Old/New Testament

Cry out in anguish, you who travel the Mediterranean from east to west!
    Cry out, Tarshishian ships, because Tyre is no more.
It is devastated—no houses, no harbor—nothing is left.
    The people from Cyprus have witnessed it.
² Grieve quietly, you people along the coast,
    you merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea.
³ You go through great waters in boats filled with the grain of Shihor;
    the harvest of the Nile was Tyre’s revenue;
She was the marketplace of the nations.
⁴ Shame runs deep for Sidon since the sea has said,
    “I bore and raised no sons or daughters as my own.”
⁵ Egypt will be terribly upset, too,
    when they learn about Tyre’s destruction.
⁶ So you who live along the coast,
    make for Tarshish, and bewail your fate.
⁷ One wonders: could this really be the same city?
    It was so jubilant, so magnificent, so commanding for its trade.
Is this the city that’s been around longer than memory
    and her citizens have traveled to exotic, faraway places?
⁸ Tyre’s merchants and traders were princes and nobles,
    respected everywhere around the world.
Who did this to Tyre,
    a city that awards honor with crowns?
⁹ The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has determined,
    Tyre should be destroyed, wrecked, and disgraced
To spoil the foolish arrogance of all glory and
    to show how insignificant earthly honors are.
¹⁰ People of Tarshish, you should traverse your land as if it were the Nile.
    With Tyre out of the way, there’s nothing to stop you anymore.
¹¹ God’s power extends across the sea;
    He has terrified the nations,
    turning Canaan loose against them to demolish their fortresses.

¹² Eternal One: The celebration is over, downtrodden virgin daughter of Sidon.
        There’s nothing left of you to take pride in.
    Go ahead, pack up and move to Cyprus.
        But you still won’t find rest.

¹⁴ Cry out in anguish, ships of Tarshish
    because your fortress is no more.

¹⁶ “O forgotten woman, yesterday’s prostitute,
    take up a harp, and walk about the city.
Play it well, and sing your melodies,
    so you will be remembered.”

24 See here, the Eternal One will empty the earth.
    He will lay it waste, contort the mountains and plains,
And scatter its inhabitants all over the place.
² Things will be topsy-turvy, hierarchies upended. No one will be safe,
    not laypeople or priests, not servants or masters,
    not maids or mistresses, not buyers or sellers,
    not lenders or borrowers, not debtors or creditors.
³ The earth will be emptied, all emptied, despoiled, utterly despoiled.
    The Eternal said that it should be so.

⁴ So the earth mourns, droops wearily down;
    the world languishes and droops; the high and mighty languish in grief.
⁵ The earth is polluted by those who live on it;
    they pay no attention to God’s teaching.
    They violate His directives and break the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Consequently, a nasty curse consumes the earth,
    and those who inhabit it are to blame for it.
They’ll be burned up,
    leaving very few people to survive.
⁷ Luscious wine grapes shrivel to nothing.
    The vines rot, and everyone who had taken
    joy from their nectar sighs in deep depression.
⁸ No more music, no more songs, no more dancing to tambourines,
    laughing with revelers, or playing the harps.
⁹ People don’t drink wine and sing with pleasure anymore;
    the stronger stuff is mostly bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The chaotic city is in shambles,
    and every house is boarded up so no one can go in.
¹¹ People rebel in the streets, demanding wine.
    All joy turns to gloom; happiness has been banished from the land.
¹² In the city nothing is left but desolation,
    and the gate is battered and ruined.

¹³ This is how it will be on the earth for the nations—
    only a few survivors will be left—
    as when an olive tree is shaken and a few olives hold on
    or when the grape harvest is in and a few grapes remain for gleaning.

¹⁴ But people will take joy again.
    They will shout out and sing
    of the Eternal One’s majesty across the ocean.
¹⁵ Join in the song and praise the Eternal from the east.
    Praise the Eternal, the God of Israel, all along the coast of the sea.

¹⁶ Listen and you can hear the merry voices from the corners of the earth
    singing, “Honor to the Righteous One.” But as for me,
I say, “I am wasting away, wasting away.
    Woe is me!
I can see treachery, treachery, and it wears me down.
    Traitors deal in treachery.”

¹⁷ Terror, pit, and trap face you,
    you people of the earth.
¹⁸ And whoever runs from the sound of terror will only fall into a pit;
    when he climbs out of the pit, he’ll run and be caught in a trap.
The sky above will open up
    and the ground below will quake—nothing will be safe.
¹⁹ The earth is broken and shattered and splits apart.
    It shakes and quakes violently.
²⁰ Like a drunk, the earth staggers and reels;
    it shudders and shakes, like a shack in the wind.
For its rebellion weighs so heavily on it, that it will fall
    and have no chance for repair.

²¹ On that day, even the heavenly powers and earthly rulers
    will feel the Eternal’s punishing wrath.
²² They’ll be gathered up like prisoners, thrown in a dungeon,
    and suffer the punishment of God after many days.
²³ A shadow of shame will settle over the full moon and bright sun,
    and their brilliance will begin to fade;
    for the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
Will rule from His chosen place on earth—Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
    and His glory will shine out with brilliance for the elders to see.

25 Eternal One, You are my God.
    I will lift You up and praise Your name.
Because You have made wonders marvelous and beautiful—
    the most ancient designs holding strong and sure.
² Your power is awesome. You have brought down whole cities,
    turned fortresses and strongholds into piles of sticks and rubble.
A citadel of foreigners is no longer even a city.
    Those structures are gone forever.
³ This is why nations strong and mighty will glorify You;
    the cities of ruthless people will fear and respect You.

⁴ Because You stand up for the poor and weak,
    You comfort and empower them in their distress,
Giving them safe harbor and cool shade when it’s hot;
    You shelter them from their oppressors’ blows
As a strong wall holds back the driving rain.
⁵ You shelter from the relentless heat of the desert.
    You quiet the clamor of outsiders, ease them to stillness.
Like a full, dark cloud relieves the heat,
    You silence the arrogant song of the violent.

⁶ The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, is preparing a feast,
    a feast for everyone on this mystical mountain
With aged wine and good food, the finest wine and choicest meat.
⁷ And God will swallow up the oppression that weighs us down.
    He will take away the heavy shroud
    that is draped over all peoples of the world.
⁸ God will swallow up death forever.
    The Lord, the Eternal, will wipe away the tears from each and every face
And deflect the scorn and shame His people endure from the whole world,
    for the Eternal determined that it should be so.
⁹ And in that moment, at that glorious time, people will say,

People: This is our God! We put our hope in him.
        We knew that He would save us!
        This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited.
    Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.

¹⁰ For on this mountain, the powerful hand of the Eternal abides.
    He will smash and tread Moab like straw on manure.
¹¹ And God will reach out, like a swimmer pulling water,
    and drag down their arrogance and everything that made them proud.
¹² God will bring down their strongest walls, their impenetrable defenses,
    and grind them to the ground until they are only dust.