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Friday · Week 13
The Later Prophets

Ezekiel 26-27

Week 13 · about 11 min
  1. Sat: Psalms 9-16
  2. Sun: Exodus 10-13
  3. Mon: Mark 4-5

Ezekiel announces the fall of Tyre, the rich island trading city north of Israel.

Tyre, the Proud Ship That Sank

And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 26:14 (KJV)

When Jerusalem fell, Tyre cheered: “Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people.” Tyre saw a business opportunity. Ezekiel says nations will come against Tyre like waves, and its stones and timbers will be thrown into the sea until it’s a bare rock where fishermen dry their nets. Babylon besieged it for years. Centuries later, Alexander the Great built a causeway out to the island using rubble from the old city. Chapter 27 pictures Tyre as a magnificent ship with a cedar mast, linen sails from Egypt, and crews from all over the world. Then it sinks in the middle of the sea.

Reflect: Have you ever been secretly glad when a rival stumbled?

Ezekiel 26

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

2Son of man, because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gate of the peoples; she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:

3therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.

4And 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.

5She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and she shall become a spoil to the nations.

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

7For thus saith the Lord GOD: 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 much people.

8He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mount against thee, and raise up the buckler against thee.

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

10By reason 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 wherein is made a breach.

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

12And 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.

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

14And I will make thee a bare rock: thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

15Thus saith the Lord GOD 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?

16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay 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.

17And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which caused their terror to be on all that haunt it!

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

19For thus saith the Lord GOD: 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;

20then will I bring thee down with them that 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 them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:

21I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 27

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

2And thou, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre;

3and say unto Tyre, O thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant of the peoples unto many isles, thus saith the Lord GOD: Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in beauty.

4Thy borders are in the heart of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

5They have made all thy planks of fir trees from Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make a mast for thee.

6Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim.

7Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, that it might be to thee for an ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thine awning.

8The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were in thee, they were thy pilots.

9The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.

10Persia and Lud and Put were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.

11The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have perfected thy beauty.

12Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.

13Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for thy merchandise.

14They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and mules.

15The men of Dedan were thy traffickers: many isles were the mart of thine hand: they brought thee in exchange horns of ivory and ebony.

16Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy handyworks: they traded for thy wares with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies.

17Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy traffickers: they traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm:

18Damascus was thy merchant for the multitude of thy handyworks, by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

19Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among thy merchandise.

20Dedan was thy trafficker in precious cloths for riding.

21Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants.

22The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers: they traded for thy wares with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.

23Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad were they traffickers.

24These were thy traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

25The ships of Tarshish were thy caravans for thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.

26Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the seas.

27Thy riches, and thy wares, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, with all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

28At the sound of the cry of thy pilots the suburbs shall shake.

29And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land,

30and shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

31and they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.

32And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?

33When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.

34In the time that thou wast broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thy company did fall in the midst of thee.

35All the inhabitants of the isles are astonished at thee, and their kings are horribly afraid, they are troubled in their countenance.

36The merchants among the peoples hiss at thee; thou art become a terror, and thou shalt never be any more.

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.