Ezekiel announces the Fall of Tyre

Tyre (Phoenician רצ, ṣūr, "rock"; Greek Τύρος; Latin Tyrus): port in Phoenicia and one of the main cities in the eastern Mediterranean.

In 598/596 BCE, king Jehoiachin and the Jewish elite had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia. In the eleventh year, shortly after the final capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (587/586), the prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the capture of Tyre.

As it happened, the city would not be captured at all: in the following year, king Ithobaal III of Tyre concluded a treaty with Nebuchadnezzar. The text, here offered in the Contemporary English Version, is valuable as a source for the splendor and wealth of Tyre.

Chapter
28
26
27
Section
1-10
11-19

[28.1-10] The Lord God said:

"Ezekiel, son of man, tell the king of Tyre that I am saying:

You are so arrogant that you think you're a god and that the city of Tyre is your throne. You may claim to be a god, though you're nothing but a mere human. You think you're wiser than Daniel and know everything. Your wisdom has certainly made you rich, because you have storehouses filled with gold and silver. You're a clever businessman and are extremely wealthy, but your wealth has led to arrogance!

You compared yourself to a god, so now I, the Lord God, will make you the victim of cruel enemies. They will destroy all the possessions you've worked so hard to get. Your enemies will brutally kill you, and the sea will be your only grave.

When you face your enemies, will you still claim to be a god? They will attack, and you will suffer like any other human. Foreigners will kill you, and you will die the death of those who don't worship me. I, the Lord, have spoken."

[28.11-19] The Lord said:

"Ezekiel, son of man, sing a funeral song for the king of Tyre and tell him I am saying:

At one time, you were perfect, intelligent, and good-looking. You lived in the garden of Eden and wore jewelry made of brightly colored gems and precious stones. They were all set in gold and were ready for you on the day you were born. I appointed a winged creature to guard your home on my holy mountain, where you walked among gems that dazzled like fire.

You were truly good from the time of your birth, but later you started doing wicked things. You traded with other nations and became more and more cruel and evil. So I forced you to leave my mountain, and the creature that had been your protector now chased you away from the gems.

It was your good looks that made you arrogant, and you were so famous that you started acting like a fool. That's why I threw you to the ground and let other kings sneer at you. You have cheated so many other merchants that your places of worship are corrupt. So I set your city on fire and burned it down. Now everyone sees only ashes where your city once stood, and the people of other nations are shocked. Your punishment was horrible, and you are gone forever."