Ezekiel 27:3-36

27:3 Say to Tyre, who sits at the entrance ¹  of the sea, ²  merchant to the peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘O Tyre, you have said, “I am perfectly beautiful.”

27:4 ³ Your borders are in the heart of the seas;

your builders have perfected your beauty.

27:5 They crafted ⁴  all your planks out of fir trees from Senir; ⁵ 

they took a cedar from Lebanon to make your mast.

27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;

they made your deck ⁶  with cypresses ⁷  from the Kittean isles. ⁸ 

27:7 Fine linen from Egypt, woven with patterns, was used for your sail

to serve as your banner;

blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah ⁹  was used for your deck’s awning.

27:8 The leaders ¹⁰  of Sidon ¹¹  and Arvad ¹²  were your rowers;

your skilled ¹³  men, O Tyre, were your captains.

27:9 The elders of Gebal ¹⁴  and her skilled men were within you, mending cracks; ¹⁵ 

all the ships of the sea and their mariners were within you to trade for your merchandise. ¹⁶ 

27:10 Men of Persia, Lud, ¹⁷  and Put were in your army, men of war.

They hung shield and helmet on you; they gave you your splendor.

27:11 The Arvadites ¹⁸  joined your army on your walls all around,

and the Gammadites ¹⁹  were in your towers.

They hung their quivers ²⁰  on your walls all around;

they perfected your beauty.

27:12 “‘Tarshish ²¹  was your trade partner because of your abundant wealth; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your products. 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your clients; they exchanged slaves and bronze items for your merchandise. 27:14 Beth Togarmah exchanged horses, chargers, ²²  and mules for your products. 27:15 The Dedanites ²³  were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid ²⁴  you with ivory tusks and ebony. 27:16 Edom ²⁵  was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your products. 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel were your clients; they traded wheat from Minnith, ²⁶  millet, honey, olive oil, and balm for your merchandise. 27:18 Damascus was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods and of all your wealth: wine from Helbon, white wool from Zahar, 27:19 and casks of wine ²⁷  from Izal ²⁸  they exchanged for your products. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were among your merchandise. 27:20 Dedan was your client in saddlecloths for riding. 27:21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your trade partners; for lambs, rams, and goats they traded with you. 27:22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah engaged in trade with you; they traded the best kinds of spices along with precious stones and gold for your products. 27:23 Haran, Kanneh, Eden, merchants from Sheba, Asshur, and Kilmad were your clients. 27:24 They traded with you choice garments, purple clothes and embroidered work, and multicolored carpets, bound and reinforced with cords; these were among your merchandise. 27:25 The ships of Tarshish ²⁹  were the transports for your merchandise.

“‘So you were filled and weighed down in the heart of the seas.

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, ³⁰  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; ³¹ 

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 ³²  over you and cry bitterly.

They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; ³³ 

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. ³⁴ 

27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:

“Who was like Tyre, like a tower ³⁵  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 ³⁶  along with you. ³⁷ 

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.’”

Isaiah 23:8

23:8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, ³⁸ 

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are the dignitaries ³⁹  of the earth?

Isaiah 23:11

23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ⁴⁰ 

he shook kingdoms;

he ⁴¹  gave the order

to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ⁴² 

Isaiah 23:17-18

23:17 At the end of seventy years ⁴³  the Lord will revive ⁴⁴  Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. ⁴⁵  23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. ⁴⁶ 

Zechariah 9:3-4

9:3 Tyre built herself a fortification and piled up silver like dust and gold like the mud of the streets! 9:4 Nevertheless the Lord will evict her and shove her fortifications ⁴⁷  into the sea – she will be consumed by fire.

Revelation 18:11-13

18:11 Then ⁴⁸  the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her because no one buys their cargo ⁴⁹  any longer – 18:12 cargo such as gold, silver, ⁵⁰  precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, ⁵¹  scarlet cloth, ⁵²  all sorts of things made of citron wood, ⁵³  all sorts of objects made of ivory, all sorts of things made of expensive wood, bronze, iron and marble, 18:13 cinnamon, spice, ⁵⁴  incense, perfumed ointment, ⁵⁵  frankincense, ⁵⁶  wine, olive oil and costly flour, ⁵⁷  wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four-wheeled carriages, ⁵⁸  slaves and human lives. ⁵⁹ 

[27:3]  ¹ tn Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.

