Ezekiel 26

¹In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat down before me.

²And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.

²On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me.

¹This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea.

²This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

⁴Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads.

²²all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;

⁹This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom and broke a covenant of brotherhood.

¹⁰So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre to consume its citadels.”

¹How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered in turbulent waves.

³⁰In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

¹¹But now many nations have assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”

³²As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament for you: ‘Who was ever like Tyre, silenced in the middle of the sea?

³³When your wares went out to sea, you satisfied many nations. You enriched the kings of the earth with your abundant wealth and merchandise.

³and declare that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

³and tell her that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

¹⁰So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre to consume its citadels.”

¹¹The Lord has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

⁹He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his axes.

³Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.

⁴¹And he shall have the inside of the house scraped completely and the plaster that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the city.

⁴²So different stones must be obtained to replace the contaminated ones, as well as additional mortar to replaster the house.

⁷For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

⁸In order to stir up wrath and take vengeance, I have placed her blood on the bare rock, so that it would not be covered.’

¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will carry off its wealth, seize its spoil, and remove its plunder. This will be the wages for his army.

³²As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament for you: ‘Who was ever like Tyre, silenced in the middle of the sea?

¹⁹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘When I make you a desolate city like other deserted cities, and when I raise up the deep against you so that the mighty waters cover you,

⁷therefore I will indeed stretch out My hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’

¹⁰Fishermen will stand by the shore; from En-gedi to En-eglaim they will spread their nets to catch fish of many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.

¹⁴I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the Lord God.’

⁴⁶Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south.

⁸He will slaughter the villages of your mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp to your walls, and raise his shields against you.

⁵I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

²Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the Lord.

⁷therefore I will indeed stretch out My hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’

⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.

³⁷You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory.

¹²Artaxerxes, king of kings. To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven: Greetings.

³The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.

⁴The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

²⁴They will come against you with a host of peoples, with weapons, chariots, and wagons. They will array themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, and they will punish you according to their own standards.

³²And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

²²In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall.

⁶For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.

²⁴See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

¹⁵And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it,

¹⁵And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was helped tremendously until he became powerful.

²⁸The countryside will shake when your sailors cry out.

³at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp.

¹⁵This is what the Lord God says to Tyre: ‘Will not the coastlands quake at the sound of your downfall, when the wounded groan at the slaughter in your midst?

⁵And when there is a long blast of the ram’s horn and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the wall of the city will collapse and all your people will charge straight into the city.”

¹³Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

³The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.

⁴The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

²⁸Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

⁵For He has humbled those who dwell on high; He lays the lofty city low. He brings it down to the ground; He casts it into the dust.

⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.

¹³He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”

²⁷“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

³Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.

⁴Behold, the Lord will impoverish her and cast her wealth into the sea, and she will be consumed by fire.

²⁷Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of valuable articles.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines,

⁸He will take even their gods captive to Egypt, with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold. For some years he will stay away from the king of the North,

¹⁶“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”

³⁴I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”

¹¹Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.

⁸The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.

⁹They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.

⁹For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.

¹⁰Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

¹⁴What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.

⁴Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever.

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²⁷The Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

¹⁶And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

⁴They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and make her a bare rock.

⁵She will become a place to spread nets in the sea, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. She will become plunder for the nations,

³⁵All the people of the coastlands are appalled over you. Their kings shudder with fear; their faces are contorted.

²¹At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; their cry will resound to the Red Sea.

¹⁸Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your downfall; the islands in the sea are dismayed by your demise.”’

¹⁶I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below.

²⁶At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”

²⁷The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.

¹⁹Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.

¹⁰I will cause many peoples to be appalled over you, and their kings will shudder in horror because of you when I brandish My sword before them. On the day of your downfall each of them will tremble every moment for his life.’

¹⁰They will walk after the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

²⁶May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹²How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.

¹“As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel

²⁵How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

²⁶I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were delightful to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

¹⁴Fire has gone out from its main branch and devoured its fruit; on it no strong branch remains fit for a ruler’s scepter.’ This is a lament and shall be used as a lament.”

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

¹⁵This is what the Lord God says to Tyre: ‘Will not the coastlands quake at the sound of your downfall, when the wounded groan at the slaughter in your midst?

⁵The islands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward.

²⁸The countryside will shake when your sailors cry out.

²⁹All who handle the oars will abandon their ships. The sailors and all the captains of the sea will stand on the shore.

³⁵All the people of the coastlands are appalled over you. Their kings shudder with fear; their faces are contorted.

¹⁰Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

¹¹The Lord has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

³therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, O Tyre, I am against you, and I will raise up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

⁷the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

¹⁵Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

⁴⁰At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, invading many countries and sweeping through them like a flood.

²⁶Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.

¹³Still I am certain to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁵And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades!

¹⁸“Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:

¹⁹Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed with the uncircumcised!

⁸For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye—

²⁵This is what the Lord God says: ‘When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered, I will show Myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will dwell in their own land, which I have given to My servant Jacob.

²⁶And there they will dwell securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’”

²saying: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.

³⁶Those who trade among the nations hiss at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.’”

²¹Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.

¹⁹All the nations who know you are appalled over you. You have come to a horrible end and will be no more.’”

³⁶yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.

¹⁴I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the Lord God.’

¹⁵This is what the Lord God says to Tyre: ‘Will not the coastlands quake at the sound of your downfall, when the wounded groan at the slaughter in your midst?

⁶⁴Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’” Here end the words of Jeremiah.