^26:1In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month,¹ the word of the Lord came to me: ^26:2“Son of man, because Tyre² has said about Jerusalem,³ ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich,⁴ now that she⁵ has been destroyed,’ ^26:3therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look,⁶ I am against you,⁷ O Tyre! I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. ^26:4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape her soil⁸ from her and make her a bare rock. ^26:5She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, ^26:6and her daughters⁹ who are in the field will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

^26:7“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note that¹⁰ I am about to bring King Nebuchadrezzar¹¹ of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre from the north, with horses, chariots, and horsemen, an army and hordes of people. ^26:8He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build a siege wall against you, erect a siege ramp against you, and raise a great shield against you. ^26:9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his weapons.¹²^26:10He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses.¹³ Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls.¹⁴^26:11With his horses’ hoofs he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will tumble down to the ground. ^26:12They will steal your wealth and loot your merchandise. They will tear down your walls and destroy your luxurious¹⁵ homes. Your stones, your trees, and your soil he will throw¹⁶ into the water.¹⁷^26:13I will silence¹⁸ the noise of your songs; the sound of your harps will be heard no more. ^26:14I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place where fishing nets are spread. You will never be built again,¹⁹ for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

^26:15“This is what the sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Oh, how the coastlands will shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, at the massive slaughter in your midst! ^26:16All the princes of the sea will vacate²⁰ their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you.²¹^26:17They will sing this lament over you:²²

“ ‘How you have perished—you have vanished²³ from the seas,

O renowned city, once mighty in the sea,

she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror!²⁴

^26:18Now the coastlands will tremble on the day of your fall;

the coastlands by the sea will be terrified by your passing.’²⁵

^26:19“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: When I make you desolate like the uninhabited cities, when I bring up the deep over you and the surging²⁶ waters overwhelm you, ^26:20then I will bring you down to bygone people,²⁷ to be with those who descend to the pit. I will make you live in the lower parts of the earth, among²⁸ the primeval ruins, with those who descend to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited or stand²⁹ in the land of the living. ^26:21I will bring terrors on you, and you will be no more! Though you are sought after, you will never be found again, declares the sovereign Lord.”

A Lament for Tyre

^27:1The word of the Lord came to me: ^27:2“You, son of man, sing a lament for Tyre.¹^27:3Say to Tyre, who sits at the entrance² of the sea,³ merchant to the peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“ ‘O Tyre, you have said, “I am perfectly beautiful.”

^27:4⁴ Your borders are in the heart of the seas;

your builders have perfected your beauty.

^27:5They crafted⁵ all your planks out of fir trees from Senir;⁶

they took a cedar from Lebanon to make your mast.

^27:6They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;

they made your deck⁷ with cypresses⁸ from the Kittean isles.⁹

^27:7Fine linen from Egypt, woven with patterns, was used for your sail

to serve as your banner;

blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah¹⁰ was used for your deck’s awning.

^27:8The leaders¹¹ of Sidon¹² and Arvad¹³ were your rowers;

your skilled¹⁴ men, O Tyre, were your captains.

^27:9The elders of Gebal¹⁵ and her skilled men were within you, mending cracks;¹⁶

all the ships of the sea and their mariners were within you to trade for your merchandise.¹⁷

^27:10Men of Persia, Lud,¹⁸ and Put were in your army, men of war.

They hung shield and helmet on you; they gave you your splendor.

^27:11The Arvadites¹⁹ joined your army on your walls all around,

and the Gammadites²⁰ were in your towers.

They hung their quivers²¹ on your walls all around;

they perfected your beauty.

^27:12“ ‘Tarshish²² was your trade partner because of your abundant wealth; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your products. ^27:13Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your clients; they exchanged slaves and bronze items for your merchandise. ^27:14Beth Togarmah exchanged horses, chargers,²³ and mules for your products. ^27:15The Dedanites²⁴ were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid²⁵ you with ivory tusks and ebony. ^27:16Edom²⁶ was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your products. ^27:17Judah and the land of Israel were your clients; they traded wheat from Minnith,²⁷ millet, honey, olive oil, and balm for your merchandise. ^27:18Damascus was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods and of all your wealth: wine from Helbon, white wool from Zahar, ^27:19and casks of wine²⁸ from Izal²⁹ they exchanged for your products. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were among your merchandise. ^27:20Dedan was your client in saddlecloths for riding. ^27:21Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your trade partners; for lambs, rams, and goats they traded with you. ^27:22The merchants of Sheba and Raamah engaged in trade with you; they traded the best kinds of spices along with precious stones and gold for your products. ^27:23Haran, Kanneh, Eden, merchants from Sheba, Asshur, and Kilmad were your clients. ^27:24They traded with you choice garments, purple clothes and embroidered work, and multicolored carpets, bound and reinforced with cords; these were among your merchandise. ^27:25The ships of Tarshish³⁰ were the transports for your merchandise.