[27:3]  ² sn Rome, another economic power, is described in a similar way in Rev 17:1.

[27:4]  ³ tn The city of Tyre is described in the following account as a merchant ship.

[27:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “built.”

[27:5]  ⁵ tn Perhaps the hull or deck. The term is dual, so perhaps it refers to a double-decked ship.

[27:6]  ⁶ tn Or “hull.”

[27:6]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”

[27:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).

[27:7]  ⁹ sn This is probably a reference to Cyprus.

[27:8]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “the residents of”; the LXX reads “your rulers who dwell in.” With no apparent reason for the LXX to add “the rulers” many suppose something has dropped out of the Hebrew text. While more than one may be possible, Allen’s proposal, positing a word meaning “elders,” is the most likely to explain the omission in the MT from a graphic standpoint and also provides a parallel to the beginning of v. 9. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:81.a parallel to v. 9.

[27:8]  ¹¹ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[27:8]  ¹² sn Sidon and Arvad, like Tyre, were Phoenician coastal cities.

[27:8]  ¹³ tn Or “wise.”

[27:9]  ¹⁴ sn Another Phoenician coastal city located between Sidon and Arvad.

[27:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “strengthening damages.” Here “to strengthen” means to repair. The word for “damages” occurs several times in 1 Kgs 12 about some type of damage to the temple, which may have referred to or included cracks. Since the context describes Tyre in its glory, we do not expect this reference to damages to be of significant scale, even if there are repairmen. This may refer to using pitch to seal the seams of the ship, which had to be done periodically and could be considered routine maintenance rather than repair of damage.

[27:9]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to “all the ships of the sea…within you” suggests that the metaphor is changing; previously Tyre had been described as a magnificent ship, but now the description shifts back to an actual city. The “ships of the sea” were within Tyre’s harbor. Verse 11 refers to “walls” and “towers” of the city.

[27:10]  ¹⁷ sn See Gen 10:22.

[27:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “sons of Arvad.”

[27:11]  ¹⁹ sn The identity of the Gammadites is uncertain.

[27:11]  ²⁰ tn See note on “quivers” in Jer 51:11 on the meaning of Hebrew שֶׁלֶט (shelet) and also M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:553.

[27:12]  ²¹ sn Tarshish refers to a distant seaport sometimes believed to be located in southern Spain (others identified it as Carthage in North Africa). In any event it represents here a distant, rich, and exotic port which was a trading partner of Tyre.

[27:14]  ²² tn The way in which these horses may have been distinguished from other horses is unknown. Cf. ASV “war-horses” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, CEV all similar); NLT “chariot horses.”

[27:15]  ²³ tn Heb “sons of Dedan.”

[27:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they returned as your gift.”

[27:16]  ²⁵ tc Many Hebrew mss, Aquila’s Greek translation, and the Syriac version read “Edom.” The LXX reads “man,” a translation which assumes the same consonants as Edom. This reading is supported from the context as the text deals with Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), later (in v. 18).

[27:17]  ²⁶ sn The location is mentioned in Judg 11:33.

[27:19]  ²⁷ tc The MT leaves v. 18 as an incomplete sentence and begins v. 19 with “and Dan and Javan (Ionia) from Uzal.” The LXX mentions “wine.” The translation follows an emendation assuming some confusions of vav and yod. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:82.

[27:19]  ²⁸ sn According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 2:82), Izal was located between Haran and the Tigris and was famous for its wine.

[27:25]  ²⁹ tn Or perhaps “Large merchant ships.” The expression “ships of Tarshish” may describe a class of vessel, that is, large oceangoing merchant ships.

[27:27]  ³⁰ tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.

[27:28]  ³¹ tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.

[27:30]  ³² tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”

[27:30]  ³³ tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.

[27:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”

[27:32]  ³⁵ 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.

[27:34]  ³⁶ tn Heb “fallen.”

[27:34]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in the midst of you.”

