Ezekiel 26

In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:

1And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

NoteEzekiel dates his prophecies from the deportation of King Jehoiachin to Babylon in 597 BC, so the eleventh year is about 587–586 BC, the year Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. The Hebrew here gives the day of the month but no month number, which is why printed translations differ on the date.

2Son of man, Tyre has said about Jerusalem, "Aha! The city that was the gateway for the nations is broken. The gate has swung open my way. Now that she lies in ruins, I will be filled."

2Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:

NoteTyre was the great Phoenician seaport about 100 miles north of Jerusalem, on the coast of what is now Lebanon. Its main city stood on a rocky island just offshore, which is why it was famously hard to capture. It lived by sea trade, and Jerusalem sat astride the overland trade routes running south to Egypt and east inland, so Tyre is pictured gloating that a commercial rival has been knocked out and its business will now flow through Tyre instead. "I will be filled" means filled with goods and profit.

3So this is what the Lord GOD says: I am against you, Tyre. I will bring many nations up against you, the way the sea brings up its waves.

3Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.

4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down her towers. I will scrape the soil off her and leave her a bare rock.

4And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.

5Out in the sea she will be a place where fishermen spread their nets to dry. I have spoken, says the Lord GOD. The nations will carry off everything she has.

5It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

NoteFishermen spread wet nets over bare rock to dry them. The picture is of a place with nothing left standing on it, no buildings, no soil, only stone used by fishermen.

6The people of her villages on the mainland will be killed with the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

6And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

NoteThe King James "her daughters which are in the field" uses a standard Hebrew idiom: a large city's outlying settlements were called its daughters. Tyre's were on the mainland opposite the island city.

7For this is what the Lord GOD says: I am bringing Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon against Tyre from the north. He is a king over kings, and he comes with horses, chariots, riders, and a huge army.

7For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people.

Note"Nebuchadrezzar" is the King James spelling of the name we usually write Nebuchadnezzar; the form with r is actually closer to the Babylonian original. "King of kings" was a real title used by Mesopotamian emperors, meaning a ruler who had lesser kings as his subjects. Babylon lay to the east, but armies came from the north because the direct route crossed impassable desert; they marched up the Euphrates and down through Syria.

8He will kill the people of your villages on the mainland with the sword. He will set up siege works against you, pile up a ramp against your wall, and raise his shields against you.

8He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee.

NoteStandard ancient siege technique: the attackers threw up an earth ramp against the wall to bring rams and troops up to its top, and advanced behind a wall of large shields to cover them from missiles shot down from above.

9He will swing his battering rams against your walls, and tear down your towers with his axes.

9And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.

NoteThe King James "engines of war" means battering rams, heavy beams swung against a wall or gate. The axes were iron tools used to lever stone blocks apart, not woodcutting axes.

10He has so many horses that their dust will cover you. When he comes through your gates the way soldiers enter a city whose wall has been broken open, your walls will shake at the noise of riders, wagons, and chariots.

10By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.

11The hooves of his horses will trample every one of your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong stone pillars will crash to the ground.

11With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "strong garrisons" means standing stone pillars, and could refer either to the city's fortifications or to the two famous free-standing pillars in Tyre's temple of Melqart, which Greek travelers described. The text does not settle which.

12They will take your riches as loot and carry off your goods. They will break down your walls and tear down your fine houses. They will dump your stones, your timber, and your soil into the water.

12And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.

NoteDebris pushed into the sea. Centuries later Alexander the Great used the rubble of mainland Tyre to build a causeway out to the island city.

13I will put an end to the sound of your songs. The music of your harps will never be heard again.

13And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

NoteThe instrument is the lyre, a small hand-held stringed instrument. Tyre's songs are named because the city was known for its wealth and festivity, not for religious music.

14I will leave you a bare rock. You will be a place where fishermen spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

14And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

15This is what the Lord GOD says to Tyre: Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the killing goes on inside you?

15Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

NoteThe Hebrew word covers both islands and the coastlands around the Mediterranean: that is, Tyre's trading partners and colonies, which stretched as far as Spain and North Africa.

16Then all the rulers of the sea will step down from their thrones, take off their robes, and strip off their embroidered clothes. They will wear terror instead. They will sit on the ground, shaking every moment, stunned at what happened to you.

16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.

Note"Princes of the sea" are the rulers of the other coastal trading cities. Getting off the throne, stripping off state robes and sitting on bare ground were the recognized public gestures of mourning; a mourner also sat still and silent. The line about wearing terror instead of robes is deliberate wordplay on that change of dress.

17They will sing a funeral song for you: "How you have been destroyed, city of sailors, famous city, strong out on the sea! You and the people in you struck fear into all who lived there."

17And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!

NoteA lamentation here is a specific form: the funeral dirge sung over a corpse, with its own limping rhythm in Hebrew. Singing one over a living city is a way of declaring it already dead.

18Now the coastlands shake on the day you fall. The islands out in the sea are shaken because you are gone.

18Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.

19For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will make you an empty city, like cities where no one lives. I will bring the deep sea up over you, and its great waters will cover you.

19For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee;

Note"The deep" is the primeval ocean of Hebrew cosmology, the vast waters beneath and around the world, associated with chaos and with the flood. For a sea power like Tyre, being drowned by it is a pointed reversal.

20Then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you stay in the world below, among ruins from ancient times, with those who go down to the pit, so that no one lives in you again. And I will set glory in the land of the living.

20When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living;

Note"The pit" is the grave, and beyond it the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, deep beneath the earth; "the people of long ago" are the generations already there. "The land of the living" simply means the world of people still alive. The last clause is difficult in Hebrew: it can be read as here, that God will set glory in the land of the living, or, with a small change, that Tyre will have no place among the living, translations differ.

21I will make you a horror, and you will be gone. People will look for you, but they will never find you again, says the Lord GOD.

21I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.

Note"A terror" means an object of horror, something people shudder at when it is mentioned.