Ezekiel 26

₁The Lord talked to me. It was in the 11th year after we had become prisoners in Babylon, on the first day of the month. The Lord said to me: ₂‘Son of man, the people of the city of Tyre said bad things about Jerusalem. They said: “We are happy because the gate of Jerusalem is broken. Now our merchants can go to all the nations and we will become rich, because Jerusalem is only a heap of stones now.” ’

₃The Lord God says: ‘Tyre, I have now become your enemy. I will call a lot of nations to come and trample and destroy you. They will come like the waves of the sea and they will flow over you. ₄They will destroy the walls of the city of Tyre and break down its towers. I will take away all the fertile ground so that the land will be like a rock where nothing can grow. ₅Tyre will become a place where people will dry out their fishing nets. I have spoken and that is what will happen. The other nations will take everything in Tyre.’ This is what the Lord God said.

₆He also said: ‘Enemies will kill the people in war in the towns outside Tyre. Everyone will know that I am the Lord.’

₇Yes, the Lord God says: ‘I will now bring King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to attack Tyre. He is the king who rules over the other kings and he will come with horses and war-chariots and men on horses and a lot of soldiers. ₈He will kill the people who live in the towns outside Tyre. He will build up sand against the wall and build a ramp against the wall of the city. He will come with protective_shields and attack the city. ₉He will use a battering_ram to break down the walls and break the towers with irons. ₁₀He will come with a lot of horses, and the dust that the horses make will cover everything. When he comes in through the gates, the walls of Tyre will start to tremble because of the noise of all the men on horses and the wagons and war-chariots. He will come in as if the walls have been broken. ₁₁His horses will trample the streets with their hooves. He will kill the people in the city and he will break down the strong pillars. ₁₂They will take all your treasures and everything that you sell. They will break down all the walls and houses and they will throw the stones and wood and ground into the sea. ₁₃That is how I will stop the people of Tyre. They will not be happy or sing. There will be no more music made by their lyres. ₁₄I will leave only a few rocks where the city was before. It will be a place where people will dry their fishing nets. No one will build the city again because I, the Lord, have spoken.’ This is what the Lord God said.

₁₅The Lord God says to the city of Tyre: ‘The other lands near the sea will start to tremble when the enemies defeat you, when your people who are wounded cry and groan and when the enemies kill your people. ₁₆All the kings of the lands near the sea will get off their thrones, they will take off their robes and their beautiful clothes, and they will tremble and sit on the ground. They will continue to tremble. They will become afraid when they see you. ₁₇They will sing a lamentation about you. They will sing and say:

₁₉Yes, the Lord God says: ‘I will destroy you. You will become like a lot of other towns and cities where no one lives anymore. I will make the water of the sea flow over you, and the water will cover you. ₂₀I will let you go down with all the cities that have gone down to the grave, to the people who died long ago and are in the underworld in places that are like old ruins. You will not come back from there, and you will never again have any place in the world of the people who live. ₂₁Other people will be afraid of what happened to you and it will be your end. You will die. People will look for you and try to find you, but no one will ever find you again.’ This is what the Lord God said.