Ezekiel 26:2

26:2 “Son of man, because Tyre ¹  has said about Jerusalem, ²  ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, ³  now that she ⁴  has been destroyed,’

Ezekiel 26:1

A Prophecy Against Tyre

26:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, ⁵  the word of the Lord came to me:

Ezekiel 9:8

9:8 While they were striking them down, I was left alone, and I threw myself face down and cried out, “Ah, sovereign Lord! Will you destroy the entire remnant of Israel when you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?”

Jeremiah 18:16

18:16 So their land will become an object of horror. ⁶ 

People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.

All who pass that way will be filled with horror

and will shake their heads in derision. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 19:8

19:8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ⁸  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ⁹ 

Lamentations 2:15

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ¹⁰ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ¹¹ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ¹² 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ¹³ 

Zephaniah 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ¹⁴  –

the city that was so secure. ¹⁵ 

She thought to herself, ¹⁶  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ¹⁷ 

What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹⁸  and shakes his fist. ¹⁹ 

¹ sn Tyre was located on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel.

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Heb “I will be filled.”

⁴ sn That is, Jerusalem.

⁵ tc Date formulae typically include the month. According to D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:34, n. 27) some emend to “in the twelfth year in the eleventh month” based partially on the copy of the LXX from Alexandrinus, where Albright suggested that “eleventh month” may have dropped out due to haplography.

⁶ tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.

⁷ tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”

⁸ sn See 18:16 and the study note there.

⁹ tn Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17. It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3; Isa 10:26), and of slaughter and defeat (1 Sam 4:10; Josh 10:20). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.

¹⁰ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

¹¹ tn Heb “of which they said.”

¹² tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

¹³ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

¹⁴ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

¹⁹ sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.