23 The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Tyre: Wail, you ships of [Tyre returning from trading with] Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor; from the land of Kittim (Cyprus) they learn of it.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, ^[a]your messengers passing over the sea have replenished you [with wealth and industry],

³ And were on great waters. The seed or grain of the Shihor, the harvest [due to the overflow] of the Nile River, was [Tyre’s] revenue, and she became the merchandise of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon [mother-city of Tyre, now a widow bereaved of her children], for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have neither travailed nor brought forth children; I have neither nourished and reared young men nor brought up virgins.

⁵ When the report comes to Egypt, they will be sorely pained over the report about Tyre.

⁶ Pass over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles]! Wail, you inhabitants of the [Tyre] coast!

⁷ Is this your jubilant city, whose origin dates back into antiquity, whose own feet are accustomed to carry her far off to settle [daughter cities]?

⁸ Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

⁹ The Lord of hosts has purposed it [in accordance with a fixed principle of His government], to defile the pride of all glory and to bring into dishonor and contempt all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile River, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no girdle of restraint [on you] any more [to make you pay tribute or customs or duties to Tyre].

¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; the Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and fortresses [Tyre, Sidon, etc.].

¹² And He said, You shall no more exult, you oppressed and crushed one, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim (Cyprus); but even there you will have no rest.

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans! That people and not the Assyrians designed and assigned [Tyre] for the wild beasts and those who [previously] dwelt in the wilderness. They set up their siege works, they overthrew its palaces, they made it a ruin!

¹⁴ Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold [of Tyre] is laid waste [your strength has been destroyed].

¹⁵ And in that day Tyre will be in obscurity and forgotten for seventy years, according to the days of one dynasty. After the end of seventy years will Tyre sing as a harlot [who has been forgotten but again attracts her lovers].

¹⁶ Take a harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot; play skillfully and make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷ And after the end of seventy years the Lord will remember Tyre; and she will return to her hire and will play the harlot [resume her commerce] with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸ But her gain and her hire [the profits of Tyre’s new prosperity] will be ^[b]dedicated to the Lord [eventually]; it will not be treasured or stored up, for her gain will be used for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord [the ministers], that they may eat sufficiently and have durable and stately clothing [suitable for those who minister at God’s altar].

26 And in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month [after the carrying away of King Jehoiachin], the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha! She is broken that has been the gate of the people; she is open to me [Tyre]; I shall become full now that she is desolate and a wasteland,

³ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you as the sea mounts up by its waves.

⁴ And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also ^[a]scrape her dust from her and make her bare like the top of a rock.

⁵ Her island in the midst of the sea shall become a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God; and she shall become a prey and a spoil to the nations.

⁶ And Tyre’s daughters [her towns and villages on the mainland] in the level place shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

⁷ For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring from the north upon Tyre ^[b]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, with horses and chariots and with horsemen and a host of many people.

⁸ He shall slay with the sword your daughters [the towns and villages] in the level area [on the mainland], and he shall make a fortified wall against you and cast up a siege mound against you and raise up a roof of bucklers and shields as a defense against you.

⁹ And he shall set his battering engines in shock against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.

¹⁰ Because of the great number of [Nebuchadrezzar’s] horses, their dust will cover you; your walls [O Tyre] will shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wagon wheels and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates as men enter into the city in whose walls there has been made a breach.

¹¹ With the hoofs of his horses [Nebuchadrezzar] will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your strong pillars or obelisks will fall to the ground.

¹² And [your adversaries] shall make a spoil of your riches and make booty of your merchandise. And they shall break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and they shall lay the stones and the timber and the very dust from your demolished city out in the midst of the water [between the island and the mainland city site to make a causeway].

¹³ And I will cause the noise of your songs to cease, and the sound of your lyres shall be no more heard.

¹⁴ And I will make you [Tyre] a ^[c]bare rock; you shall be a place upon which to spread nets; you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken it, says the Lord God.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles and coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you?

¹⁶ Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and strip off their embroidered garments; they shall clothe themselves with tremblings; they shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble every moment and be astonished at you and appalled.

¹⁷ They shall take up a lamentation over you and say to you, How you are destroyed and vanished, O renowned city that was won from the seas and inhabited by seafaring men, renowned city that was mighty on the sea, she and her inhabitants who caused their terror to fall upon all who dwell there!

¹⁸ Now the isles and coastlands tremble in the day of your fall; yes, the isles that are in the sea are troubled and dismayed at your departure.

⁶ Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza [a city in Philistia] and for four [for multiplied delinquencies], I will not reverse the punishment of it or revoke My word concerning it, because [as slave traders] they carried away captive the whole [Jewish] population [of defenseless Judean border villages, of which none was spared, none left behind] and delivered them up to Edom [for the slave trade].^(A)

⁷ So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza which shall devour its strongholds.

⁸ And I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will turn My hand against Ekron; and the rest of the Philistines [in Gath and the towns dependent on these four Philistine cities] shall perish, says the Lord God.^(B)

⁹ Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre and for four [for multiplied delinquencies], I will not reverse the punishment of it or revoke My word concerning it, because they [as middlemen] delivered up a whole [Jewish] population to Edom and did not [seriously] remember their brotherly covenant.^(C)

¹⁰ So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre which shall devour its strongholds.

⁴ For [hear the fate of the Philistines:] Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; the people of Ashdod shall be driven out at noonday and Ekron shall be uprooted.

⁵ Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites [in Philistia]! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.

⁶ And the seacoast shall be pastures, with [deserted] dwelling places and caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.

⁷ The ^[a]seacoast shall belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall pasture their flocks upon it; in the houses of [deserted Philistine] Ashkelon shall they of Judah lie down in the evening. For the Lord their [Judah’s] God shall visit them [for their relief] and restore them from their captivity.^(A)

² And Hamath also, which borders on [Damascus], Tyre with Sidon, though they are very wise.

³ And Tyre has built herself a stronghold [on an island a half mile from the shore, which seems impregnable], and heaped up silver like dust and fine gold like the mire of the streets.

⁴ Behold, the Lord will ^[a]cast her out and dispossess her; He will smite her power in the sea and into it and [Tyre] shall be devoured by fire.

⁵ [The strong cities of Philistia] shall see it and fear; ^[b]Ashkelon, Gaza also, and be sorely pained, and Ekron, for her confidence and expectation shall be put to shame, and a king [monarchial government] shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

⁶ And a mongrel people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will put an end to the pride of the Philistines.

⁷ And I will take out of [the Philistines’] mouths and from between their teeth the abominable idolatrous sacrifices eaten with the blood. And they too shall remain and be a remnant for our God, and they shall be like chieftains (the head over a thousand) in Judah, and Ekron shall be like one of the Jebusites [who at last were merged and had lost their identity in Israel].