Old/New Testament
Chapter 27
Lamentation over Tyre. 1 This word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man, raise lament over Tyre, 3 and say to Tyre which is enthroned at the entrance to the sea and serves as the center of trade between the nations and many coastlands: Thus says the Lord God:
O Tyre, you often used to declare,
“I am a ship perfect in beauty.”
4 Your frontiers bordered the high seas,
and your builders perfected your beauty.
5 They used cypress from Senir[a]
to construct all your planks;
they took cedar of Lebanon
to make a mast above you.
6 From oaks of Bashan,
they made your oars;
they constructed your deck with cypress[b]
from the coasts of Kittim.
7 Fine embroidered linen from Egypt
was used for your sail
and also for your flag.
Purple and scarlet from the coasts of Elishah[c]
served as your awnings.
8 The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad
served as your oarsmen.
Skilled men of Zemer were aboard
to act as your sailors.
9 The elders and craftsmen were available
to caulk your seams.
All the ships of the sea with their sailors
came to you to trade for your wares.
10 Men from Persia and Lud and Put[d]
served as warriors in your army.
They proudly displayed on your walls
their shields and helmets to bring you splendor.
11 Men of Arvad and Helech
guarded your walls on every side,
while the men of Gamad manned your towers.
They hung their shields all around your walls,
thereby perfecting your beauty.
12 [e]Tarshish[f] traded with you because of the vast abundance of your wealth, exchanging silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares. 13 [g]Javan, Tubal, and Meshech also traded with you, exchanging slaves and articles of bronze for your merchandise.
14 Beth-togarmah exchanged horses, steeds, and mules for your wares. 15 The Rhodians dealt with you; many islands engaged in trade with you and paid you with ivory tusks and ebony. 16 Edom traded with you because of the large variety of your products; for your wares they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies. 17 Judah and the land of Israel also traded with you, exchanging for your goods wheat, figs, honey, oil, and balm.
18 Damascus traded with you because of your great wealth, offering to you wine from Helbon and wool from Zahar. 19 [h]Danites and Javanites traded wrought iron, cassia, and aromatic cane from Uzal for your wares, 20 while Dedan traded with you for saddle blankets.
21 Arabia and all the sheikhs of Kedar were your customers, paying you with lambs, rams, and goats. 22 Merchants from Sheba and Raamah traded with you, offering in exchange the finest spices, every kind of precious stones, and gold.
23 Haran, Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you,[i] 24 offering in return rich garments, embroidered purple cloaks, and materials of many colors bound with cords that were firmly woven.
25 The ships of Tarshish were employed
as carriers for your wares.
Therefore, you were filled and heavily laden
as you sailed the high seas.
26 Your oarsmen rowed through deep waters
on their journey home.
But the east wind[j] wrecked you
when you were far out at sea.
27 Your riches, your goods, your cargo,
your sailors and your crew,
your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise,
and all their warriors and passengers
sank into the depths of the sea
on the day of your shipwreck.
28 The coasts will begin to quake
upon hearing the cries of your sailors.
29 Then those who handle the oars
will begin to desert their ships.
The sailors and all the seafaring people
will remain ashore.
30 They will mourn aloud over you
and weep bitterly.
They will throw dust on their heads
and roll in ashes.
31 They will shave their heads for you
and put on sackcloth.
For you, they will weep in anguish
and with heartfelt bitterness.
32 In their mourning, they will raise a dirge
and lament over you:
Who was ever destroyed like Tyre
in the midst of the sea?
33 When your goods were unloaded,
you satisfied a multitude of peoples.
You enriched the kings of the earth
with your abundant wealth and merchandise.
34 Now you have been demolished by the sea
in the watery depths.
Your merchandise and all your crew
have gone down with you.
35 All who dwell on the coastlands
are aghast at your fate.
Their kings are horrified;
their faces are convulsed.
36 The merchants among the nations
now hiss at you.
Destruction has overwhelmed you,
and you will be no more.
Chapter 28
The Prince of Tyre. 1 This word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God:
Your heart has grown proud,
and thus you say, “I am a god;
I sit on a godly throne
in the heart of the seas.”
But in reality you are a man, and not a god,
even though you compare your mind
with that of a god.
3 Are you as wise as Daniel?
Is no secret hidden from you?
4 By your wisdom and your intelligence,
you have amassed great wealth for yourself.
You have deposited gold and silver
into your treasuries.
5 Because of your skill in trading,
your wealth has greatly increased;
and as a result of your riches,
your heart is filled with arrogant pride.
6 Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
Because you consider your wisdom
to be equal to that of God,
7 I will bring foreigners against you,
the most barbarous of all the nations.
They will draw their swords
against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendor.
8 They will hurl you down to the pit,
and you will die a violent death
in the heart of the seas.
9 Will you then still say, “I am a god,”
when your murderers confront you?
No, you are a man, not a god,
in the hands of those about to slay you.
10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised
at the hands of foreigners.
I have spoken, declares the Lord God.
11 This word of the Lord was then addressed to me: 12 Son of man, raise a lament for the king of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord God:
At one time, you were a model of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God,
and adorned with every precious stone:
ruby, topaz, and emerald,
chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise, and jade.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created, they were made.
14 I appointed a cherub as your guardian;
you were on the holy mountain of God,
walking amid the fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your behavior
from the day you were created,
until iniquity first appeared in you.
16 As a result of your abundant trade,
you became filled with violence, and you sinned.
Therefore, I cast you down in disgrace
from the mountain of God,
and the guardian cherub drove you out
from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart had grown proud
because of your beauty,
and for the sake of your splendor,
you corrupted your wisdom.
I flung you to the earth,
so great was your guilt,
and I made you a spectacle to behold
in the sight of kings.
