This prophecy of the doom of Tyre came to Ezekiel in the 11th or 12th year after Jehoiachin’s captivity, or about 588 BC, within a few days of the fall of Jerusalem. The siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years beginning 585 BC. While besieging Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar had driven Pharaoh Hophra back to the borders of Egypt, relieving Tyre from that menace. But Tyre not only exulted over her own deliverance, but also over the ruin of her neighbor, Israel. That is when Ezekiel received God’s word, predicting the calamity about to befall Tyre. 1And on the first day of the eleventh month of the twelfth year, this word of the LORD came to me, 2“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha, she is now laid waste; her gates are broken; and wide open to me; I shall become wealthy’; 3Thus says the Sovereign LORD: ‘I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and tear down her towers; I will also scrape even her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. 5It shall be a place for spreading nets to dry; for I have spoken it. And it shall become plunder for the nations. 6And her settlements on the mainland shall be assaulted by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.’ 7For thus says the Sovereign LORD: “Behold, I will bring from the north Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings, against Tyre, with horsemen, chariots, and a great army. 8He shall first assault your mainland villages. He will set up siege works, build ramps up to your walls, raise the buckler (shield) and slay with the sword. 9And he shall set up engines of war (battering rams) against your walls; and with his axes, shall break down your towers. 10Because he has so many horses, their dust shall cover you; your walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and the chariot wheels, when he shall rush into your gates, as men invade a city when its wall is breached. 11The hoofs of his horses shall trample down all your streets; he shall slay your people with the sword, and your strong garrisons shall be thrown to the ground. 12They shall plunder your riches, and make loot of your merchandise. They shall break down your walls, destroy your pleasant houses; and throw your stones, timber, and even your dust into the sea. 13And I will bring an end to your noisy songs; and the sound of your harps shall no more be heard. 14And I will make your city like the top of a rock; a place to spread nets upon, you shall never again be built; for I, the LORD, have spoken it.” 15Thus says the Sovereign LORD to Tyre: “Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is front and center in you? 16Then all the rulers of the sea shall step down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, take off their embroidered garments; and be clothed with terror. They shall sit on the ground, and tremble every moment, and be appalled at you. 17And they shall take up a lament for you, and say to you, ‘You - that was once the home of seafaring men, the renowned and strong city in the sea, whose inhabitants once spread fear around the world - How are you destroyed! 18Now the coastlands shall tremble in the day of your fall. Yes the islands in the sea shall be troubled at your collapse.” 19This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “When I make you a desolate city, a deserted city; when I shall bring the ocean depths up upon you, and vast waters cover you; 20When I bring you down with those that descend into the pit, with the people of long ago, and set you in the low parts of the earth, as in ancient ruins, with those that go down to the pit - the world of the dead; you shall not return to the land of the living; 21I will bring you to a terrible end, and you shall be no more; even if they look for you, you shall never be found again.”, says the LORD God.
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