Ezekiel 26:1-6

A Prophecy Against Tyre

26:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, ¹  the word of the Lord came to me: 26:2 “Son of man, because Tyre ²  has said about Jerusalem, ³  ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, ⁴  now that she ⁵  has been destroyed,’ 26:3 therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, ⁶  I am against you, ⁷  O Tyre! I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 26:4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape her soil ⁸  from her and make her a bare rock. 26:5 She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 26:6 and her daughters ⁹  who are in the field will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

[26:1]  ¹ 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.

[26:2]  ² sn Tyre was located on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel.

[26:2]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[26:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will be filled.”

[26:2]  ⁵ sn That is, Jerusalem.

[26:3]  ⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.

[26:3]  ⁷ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8. The Hebrew text switches to a second feminine singular form here, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed (see vv. 5-6a). The address to Jerusalem continues through v. 15. In vv. 16-17 the second masculine plural is used, as the people are addressed.

[26:4]  ⁸ tn Or “debris.”

[26:6]  ⁹ sn That is, the towns located inland that were under Tyre’s rule.