Study

Proclamation against Tyre

26

In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the L ord came to me: ²Mortal, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem,

“Aha, broken is the gateway of the peoples;

it has swung open to me;

I shall be replenished,

now that it is wasted,”

³ therefore, thus says the Lord G od:

See, I am against you, O Tyre!

I will hurl many nations against you,

as the sea hurls its waves.

4

They shall destroy the walls of Tyre

and break down its towers.

I will scrape its soil from it

and make it a bare rock.

5

It shall become, in the midst of the sea,

a place for spreading nets.

I have spoken, says the Lord G od.

It shall become plunder for the nations,

6

and its daughter-towns in the country

shall be killed by the sword.

Then they shall know that I am the L ord.

⁷ For thus says the Lord G od: I will bring against Tyre from the north King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings, together with horses, chariots, cavalry, and a great and powerful army.

8

Your daughter-towns in the country

he shall put to the sword.

He shall set up a siege wall against you,

cast up a ramp against you,

and raise a roof of shields against you.

9

He shall direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls

and break down your towers with his axes.

10

His horses shall be so many

that their dust shall cover you.

At the noise of cavalry, wheels, and chariots

your very walls shall shake,

when he enters your gates

like those entering a breached city.

11

With the hoofs of his horses

he shall trample all your streets.

He shall put your people to the sword,

and your strong pillars shall fall to the ground.

12

They will plunder your riches

and loot your merchandise;

they shall break down your walls

and destroy your fine houses.

Your stones and timber and soil

they shall cast into the water.

13

I will silence the music of your songs;

the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.

14

I will make you a bare rock;

you shall be a place for spreading nets.

You shall never again be rebuilt,

for I the L ord have spoken,

says the Lord G od.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord G od to Tyre: Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter goes on within you? ¹⁶Then all the princes of the sea shall step down from their thrones; they shall remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling, and shall sit on the ground; they shall tremble every moment, and be appalled at you. ¹⁷And they shall raise a lamentation over you, and say to you:

How you have vanished from the seas,

O city renowned,

once mighty on the sea,

you and your inhabitants,

who imposed your terror

on all the mainland!

18

Now the coastlands tremble

on the day of your fall;

the coastlands by the sea

are dismayed at your passing.

¹⁹ For thus says the Lord G od: When I make you a city laid waste, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you, and the great waters cover you, ²⁰then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of long ago, and I will make you live in the world below, among primeval ruins, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or have a place in the land of the living. ²¹I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more; though sought for, you will never be found again, says the Lord G od.