Ezekiel 27: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Ezekiel to sing a funeral song for Tyre, the great trading city on the coast. The song pictures Tyre as a splendid ship built from the best timber and cloth, crewed and guarded by men from many nations, and lists the peoples who traded with her and what each one brought. Then the east wind wrecks the ship at sea, and sailors, coastlands, kings, and merchants react with mourning, fear, and scorn at her end.

Claim by Claim

1. 27:1
   • The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel again.
   • The word came saying something to be spoken.
2. 27:2
   • God addresses the prophet as son of man.
   • God commands him to take up a lamentation over Tyre.
3. 27:3
   • God commands him to speak to Tyre.
   • Tyre dwells at the entrances to the sea.
   • Tyre is a trader of the peoples to many coastlands.
   • The Lord GOD says the following.
   • Tyre has said of herself, 'I am perfect in beauty.'
4. 27:4
   • Tyre's borders are in the heart of the seas.
   • Tyre's builders perfected her beauty.
5. 27:5
   • They built all Tyre's planking of cypress from Senir.
   • They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for Tyre.
6. 27:6
   • They made Tyre's oars from oaks of Bashan.
   • They made Tyre's deck of ivory.
   • The material or makers of the deck came from the coastlands of Kittim.
   • It is unclear whether the deck was ivory worked by Ashurites or ivory inlaid in boxwood.
7. 27:7
   • Tyre's sail was embroidered fine linen from Egypt.
   • The sail served as Tyre's banner.
   • Tyre's covering was blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah.
8. 27:8
   • The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were Tyre's rowers.
   • Tyre's skilled men were within her.
   • Tyre's skilled men were her pilots.
9. 27:9
   • The elders of Gebal and its skilled men were in Tyre.
   • They repaired Tyre's seams.
   • All the ships of the sea and their sailors were in Tyre.
   • They were there to trade in Tyre's merchandise.
10. 27:10
    • Persia, Lud, and Put were in Tyre's army.
    • They were Tyre's men of war.
    • They hung shield and helmet in Tyre.
    • They gave Tyre her splendor.
11. 27:11
    • The men of Arvad and Tyre's army were on her walls all around.
    • Gammadim were in Tyre's towers.
    • They hung their shields on Tyre's walls all around.
    • They perfected Tyre's beauty.
12. 27:12
    • Tarshish traded with Tyre because of her great wealth of goods.
    • They exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for Tyre's wares.
13. 27:13
    • Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were Tyre's traders.
    • They exchanged human beings and vessels of bronze for Tyre's merchandise.
14. 27:14
    • The house of Togarmah exchanged horses, warhorses, and mules for Tyre's wares.
15. 27:15
    • The men of Dedan were Tyre's traders.
    • Many coastlands were the market of Tyre's hand.
    • They brought back to Tyre ivory tusks and ebony as payment.
16. 27:16
    • Aram traded with Tyre because of the abundance of her products.
    • They exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for Tyre's wares.
17. 27:17
    • Judah and the land of Israel were Tyre's traders.
    • They exchanged wheat of Minnith, pannag, honey, oil, and balm for Tyre's merchandise.
18. 27:18
    • Damascus traded with Tyre because of the abundance of her products and her great wealth.
    • The trade was in wine of Helbon and white wool.
19. 27:19
    • Dan and Javan traded in Tyre's wares.
    • Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were in Tyre's merchandise.
20. 27:20
    • Dedan was Tyre's trader in cloths for riding.
21. 27:21
    • Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were traders of Tyre's hand.
    • They traded with Tyre in lambs, rams, and goats.
22. 27:22
    • The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were Tyre's traders.
    • They exchanged the finest of all spices, every precious stone, and gold for Tyre's wares.
23. 27:23
    • Haran, Canneh, and Eden were traders with Tyre.
    • The merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were Tyre's traders.
24. 27:24
    • These were Tyre's traders in choice goods.
    • They traded in wrappings of blue and embroidered work.
    • They traded in chests of rich apparel.
    • The goods were bound with cords and made secure.
    • This was among Tyre's merchandise.
25. 27:25
    • The ships of Tarshish carried Tyre's merchandise.
    • Tyre was filled and became very heavy in the heart of the seas.
26. 27:26
    • Tyre's rowers brought her into great waters.
    • The east wind broke Tyre in the heart of the seas.
27. 27:27
    • Tyre's riches, wares, and merchandise will fall.
    • Tyre's sailors and pilots will fall.
    • Those who repaired Tyre's seams and those who traded her merchandise will fall.
    • All Tyre's men of war within her will fall.
    • All the assembly in the midst of Tyre will fall.
    • They will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of Tyre's downfall.
28. 27:28
    • The open lands outside the city will shake at the sound of the cry of Tyre's pilots.
29. 27:29
    • All who handle the oar will come down from their ships.
    • The sailors and all the pilots of the sea will come down from their ships.
    • They will stand on the land.
30. 27:30
    • They will make their voice heard over Tyre.
    • They will cry out bitterly.
    • They will throw dust on their heads.
    • They will roll themselves in ashes.
31. 27:31
    • They will make themselves bald for Tyre.
    • They will gird themselves with sackcloth.
    • They will weep for Tyre with bitterness of soul.
    • They will mourn bitterly.
32. 27:32
    • In their wailing they will take up a lamentation for Tyre.
    • They will lament over Tyre.
    • They will say, 'Who is like Tyre, silenced in the midst of the sea?'
    • It is unclear whether Tyre is described as silenced or as destroyed.
33. 27:33
    • When Tyre's wares went out from the seas, she satisfied many peoples.
    • Tyre enriched the kings of the earth with her abundant wealth and merchandise.
34. 27:34
    • Tyre is broken by the seas in the depths of the waters.
    • Tyre's merchandise and all her assembly in her midst have fallen.
35. 27:35
    • All the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled over Tyre.
    • Their kings shudder with horror.
    • Their faces are troubled.
36. 27:36
    • The traders among the peoples hiss at Tyre.
    • Tyre has become a terror.
    • Tyre will be no more forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1

