Judgment on the City of Tyre
1 Eleven years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the first day of the month. He said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, the people of the city of Tyre have celebrated Jerusalem's defeat by singing,
“Jerusalem has fallen!
It used to be powerful,
a center of trade.
Now the city is shattered,
and we will take its place.”
3 Because the people of Tyre have sung that song, I have the following warning for them: I am the Lord God, and I am now your enemy! I will send nations to attack you, like waves crashing against the shore. 4 They will tear down your city walls and defense towers. I will sweep away the ruins until all that's left of you is a bare rock, 5 where fishermen can dry their nets along the coast. I promise that you will be robbed 6 and that the people who live in your towns along the coast will be killed. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
7 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia is the world's most powerful king, and I will send him to attack you. He will march from the north with a powerful army, including horses and chariots and cavalry troops. 8 First, he will attack your towns along the coast and kill the people who live there. Then he will build dirt ramps up to the top of your city walls and set up rows of shields around you. 9 He will command some of his troops to use large wooden poles to beat down your walls, while others use iron rods to knock down your watchtowers. 10 He will have so many horses that the dust they stir up will seem like a thick fog. And as his chariots and cavalry approach, even the walls will shake, especially when he proudly enters your ruined city. 11 His troops will ride through your streets, killing people left and right, and your strong columns will crumble to the ground. 12 The troops will steal your valuable possessions; they will break down your walls, and crush your expensive houses. Then the stones and wood and all the remains will be dumped into the sea. 13 You will have no reason to sing or play music on harps, 14 because I will turn you into a bare rock where fishermen can dry their nets. And you will never rebuild your city. I, the Lord God, make this promise.
15 The people of the nations up and down the coast will shudder when they hear your screams and moans of death. 16 The kings will step down from their thrones, then take off their royal robes and fancy clothes, and sit on the ground, trembling. They will be so shocked at the news of your defeat that they will shake in fear 17 and sing this funeral song:
“The great city beside the sea
is destroyed!
Its people once ruled the coast
and terrified everyone there.
18 But now Tyre is in ruins,
and the people on the coast
stare at it in horror
and tremble in fear.”
19 I, the Lord God, will turn you into a ghost-town. The ocean depths will rise over you 20 and carry you down to the world of the dead, where you will join people of ancient times and towns ruined long ago. You will stay there and never again be a city filled with people. 21 You will die a horrible death! People will come looking for your city, but it will never be found. I, the Lord, have spoken.
1 And in the eleuenth yeere, in the first day of the moneth, the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 2 Sonne of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Ierusalem, Aha, the gate of the people is broken: it is turned vnto me: for seeing she is desolate, I shall be replenished, 3 Therefore thus sayth the Lord God, Beholde, I come against thee, O Tyrus, and I will bring vp many nations against thee, as the sea mounteth vp with his waues. 4 And they shall destroy the walles of Tyrus and breake downe her towres: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rocke. 5 Thou shalt be for the spreading of nettes in the middes of the sea: for I haue spoken it, sayth the Lord God, and it shalbe a spoile to ye nations. 6 And her daughters which are in the fielde, shall be slaine by the sworde, and they shall know that I am the Lord. 7 For thus sayth the Lord God, Behold, I will bring vpon Tyrus Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babel, a King of Kings from the North, with horses and with charets, and with horsemen, with a multitude and much people. 8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the fielde, and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift vp the buckler against thee. 9 He shall set engins of warre before him against thy walles, and with his weapons breake downe thy towres. 10 The dust of his horses shall couer thee, for their multitude: thy walles shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheeles, and of the charets, when he shall enter into thy gates as into the entrie of a citie that is broken downe. 11 With the hooues of his horses shall he treade downe all thy streetes: he shall slay thy people by the sworde, and the pillars of thy strength shall fall downe to the ground. 12 And they shall robbe thy riches, and spoyle thy marchandise, and they shall breake downe thy walles, and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall cast thy stones and thy timber and thy dust into the middes of the water. 13 Thus will I cause the sounde of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thine harpes shall be no more heard. 14 I wil lay thee like the top of a rocke: thou shalt be for a spreading of nets: thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord haue spoken it, sayth the Lord God. 15 Thus sayth the Lord God to Tyrus, Shall not the yles tremble at the sounde of thy fall? and at the crie of the wounded, when they shall be slaine and murthered in the middes of thee? 16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come downe from their thrones: they shall lay away their robes, and put off their broydered garments, and shall clothe themselues with astonishment: they shall sitte vpon the ground, and be astonished at euery moment, and be amased at thee. 17 And they shall take vp a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, Howe art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of the sea men, the renoumed citie which was strong in the sea, both she and her inhabitants, which cause their feare to be on all that haunt therein! 18 Nowe shall the yles be astonished in the day of thy fall: yea, the yles that are in the sea, shall be troubled at thy departure. 19 For thus saith the Lord God, When I shall make thee a desolate citie, like ye cities that are not inhabited, and when I shall bring the deepe vpon thee, and great waters shall couer thee, 20 When I shall cast thee downe with them that descende into the pitte, with the people of olde time, and shall set thee in the lowe partes of the earth, like the olde ruines, with them, I say, which goe downe to the pitte, so that thou shalt not be inhabited, and I shall shewe my glory in the land of the liuing, 21 I will bring thee to nothing, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou neuer be found againe, sayth the Lord God.