Ezekiel 26

1 And it comes to pass, in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, there has been a word of YHWH to me, saying, “Son of man,

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 Because that Tyre has said of Jerusalem: Aha, she has been broken, The doors of the peoples, She has turned around to me, I am filled—she has been 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 said Lord YHWH: Behold, I [am] against you, O Tyre, And have caused many nations to come up against you, As the sea causes its billows 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 have destroyed the walls of Tyre, And they have broken down her towers, And I have scraped her dust from her, And made her for a clear place of a 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 is a spreading place of nets in the midst of the sea, For I have spoken,” A declaration of Lord YHWH, “And she has been for a spoil to 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, are slain by sword, And they have known that I [am] YHWH,”

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 said Lord YHWH: “Behold, I am bringing Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Tyre, From the north—a king of kings, With horse, and with chariot, and with horsemen, Even an assembly, 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 He slays your daughters in the field by sword, And he has made a fort against you, And has poured out a mound against you, And has raised a buckler against you.

[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 places a battering-ram before him against your walls, And he breaks your towers with his weapons.

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 From the abundance of his horses their dust cover you, From the noise of horseman, and wheel, and rider, Your walls shake, in his coming into your gates, As the coming into a city that has been broken-up.

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 He treads all your out-places with [the] hooves of his horses, He slays your people by sword, And the pillars of your strength come down to the earth.

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 have spoiled your wealth, And they have plundered your merchandise, And they have thrown down your walls, And they break down your desirable houses, And your stones, and your wood, and your dust, They place 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 have caused the noise of your songs to cease, And the voice of your harps is heard no more.

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

14 And I have given you up for a clear place of a rock, You are a spreading-place of nets, You are not built up anymore, For I, YHWH, have spoken,” A declaration of Lord YHWH.

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 said Lord YHWH to Tyre: “Do not—from the noise of your fall, In the groaning of the wounded, In the slaying of the slaughter in your midst—The islands shake?

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 And all princes of the sea have come down from off their thrones, And they have turned their robes aside, And strip off their embroidered garments, They put on trembling, They sit on the earth, And they have trembled every moment, And they have been astonished at you,

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 have lifted up a lamentation for you, And said to you: How you have perished, That are inhabited from the seas, The praised city, that was strong in the sea, She and her inhabitants, Who put their terror on all her inhabitants!

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 islands tremble [on the] day of your fall; The islands that [are] in the sea have been troubled at your outgoing.”

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 said Lord YHWH: “In My making you a city dried up, Like cities that have not been inhabited, In bringing up the deep against you, Then the great waters have covered you.

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 And I have caused you to go down, With those going down to the pit, To the people of old, And I have caused you to dwell In the lower parts of the earth—in ancient ruins, With those going down to the pit, So that you are not inhabited, And I have given beauty 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 make you a terror, and you are not, And you are sought, and are not found anymore—for all time,” A declaration of Lord YHWH!

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].’”