The Living Bible (266 page)

Ezekiel
27

Then this message came to me from the Lord. He said:

    
²
 “Son of dust, sing this sad dirge for Tyre:

    
³
 “‘O mighty seaport city, merchant center of the world, the Lord God speaks. You say, “I am the most beautiful city in all the world.”
⁴
 You have extended your boundaries out into the sea; your architects have made you glorious.
⁵
 You are like a ship built of finest fir from Senir. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.
⁶
 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan. The walls of your cabin are of cypress from the southern coast of Cyprus.
⁷
 Your sails are made of Egypt’s finest linens; you stand beneath awnings bright with purple and scarlet dyes from eastern Cyprus.

    
⁸
 “‘Your sailors come from Sidon and Arvad; your helmsmen are skilled men from Zemer.
⁹
 Wise old craftsmen from Gebal do the calking. Ships come from every land with all their goods to barter for your trade.

    
¹⁰
 “‘Your army includes men from far-off Paras, Lud, and Put.
*
They serve you—it is a feather in your cap to have their shields hang upon your walls; it is the ultimate of honor.
¹¹
 Men from Arvad and from Helech
*
are the sentinels upon your walls; your towers are manned by men from Gamad. Their shields hang row on row upon the walls, perfecting your glory.

    
¹²
 “‘From Tarshish come all kinds of riches to your markets—silver, iron, tin, and lead.
¹³
 Merchants from Javan, Tubal, and Meshech
*
bring slaves and bronze dishes,
¹⁴
 while from Togarmah
*
come chariot horses, steeds, and mules.

    
¹⁵
 “‘Merchants come to you from Rhodes, and many coastlands are your captive markets, giving payment in ebony and ivory.
¹⁶
 Edom sends her traders to buy your many wares. They bring emeralds, purple dyes, embroidery, fine linen, and jewelry of coral and agate.
¹⁷
 Judah and the cities in what was once the kingdom of Israel send merchants with wheat from Minnith and Pannag,
*
and with honey, oil, and balm.
¹⁸
 Damascus comes. She brings wines from Helbon and white Syrian wool to trade for all the rich variety of goods you make.
¹⁹
 Vedan and Javan bring Arabian yarn,
*
wrought iron, cassia, and calamus,
²⁰
 while Dedan brings expensive saddlecloths for riding.

    
²¹
 “‘The Arabians and Kedar’s wealthy merchant princes bring you lambs and rams and goats.
²²
 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah come with all kinds of spices, jewels, and gold.
²³
 Haran, Canneh, Eden, Asshur, and Chilmad all send their wares.
²⁴
 They bring choice fabrics to trade—blue cloth, embroidery, and many-colored carpets bound with cords and made secure.
²⁵
 The ships of Tarshish are your ocean caravans; your island warehouse is filled to the brim!

    
²⁶
 “‘But now your statesmen bring your ship of state into a hurricane! Your mighty vessel flounders in the heavy eastern gale,
*
and you are wrecked in the heart of the seas!
²⁷
 Everything is lost. Your riches and wares, your sailors and pilots, your shipwrights, merchants, and soldiers; and all the people sink into the sea on the day of your vast ruin.

    
²⁸
 “‘The surrounding cities quake at the sound as your pilots scream with fright.
²⁹
 All your sailors out at sea come to land and watch upon the mainland shore,
³⁰
 weeping bitterly and casting dust upon their heads and wallowing in ashes.
³¹
 They shave their heads in grief, put on sackcloth, and weep for you with bitterness of heart and deep mourning.

    
³²
 “‘And this is the song of their sorrow: “Where in all the world was there ever such a wondrous city as Tyre, destroyed in the midst of the sea?
³³
 Your merchandise satisfied the desires of many nations. Kings at the ends of the earth rejoiced in the riches you sent them.
³⁴
 Now you lie broken beneath the sea; all your merchandise and all your crew have perished with you.
³⁵
 All who live along the coastlands watch, incredulous. Their kings are horribly afraid and look on with twisted faces.
³⁶
 The merchants of the nations shake their heads, for your fate is dreadful; you have forever perished.”’”

Ezekiel
28

Here is another message given to me from the Lord:

    
^2-3
 “Son of dust, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘The Lord God says: You are so proud you think you are God, sitting on the throne of a god on your island home in the midst of the seas. But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast yourself to be like God. You are wiser than Daniel, for no secret is hidden from you.
⁴
 You have used your wisdom and understanding to get great wealth—gold and silver and many treasures.
⁵
 Yes, your wisdom has made you very rich and very proud.’”

    
⁶
 Therefore the Lord God says: “Because you claim that you are as wise as God,
⁷
 an enemy army, the terror of the nations, shall suddenly draw their swords against your marvelous wisdom and defile your splendor!
⁸
 They will bring you to the pit of hell, and you shall die as those pierced with many wounds, there on your island in the heart of the seas.
⁹
 Then will you boast as a god? At least to these invaders you will be no god, but merely man!
¹⁰
 You will die like an outcast at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken it,” the Lord God says.

