CHAPTER 28
The Prince of Tyre. 1* The word of the LORD came to me: 2Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you are haughty of heart,
you say, “I am a god!
I sit on a god’s throne
in the heart of the sea!”
But you are a man, not a god;
yet you pretend
you are a god at heart!
3Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel,*
nothing secret is too obscure for you!a
4By your wisdom and intelligence
you made yourself rich,
filling your treasuries with gold and silver.
5Through your great wisdom in trading
you heaped up riches for yourself—
your heart is haughty because of your riches.
6Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you pretend you are a god at heart,
7Therefore, I will bring against you
strangers, the most bloodthirsty of nations.
They shall draw their swords
against your splendid wisdom,
and violate your radiance.b
8They shall thrust you down into the pit:
you shall die a violent death
in the heart of the sea.
9Then, face to face with your killers,
will you still say, “I am a god”?
No, you are a man, not a god,
handed over to those who slay you.
10You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
handed over to strangers,
for I have spoken—oracle of the Lord GOD.c
11The word of the LORD came to me: 12Son of man, raise a lament over the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord GOD:
* You were a seal of perfection,
full of wisdom, perfect in beauty.d
13In Eden, the garden of God, you lived;
precious stones of every kind were your covering:
Carnelian, topaz, and beryl,
chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, garnet, and emerald.
Their mounts and settings
were wrought in gold,
fashioned for you the day you were created.e
14With a cherub I placed you;
I put you on the holy mountain of God,*
where you walked among fiery stones.
15Blameless were you in your ways
from the day you were created,
Until evil was found in you.
16Your commerce was full of lawlessness, and you sinned.
Therefore I banished you from the mountain of God;
the cherub drove you out
from among the fiery stones.f
17Your heart had grown haughty
because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground,
I made you a spectacle
in the sight of kings.g
18Because of the enormity of your guilt,
and the perversity of your trade,
you defiled your sanctuary.
I brought fire out of you;
it devoured you;
I made you ashes on the ground
in the eyes of all who see you.h
19All the nations who knew you
are appalled on account of you;
You have become a horror,
never to be again.i
Against Sidon. 20The word of the LORD came to me: 21Son of man, turn your face toward Sidon and prophesy against it. 22Thus says the Lord GOD:
Watch out! I am against you, Sidon;
I will win glory for myself in your midst.
They shall know that I am the LORD,
when I deliver judgment upon it
and manifest my holiness in it.
23I will send disease into it;
blood will fill its streets,
Within it shall fall
those slain by the sword
raised against it on every side.
Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
24No longer will there be a thorn that tears
or a brier that scratches for the house of Israel
From the surrounding neighbors
who despise them;
thus they shall know that I am the LORD.j
25Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and I manifest my holiness through them in the sight of the nations, then they shall live on the land I gave my servant Jacob.k 26They shall dwell on it securely, building houses and planting vineyards. They shall dwell securely while I execute judgment on all their neighbors who treated them with contempt; then they shall know that I, the LORD, am their God.l
* [28:1–10] Ezekiel mocks the arrogance of Tyre’s leader, who mistakes the city’s commercial success for evidence of his divinity. At the hands of a foreign army, commissioned by the only God worthy of the name, this leader dies a humiliating, unceremonious death.
* [28:3] Wiser than Daniel: see note on 14:14.
* [28:12–19] Ezekiel describes the leader of Tyre in language that recalls the imagery of Gn 2–3.
* [28:14] The holy mountain of God: the residence of gods in Israelite and non-Israelite myth; cf. Is 14:13. Fiery stones: associated with the divine presence; cf. Ez 1:13; Ps 18:13.
a. [28:3] cf. Ez 14:14; Dn 1:20; 2:20–23.
b. [28:7] cf. Ez 30:11; 31:12; 32:12.
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