Ezekiel 28
1 [Then] Yahweh gave me another message. [He said]:
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 “You human, give to the king of Tyre this message from [me], Yahweh the Lord: ‘You have very proudly claimed, “I am a god! I sit on a throne of a god [in a city on an island] in the sea!” You boast that you are a god; but you are only a man, not a god.
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, Whereas thy heart was lifted up, and thou saidst, A god am I, on the seat of the gods do I dwell, in the heart of the seas; yet thou art but a man, and not God, while thou esteemest thy mind equal to the mind of God;
3 [You think that] you are wiser than Daniel was, [and you think that] you can understand every secret.
Behold, thou wast wiser than Daniel; no secret was obscure to thee;
4 By being wise and understanding [a lot], you have become [very] rich; you have acquired much gold and silver for your treasuries.
With thy wisdom and with thy understanding hadst thou gotten thee riches, and hadst gotten gold and silver into thy treasuries;
5 [Yes, it is true that] by trading wisely, you have been enabled to become very rich, and because you are rich, you have become very proud.
By the abundance of thy wisdom in thy traffic hadst thou increased thy riches; and thy heart was lifted up because of thy riches:
6 Therefore, this is what Yahweh the Lord says: “Because you think that you are as wise as a god,
Therefore thus hath said the Lord Eternal, Because thou hast esteemed thy mind equal to the mind of God,
7 I will [now] bring a foreign [army] to attack your [country], an army that causes other nations to be terrified. They will pull out their swords to strike you, [you who think that] [IRO] you have marvelous/great wisdom, and they will destroy all your beautiful things.
Therefore, behold, will I bring over thee strangers, the fiercest • of nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall profane thy elegance.
8 They will bring you down to your grave; you will die violently like [MET] those who died in the sea.
Down to the grave will they cast thee, and thou shalt die the deaths of the slain in the heart of the seas.
9 Then you will certainly not [RHQ] say to those who are killing you, 'I am a god!' [because they will know that] you are not a god; you are only a man.
Wilt thou then say, I am God, before him that slayeth thee? when thou art but a man, and no God, in the hand of him that fatally wounded thee.
10 You will die like other people who are unacceptable to me die, killed by foreigners.” [That will surely happen because] I, Yahweh, have said it.’”
The deaths of the uncircumcised shalt thou die by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Eternal.
11 Yahweh also gave me this message:
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
12 “You human, sing a sad/funeral song about the king of Tyre. Say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: [“You thought that] [IRO] you were completely perfect, extremely wise and handsome.
Son of man, take up a lamentation concerning the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, Thou wast complete in outline, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 You [had a wonderful life, as though] you were in my [beautiful] garden in Eden. Your [clothes] were decorated with many [HYP] kinds of very valuable stones— ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, turquoise, and beryl [stones]. Those stones were set/placed in gold [mountings]. They were prepared for you on the day that you were born.
In 'Eden the garden of God didst thou abide; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the chrysolite, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; thy tabrets and thy flutes of artificial workmanship were prepared in thee on the day thou wast created.
14 I appointed [DOU] you to be like [MET] a strong angel to guard the people. [It was as though I put] you on my holy mountain, and you walked among fiery stones.
Thou wast a cherub with outspread covering [wings]; and I had set thee upon the holy mountain of God [as] thou wast; in the midst of the stones of fire didst thou wander.
15 You were completely good in all that you did, from the day that you were created/born, until you [started to] do wicked things.
Perfect wast thou in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till wickedness was found in thee.
16 [Then] you became busy trading things, and you started to act violently, and you sinned. So I caused you to be disgraced; and the angel who was guarding you forced you to leave my holy mountain, forced you to leave your place among those fiery stones.
By the abundance of thy commerce thou wast filled to thy centre with violence, and thou didst sin: therefore I degraded thee out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 You were extremely proud because you were very handsome. Because you loved beautiful things, you did things that wise people do not do. [So] I threw you to the ground, and allowed [other] kings who saw you to laugh at you.
Thy heart was lifted up through thy beauty, thou didst corrupt thy wisdom by reason of thy elegance: [therefore] I cast thee down to the ground, before kings did I set thee that they might gaze on thee.
18 By committing many sins and by trading things dishonestly, you caused your places of worship to become unacceptable to me. So I caused a fire [to burn down your city]. [Your city] was burned completely; the people who were watching it saw that only ashes remained on the ground.
Through the abundance of thy iniquities, through the wickedness of thy commerce didst thou profane thy sanctuaries: therefore brought I forth fire from the midst of thee, this devoured thee, and I changed thee to ashes upon the earth before the eyes of all those that saw thee.
19 All the people who knew what your [city was like previously] were appalled. Now [your city] has disappeared, and it will not exist any more.”’”
All that know thee among the people are astonished concerning thee: thou art as though thou hadst not been, and thou shalt not be any more for ever.
20 [Then] Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
21 “You human, turn toward Sidon [city], and declare the terrible things that will happen to it.
Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
22 Give [the people of Sidon] this message from [me], Yahweh the Lord: ‘I am your enemy, [you people of] Sidon, and by what I do to you, I will reveal that I am very great/glorious. When I punish you and reveal that I am holy, everyone who is watching that will know that it is I, Yahweh, [who have the power to do what I say that I will do].
And thou shalt say, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon, and I will be honored in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I execute judgments on her, and will be sanctified on her.
23 I will send a plague upon you, and I will send [enemies to come and] kill [MTY] you in your streets. They will attack you from every direction, and your people will be slaughtered inside the walls of your city. Then everyone will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].'
And I will send out against her pestilence, and blood-[shedding] into her streets; and the deadly wounded shall be felled in the midst of her by the sword [that is] against her from every side: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
24 No longer will those who live near you people of Israel [hurt you] like [MET] painful briers and sharp thorns [hurt people]. And then the Israeli people will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].”
And there shall be no more unto the house of Israel a pricking brier, nor painful thorn from all that are round about them, that despoil them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Eternal.
25 And this is [also] what Yahweh the Lord says: “Some day the people of Israel will live in their own land [again], the land that I gave to Jacob, who [also] served me. I will gather them from [distant] countries where I have scattered them. And I will reveal to the nations that I am holy among my people.
Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, When I gather the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified on them before the eyes of the nations: then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
26 My people will live safely in Israel; they will build houses and plant vineyards. And when I punish the nearby nations that despised them, they will know that it is I, Yahweh their God, [who has done it].”
And they shall dwell thereupon in safety, and they shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell in safety; when I execute judgments on all those that despoiled them from round about them: and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.