    
¹¹
 Then this further message came to me from the Lord:

    
¹²
 “Son of dust, weep for the king of Tyre.
*
Tell him, ‘The Lord God says: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty.
¹³
 You were in Eden, the garden of God; your clothing was bejeweled with every precious stone—ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald—all in beautiful settings of finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created.
¹⁴
 I appointed you to be the anointed Guardian Angel. You had access to the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire.
*

    
¹⁵
 “‘You were perfect in all you did from the day you were created until that time when wrong was found in you.
¹⁶
 Your great wealth filled you with internal turmoil, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out of the mountain of God like a common sinner. I destroyed you, O Guardian Angel, from the midst of the stones of fire.
*
¹⁷
 Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Therefore, I have cast you down to the ground and exposed you helpless before the curious gaze of kings.
¹⁸
 You defiled your holiness with lust for gain;
*
therefore, I brought forth fire from your own actions
*
and let it burn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those watching you.
¹⁹
 All who know you are appalled at your fate; you are an example of horror; you are destroyed forever.’”

    
²⁰
 Then another message came to me from the Lord:

    
²¹
 “Son of dust, look toward the city of Sidon and prophesy against it. Say to it,
²²
 ‘The Lord God says: I am your enemy, O Sidon, and I will reveal my power over you. When I destroy you and show forth my holiness upon you, then all who see shall know I am the Lord.
²³
 I will send an epidemic of disease and an army to destroy; the wounded shall be slain in your streets by troops on every side. Then you will know I am the Lord.
²⁴
 No longer shall you and Israel’s other neighbor nations prick and tear at Israel like thorns and briars, though they formerly despised her and treated her with great contempt.

    
²⁵
 “‘The people of Israel will once more live in their own land, the land I gave their father Jacob. For I will gather them back again from distant lands where I have scattered them, and I will show the nations of the world my holiness among my people.
²⁶
 They will live safely in Israel and build their homes and plant their vineyards. When I punish all the bordering nations that treated them with such contempt, then they shall know I am the Lord their God.’”

Ezekiel
29

Late in December of the tenth year (of the imprisonment of King Jehoiachin), this message came to me from the Lord:

    
²
 “Son of dust, face toward Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh her king and all her people.
³
 Tell them that the Lord God says: ‘I am your enemy, Pharaoh, king of Egypt—mighty dragon lying in the middle of your rivers. For you have said, “The Nile is mine; I have made it for myself!”
⁴
 I will put hooks into your jaws and drag you out onto the land with fish sticking to your scales.
⁵
 And I will leave you and all the fish stranded in the desert to die, and you won’t be buried, for I have given you as food to the wild animals and birds.

    
⁶
 “‘Because of the way your might collapsed when Israel called on you for aid instead of trusting me,
*
all of you shall know I am the Lord.
⁷
 Israel leaned on you but, like a cracked staff, you snapped beneath her hand and wrenched her shoulder out of joint and made her stagger with the pain.
⁸
 Therefore the Lord God says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt, and destroy both men and herds.
⁹
 The land of Egypt shall become a desolate wasteland, and the Egyptians will know that I, the Lord, have done it.

    
¹⁰
 “‘Because you said: “The Nile is mine! I made it!” therefore I am against you and your river, and I will utterly destroy the land of Egypt, from Migdol to Syene, as far south as the border of Ethiopia.
¹¹
 For forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither men nor animals. It will be completely uninhabited.
¹²
 I will make Egypt desolate, surrounded by desolate nations, and her cities will lie as wastelands for forty years. I will exile the Egyptians to other lands.

    
¹³
 “‘But the Lord God says that at the end of the forty years he will bring the Egyptians home again from the nations to which they will be banished.
¹⁴
 And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring her people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt where they were born, but she will be an unimportant, minor kingdom.
¹⁵
 She will be the lowliest of all the nations; never again will she raise herself above the other nations; never again will Egypt be great enough for that.

    
¹⁶
 “‘Israel will no longer expect any help from Egypt. Whenever she thinks of asking for it, then she will remember her sin in seeking it before. Then Israel will know that I alone am God.’”

    
¹⁷
 In the twenty-seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,
*
around the middle of March, this message came to me from the Lord:

    
¹⁸
 “Son of dust, the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon fought hard against Tyre. The soldiers’ heads were bald from carrying heavy basketfuls of earth; their shoulders were raw and blistered from burdens of stones for the siege. And Nebuchadnezzar received no compensation and could not pay the army for all this work.”
*
¹⁹
 Therefore, the Lord God says, “I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will carry off her wealth, plundering everything she has, for his army.
²⁰
 Yes, I have given him the land of Egypt for his salary because he was working for me during those thirteen years at Tyre,” says the Lord.
²¹
 “And the day will come when I will cause the ancient glory of Israel to revive, and then at last her words will be respected, and Egypt shall know I am the Lord.”