Ezekiel 26

1 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,

And it happened that, in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 “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!’

“Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem: ‘It is Well! The gates of the peoples have been broken! She has been turned toward me. I will be filled. She will be deserted!’

3 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.

because of this, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will cause many nations to rise up against you, just as the waves of the sea rise up.

4 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.

And they will break apart the walls of Tyre, and they will destroy its towers. And I will scrape her dust from her, and I will make her into the barest rock.

5 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.

She will be a drying place for nets from the midst of the sea. For I have spoken, says the Lord God. And she will be a spoil for the Gentiles.

6 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].’

Likewise, her daughters who are in the field will be slain by the sword. And they shall know that I am the Lord.

7 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.

For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lead into Tyre: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, a king among kings, from the north, with horses, and chariots, and horsemen, and companies, and a great people.

8 [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].

Your daughters who are in the field, he will kill with the sword. And he will surround you with fortifications, and he will put together a rampart on all sides. And he will lift up a shield against you.

9 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.

And he will combine moveable shelters and battering rams before your walls, and he will destroy your towers with his armaments.

10 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.

He will cover you with the inundation of his horses and with their dust. Your walls will shake at the sound of horsemen and wheels and chariots, when they will have entered your gates, as if through the entrance of a city that has been broken open.

11 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).

With the hoofs of his horses, he will trample all your streets. He will cut down your people with the sword, and your noble statues will fall to the ground.

12 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.

They will lay waste to your wealth. They will despoil your businesses. And they will tear down your walls and overturn your eminent houses. And they will put your stones and your timber and your dust into the midst of the waters.

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

And I will cause the multitude of your songs to cease. And the sound of your stringed instruments will no longer be heard.

14 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].’

And I will make you like the barest rock; you will be a drying place for nets. And you will no longer be built up. For I have spoken, says the Lord God.”

15 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.

Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: “Will not the islands shake at the sound of your ruin and at the groans of your slain, when they will have been cut down in your midst?

16 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.

And all the leaders of the sea will descend from their thrones. And they will cast aside their outer garments and their colorful clothing, and they will be clothed in stupor. They will sit on the ground, and they will wonder with astonishment at your sudden downfall.

17 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.

And taking up a lamentation over you, they will say to you: ‘How could you have perished, you who live in the sea, the famous city that was strong in the sea, with your inhabitants, of whom the whole world was in dread?’

18 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.”’

Now the ships will be stupefied, in the day of your terror. And the islands of the sea will be disturbed, because no one goes out from you.

19 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,

For thus says the Lord God: When I will have made you a desolate city, like the cities that are uninhabited, and when I will have led the abyss over you, and many waters will have covered you,

20 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.

and when I will have dragged you down with those who descend into the pit to the everlasting people, and when I will have assembled you in the lowest parts of the earth, like the desolate places of antiquity, with those who have been brought down into the pit, so that you will be uninhabited, and moreover, when I will have given glory to the land of the living:

21 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].’”

I will reduce you to nothing, and you shall not be, and if you are sought, you will no longer be found, in perpetuity, says the Lord God.”