Ezekiel 28

¹ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

² ‘Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre, “The Lord Yahweh say this: Being swollen with pride, you have said: I am a god; I am sitting on the throne of God, surrounded by the seas. Though you are a man and not a god, you consider yourself the equal of God.

³ You are wiser now than Danel; there is no sage as wise as you.

⁴ By your wisdom and your intelligence you have amassed great wealth; you have piles of gold and silver inside your treasure-houses.

⁵ Such is your skill in trading, your wealth has continued to increase, and with this your heart has grown more arrogant.

⁶ And so, the Lord Yahweh says this: Since you consider yourself the equal of God,

⁷ very well, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most barbarous of the nations. They will draw sword against your fine wisdom, they will defile your glory;

⁸ they will throw you down into the pit and you will die a violent death surrounded by the seas.

⁹ Are you still going to say: I am a god, when your murderers confront you? No, you are a man and not a god in the clutches of your murderers!

¹⁰ You will die like the uncircumcised – at the hand of foreigners. For I have spoken – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.”‘

¹¹ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

¹² ‘Son of man, raise a dirge over the king of Tyre. Say to him, “The Lord Yahweh says this: You were once an exemplar of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty;

¹³ you were in Eden, in the garden of God. A thousand gems formed your mantle. Sard, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, emerald, the gold of which your flutes and tambourines are made, all were prepared on the day of your creation.

¹⁴ I had provided you with a guardian cherub; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked amid red-hot coals.

¹⁵ Your behaviour was exemplary from the day of your creation until the day when evil was first found in you.

¹⁶ Your busy trading has filled you with violence and sin. I have thrown you down from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub has destroyed you from amid the coals.

¹⁷ Your heart has grown swollen with pride on account of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom owing to your splendour. I have thrown you to the ground; I have made you a spectacle for other kings.

¹⁸ By the immense number of your sins, by the dishonesty of your trading, you have defiled your sanctuaries. I have brought fire out of you to consume you. I have made you ashes on the ground before the eyes of all who saw you.

¹⁹ Of the nations, all who know you are lost in amazement over you. You are an object of terror; gone for ever.”‘

²⁰ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

²¹ ‘Son of man, turn towards Sidon and prophesy against her.

²² Say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Sidon, now I set myself against you; I will show my glory through you. Men shall learn that I am Yahweh, since I will execute sentence on her and display my holiness in her.

²³ I will send the plague to her; blood shall flow in her streets, and in her the dead will fall under the sword raised against her on all sides, and so men will learn that I am Yahweh.

²⁴ No more, for the House of Israel, shall any of the hostile nations surrounding her be a thorn that wounds or a briar that tears; and so men will learn that I am the Lord Yahweh.

²⁵ The Lord Yahweh says this. When I gather the House of Israel from the peoples among whom it is dispersed, this is how I am going to display my holiness in the sight of the nations. They shall live on the soil that I gave to my servant Jacob.

²⁶ They shall live there in confidence, build houses, plant vineyards; they shall live in confidence. When I inflict punishments on all the hostile surrounding nations, then men will learn that I am Yahweh their God.”‘