[23:8]  ³⁸ tn The precise meaning of הַמַּעֲטִירָה (hamma’atirah) is uncertain. The form is a Hiphil participle from עָטַר (’atar), a denominative verb derived from עֲטָרָה (’atarah, “crown, wreath”). The participle may mean “one who wears a crown” or “one who distributes crowns.” In either case, Tyre’s prominence in the international political arena is in view.

[23:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the honored” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “renowned.”

[23:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”

[23:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[23:11]  ⁴² tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.

[23:17]  ⁴³ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[23:17]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”

[23:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and she will return to her [prostitute’s] wages and engage in prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the earth.”

[23:18]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”

[9:4]  ⁴⁷ tn The Hebrew word חַיִל (khayil, “strength, wealth”) can, with certain suffixes, look exactly like חֵל (khel, “fortress, rampart”). The chiastic pattern here suggests that not Tyre’s riches but her defenses will be cast into the sea. Thus the present translation renders the term “fortifications” (so also NLT) rather than “wealth” (NASB, NRSV, TEV) or “power” (NAB, NIV).

[18:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[18:11]  ⁴⁹ tn On γόμος (gomos) BDAG 205 s.v. states, “load, freight…cargo of a ship…Ac 21:3. W. gen. of the owner Rv 18:11. W. gen. of content…γ. χρυσοῦ a cargo of gold vs. 12.”

[18:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “and silver,” but καί (kai) has not been translated before most of these terms since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more

[18:12]  ⁵¹ tn On this term BDAG 924-25 s.v. σιρικός states, “per. to silk from Ser, subst. τὸ σιρικόν silk cloth or garments w. other costly materials Rv 18:12.”

[18:12]  ⁵² tn On the translation of κόκκινον (kokkinon) as “scarlet cloth” see L&N 6.170.

[18:12]  ⁵³ tn On the phrase πᾶν ξύλον θύϊνον (pan xulon quinon) L&N 3.63 states, “pertaining to being made or consisting of citron wood (that is, from a citron tree) – ‘of citron wood.’ καὶ πᾶν ξύλον θύϊνον καὶ πᾶν σκεῦος ἐλεφάντινον ‘and all kinds of things made of citron wood and all kinds of objects made of ivory’ Re 18:12. The citron tree belongs to the citrus family of plants, and it produces a pale yellow fruit somewhat larger than a lemon, the rind of which is often candied. In Re 18:12, however, the focus is upon the fine quality of the wood.”

[18:13]  ⁵⁴ tn On the term ἄμωμον (amwmon) L&N 5.23 states, “a generic term for any kind of spice, though often a specific reference to amomum, an Indian type of spice – ‘spice, amomum.’ κιννάμωμον καὶ ἄμωμον καὶ θυμιάματα ‘cinnamon and spice and incense’ Re 18:13. In most translations ἄμωμον is interpreted as spice in general.”

[18:13]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “myrrh,” a strong aromatic ointment often used to prepare a body for burial (L&N 6.205).

[18:13]  ⁵⁶ tn The Greek term λίβανος (libano") refers to the aromatic resin of a certain type of tree (L&N 6.212).

[18:13]  ⁵⁷ tn On σεμίδαλις (semidali") L&N 5.10 states, “a fine grade of wheat flour – ‘fine flour.’ οἶνον καὶ ἔλαιον καὶ σεμίδαλιν καὶ σῖτον ‘wine and oil and fine flour and wheat’ Re 18:13. In some languages ‘fine flour’ may be best expressed as ‘expensive flour.’ Such a rendering fits well the context of Re 18:13.”

[18:13]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “and wagons.” On the term ῥέδη (rJedh) see L&N 6.53: “a four-wheeled carriage or wagon used for travel or the transportation of loads – ‘carriage, wagon.’ The term ῥέδη occurs only in Re 18:13 in a list of products bought and sold by merchants.”

[18:13]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “and bodies and souls of men.” This could be understood (1) as a hendiadys (two things mentioned = one thing meant), referring only to slave trade; (2) it could be referring to two somewhat different concepts: slavery (bodies) and the cheapness of human life – some of the items earlier in the list of merchandise were to be obtained only at great cost of human life; or (3) a somewhat related idea, that the trade is in not just physical bodies (slavery) but human souls (people whose lives are destroyed through this trade).