Ezekiel 28

⁹Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.

⁴He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

¹³You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.

¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

²⁰Lay terror upon them, O Lord; let the nations know they are but men. Selah

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

³But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

²⁰In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

²²He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

²⁷Daniel answered the king, “No wise man, enchanter, medium, or magician can explain to the king the mystery of which he inquires.

²⁸But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days. Your dream and the visions that came into your mind as you lay on your bed were these:

⁸Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?

¹¹There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your father he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners. Your own father, the king,

¹²did this because Daniel, the one he named Belteshazzar, was found to have an extraordinary spirit, as well as knowledge, understanding, and the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve difficult problems. Summon Daniel, therefore, and he will give you the interpretation.”

²⁹And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.

³⁰Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

¹¹A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.

⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.

⁵When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

¹⁸But remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.

¹¹I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all.

³Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’

²and also against Hamath, which borders it, as well as Tyre and Sidon, though they are very shrewd.

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

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

⁶When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”

¹⁴You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

⁷A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

⁸And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

¹⁷Still, you lord it over My people and do not allow them to go.

¹¹For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

⁴He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

¹⁰Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

¹²Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.

¹¹He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.

¹²I will make your hordes fall by the swords of the mighty, the most ruthless of all nations. They will ravage the pride of Egypt and all her multitudes will be destroyed.

⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

⁷They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.

⁷After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.

⁷For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great company of troops.

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.

³⁴Now you are shattered by the seas in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and the people among you have gone down with you.

²⁶Your oarsmen have brought you onto the high seas, but the east wind will shatter you in the heart of the sea.

²⁷Your wealth, wares, and merchandise, your sailors, captains, and shipwrights, your merchants and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.

²⁸He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will live to see the light.’

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!

¹⁸to preserve his soul from the Pit and his life from perishing by the sword.

¹Of David. To You, O Lord, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

⁷But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.”

³But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

²²And they began to shout, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!”

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²³Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

²⁴Therefore He sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

³¹While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “It is decreed to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that the kingdom has departed from you.

³²You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.”

¹⁸Who then is like you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You also will be brought down to the depths of the earth to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.’”

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

³⁶Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

²¹Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst of Sheol about Egypt and her allies: ‘They have come down and lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’

³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

²⁶David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

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

¹⁷Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.

²²placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

¹⁵From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you.

¹⁶Aram was your customer because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.

⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.

¹¹“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.

¹²I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.

³For the Lord will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

²³Therefore the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

²⁴So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

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.

¹³You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.

²⁶Use this oil to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony,

⁹Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it along with all its furnishings, and it shall be holy.

¹³You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

⁴⁰For on My holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Lord God, there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land. There I will accept them and will require your offerings and choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices.

¹⁷And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

¹⁸Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,

⁴For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

¹⁷Your heart grew proud of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor; so I cast you to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings.

¹⁸By the multitude of your iniquities and the dishonesty of your trading you have profaned your sanctuaries. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the eyes of all who saw you.

²⁶Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”

²⁷So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

⁹Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

¹²“Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord God says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

³Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you!

⁴By your wisdom and understanding you have gained your wealth and amassed gold and silver for your treasuries.

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

⁸Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.

¹⁷For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of your bloodshed against men and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.

²⁴So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

¹⁶To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”

¹⁷“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!

⁵By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it.

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Since it became great in height and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height,

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

³Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁸Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

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.”

¹⁶By the vastness of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I banished you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

²So I will send fire against Moab to consume the citadels of Kerioth. Moab will die in tumult, amid war cries and the sound of the ram’s horn.

²¹I will make you an object of horror, and you will be no more. You will be sought, but will never be found,’ declares the Lord God.”

¹⁵The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand at a distance, in fear of her torment. They will weep and mourn,

¹⁶saying: “Woe, woe to the great city, clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!

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.

¹⁶Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,

¹⁷who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?”

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

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

¹²He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.

²“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

¹⁵And Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,

²“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

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

⁸The men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. Your men of skill, O Tyre, were there as your captains.

²and also against Hamath, which borders it, as well as Tyre and Sidon, though they are very shrewd.

¹³All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day I display My glory, declares the Lord God.

⁴¹When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. And I will show My holiness through you in the sight of the nations.

⁴And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. But I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So this is what the Israelites did.

¹⁹So I will execute judgment on Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.

¹²For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.

¹³Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.

²²I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

¹¹So I will execute judgments on Moab, and they will know that I am the Lord.’

²If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

⁶and the villages on her mainland will be slain by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

¹⁷I will execute great vengeance against them with furious reproof. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon them.’”

⁵⁵But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.

¹³know for sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.

⁷or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

¹³Instead of the thornbush, the cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, the myrtle will spring up; this will make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

²⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations.

³⁷I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety.

⁴¹When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. And I will show My holiness through you in the sight of the nations.

⁸Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ Then they will dwell once more in their own land.”

²⁵They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

¹⁷Therefore declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

⁴⁷Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, that we may glory in Your praise.

²⁴For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.’

²²And you are to declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified within you. They will know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments against her and demonstrate My holiness through her.

¹³“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow.

¹⁴I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

²⁶I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing.

¹⁵For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

⁸After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and all now dwell securely.