Ezekiel 28

1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

[Then] Yahweh gave me another message. [He said]:

2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyrus, Thus says the Lord GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are a man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God:

“You human, give to the king of Tyre this message from [me], Yahweh the Lord: ‘You have very proudly claimed, “I am a god! I sit on a throne of a god [in a city on an island] in the sea!” You boast that you are a god; but you are only a man, not a god.

3 Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from you:

[You think that] you are wiser than Daniel was, [and you think that] you can understand every secret.

4 With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten you riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures:

By being wise and understanding [a lot], you have become [very] rich; you have acquired much gold and silver for your treasuries.

5 By your great wisdom and by your traffic have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches:

[Yes, it is true that] by trading wisely, you have been enabled to become very rich, and because you are rich, you have become very proud.

6 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have set your heart as the heart of God;

Therefore, this is what Yahweh the Lord says: “Because you think that you are as wise as a god,

7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.

I will [now] bring a foreign [army] to attack your [country], an army that causes other nations to be terrified. They will pull out their swords to strike you, [you who think that] [IRO] you have marvelous/great wisdom, and they will destroy all your beautiful things.

8 They shall bring you down to the pit, and you shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the middle of the seas.

They will bring you down to your grave; you will die violently like [MET] those who died in the sea.

9 Will you yet say before him that slays you, I am God? but you shall be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slays you.

Then you will certainly not [RHQ] say to those who are killing you, 'I am a god!' [because they will know that] you are not a god; you are only a man.

10 You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD.

You will die like other people who are unacceptable to me die, killed by foreigners.” [That will surely happen because] I, Yahweh, have said it.’”

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Yahweh also gave me this message:

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation on the king of Tyrus, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD; You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

“You human, sing a sad/funeral song about the king of Tyre. Say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: [“You thought that] [IRO] you were completely perfect, extremely wise and handsome.

13 You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created.

You [had a wonderful life, as though] you were in my [beautiful] garden in Eden. Your [clothes] were decorated with many [HYP] kinds of very valuable stones— ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, turquoise, and beryl [stones]. Those stones were set/placed in gold [mountings]. They were prepared for you on the day that you were born.

14 You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire.

I appointed [DOU] you to be like [MET] a strong angel to guard the people. [It was as though I put] you on my holy mountain, and you walked among fiery stones.

15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you.

You were completely good in all that you did, from the day that you were created/born, until you [started to] do wicked things.

16 By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the middle of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire.

[Then] you became busy trading things, and you started to act violently, and you sinned. So I caused you to be disgraced; and the angel who was guarding you forced you to leave my holy mountain, forced you to leave your place among those fiery stones.

17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you.

You were extremely proud because you were very handsome. Because you loved beautiful things, you did things that wise people do not do. [So] I threw you to the ground, and allowed [other] kings who saw you to laugh at you.

18 You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the middle of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all them that behold you.

By committing many sins and by trading things dishonestly, you caused your places of worship to become unacceptable to me. So I caused a fire [to burn down your city]. [Your city] was burned completely; the people who were watching it saw that only ashes remained on the ground.

19 All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you: you shall be a terror, and never shall you be any more.

All the people who knew what your [city was like previously] were appalled. Now [your city] has disappeared, and it will not exist any more.”’”

20 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

[Then] Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],

21 Son of man, set your face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,

“You human, turn toward Sidon [city], and declare the terrible things that will happen to it.

22 And say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against you, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the middle of you: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

Give [the people of Sidon] this message from [me], Yahweh the Lord: ‘I am your enemy, [you people of] Sidon, and by what I do to you, I will reveal that I am very great/glorious. When I punish you and reveal that I am holy, everyone who is watching that will know that it is I, Yahweh, [who have the power to do what I say that I will do].

23 For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the middle of her by the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

I will send a plague upon you, and I will send [enemies to come and] kill [MTY] you in your streets. They will attack you from every direction, and your people will be slaughtered inside the walls of your city. Then everyone will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].'

24 And there shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

No longer will those who live near you people of Israel [hurt you] like [MET] painful briers and sharp thorns [hurt people]. And then the Israeli people will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].”

25 Thus says the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

And this is [also] what Yahweh the Lord says: “Some day the people of Israel will live in their own land [again], the land that I gave to Jacob, who [also] served me. I will gather them from [distant] countries where I have scattered them. And I will reveal to the nations that I am holy among my people.

26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments on all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

My people will live safely in Israel; they will build houses and plant vineyards. And when I punish the nearby nations that despised them, they will know that it is I, Yahweh their God, [who has done it].”