“ ‘So you were filled and weighed down in the heart of the seas.

^27:26Your rowers have brought you into surging waters.

The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

^27:27Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,

your ship’s carpenters,³¹ your merchants,

and all your fighting men within you,

along with all your crew who are in you,

will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.

^27:28At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge;³²

^27:29They will descend from their ships—all who handle the oar,

the sailors and all the sea captains—they will stand on the land.

^27:30They will lament loudly³³ over you and cry bitterly.

They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes;³⁴

^27:31they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth,

and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning.³⁵

^27:32As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:

“Who was like Tyre, like a tower³⁶ in the midst of the sea?”

^27:33When your products went out from the seas,

you satisfied many peoples;

with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise

you enriched the kings of the earth.

^27:34Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;

your merchandise and all your company have sunk³⁷ along with you.³⁸

^27:35All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you,

and their kings are horribly afraid—their faces are troubled.

^27:36The traders among the peoples hiss at you;

you have become a horror, and will be no more.’ ”

A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre

^28:1The word of the Lord came to me: ^28:2“Son of man, say to the prince¹ of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“ ‘Your heart is proud² and you said, “I am a god;³

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas”—

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike.⁴

^28:3Look, you are wiser than Daniel;⁵

no secret is hidden from you.⁶

^28:4By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself;

you have amassed gold and silver in your treasuries.

^28:5By your great skill⁷ in trade you have increased your wealth,

and your heart is proud because of your wealth.

^28:6“ ‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Because you think you are godlike,⁸

^28:7I am about to bring foreigners⁹ against you, the most terrifying of nations.

They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom,¹⁰

and they will defile your splendor.

^28:8They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die violently¹¹ in the heart of the seas.

^28:9Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you—

though you are a man and not a god—

when you are in the power of those who wound you?

^28:10You will die the death of the uncircumcised¹² by the hand of foreigners;

for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’ ”

^28:11The word of the Lord came to me: ^28:12“Son of man, sing¹³ a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“ ‘You were the sealer¹⁴ of perfection,

