Ezekiel 26

1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Almost twelve [after we had been taken to Babylonia], on the first day of the month, Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me,

2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples. She has turned around to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,

“You human, [the people of] Tyre [city] shouted joyfully and said about Jerusalem, ‘[Jerusalem, ] the city from which many traders/merchants went to many nations, is now destroyed. And now people from all over the world will come to us to buy and sell things. Because Jerusalem has now been ruined, we will prosper!’

3 therefore thus says the lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes its waves to come up.

Therefore, this is what [I, ] Yahweh the Lord, say: ‘I am now the enemy of [you people of] Tyre. I will [the armies of] many nations to come and attack your [city], like the waves of the sea beat against the shores.

4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

Their soldiers will destroy the walls around Tyre and tear down its towers. Tyre will become a place where people from many nations steal valuable things, [and then the city will be completely destroyed]. Then they will scrape away the rubble and cause the city to become a bare rock.

5 She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, says the lord Jehovah. And she shall become a spoil to the nations,

Out in the sea, Tyre will become an island where men spread [their fishing] nets to dry them. [That will surely happen because] I, Yahweh the Lord, have predicted it.

6 and her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the sword. And they shall know that I am Jehovah.

The people in small villages on the coast near Tyre will be killed [their enemies’] swords. Then people will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].’

7 For thus says the lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and many people.

This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, [is going to happen]: ‘From the north, I am going to bring the most powerful king [in the world], King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, [with his army] to attack Tyre. They will bring horses and chariots, and men who ride the horses [and men who drive the chariots]; it will be a huge army.

8 He shall kill thy daughters in the field with the sword. And he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and raise up the buckler against thee.

[In the battles in the small villages] on the coast, their soldiers will kill [many] people with their swords. [Then] they will set up devices to batter the wall around the city of Tyre, and they will build a dirt ramp up to the top of the wall, and they will all hold up shields [to protect themselves from arrows being shot from the ground].

9 And he shall set his battering engines against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.

The king will direct the soldiers who operate the (rams/things) to batter the walls, and who will use their iron bars to tear down the towers in the wall.

10 Because of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee. Thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city in which a breach is made.

The king will have a huge number of horses, [the stamping of their hooves will result in] the city being covered with dust. [It will be as though] the walls will tremble because of the noise made by the horses, the [supply] wagons, and the chariots when they enter the city where the walls have been broken down.

11 With the hoofs of his horses he shall tread down all thy streets. He shall kill thy people with the sword, and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.

The horses will trample all of the [of the city] with their hooves. The soldiers will kill the people with their swords; and they will cause your strong pillars to (collapse/fall to the ground).

12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise. And they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.

They will take away all the people’s valuable possessions and steal the things that the merchants sell. They will tear down the walls of the houses and destroy their fine houses. Then they will throw into the sea the stones [from the walls] of those houses and the timber and the rubble.

13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thy harps shall no more be heard.

No longer will you sing noisy songs, and people will not play their harps any more.

14 And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shall be a place for the spreading of nets. Thou shall be built no more, for I Jehovah have spoken it, says the lord Jehovah.

The enemy soldiers will cause the city to become a bare rock and [only] a place where men spread [their fishing] nets. And the city will never be rebuilt. [Those things will surely happen] because [I], Yahweh the Lord, have [that they will happen].’

15 Thus says the lord Jehovah to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

This is [also] what [I], Yahweh the Lord, say about [the people of] Tyre: ‘When the wounded [people in Tyre] groan and many people are slaughtered and the city is destroyed, [it will surely be as though] [RHQ] the areas along the coast will tremble.

16 Then all the rulers of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lie aside their robes, and strip off their broidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling. They shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at thee.

Then all the kings [in the cities] along the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and their embroidered clothes. They will be terrified, and they will sit on the ground, trembling. They will be appalled because of what has happened to the city of Tyre.

17 And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How thou are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who dwelt there!

Then they will sing a sad song about the city, and they will sing this: “The famous city [APO], in which many [who sailed on] the seas lived, is now destroyed! The people of that city had great power [because they had many ships that sailed] on the seas; they caused all the people who lived near them to be terrified.

18 Now the isles shall tremble in the day of thy fall. Yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be dismayed at thy departure.

Now on the day when that city is destroyed, [it is as though the people in] the areas along the coast tremble and the [the people on the] islands in the sea are terrified because of that city being ruined.”’

19 For thus says the lord Jehovah: When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters shall cover thee,

This is also what [I], Yahweh the Lord, say: ‘When I cause the city [of Tyre] to become desolate/empty, like [other] cities in which people no [longer] live, and when I cause the huge waves of the sea to cover it,

20 then I will bring thee down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make thee to dwell in the nether parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that thou not be inhabited. And I will set glory in the land of the living.

then I will bring the people of that city down to be with those who have gone down to where the dead people are, people who lived long ago. I will cause them to remain in the place below the earth that is like old/ancient ruins, with those who have gone down to that pit [previously], and they will never return to the earth, to where people are alive.

21 I will make thee a horror, and thou shall no more have any being. Though thou be sought for, yet thou shall never be found again, says the lord Jehovah.

I will cause them to die in a horrible way (OR, people will be very afraid because of what happens to that city), and that will be the end of (them/their lives). People will search for that city but it will no longer exist. [That is what I, ] Yahweh the Lord, declare [will happen].’”