1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“And you, man, sound a lament for Tyre. 3And say to Tyre, which sits at the gateways to the sea, trader to peoples, to many coastlands, thus said the Master, the LORD:
Tyre, you said,
‘I am perfect in beauty.’
4In the heart of the seas are your borders.
Your builders perfected your beauty.
5With cypress from Senir they built you—
all your panels.
Cedar from Lebanon they took
6Of oak from Bashan they made your oars,
your planks they made of ivory
inlaid in boxwood from the coastlands of Kittim.
7Embroidered linen from Egypt
were your sails
to be for you a banner.
Indigo and crimson from the isles of Elisha
were your canopy.
8The dwellers of Sidon and Arvad
were rowers for you.
Your skilled men, O Tyre, were within you,
they were your mariners.
9Gebal’s elders and skilled men
were within you repairing the crafts.
All the ships of the sea and their sailors
were within you to traffic in your wares.
10Peras and Lud and Put
were in your forces, your men of war.
Buckler and helmet they hung in you,
it is they who gave your glory.
11Men of Arvad and Helech were within your walls all around, and the Gammarites were on your towers. Their shields they hung on your walls all around, it is they who perfected your beauty. 12Tarshish traded with you. From all the great wealth of silver, tin, and lead, they deposited your goods. 13Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they traded with you in human beings and copper vessels; they gave your wares. 14From Beth-Targemah, horses and horsemen and mules, they deposited your goods. 15The men of Dedan traded with you, many coastlands were traders under you. Ivory tusks and ebony they gave back as your tribute. 16Aram traded with you and all the things you made in malachite, purple cloth and embroidery and linen and coral and agate they gave for your deposited goods. 17Judah and the land of Israel traded with you in the wheat of Minnith and Paggo, and honey and oil and balm they gave for your wares. 18Damascus traded with you in all the things you made, from all the great wealth of Helbon wine and white wood. 19Vedan and Javan of Uzal for your deposited goods gave forged iron, cassia, and cane. For your wares it was. 20Dedan traded with you in saddle cloths for riding. 21Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were traders under you. Fat sheep and rams and he-goats of theirs were your trade. 22The traders of Sheba and Raamah traded with you in the choicest of all spices and precious stones and gold, they gave for your deposited goods. 23Haran and Canneh and Edom, the traders of Sheba, Assyria, and Cilmad traded with you. 24They traded with you in fine raiment, in indigo robes and bright-colored rugs bound in cords and packed tight among your wares. 25Tarshish ships were in the service of your trade.
And you were full and became greatly ladened
in the heart of the seas.
26Into many waters they brought you,
those rowing for you.
in the heart of the seas.
27Your wealth and your deposited goods, your wares, your sailors, the repairers of your ships and the supervisors of your wares and all your men of war who were within you and all your assembly that was within you shall fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.
28At the sound of the scream of your mariners
the breakers shall toss.
29And they shall come down from their ships,
all who wield the oar,
sailors, all the sea’s mariners
30And they shall make their voices heard over you
and scream bitterly,
and put dust upon their heads,
in ashes they shall wallow.
31And they shall shave their heads over you
and gird sackcloth
and keen over you most bitterly,
a bitter dirge.
32And their sons shall sound over you a lament
and lament over you:
within the sea?
33When your deposited goods went out from the seas, you sated many peoples with your great wealth, and with your wares you enriched the kings of the earth.
34When you were broken on the seas,
into the waters’ depths your wares
and all your assembly within you fell.
35All the coastland dwellers
were shocked over you,
and their kings were horrified,
and their faces were contorted.
36Traders among the peoples
hissed over you.
You are become a horror,
and you exist no more, forever.”
CHAPTER 27 NOTES
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3. trader to peoples. This epithet announces the central theme of the prophecy. The Phoenicians were famous as a maritime and mercantile people, developing trade routes far to the west in the Mediterranean and establishing colonies as distant as Carthage (present-day Tunisia) and Spain. Ezekiel will evoke the breadth and splendor of this mercantile empire as he forecasts its destruction.
