Ezekiel 26
26
Against the City of Tyre. 1#The Hebrew text does not give a number with the month. This translation assumes a scribal error, the omission of the second occurrence of the number eleven. On the first day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year, the word of the Lord came to me:
2#Tyre is pictured rejoicing over Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon because now the wealth from caravans and other trade will go to Tyrian merchants. Son of man, because Tyre said of Jerusalem:
“Aha! The gateway of the peoples is smashed!
It has been turned over to me;
I will be enriched by its ruin!”#Is 23:1–18; Jl 3:4–5; Am 1:9–10; Zec 9:2–4.
3therefore thus says the Lord God:
See! I am coming against you, Tyre;
I will churn up against you many nations,
just as the sea churns up its waves.
4They will destroy the walls of Tyre
and tear down its towers;
I will scrape off its debris
and leave it a bare rock.#A bare rock: the Tyre of Ezekiel’s time was situated on a rocky island just off the Phoenician coast. During the time of Alexander the Great a causeway was built to connect it to the mainland.
5It will become a place for drying nets
in the midst of the sea.
For I have spoken—oracle of the Lord God:
she will become plunder for the nations.
6Her daughter cities#Daughter cities: tributary towns and villages on the mainland. on the mainland
will be slaughtered by the sword;
then they shall know that I am the Lord.
7Indeed thus says the Lord God:
I am bringing up against Tyre
from the north, Nebuchadnezzar,
King of Babylon, king of kings,
with horses and chariots, with cavalry,
and a mighty horde of troops.#Jer 27:6; Na 2:3–4.
8Your daughter cities on the mainland
he shall slay with the sword.
He shall build a siege wall around you,
throw up a ramp against you,
and raise his shields about you.
9He shall pound your walls with battering-rams
and break down your towers with his axes.
10From the surging of his horses
he will cover you with dust;
from the noise of warhorses,
wheels and chariots.
Your walls will shake
when he enters your gates,
even as one enters a city that is breached.
11With the hooves of his horses
he will trample all your streets;
Your people he will slay by the sword;
your mighty pillars will collapse.#Na 3:11.
12They shall plunder your wealth
and pillage your goods;
They will tear down your walls
and demolish your splendid houses.
Your stones, timbers, and debris
they will cast into the sea.
13I will bring an end to the noise of your songs;
the music of your lyres will be heard no more.
14I will turn you into bare rock,
you will become a place for drying nets.
You shall never be rebuilt,
for I the Lord have spoken—
oracle of the Lord God.
15Thus says the Lord God to Tyre:
At the sound of your downfall,
at the groaning of the wounded,
When victims are slain within you,
will the islands not quake?
16All the princes of the sea#The princes of the sea: the rulers of the islands and coastal cities leagued commercially with Tyre.
will step down from their thrones,
Lay aside their robes,
and strip off their embroidered garments.
Clothed in mourning,
they will sit on the ground
And tremble, horror-struck
and appalled at you.#cf. Ez 32:10.
17They will raise lament#Lament: the princes sing a funeral dirge at the burial of the personified Tyre; cf. the similar lamentation over Egypt in 32:3–8. over you
and say to you:
How you have perished,
gone from the seas,
Renowned City!
Once she was mighty on the sea,
she and her inhabitants,
Those who spread their terror
to all who dwelt nearby.#cf. Ez 19:1.
18On this, the day of your fall,
the islands quake!
The islands in the sea
are terrified at your passing.
19Indeed thus says the Lord God:
When I make you a ruined city
like cities no longer inhabited,
When I churn up the deep
and its mighty waters cover you,
20Then I will thrust you down
with those who go down to the pit,#Those who go down to the pit: the dead, pictured as dwelling in Sheol, a place or cave of darkness. Cf. 32:17–32; Is 14:4–21 for other examples.
to those of the bygone age;
I will make you dwell in the netherworld,
in the everlasting ruins,
with those who have gone down to the pit,
So you will never return
or have a place in the land of the living.#cf. Ez 31:14; 32:18, 24, 30.
21I will make you a horror,
and you shall be no more;
You shall be sought for,
but never found again—
oracle of the Lord God.
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Ezekiel 26: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc