Ezekiel 26

1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto 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 hath said concerning Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be made full, now she is laid in ruins:

“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 hath said the Lord Eternal, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will bring up against thee many nations, as the sea causeth 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 pull down her towers: I will also flood away her earth from her, and I will change her into a naked 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 A place for the spreading out of nets shall she be in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Eternal: 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 that are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

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 hath said the Lord Eternal, Behold, I will bring against Tyre Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, from the north, the king of kings, with horses, and with chariot's, and with horsemen, and an assemblage, and a numerous 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 Thy daughters in the field will he slay with the sword: and he shall place around thee works of attack, and cast up against thee a mound, and erect against thee a target-fence.

[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 his catapults shall he set against thy walls, and thy towers shall he break down with his axes.

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 By reason of the abundance of his horses shall the dust they raise cover thee: by reason of the noise of horsemen, and wheels, and chariots, shall thy walls quake, when he entereth into thy gates, as men enter into a city that is broken in.

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 shall he tread down all thy streets: thy people will he slay with the sword, and the statues of thy strength shall come 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 plunder thy riches, and make a spoil of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and thy pleasure-houses shall they pull down: and thy stones and thy timber and thy earth shall they throw into the midst of the water.

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 sound of thy songs to cease: and the tones of thy harps shall not be heard any more.

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

14 And I will change thee into a naked rock; a place to spread out nets upon shalt thou be; thou shalt not be rebuilt any more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord Eternal.

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 hath said the Lord Eternal to Tyre, Truly at the noise of thy fall, when the deadly wounded whine, when the slaughter taketh place in the midst of thee, shall the islands quake.

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 shall all the princes of the sea come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and their broidered garments shall they put off: with trembling shall they clothe themselves; upon the ground shall they sit, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished concerning 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 lift up over thee a lamentation, and say to thee, How art thou lost, that wast inhabited [safely] by reason of the seas: O renowned city, which was strong on the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all that dwelt around her!

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 shall the isles tremble on the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy end.

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 hath said the Lord Eternal, When I render thee a ruined city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up over thee the deep, and when the great waters 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 will I bring thee down with those that descend into the pit, unto the people of olden time, and I will cause thee to dwell in the land of the nether world, among ruins of ancient days, with those that go down to the pit, in order that thou mayest not be inhabited; but I will bestow glory in the land of life.

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 As though thou hadst not been will I render thee, and thou shalt be no more: and thou shalt be sought for, but thou shalt never be found any more to eternity, saith the Lord Eternal.

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].’”