Chapter 58

26:18. Now shall the ships be astonished in the day of thy terror: and the islands in the sea shall be troubled because no one cometh out of thee.

26:19. For thus saith the Lord God: When I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited: and shall bring the deep upon thee, and many waters shall cover thee:

26:20. And when I shall bring thee down with those that descend into the pit to the everlasting people, and shall set thee in the lowest parts of the earth, as places desolate of old, with them that are brought down into the pit, that thou be not inhabited: and when I shall give glory in the land of the living,

26:21. I will bring thee to nothing, and thou shalt not be, and if thou be sought for, thou shalt not be found any more for ever, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 27

A description of the glory and riches of Tyre: and of her irrecoverable fall.

27:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

27:2. Thou therefore, O son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre:

27:3. And say to Tyre that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, being the mart of the people for many islands: Thus saith the Lord God: O Tyre, thou hast said: I am of perfect beauty,

27:4. And situate in the heart of the sea. Thy neighbours, that built thee, have perfected thy beauty:

27:5. With fir trees of Sanir they have built thee with all sea planks: they have taken cedars from Libanus to make thee masts.

Sea planks. . .That is, timber brought by sea to build the city.

27:6. They have cut thy oars out of the oaks of Basan: and they have made thee benches of Indian ivory and cabins with things brought from the islands of Italy.

27:7. Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for thy sail, to be spread on thy mast: blue and purple from the islands of Elisa, were made thy covering.

27:8. The inhabitants of Sidon, and the Arabians were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were thy pilots.

27:9. The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof furnished mariners for the service of thy various furniture: all the ships of the sea, and their mariners were thy factors.

27:10. The Persians, and Lydians, and the Libyans were thy soldiers in thy army: they hung up the buckler and the helmet in thee for thy ornament.

27:11. The men of Arad were with thy army upon thy walls round about: the Pygmeans also that were in thy towers, hung up their quivers on thy walls round about: they perfected thy beauty.

Pygmeans. . .That is, strong and valiant men. In Hebrew, Gammadim.

27:12. The Carthaginians thy merchants supplied thy fairs with a multitude of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead,

27:13. Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, they were thy merchants, they brought to thy people slaves and vessels of brass.

27:14. From the house of Thogorma they brought horses, and horsemen, and mules to thy market.

27:15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many islands were the traffic of thy hand, they exchanged for thy price teeth of ivory and ebony.

27:16. The Syrian was thy merchant: by reason of the multitude of thy works, they set forth precious stories, and purple, and broidered works, and fine linen, and silk, and chodchod in thy market.

Chodchod. . .It is the Hebrew name for some precious stone; but of what kind in particular interpreters are not agreed.

27:17. Juda and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants with the best corn: they set forth balm, and honey, and oil and rosin in thy fairs.

27:18. The men of Damascus were thy merchants in the multitude of thy works, the multitude of divers riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best colour.

27:19. Dan, and Greece, and Mosel have set forth in thy marts wrought iron: stacte, and calamus were in thy market.

27:20. The men of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for seats.

27:21. Arabia, and all the princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of thy hand: thy merchants came to thee with lambs, and rams, and kids.

27:22. The sellers of Saba, and Reema, they were thy merchants: with all the best spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they set forth in thy market.

27:23. Haran, and Chene, and Eden were thy merchants; Saba, Assur, and Chelmad sold to thee.

27:24. They were thy merchants in divers manners, with bales of blue cloth, and of embroidered work, and of precious riches, which were wrapped up and bound with cords: they had cedars also in thy merchandise.

27:25. The ships of the sea, were thy chief in thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and glorified exceedingly in the heart of the sea.

27:26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the south wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.

27:27. Thy riches, and thy treasures, and thy manifold furniture, thy mariners, and thy pilots, who kept thy goods, and were chief over thy people: thy men of war also, that were in thee, with all thy multitude that is in the midst of thee: shall fall in the heart of the sea in the day of thy ruin.

27:28. Thy fleets shall be troubled at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.

27:29. And all that handled the oar shall come down from their ships: the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea shall stand upon the land:

27:30. And they shall mourn over thee with a loud voice and shall cry bitterly: and they shall cast up dust upon their heads and shall be sprinkled with ashes.

27:31. And they shall shave themselves bald for thee, and shall be girded with haircloth: and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of soul, with most bitter weeping.

27:32. And they shall take up a mournful song for thee, and shall lament thee: What city is like Tyre, which is become silent in the midst of the sea?

27:33. Which by thy merchandise that went from thee by sea didst fill many people: which by the multitude of thy riches, and of thy people didst enrich the kings of the earth.

27:34. Now thou art destroyed by the sea, thy riches are in the bottom of the waters, and all the multitude that was in the midst of thee is fallen.

27:35. All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at thee: and all their kings being struck with the storm have changed their countenance.

27:36. The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.

Ezechiel Chapter 28

The king of Tyre, who affected to be like to God, shall fall under the like sentence with Lucifer. The judgment of Sidon. The restoration of Israel.

28:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

28:2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God.

28:3. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel: no secret is hid from thee.

Thou art wiser than Daniel. . .Viz., in thy own conceit. The wisdom of Daniel was so much celebrated in his days, that it became a proverb amongst the Chaldeans, when any one would express an extraordinary wisdom, to say he was as wise as Daniel.

28:4. In thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast made thyself strong: and hast gotten gold an silver into thy treasures.

28:5. By the greatness of thy wisdom, and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy strength: and thy heart is lifted up with thy strength.

28:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up as the heart of God:

28:7. Therefore behold, I will bring upon thee strangers: the strongest of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy beauty.

28:8. They shall kill thee, and bring thee down: and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain in the heart of the sea.

28:9. Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am God; whereas thou art a man, and not God, in the hand of them that slay thee?

28:10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

28:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre:

28:12. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Thou wast the seal of resemblance. . .The king of Tyre, by his dignity and his natural perfections, bore in himself a certain resemblance to God, by reason of which he might be called the seal of resemblance, etc. But what is here said to him is commonly understood of Lucifer, the king over all the children of pride.

28:13. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes were prepared in the day that thou wast created.

28:14. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

A cherub stretched out. . .That is, thy wings extended. This alludes to the figure of the cherubims in the sanctuary, which with stretched out wings covered the ark.--Ibid. The stones of fire. . .That is, bright and precious stones which sparkle like fire.

28:15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee.

28:16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire.

28:17. And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground: I have set thee before the face of kings, that they might behold thee.

28:18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thy iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, to devour thee, and I will make thee as ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see thee.

28:19. All that shall see thee among the nations, shall be astonished at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.

28:20. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

28:21. Son of man, set thy face against Sidon: and thou shalt prophesy of it,

28:22. And shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, Sidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall execute judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

28:23. And I will send into her pestilence, and blood in her streets: and they shall fall being slain by the sword on all sides in the midst thereof: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

28:24. And the house of Israel shall have no more a stumblingblock of bitterness, nor a thorn causing pain on every side round about them, of them that are against them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.

28:25. Thus saith the Lord God: When I shall have gathered together the house of Israel out of the people among whom they are scattered: I will be sanctified in them before the Gentiles: and they shall dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.

28:26. And they shall dwell therein secure, and they shall build houses, and shall plant vineyards, and shall dwell with confidence, when I shall have executed judgments upon all that are their enemies round about: and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.

Ezechiel Chapter 29

The king of Egypt shall be overthrown, and his kingdom wasted: it shall be given to Nabuchodonosor for his service against Tyre.

29:1. In the tenth year, the tenth month, the eleventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

29:2. Son of man, set thy face against Pharao king of Egypt: and thou shalt prophesy of him, and of all Egypt:

29:3. Speak, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, Pharao king of Egypt, thou great dragon that liest in the midst of thy rivers, and sayest: The river is mine, and I made myself.

29:4. But I will put a bridle in thy jaws: and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales: and I will draw thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all thy fish shall stick to thy scales.

29:5. And I will cast thee forth into the desert, and all the fish of thy river: thou shalt fall upon the face of the earth, thou shalt not be taken up, nor gathered together: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the earth, and to the fowls of the air.

29:6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord: because thou hast been a staff of a reed to the house of Israel.

29:7. When they took hold of thee with the hand thou didst break, and rent all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brokest, and weakenest all their loins.

29:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring the sword upon thee: and cut off man and beast out of thee.

29:9. And the land of Egypt shall become a desert, and a wilderness: and they shall know that I am the Lord, because thou hast said: The river is mine, and I made it.

29:10. Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy rivers: and I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, and wasted by the sword, from the tower of Syene, even to the borders of Ethiopia.

29:11. The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither shall the foot of beasts go through it: nor shall it be inhabited during forty years.

29:12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof in the midst of the cites that are destroyed, and they shall be desolate for forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

29:13. For thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the people among whom they had been scattered.

29:14. And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will place them in the land of Phatures, in the land of their nativity, and they shall be there a low kingdom:

29:15. It shall be the lowest among other kingdoms, and it shall no more be exalted over the nations, and I will diminish them that they shall rule no more over the nations.

29:16. And they shall be no more a confidence to the house of Israel, teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.

29:17. And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year in the first month, in the first of the month: that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

29:18. Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath made his army to undergo hard service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled and there hath been no reward given him, nor his army for Tyre, for the service that he rendered me against it.

29:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will set Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon in the land of Egypt: and he shall take her multitude, and take the booty thereof for a prey, and rifle the spoils thereof: and it shall be wages for his army.

29:20. And for the service that he hath done me against it: I have given him the land of Egypt, because he hath laboured for me, saith the Lord God.

29:21. In that day a horn shall bud forth to the house of Israel, and I will give thee an open mouth in the midst of them: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 30

The desolation of Egypt and her helpers: all her cities shall be wasted.

30:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

30:2. Son of man prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye, Woe, woe to the day:

30:3. For the day is near, yea the day of the Lord is near: a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations.

