
    in the heart of the seas.
⁹ Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’
    in the presence of those who slay you,
though you are but a man, and no god,
    in the hands of those who wound you?
¹⁰ You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
    by the hand of foreigners;
    for I have spoken, says the Lord God.”

“You were the signet of perfection,^[a]
    full of wisdom
    and perfect in beauty.
¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God;
    every precious stone was your covering,
carnelian, topaz, and jasper,
    chrysolite, beryl, and onyx,
sapphire,^[b] carbuncle, and emerald;
    and wrought in gold were your settings
    and your engravings.^[c]
On the day that you were created
    they were prepared.
¹⁴ With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you;^[d]
    you were on the holy mountain of God;
    in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways
    from the day you were created,
    till iniquity was found in you.
¹⁶ In the abundance of your trade
    you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I cast you 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 because of your beauty;
    you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
    I exposed you before kings,
    to feast their eyes on you.
¹⁸ By the multitude of your iniquities,
    in the unrighteousness of your trade
    you profaned your sanctuaries;
so I brought forth fire from the midst of you;
    it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes upon the earth
    in the sight of all who saw you.
¹⁹ All who know you among the peoples
    are appalled at you;
you have come to a dreadful end
    and shall be no more for ever.”