Discovery BoxEzekiel 27:26-35
Context27:26 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, 1 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; 2
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 3 over you and cry bitterly.
They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; 4
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. 5
27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:
“Who was like Tyre, like a tower 6 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 7 along with you. 8
27:35 All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you,
and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.
[27:27] 1 tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.
[27:28] 2 tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.
[27:30] 3 tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”
[27:30] 4 tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.
[27:31] 5 tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”
[27:32] 6 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.