30:4. And the sword shall come upon Egypt: and there shall be dread in Ethiopia, when the wounded shall fall in Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall be taken away, and the foundations thereof shall be destroyed.

30:5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the rest of the crowd, and Chub, and the children of the land of the covenant, shall fall with them by the sword.

30:6. Thus saith the Lord God: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her empire shall be brought down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

30:7. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

30:8. And they shall know that I am the Lord: when I shall have set a fire in Egypt, and all the helpers thereof shall be destroyed.

30:9. In that day shall messengers go forth from my face in ships to destroy the confidence of Ethiopia, and there shall be dread among them in the day of Egypt: because it shall certainly come.

30:10. Thus saith the Lord God: I will make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon.

30:11. He and his people with him, the strongest of nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords upon Egypt: and shall fill the land with the slain.

30:12. And I will make the channels of the rivers dry, and will deliver the land into the hand of the wicked: and will lay waste the land and all that is therein by the hands of strangers, I the Lord have spoken it.

30:13. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I will make an end of the idols of Memphis: and there shall: be no more a prince of the land of Egypt and I will cause a terror in the land of Egypt.

30:14. And I will destroy the land of Phatures, and will make a fire in Taphnis, and will execute judgments in Alexandria.

Alexandria. . .In the Hebrew, No: which was the ancient name of that city, which was afterwards rebuilt by Alexander the Great, and from his name called Alexandria.

30:15. And I will pour out my indignation upon Pelusium the strength of Egypt, and will cut off the multitude of Alexandria.

30:16. And I will make a fire in Egypt: Pelusium shall be in pain like a woman in labour, and Alexandria shall be laid waste, and in Memphis there shall be daily distresses.

30:17. The young men of Heliopolis, and of Bubastus shall fall by the sword, and they themselves shall go into captivity.

30:18. And in Taphnis the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the sceptres of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall be led into captivity.

30:19. And I will execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

30:20. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came, me, saying:

30:21. Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharao king of Egypt: and behold it is not bound up, to be healed, to be tied up with clothes, and swathed with linen, that it might recover strength, and hold the sword.

30:22. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against Pharao king of Egypt, and I will break into pieces his strong arm, which is already broken: and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand:

30:23. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and scatter them through the countries.

30:24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and will put my sword in his hand: and I will break the arms of Pharao, and they shall groan bitterly being slain before his face.

30:25. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharao shall fall: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have given my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall have stretched it forth upon the land of Egypt.

30:26. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and will scatter them through the countries, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 31

The Assyrian empire fell for their pride: the Egyptian shall fall in like manner.

31:1. And it came to pass, in the eleventh year, the third month the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

31:2. Son of man, speak to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his people: To whom art thou like in thy greatness?

31:3. Behold, the Assyrian like a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches, and full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated among the thick boughs.

31:4. The waters nourished him, the deep set him tip on high, the streams thereof ran round about his roots, and it sent, forth its rivulets to all the trees of the country.

31:5. Therefore was his height exalted above all the trees of the country and his branches were multiplied, and his boughs were elevated because of many waters.

31:6. And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the fowls of the air made their nests in his boughs, and all the beasts of the forest brought forth their young under his branches, and the assembly of many nations dwelt under his shadow.

31:7. And he was most beautiful for his greatness, and for the spreading of his branches: for his root was near great waters.

31:8. The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he, the fir trees did not equal his top, neither were the plane trees to be compared with him for branches: no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty.

31:9. For I made him beautiful and thick set with many branches: and all the trees of pleasure, that were in the paradise of God, envied him.

31:10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because he was exalted in height, and shot up his top green and thick, and his heart was lifted up in his height:

31:11. I have delivered him into the hands of the mighty one of the nations, he shall deal with him: I have cast him out according to his wickedness.

I have delivered. . .Here the time past is put for the future, i. e., I shall deliver.--Ibid. The mighty one, etc. . .Viz., Nabuchodonosor, who conquered both the Assyrians and Egyptians.

31:12. And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations shall cut him down, and cast him away upon the mountains, and his boughs shall fall in every valley, and his branches shall be broken on every rock of the country: and all the people of the earth shall depart from his shadow, and leave him.

31:13. All the fowls of the air dwelt upon his ruins, and all the beasts of the field were among his branches.

31:14. For which cause none of the trees by the waters shall exalt themselves for their height: nor shoot up their tops among the thick branches and leaves, neither shall any of them that are watered stand up in their height: for they are all delivered unto death to the lowest parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down into the pit.

31:15. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to hell, I brought in mourning, I covered him with the deep: and I withheld its rivers, and restrained the many waters: Libanus grieved for him, and all the trees of the field trembled.

31:16. I shook the nations with the sound of his fall, when I brought him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of pleasure, the choice and best in Libanus, all that were moistened with waters, were comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.

31:17. For they also shall go down with him to hell to them that are slain by the sword; and the arm of every one shall sit down under his shadow in the midst of the nations.