Ezekiel 26

Translator Notes

1. The dating formula is unusual — it specifies the year (the eleventh year of Jehoiachin's exile, approximately 587/586 BCE) and the day (the first) but omits the month. This is the only date formula in Ezekiel missing the month. Some scholars emend the text to supply a month (often the fifth or twelfth), but we follow the MT as it stands. The eleventh year places this oracle near the time of Jerusalem's fall, consistent with Tyre's reported gloating.

Translator Notes

1. Tyre's sin is commercial opportunism: Jerusalem served as the daltot ha-ammim ('gateway/doors of the peoples'), controlling overland trade routes between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean coast. With Jerusalem destroyed, Tyre expected to absorb that trade. The exclamation he'ach ('Aha!') — the same word used of Ammon in 25:3 — expresses malicious satisfaction. The verb immale'ah ('I will be filled/enriched') reveals Tyre's purely mercantile calculus: Jerusalem's ruin equals Tyre's profit. The word choravah ('ruin, desolation') applied to Jerusalem becomes ironic — Tyre herself will be reduced to the same state.

Translator Notes

1. The wave metaphor (ke-ha'alot ha-yam le-gallav, 'as the sea raises its waves') is brilliantly chosen for an island city. Nations will crash against Tyre in successive waves — not one single assault but relentless, repeated attacks over time. The phrase hineni alayikh ('I am against you') is the most direct form of divine hostility in prophetic literature — God himself takes the position of adversary. The plural 'many nations' (goyim rabbim) extends the prophecy beyond any single attacker.

Translator Notes

1. The shift from 'they' (the nations) to 'I' (God) in mid-verse is significant — the nations are the instruments, but God is the agent. The verb sicheti ('I will scrape') describes a thorough, violent removal of all soil and debris down to the bedrock. The result — tsechichach sela ('bare/smooth rock') — is the same phrase used in 24:7-8 for the exposed rock where Jerusalem's blood was placed. The great city will be reduced to bare stone, stripped of everything that made it inhabitable.

Translator Notes

1. The image of Tyre as a place for drying fishing nets (mishtach charamim) is one of the most vivid images of desolation in prophetic literature. The great commercial metropolis — the wealthiest trading city in the ancient world — reduced to a flat rock where fishermen spread their nets to dry. The phrase 'in the midst of the sea' (betokh ha-yam) emphasizes Tyre's island location, which made it seem impregnable but will ultimately define its emptiness. The divine speech formula 'for I have spoken' (ki ani dibbarti) underscores the irrevocability of the decree.

Translator Notes

1. The 'daughters' (benoteha) of Tyre are not literal daughters but dependent towns and settlements on the mainland (ba-sadeh, 'in the field/open country') — the agricultural and suburban communities that supported the island city. These mainland dependencies would fall first to any invading army. The recognition formula closes this introductory section before the detailed description of Nebuchadnezzar's siege begins.

Translator Notes

1. Nebuchadnezzar is named explicitly — the only foreign king named in Ezekiel's oracles against the nations. The title melekh melakhim ('king of kings') is a Mesopotamian royal title reflecting the imperial structure where vassal kings served under the great king. The phrase 'from the north' (mi-tsaphon) follows the convention that invasion comes from the north, since armies from Mesopotamia approached the Levant via the northern route through Syria (the direct eastern approach across the Arabian desert was impractical). The military catalogue — horses, chariots, cavalry, assembly, and many people — enumerates the full Babylonian military apparatus.

Translator Notes

1. Three elements of siege warfare are described with technical precision: dayeq ('siege works, siege tower'), solelah ('siege ramp, earthen mound'), and tsinnah ('large shield, shield-wall'). The tsinnah here likely refers to a testudo-like formation — a wall of shields used to protect soldiers advancing under fire toward the city walls. Each term reflects actual Neo-Babylonian military technology. The repetition of 'against you' (alayikh) three times emphasizes the relentless pressure of the siege.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase mechi qovlo is literally 'the blow of his battering device' — the qovel is a battering ram or siege engine. The charavot ('swords' or possibly 'axes, picks') used to tear down towers may refer to the demolition tools used after walls were breached. The verse moves from breaching the walls (battering rams) to demolishing the towers (axes), describing the sequential destruction of Tyre's defenses.

Translator Notes

1. The sensory imagery is vivid: dust so thick it covers the city (visual), the thunderous noise of cavalry and chariot wheels shaking the walls (auditory). The word galgal ('wheel') may refer to siege wagon wheels or chariot wheels. The comparison 'as one enters a breached city' (ke-mevo'ei ir mevuqqa'ah) describes the unstoppable momentum of an army pouring through broken defenses — there is no longer any resistance.

Translator Notes

1. The matsevot uzzekh ('pillars/monuments of your strength') are debated: they may be memorial pillars, sacred pillars (massebot), or structural columns of public buildings. Given Tyre's famous architecture — particularly the temple of Melqart — these are likely monumental columns that symbolized Tyre's power and grandeur. Their fall to the ground represents the collapse of everything Tyre built and stood for.

