“‘How you have perished – you have vanished 2 from the seas,
O renowned city, once mighty in the sea,
she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror! 3
27:26 Your rowers have brought you into surging waters.
The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.
27:27 Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,
your ship’s carpenters, 4 your merchants,
and all your fighting men within you,
along with all your crew who are in you,
will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.
27:28 At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge; 5
27:29 They will descend from their ships – all who handle the oar,
the sailors and all the sea captains – they will stand on the land.
27:30 They will lament loudly 6 over you and cry bitterly.
They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; 7
27:31 they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth,
and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning. 8
27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:
“Who was like Tyre, like a tower 9 in the midst of the sea?”
27:33 When your products went out from the seas,
you satisfied many peoples;
with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise
you enriched the kings of the earth.
27:34 Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;
your merchandise and all your company have sunk 10 along with you. 11
27:35 All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you,
and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.
27:36 The traders among the peoples hiss at you;
you have become a horror, and will be no more.’”
“‘Your heart is proud 13 and you said, “I am a god; 14
I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –
yet you are a man and not a god,
though you think you are godlike. 15
28:8 They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die violently 16 in the heart of the seas.
1 tn Heb “and they will lift up over you a lament and they will say to you.”
2 tn Heb “O inhabitant.” The translation follows the LXX and understands a different Hebrew verb, meaning “cease,” behind the consonantal text. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:72, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:43.
3 tn Heb “she and her inhabitants who placed their terror to all her inhabitants.” The relationship of the final prepositional phrase to what precedes is unclear. The preposition probably has a specifying function here, drawing attention to Tyre’s inhabitants as the source of the terror mentioned prior to this. In this case, one might paraphrase verse 17b: “she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror; yes, her inhabitants (were the source of this terror).”
4 tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.
5 tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.
6 tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”
7 tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.
8 tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”
9 tn As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.
10 tn Heb “fallen.”
11 tn Heb “in the midst of you.”
12 tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).
13 tn Heb “lifted up.”
14 tn Or “I am divine.”
15 tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”
16 tn Heb “you will die the death of the slain.”