"The word of the LORD came to me" means God gave Ezekiel a message. LORD written in big letters is God's own special name.

27:2

Tyre was a Phoenician port city on the coast of what is now Lebanon, built largely on a rocky island just offshore. In Ezekiel's day it was the richest trading power in the region, running sea routes across the whole Mediterranean. "Son of man" is simply how God addresses Ezekiel throughout this book; in Hebrew it means "human being," marking him as mortal over against the God who speaks to him. A "funeral song" (a lament, Hebrew qinah) was a formal poem chanted over a corpse, with its own limping rhythm. Singing one over a city still standing was a way of announcing it as good as dead.

27:3

The King James prints two different words here: "LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; "Lord GOD" renders a pairing of the word for "master" with that same name. The distinction is a printing convention, not a difference in who is speaking.

27:4

From here to verse 9 the poem stops describing Tyre as a city and describes it as a ship, a luxury vessel assembled from the finest materials of every neighboring land. The city's walls become planking, its rulers become the crew. The metaphor is dropped and resumed several times through the chapter, which is why Tyre can sink at sea in verse 26 and still be a city with suburbs in verse 28.

27:5

Senir was another name for Mount Hermon, the high range on the northern border of Israel, known for its conifer forests. The cedars of Lebanon were the most prized building timber in the ancient Near East, tall and straight enough for masts and temple beams, and exported all over the region.

27:6

Bashan was the fertile upland east of the Sea of Galilee, proverbial for its oak forests and its cattle. The King James "isles of Chittim" refers to Cyprus and, more loosely, the coasts and islands further west; the Hebrew word translated "isles" covers any land reached by sea, including coastlines.

27:7

Elishah is usually taken to be Cyprus or part of it. Blue and purple dyed cloth was the most expensive fabric in the ancient world: the dye was extracted drop by drop from murex sea snails, and Tyre's own dyeworks were the most famous source of it. Cloth of that color signaled royalty and enormous wealth.

27:8

Sidon and Arvad were the other major Phoenician port cities on the same coast, Tyre's neighbors, sometimes rivals, here supplying its manpower.

27:9

Gebal is the city the Greeks called Byblos, north of Sidon, whose craftsmen had a long reputation as shipwrights and builders. "Elders" means its senior men, the experienced heads of the trade.

27:10

Lud is generally identified with Lydia in western Asia Minor, Phut (or Put) with a region of North Africa, probably Libya. All three were sources of hired foreign soldiers; a wealthy city like Tyre bought its army rather than conscripting one. Hanging shields and helmets on the walls was both storage and display, a standing advertisement of a city's military strength.

27:11

The Hebrew here is uncertain. The King James "thine army" renders a word many scholars read instead as a place name, Helech, possibly Cilicia in southern Asia Minor. "Gammadims" is likewise obscure, probably men from a place called Gammad, though the word has also been read as a term for a kind of soldier. No one now knows for certain.

27:12

Tarshish was a far-off western port reached by long sea voyage, most often identified with Tartessus in southern Spain, a source of silver and other metals; some place it in Sardinia. To an Israelite the name carried the sense of "the far end of the sea."