Translator Notes

1. The subject shifts from 'he' (Nebuchadnezzar, vv. 7-11) to 'they' (the many nations of v. 3). The commercial vocabulary — chayil ('wealth'), rekhulah ('merchandise, trade goods') — targets what Tyre valued most. The phrase 'stones, timber, and rubble into the sea' (betokh mayim, 'into the midst of the water') proved remarkably prescient: Alexander the Great literally threw the rubble of mainland Tyre into the sea to build a causeway to the island in 332 BCE. The batei chemdatekh ('houses of your desire/delight') are Tyre's luxury residences — the homes of the wealthy merchants.

Translator Notes

1. The silence of music represents the end of civilization — songs and lyres (kinnorot) were markers of prosperity, celebration, and cultural life. The same motif appears in the Babylon oracle of Revelation 18:22 ('the sound of harpists and musicians will never be heard in you again'), which draws heavily on Ezekiel 26-27. The verb hishbatti ('I will cause to cease') is emphatic — God personally silences the music.

Translator Notes

1. This verse repeats the key images from verses 4-5: bare rock (tsechichach sela) and fishing nets (mishtach charamim). The declaration 'you will never be rebuilt' (lo tibaneh od) is the most absolute form of judgment — not temporary exile or partial destruction but permanent, irreversible erasure. The double divine speech formula ('I, the LORD, have spoken, declares the Lord GOD') reinforces the finality. Ancient Tyre was never rebuilt in its original form — the modern city of Sur (Lebanon) occupies a different location from the original island fortress.

Translator Notes

1. The iyyim ('islands, coastlands') are the Mediterranean trading partners who depended on Tyre's commerce. Their trembling is both economic (their trade networks are collapsing) and existential (if mighty Tyre can fall, no one is safe). The word mappaltekh ('your fall, your downfall') is from the root n-p-l ('to fall') and describes a catastrophic collapse. The groaning of the wounded (be-enoq chalal) and the raging slaughter (be-hareg hereg) create an auditory landscape of destruction.

Translator Notes

1. The 'princes of the sea' (nesi'ei ha-yam) are the rulers of the Mediterranean maritime states — Tyre's trading partners and fellow coastal powers. Their mourning rituals mirror ancient Near Eastern lament practices: descending from thrones (loss of authority), removing royal garments (stripping of status), sitting on the ground (posture of grief). The phrase charadot yilbashu ('they will clothe themselves with trembling') is a vivid metaphor — trembling becomes their garment, replacing their embroidered finery. The word riqmah ('embroidery, multicolored fabric') describes the luxury textiles for which Phoenician craftsmanship was famous.

Translator Notes

1. The qinah ('lament, dirge') is a formal genre of funeral poetry — the same word used for David's lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17). The opening eikh ('how!') is the characteristic opening of the lament genre (cf. Lamentations 1:1, 'How lonely sits the city'). The phrase noshebet mi-yammim ('peopled/inhabited from the seas') describes Tyre's identity as a sea-based civilization — her population came from and lived by the sea. The word hallalah ('renowned, praised') may also echo challal ('pierced, slain'), creating a grim wordplay: the praised city is now the slain city.

Translator Notes

1. The iyyim ('coastlands, islands') appear twice in this verse, emphasizing the far-reaching impact of Tyre's fall. The word mi-tse'tekh ('at your departure, at your going out') is ambiguous — it could mean 'at your departure' (from existence), 'at your end,' or 'at what comes from you' (the shockwaves of your destruction). We rendered it as 'at your end' to capture the finality. The repetition of trembling and terror throughout this section creates a portrait of a Mediterranean world in shock.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word tehom ('the deep, the abyss') is the primordial chaos-water of Genesis 1:2 — the same word used for the formless deep before creation. Bringing the tehom over Tyre is an act of de-creation: God is reversing creation for this city, returning it to the primordial chaos from which order was drawn. The mayim rabbim ('great waters, many waters') reinforces this cosmic dimension. For an island city, the threat of being swallowed by the deep is both metaphorical (cosmic judgment) and viscerally real.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The descent-to-sheol language here anticipates the elaborate underworld passages in chapters 31-32. The phrase am olam ('people of long ago, people of eternity') refers to the dead of all ages who already inhabit the underworld. The word tachtiyyot ('lowest places, depths') describes the deepest level of the underworld. The contrast between Tyre's descent into the pit and God setting tsevi ('beauty, glory, splendor') in the 'land of the living' (erets chayyim) is theologically significant — death for the proud city, life and beauty for God's people.

Translator Notes

1. The final verse delivers the most absolute verdict possible. The word ballahot ('terrors, horrors') means Tyre will become a cautionary tale — an object of horror for other nations. The phrase ve-einekh ('and you are not, and you will be no more') is the language of total annihilation — not defeat or decline but nonexistence. The searching (tevuqeshi) without finding (lo timmatse'i) describes permanent disappearance: people will look for Tyre and find nothing. The temporal marker le-olam ('forever, for all time') and the divine speech formula ne'um Adonai YHWH seal the oracle with absolute finality.