full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

^28:13You were in Eden, the garden of God.¹⁵

Every precious stone was your covering,

the ruby, topaz, and emerald,

the chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,

the sapphire, turquoise, and…

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Footnotes

1 Date formulae typically include the month. According to D. I. Block (Ezekiel [], 2:, n. 27) some emend to “in the twelfth year in the eleventh month” based partially on the copy of the from Alexandrinus, where Albright suggested that “eleventh month” may have dropped out due to haplography. April 23, 587 b.c.
2 Tyre was located on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel.
3 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
4 Heb “I will be filled.”
5 That is, Jerusalem.
6 The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.
7 Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 1:, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘hinnenî êlêkâ,’ ” 45 (1933): 101–8. The Hebrew text switches to a second feminine singular form here, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed (see vv. 5–6a). The address to Jerusalem continues through v. 15. In vv. 16–17 the second masculine plural is used, as the people are addressed.
8 Or “debris.”
9 That is, the towns located inland that were under Tyre’s rule.
10 The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something.
11 Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an an “r” rather than an “n.”
12 Heb “swords.”
13 Heb “From the abundance of his horses he will cover you (with) their dust.”
14 Heb “like those who enter a breached city.”
15 Heb “desirable.”
16 Heb “set.”
17 Heb “into the midst of the water.”
18 Heb “cause to end.”
19 This prophecy was fulfilled by Alexander the Great in 332 b.c.
20 Heb “descend from.”
21 Heb “and they will be astonished over you.”
22 Heb “and they will lift up over you a lament and they will say to you.”
23 Heb “O inhabitant.” The translation follows the and understands a different Hebrew verb, meaning “cease,” behind the consonantal text. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [], 2:, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 2:.
24 Heb “she and her inhabitants who placed their terror to all her inhabitants.” The relationship of the final prepositional phrase to what precedes is unclear. The preposition probably has a specifying function here, drawing attention to Tyre’s inhabitants as the source of the terror mentioned prior to this. In this case, one might paraphrase verse 17b: “she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror; yes, her inhabitants (were the source of this terror).”
25 Heb “from your going out.”
26 Heb “many.”
27 Heb “to the people of antiquity.”
28 Heb “like.” The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition ךְּ (kÿ, “like”), to בְּ (bÿ, “in, among”).
29 Heb “and I will place beauty.” This reading makes little sense; many, following the lead of the , emend the text to read “nor will you stand” with the negative particle before the preceding verb understood by ellipsis; see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (), 2:. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [], 2:) offers another alternative, taking the apparent first person verb form as an archaic second feminine form and translating “nor radiate splendor.”
1 Heb “lift up over Tyre a lament.”
2 Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.
3 Rome, another economic power, is described in a similar way in Rev 17:1.
4 The city of Tyre is described in the following account as a merchant ship.
5 Heb “built.”
6 Perhaps the hull or deck. The term is dual, so perhaps it refers to a double-decked ship.
7 Or “hull.”
8 The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”
9 Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (, ), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (), “the coasts of Cyprus” (, ), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (). The Kittean isles is probably a reference to southeast Cyprus where the Phoenicians had a colony.
10 This is probably a reference to Cyprus.
11 The reads “the residents of”; the reads “your rulers who dwell in.” With no apparent reason for the to add “the rulers” many suppose something has dropped out of the Hebrew text. While more than one may be possible, Allen’s proposal, positing a word meaning “elders,” is the most likely to explain the omission in the from a graphic standpoint and also provides a parallel to the beginning of v. 9. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (), 2:.a parallel to v. 9.
12 For location see ; ; .
13 Sidon and Arvad, like Tyre, were Phoenician coastal cities.
14 Or “wise.”
15 Another Phoenician coastal city located between Sidon and Arvad.
16 Heb “strengthening damages.” Here “to strengthen” means to repair. The word for “damages” occurs several times in 1 Kgs 12 about some type of damage to the temple, which may have referred to or included cracks. Since the context describes Tyre in its glory, we do not expect this reference to damages to be of significant scale, even if there are repairmen. This may refer to using pitch to seal the seams of the ship, which had to be done periodically and could be considered routine maintenance rather than repair of damage.
17 The reference to “all the ships of the sea … within you” suggests that the metaphor is changing; previously Tyre had been described as a magnificent ship, but now the description shifts back to an actual city. The “ships of the sea” were within Tyre’s harbor. Verse 11 refers to “walls” and “towers” of the city.
19 Heb “sons of Arvad.”
20 The identity of the Gammadites is uncertain.
21 See note on “quivers” in on the meaning of Hebrew שֶׁלֶט (shelet) and also M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (), 2:.
22 Tarshish refers to a distant seaport sometimes believed to be located in southern Spain (others identified it as Carthage in North Africa). In any event it represents here a distant, rich, and exotic port which was a trading partner of Tyre.
23 The way in which these horses may have been distinguished from other horses is unknown. Cf. “war-horses” (, , , all similar); “chariot horses.”
24 Heb “sons of Dedan.”
25 Heb “they returned as your gift.”
26 Many Hebrew , Aquila’s Greek translation, and the version read “Edom.” The reads “man,” a translation which assumes the same consonants as Edom. This reading is supported from the context as the text deals with Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), later (in v. 18).
27 The location is mentioned in Judg 11:33.
28 The leaves v. 18 as an incomplete sentence and begins v. 19 with “and Dan and Javan (Ionia) from Uzal.” The mentions “wine.” The translation follows an emendation assuming some confusions of vav and yod. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (), 2:.
29 According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [], 2:), Izal was located between Haran and the Tigris and was famous for its wine.
30 Or perhaps “Large merchant ships.” The expression “ships of Tarshish” may describe a class of vessel, that is, large oceangoing merchant ships.
31 Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.
32 Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (), 2:.
33 Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”
34 Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.
35 Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”
36 As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” 45 (1964): 83–84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (), 2:, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 2:, for a list of options.
37 Heb “fallen.”
38 Heb “in the midst of you.”
1 Or “ruler” (, ).
2 Heb “lifted up.” See Prov 16:5.
3 Or “I am divine.”
4 Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”
5 Or perhaps “Danel” (so ), referring to a ruler known from Canaanite legend. See the note on “Daniel” in . A reference to Danel (preserved in legend at Ugarit, near the northern end of the Phoenician coast) makes more sense here when addressing Tyre than in 14:14.
6 The tone here is sarcastic, reflecting the ruler’s view of himself.
7 Or “wisdom.”
8 Heb “because of your making your heart like the heart of gods.”
9 This is probably a reference to the Babylonians.
10 Heb “they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom.”
11 Heb “you will die the death of the slain.”
12 The Phoenicians practiced circumcision, so the language here must be figurative, indicating that they would be treated in a disgraceful manner. Uncircumcised peoples were viewed as inferior, unclean, and perhaps even sub-human. See 31:18 and 32:17–32, as well as the discussion in D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 2:.
13 Heb “lift up.”
14 For a discussion of possible nuances of this phrase, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (), 2:.
15 The imagery of the lament appears to draw upon an extrabiblical Eden tradition about the expulsion of the first man (see v. 14 and the note there) from the garden due to his pride. The biblical Eden tradition speaks of cherubs placed as guardians at the garden entrance following the sin of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:24), but no guardian cherub like the one described in verse 14 is depicted or mentioned in the biblical account. Ezekiel’s imagery also appears to reflect Mesopotamian and Canaanite mythology at certain points. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (), 2:.

Cross references

18 See Gen 10:22.