27:13

Javan is the Hebrew name for the Ionian Greeks, and by extension the Greek world. Tubal and Meshech were peoples of eastern Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey, known as metalworkers. The King James "persons of men" is literal: the goods traded here were enslaved people, bought and sold alongside the bronzeware.

27:14

Togarmah lay in eastern Asia Minor or Armenia, a region famous for horse breeding. "House of" before a name means the people descended from that ancestor, much as "house of Israel" means the Israelites.

27:15

Dedan was an oasis trading center in northwest Arabia, a stop on the caravan routes carrying goods up from southern Arabia and Africa. Ebony is a dense black tropical hardwood; along with elephant tusks it came from far to the south, which is why Dedan appears as the middleman.

27:16

"Syria" here renders Aram, the inland kingdom north and east of Israel centered on Damascus. Some Hebrew manuscripts read Edom instead, the kingdom southeast of Israel; the two words differ by one easily confused letter, and which was original is disputed. The precise stones meant by the words translated "turquoise" and "rubies" are also uncertain, ancient gem names were grouped by color rather than by mineral.

27:17

Minnith was a town in Ammon, east of the Jordan, in good grain country. "Pannag" is a Hebrew word that appears nowhere else and whose meaning is lost; guesses include a kind of cake, a confection, or a spice, and the rendering simply leaves it untranslated. Balm was an aromatic resin tapped from trees in Gilead, used as medicine and perfume and worth far more than its bulk.

27:18

Helbon was a village north of Damascus whose wine was prized as far away as the Persian court. The Hebrew behind "white wool" may instead be a place name, Zahar, in which case the line reads "wool from Zahar."

27:19

This verse is the most damaged in the chapter. The King James takes the opening words as the tribe of Dan and the Greeks (Javan); many now read them as casks of wine from Uzal, a place in Arabia. Cassia is the bark of a tree related to cinnamon; "sweet cane" (the King James "calamus") is an aromatic reed. Both were imported spices used in perfume and incense.

27:20

"Clothes" here is the older spelling of "cloths." These are the padded blankets laid on an animal's back under a rider or under harness, an ordinary but expensive piece of equipment.

27:21

Kedar was a confederation of nomadic Arab tribes in the northern desert, herders whose wealth was in flocks. "Princes" here means tribal chiefs, not royalty in the European sense.

27:22

Sheba and Raamah lay in southwest Arabia, in the region of modern Yemen. They controlled the incense trade, frankincense and myrrh grew there and almost nowhere else, and grew rich shipping it north by camel caravan.

27:23

These are inland cities of Mesopotamia and northern Syria, the other end of the trade network from Tarshish: Haran on the upper Euphrates route, Asshur the old capital of Assyria, and Canneh, Eden and Chilmad smaller trading centers whose exact sites are unknown. Naming them alongside the sea powers makes the point that Tyre's reach ran overland as well as by water.

27:24

The Hebrew naming these goods is uncertain, which is why the King James pictures cedar chests of clothing tied shut with cords while modern versions picture multicolored carpets with twisted, knotted fringes. "Apparel" simply means clothing.

27:25

"Ships of Tarshish" was a class of vessel rather than a fleet from one place, the large, deep-hulled cargo ships built to make the long open-sea runs. English once used "Indiaman" the same way.

27:26

The east wind blows off the desert: hot, dry and violent, the storm wind most feared by sailors on that coast. Notice the tense shift here, after twenty-five verses cataloguing Tyre's wealth in the past, the poem turns to the wreck.

27:27

"Occupiers of thy merchandise" means the traders who handled the goods. The verse lists everything the ship carried, one item at a time, so you can watch it all go under.

27:28

"Suburbs" in the King James does not mean housing outside a city. It renders a word for the open pastureland surrounding a town, so the picture is of the whole mainland coast shuddering at the noise.

27:30

Throwing dust or dirt on the head and sitting or rolling in ashes were the standard public gestures of grief and shock in the ancient Near East, as recognisable then as wearing black at a funeral is now.

27:31

Shaving the head bald was another formal mourning rite, a visible and lasting mark of loss. Sackcloth was coarse dark cloth of goat hair, worn next to the skin, uncomfortable by design; putting it on announced mourning or distress to anyone who saw you.

27:35

"Sore afraid" means very afraid. "Troubled in their countenance" means the fear shows plainly in their faces.

27:36

Hissing was not booing an act; it was the involuntary sharp intake or expulsion of breath at something appalling. Ancient writers use it for the sound people make passing the ruins of a place that was once great.