18 Because of the immense number of your crimes
and your dishonesty in business,
you profaned our sanctuaries.
Therefore, I have brought forth fire from your midst,
and I allowed it to devour you.
I have reduced you to ashes on the ground
for everyone to behold.
19 All of the nations who knew you
were aghast at your fate.
You have come to a hideous end,
and you will be no more.
20 Against Sidon. This word of the Lord came to me: 21 Son of man, turn toward Sidon[k] and prophesy against her, and say: 22 Thus says the Lord God:
I am against you, O Sidon,
and I will show my glory in your midst.
Then people will know that I am the Lord
when I inflict punishments on her
and manifest my holiness in her.
23 For I will send a plague upon her,
and there will be bloodshed in her streets.
And the dead shall fall in her midst
by the sword raised against her from all sides;
then they will know that I am the Lord.
24 No longer will the people of Israel have to endure thorns that wound, or briars that tear from hostile neighbors who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
25 Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of all the nations, then they will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They will live there in safety, building houses and planting vineyards. They will live there in security while I inflict punishments upon all their neighbors who have despised them. Thus they will know that I am the Lord, their God.
Chapter 29
Against Egypt.[l] 1 In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, this word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against the whole of Egypt. 3 Speak to him and say: Thus says the Lord:
Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh,
king of Egypt,
you great crocodile
lurking in the streams of the Nile,
you who claimed, “The Nile is mine;
it is I who made it.”
4 I will put hooks through your jaws
and cause the fish of your Nile
to stick to your scales.
Then I will draw you up
from the midst of its tributaries,
with all the fish of those channels
clinging to your scales.
5 I will fling you into the desert,
you and all the fish of your tributaries.
You will fall upon the open field
and not be taken up or buried.
I will give you as food
to the animals of the earth
and the birds of the air.
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the Lord.
The support they gave the Israelites
was no greater than a staff of reed.
7 When they grasped you,
you splintered in their hands.
Whenever they leaned on you, you broke,
causing all their limbs to give way.
8 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword against you and cut off from your presence both man and animal. 9 The land of Egypt will become a desolate waste, and the inhabitants will know that I am the Lord.
Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I was the one who made it,” 10 therefore I am against you and your tributaries. I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste, from Migdol[m] to Syene, and even beyond to the frontiers of Ethiopia. 11 No human foot shall pass through it, nor shall any animal foot do so. It shall remain uninhabited for forty years. 12 I shall make Egypt the most desolate of countries, and its cities will be the most deserted of all those that have been laid waste for forty years. Moreover, I intend to scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them over foreign lands.
13 However, thus says the Lord God: After forty years have passed, I will gather the Egyptians back from the peoples among whom they were scattered. 14 I shall restore the fortunes of Egypt and resettle her people in the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they will become a lowly kingdom.
15 Egypt will be the most insignificant of kingdoms and never again will exalt itself above the nations. I will make them few in number so that it will never again rule over the nations. 16 Egypt will no longer be a nation for the house of Israel to trust in, but will rather be for Israel a reminder of its guilt when they turned to Egypt for help. Thus they will know that I am the Lord God.
17 Nebuchadnezzar’s Payment. In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, this word of the Lord came to me: 18 Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has led his army in an exhausting campaign against Tyre. Everyone’s head was rubbed bare and the skin of every shoulder was raw, yet neither he nor his army derived any profit from the campaign he led against Tyre.
19 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I now intend to hand over the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He shall carry off its wealth, despoil and plunder it, and amass the wages for his army. 20 As regards payment for his toil, I have given him the land of Egypt because he and his army did it for me, says the Lord God.
21 On that day, I will make a horn sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will empower you to speak out in their midst. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Chapter 3
Recommendations for Spouses.[a] 1 In the same way, you who are wives should accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if they do not believe the word, they may be won over without words simply by the conduct of their wives 2 as they observe your reverence and your chaste behavior.
3 [b]Do not seek to adorn yourself externally—by the braiding of your hair and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothing. 4 Rather, let your adornment be of your inner self, the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
5 It was in this way that the holy women who placed their hope in God long ago used to adorn themselves and be submissive to their husbands. 6 Thus, Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him her “lord.” You are now her daughters as long as you live good lives and never allow fears to alarm you.
7 Likewise, you who are husbands must show consideration for your wives in your life together. Treat your wife with respect, for even though she is the weaker partner, she is also an equal heir of God’s gift[c] of life. Thus, your prayers will not be hindered in any way.
Mutual Love.[d] 8 Finally, all of you should be united in spirit, sympathetic, filled with love for one another, compassionate, and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or abuse with abuse. On the contrary, repay with a blessing. This is what you were called to do, so that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For:
“If anyone wishes to love life
and to experience good days,
he must restrain his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
11 He must turn away from evil and do good,
seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer.
However, the face of the Lord
is set against those who do evil.”
Christian Conduct in Suffering and Persecution
13 The Blessings of Suffering for Righteousness.[e] Now who is going to harm you if you are eager to do what is right? 14 Yet even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you are thereby blessed. Have no fear of others, and refuse to be intimidated by them. 15 Rather, revere Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be prepared to offer an explanation to anyone who asks you to justify the hope that is in you. However, do so with gentleness and respect 16 and with a clean conscience so that those who slander you for your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing what is right, if such is the will of God, than for doing what is wrong.
18 Christ’s Victory and Descent to the Netherworld, and Christian Baptism.[f] For Christ also suffered for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the spirit.
19 In the spirit[g] also he went to preach to the spirits in prison, 20 those who had refused to obey long ago while God waited patiently in the days of Noah during the building of the ark. In it only a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.
21 This water prefigured Baptism, which now saves you. It does so not by the washing away of dirt from the body but by the pledge of a good conscience given to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 22 He has entered heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.