Ezekiel 27:25–36

²⁵“ ‘The great Tarshish ships were your freighters, importing and exporting. Oh, it was big business for you, trafficking the seaways!

^26–32“ ‘Your sailors row mightily,

taking you into the high seas.

Then a storm out of the east

shatters your ship in the ocean deep.

Everything sinks—your rich goods and products,

sailors and crew, ship’s carpenters and soldiers,

Sink to the bottom of the sea.

Total shipwreck.

The cries of your sailors

reverberate on shore.

Sailors everywhere abandon ship.

Veteran seamen swim for dry land.

They cry out in grief,

a choir of bitter lament over you.

They smear their faces with ashes,

shave their heads,

Wear rough burlap,

wildly keening their loss.

They raise their funeral song:

“Who on the high seas is like Tyre!”

^33–36“ ‘As you crisscrossed the seas with your products,

you satisfied many peoples.

Your worldwide trade

made earth’s kings rich.

And now you’re battered to bits by the waves,

sunk to the bottom of the sea,

And everything you’ve bought and sold

has sunk to the bottom with you.

Everyone on shore looks on in terror.

The hair of kings stands on end,

their faces drawn and haggard!

The buyers and sellers of the world

throw up their hands:

This horror can’t happen!

Oh, this has happened!’ ”