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Ezekiel

Lamentation for Tyre, the Merchant City

27
Chapter 27
1 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 2 And you, son of man, raise a lament over Tyre. 3 And you said to Tyre, "O you who sit at the entrances to the sea, trader of the peoples to many islands." Thus says the Lord GOD: "Tyre, you said, 'I am perfect in beauty.'" 4 In the heart of the seas, your borders—your builders perfected your beauty. 5 They built cypresses from Senir for you—all the benches; they took cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. 6 They made your oars of oaks from Bashan. They made your planks of ivory, daughter of Assyrians, from the islands of Kittim. 7 Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail, to serve as your banner; blue and purple from the islands of Elishah was your covering. 8 Inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were rowing for you. Your skilled artisans, Tyre, were in you—they were your birth pangs. 9 Elders of Gebal and its wise men were in you, strengtheners of your caulking. All ships of the sea and their sailors were in you to trade your wares. 10 Persia, Lud, and Put were in your might, men of your warfare. They hung shield and helmet in you; they gave splendor. 11 The sons of Arvad and their power were on your walls all around, and the Gammadites were in your towers; their rulers hung on your walls all around; they completed your beauty. 12 Tarshish was your trading partner with the abundance of all kinds of wealth: silver, iron, tin, and lead. They gave your wares. 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech—they were your traders in the life-force of humanity and bronze vessels; they gave them from your west. 14 From the house of Togarmah they gave your trading partners horses and riders and mules. 15 The sons of Dedan were your merchants. Many coastal regions of islands traded with you: horns of ivory. And they brought your reward. 16 Aram was your trading partner with the abundance of your works for your nephesh: purple and embroidery and fine linen and coral and kadkad they gave for your wares. 17 Judah and the land of Israel—they were your merchants in wheat. You counted them, and wax and honey and oil and balsam they gave from your trade. 18 Damascus was your merchant in the abundance of your works, from the abundance of all wealth, in wine of Helbon and fine wool. 19 Dan and Javan from Uzal gave iron in your wares to make cassia and cane; it was in your wares. 20 Dedan traded with you in garments of legal covering for its chariots. 21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were traders of your hand with lambs and rams and designated ones; in them your tradings. 22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were your merchants. They gave your wares: the best kinds of all balsam oil and all precious stone and gold. 23 Haran and Canneh and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria, all Medes—your merchants. 24 They were your traders in perfections, in wrapped blue cloth and embroidery, and in treasures of fine linens, in cords of Ethiopians and cedars, in your trade. 25 Ships of Tarshish served you from your west, and you were filled and heavily laden in the heart of the seas. 26 Your rowers brought you into many waters; the east wind broke you in the heart of the seas. 27 Your wealth and your wares, your sailors and your ropes, those strengthening your deck, your traders, and all the men of your warfare who are in you and all your assembly who are in your midst, will fall in the heart of the seas on the day of your fall. 28 At the voice of the outcry of your portions, they will quake from the open places. 29 And they went down from their ships, all the handlers of the oar, sailors, all the ropes of the sea. To the land they stand. 30 They will make their voice heard over you and cry out bitterly and lift dust on their heads; they will wallow in ashes. 31 And they will shave their heads bald for you and gird themselves with sackcloth and weep for you in bitterness of soul, with bitter lamentation. 32 And in their wailing they will take up a lamentation over you, and they will lament over you: “Who was like Tyre, like its likeness, in the midst of the sea?” 33 When your wares went out from the seas, you satisfied many peoples; with the abundance of your wealth and your trading, you enriched the kings of the earth. 34 Now you are broken in the seas, in the depths of the waters; your cargo and all your crew in your midst have fallen. 35 All the inhabitants of the islands are desolated over you, and their kings shudder, their hair standing on end; they thunder with their faces. 36 The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you have become a terror, and you will be no more.