5. Senir. A mountainous region mentioned in the Song of Songs 4:8 as adjacent to Mount Hermon to the north of Israel.
to make masts for you. At this point it becomes clear that the perfected beauty of Tyre is not chiefly in the structures of the city but in its ships, which become a kind of metonymy for the city that sends them far to the west.
6. your planks they made of ivory / inlaid in boxwood. Whether this description reflects the reality of Tyre’s merchant fleet or not, it represents the ships as not merely utilitarian vessels but as extravagantly luxurious constructions (“Your builders perfected your beauty” [verse 4]), with decks inlaid with ivory, sails made of embroidered Egyptian linen, and canopies of regal indigo and crimson cloth to shade the travelers.
7. the isles of Elisha. This may be Cyprus.
8. Your skilled men. The noun ḥakham usually means “wise man,” but it also has a general sense of someone skilled in a craft or trade.
10. Lud and Put. Although some want to identify Lud with Lydia in Asia Minor, both places are probably located in Africa, in proximity to Egypt, in the region of modern Libya. In Ezekiel’s vision, the reach of Tyre extends on the west to the Greek sphere, on the south to North Africa, on the east to Arabia and Mesopotamia.
it is they who gave your glory. The clear sense is that the army of Tyre was manned by mercenaries from these sundry far-off lands.
11. Men of Arvad. One should note that Ezekiel readily slips from poetry—virtually required by the qinah, the lament form—into prose, with no real change in content. This is not a prophet who is entirely comfortable in verse.
Gammarites. The received text shows “Gammadites,” but the known place-name is Gomer (the Hebrew letters for r and d are rather similar in shape, and there are many scribal confusions in the transcription of the two).
it is they who perfected your beauty. In this instance, the perfected beauty is linked not to the ships but to the city walls displaying the highly polished shields (compare Song of Songs 4:4).
12. Tarshish. Though frequently mentioned in the Bible, Tarshish has not been confidently identified, locations as different as Asia Minor, North Africa, and Spain having been proposed. All that is certain is that it is far to the west.
13. Javan. This name, which looks like the two that come after it, appears in the Table of Nations in Genesis, and is a Hebrew transliteration—yawan—of Ion or Ionia.
15. were traders under you. The literal sense is “were trade of your hand.” Since “hand” implies power, responsibility, oversight, it is assumed in this translation that the word suggests superiority in the trade relationship.
16. malachite. As elsewhere in the Bible, the identification of this and other precious stones in this verse is conjectural.
19. cassia, and cane. These are both aromatic substances.
25. Tarshish ships. As elsewhere, this is probably a designation not of ships built in Tarshish but of a particular kind of vessel constructed for long voyages.
26. The east wind broke you. The previous line initially seems to continue the evocation of Tyre’s dominance as a trader city over vast regions. Now, however, in a sudden transition, the prosperous city, emblematized by a ship, is shattered in the heart of the seas by an east wind, which in the Bible generally brings bad things.
28. At the sound of the scream of your mariners / the breakers shall toss. Tyre’s grandeur had been represented in this lament chiefly through the splendor of her sea vessels. Now the ships are shattered, engulfed by waves, and the crewmen terrified.
29. shall stand on the ground. This final verset seems rather flat for the depiction of a disaster at sea, conveying merely a sense of the sailors leaving the ship to stand on dry land. The move may be dictated by the desire to represent the sailors in the next three verses as assuming all the grief-stricken postures of mourning.
31. they shall shave their heads over you. Less familiar than the ashes and sackcloth, this is a gesture of mourning.
32. Who is like Tyre for silence / within the sea? The meaning of kedumah, “for silence,” is somewhat doubtful, but dumah, “silence,” is an epithet for the realm of death.
35. their faces were contorted. Though the Hebrew verb here, deriving from the word for thunder, sometimes suggests “anger,” that does not seem appropriate for this context.
36. Traders among the peoples / hissed over you. This is the final turn in Tyre’s reversal of fortunes. The many peoples of the region had enjoyed multiple trade relations with Tyre and had been willing to assume the role of subordinate partners in trade. Now these very partners in commerce are both shocked by and contemptuous of Tyre (both implied by the hissing).