Prophecy against Tyre
1 On the first day of the … month of the eleventh year of our exile, the Lord spoke to me. 2 “Mortal man,” he said, “this is what the people in the city of Tyre are cheering about. They shout, ‘Jerusalem is shattered! Her commercial power is gone! She won't be our rival any more!’
3 “Now then, this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: I am your enemy, city of Tyre. I will bring many nations to attack you, and they will come like the waves of the sea. 4 They will destroy your city walls and tear down your towers. Then I will sweep away all the dust and leave only a bare rock. 5 Fishermen will dry their nets on it, there where it stands in the sea. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. The nations will plunder Tyre, 6 and with their swords they will kill those who live in her towns on the mainland. Then Tyre will know that I am the Lord.”
7 The Sovereign Lord says, “I am going to bring the greatest king of all—King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia—to attack Tyre. He will come from the north with a huge army, with horses and chariots and with cavalry. 8 Those who live in the towns on the mainland will be killed in the fighting. The enemy will dig trenches, build earthworks, and make a solid wall of shields against you. 9 They will pound in your walls with battering rams and tear down your towers with iron bars. 10 The clouds of dust raised by their horses will cover you. The noise of their horses pulling wagons and chariots will shake your walls as they pass through the gates of the ruined city. 11 Their cavalry will storm through your streets, killing your people with their swords. Your mighty pillars will be thrown to the ground. 12 Your enemies will help themselves to your wealth and merchandise. They will pull down your walls and shatter your luxurious houses. They will take the stones and wood and all the rubble, and dump them into the sea. 13 I will put an end to all your songs, and I will silence the music of your harps. 14 I will leave only a bare rock where fishermen can dry their nets. The city will never be rebuilt. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”
15 The Sovereign Lord has this to say to the city of Tyre: “When you are being conquered, the people who live along the coast will be terrified at the screams of those who are slaughtered. 16 All the kings of the seafaring nations will come down from their thrones. They will take off their robes and their embroidered clothes and sit trembling on the ground. They will be so terrified at your fate that they will not be able to stop trembling. 17 They will sing this funeral song for you:
The famous city is destroyed!
Her ships have been swept from the seas.
The people of this city ruled the seas
And terrified all who lived on the coast.
18 Now, on the day it has fallen,
The islands are trembling,
And their people are shocked at such destruction.”
19 The Sovereign Lord says: “I will make you as desolate as ruined cities where no one lives. I will cover you with the water of the ocean depths. 20 I will send you down to the world of the dead to join the people who lived in ancient times. I will make you stay in that underground world among eternal ruins, keeping company with the dead. As a result you will never again be inhabited and take your place in the land of the living. 21 I will make you a terrifying example, and that will be the end of you. People may look for you, but you will never be found.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.
1 And in the eleuenth yeere, in the first day of the moneth, the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 2 Sonne of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Ierusalem, Aha, the gate of the people is broken: it is turned vnto me: for seeing she is desolate, I shall be replenished, 3 Therefore thus sayth the Lord God, Beholde, I come against thee, O Tyrus, and I will bring vp many nations against thee, as the sea mounteth vp with his waues. 4 And they shall destroy the walles of Tyrus and breake downe her towres: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rocke. 5 Thou shalt be for the spreading of nettes in the middes of the sea: for I haue spoken it, sayth the Lord God, and it shalbe a spoile to ye nations. 6 And her daughters which are in the fielde, shall be slaine by the sworde, and they shall know that I am the Lord. 7 For thus sayth the Lord God, Behold, I will bring vpon Tyrus Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babel, a King of Kings from the North, with horses and with charets, and with horsemen, with a multitude and much people. 8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the fielde, and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift vp the buckler against thee. 9 He shall set engins of warre before him against thy walles, and with his weapons breake downe thy towres. 10 The dust of his horses shall couer thee, for their multitude: thy walles shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheeles, and of the charets, when he shall enter into thy gates as into the entrie of a citie that is broken downe. 11 With the hooues of his horses shall he treade downe all thy streetes: he shall slay thy people by the sworde, and the pillars of thy strength shall fall downe to the ground. 12 And they shall robbe thy riches, and spoyle thy marchandise, and they shall breake downe thy walles, and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall cast thy stones and thy timber and thy dust into the middes of the water. 13 Thus will I cause the sounde of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thine harpes shall be no more heard. 14 I wil lay thee like the top of a rocke: thou shalt be for a spreading of nets: thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord haue spoken it, sayth the Lord God. 15 Thus sayth the Lord God to Tyrus, Shall not the yles tremble at the sounde of thy fall? and at the crie of the wounded, when they shall be slaine and murthered in the middes of thee? 16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come downe from their thrones: they shall lay away their robes, and put off their broydered garments, and shall clothe themselues with astonishment: they shall sitte vpon the ground, and be astonished at euery moment, and be amased at thee. 17 And they shall take vp a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, Howe art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of the sea men, the renoumed citie which was strong in the sea, both she and her inhabitants, which cause their feare to be on all that haunt therein! 18 Nowe shall the yles be astonished in the day of thy fall: yea, the yles that are in the sea, shall be troubled at thy departure. 19 For thus saith the Lord God, When I shall make thee a desolate citie, like ye cities that are not inhabited, and when I shall bring the deepe vpon thee, and great waters shall couer thee, 20 When I shall cast thee downe with them that descende into the pitte, with the people of olde time, and shall set thee in the lowe partes of the earth, like the olde ruines, with them, I say, which goe downe to the pitte, so that thou shalt not be inhabited, and I shall shewe my glory in the land of the liuing, 21 I will bring thee to nothing, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou neuer be found againe, sayth the Lord God.