✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Ezekiel 27

KJV · Chapter 27/48

1The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

2Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;

3And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.

4Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

5They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.

6Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.

7Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.

8The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.

9The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.

10They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.

11The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.

12Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.

13Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.

14They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.

15The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.

16Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.

17Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.

18Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

19Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.

20Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.

21Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.

22The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.

23Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.

24These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

25The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.

26Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.

27Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

28The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.

29And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;

30And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

31And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.

32And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?

33When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.

34In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall.

35All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.

36The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A poetic lament details the wealth and international trade of Tyre, comparing the city to a magnificent ship built from the finest materials of the ancient world, which ultimately sinks in the middle of the sea.

Explanation

This chapter reads almost like a trade catalog of antiquity, listing dozens of nations that partnered in commerce with Tyre — from Spain (Tarshish) to Arabia, by way of Damascus, Judah, and Greece (Javan) — showing the impressive reach of Phoenician trade routes. The metaphor of the perfect ship that sinks shows that all human ingenuity, accumulated wealth, and network of alliances cannot guarantee lasting security in the face of God's judgment. The genuine mourning of the other merchants (vv. 29-36) reinforces that Tyre's fall would impact the whole regional economy, showing how one nation's wealth can become a dangerous dependency for many others.

Fun facts

  • The list of goods traded by Tyre — silver, iron, tin, lead, ivory, spices, horses — is confirmed by archaeological records and inscriptions from other ancient peoples, establishing Phoenicia as the greatest maritime trading power of its time.
  • Tarshish, mentioned as a distant trading partner, is generally identified with a region of ancient Spain, showing how surprisingly far Phoenician trade routes reached already in the first millennium before Christ.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezekiel 27:1The standard formula that opens a new message — here, a specific poem about Tyre within the larger oracle against the city that began in chapter 26.
  2. Ezekiel 27:2Ezekiel is ordered to compose a ‘lamentation,’ a formal mourning song — the rest of the chapter is that poem, describing Tyre as a magnificent ship right before it sinks.
  3. Ezekiel 27:3‘I am of perfect beauty’ is Tyre’s own self-description, quoted at the start of the lament — the prophet uses the city’s own proud words as a starting point before describing its fall.
  4. Ezekiel 27:4The poem imagines Tyre as a perfect ship: ‘in the midst of the seas’ describes the city built on an island, surrounded by water, at the height of its architectural beauty.
  5. Ezekiel 27:5The ship metaphor continues: the building materials come from lands famous for quality timber — Senir and Lebanon, a forested mountain region to the north.
  6. Ezekiel 27:6More pieces of the ship-Tyre’s ‘construction’: oaks of Bashan for the oars, imported ivory for the benches — every part made from the finest material available at the time.
  7. Ezekiel 27:7Embroidered Egyptian linen becomes the ship’s sail, and dyed fabrics from the isles of Elishah (a Mediterranean region) cover the deck — imported luxury even down to the decorative details.
  8. Ezekiel 27:8Zidon and Arvad were Phoenician cities neighboring Tyre; here they supply the rowers, while Tyre’s own wise men command the ship as pilots.
  9. Ezekiel 27:9Gebal (also called Byblos) was a Phoenician city famous for its craftsmen; its elders appear repairing the hull — one more piece of the trade network that sustained Tyre.
  10. Ezekiel 27:10Persians, Lydians, and men of Put (in what is now Libya) formed Tyre’s mercenary army — even the city’s military defense depended on outsiders.
  11. Ezekiel 27:11Arvad reappears manning the walls, and the Gammadims (a people of Anatolia) fill out the towers — the image is of a city international even in its own defense.
  12. Ezekiel 27:12The long list of Tyre’s trading partners works as a poetic catalog: the longer the list of routes and goods, the greater the image of wealth and reach about to collapse — this is not a factual trade record, it is a literary device of exaggeration.
  13. Ezekiel 27:13Javan (Greece), Tubal, and Meshech, in what is now Turkey and the Caucasus, traded slaves and bronze vessels with Tyre — commerce that included even people as merchandise.
  14. Ezekiel 27:14Togarmah, to the north near Armenia, supplied horses and mules — a detail showing how far Tyre’s trade network reached, all the way to the Caucasus.
  15. Ezekiel 27:15Dedan and various isles traded ivory and ebony with Tyre; in the Bible, ‘isles’ also describes distant coastal regions, not only islands in the literal sense.
  16. Ezekiel 27:16Syria brought precious stones and luxury fabrics — one more entry in the long list showing the wealth that passed through Tyre’s ports.
  17. Ezekiel 27:17Judah and Israel also appear as trading partners of Tyre, exchanging wheat, honey, oil, and balm — showing that trade connected even the closest neighbors.
  18. Ezekiel 27:18Damascus, the capital of Syria, traded wine and wool with Tyre — another link in the extensive trade network described throughout this chapter.
  19. Ezekiel 27:19Dan, Javan, and other regions rounded out the trade in metal and spices — the whole list serves to show the scale of the wealth Tyre is about to lose.
  20. Ezekiel 27:20Dedan appears again, now supplying fabric used to line chariots — a specific luxury item within the chapter’s long trade list.
  21. Ezekiel 27:21Arabia and the princes of Kedar, nomadic desert tribes, sold livestock to Tyre — the trade ranged from the simplest goods to the most refined.
  22. Ezekiel 27:22Sheba and Raamah, in southern Arabia, supplied rare spices, precious stones, and gold — the most valuable items in this whole trade list.
  23. Ezekiel 27:23Haran, Canneh, Eden, and other cities of Mesopotamia closed the circle of Tyre’s trade, which stretched across almost the entire known world of the time.
  24. Ezekiel 27:24The final entry on the list: bales of fine cloth packed carefully in cedar chests — a summary of the refined merchandise that moved through Tyre’s ports.
  25. Ezekiel 27:25The ships of Tarshish, one of the longest trade routes of the time, celebrate Tyre’s wealth — the highest point of the poem right before everything collapses.
  26. Ezekiel 27:26The final image is of shipwreck: the very sailors who carried Tyre to so many ports are the ones who take it down to the bottom of the sea, when the east wind breaks the ship-city in the midst of the waters.
  27. Ezekiel 27:27After the whole list of wealth and people involved in Tyre’s trade, the poem announces that everything — goods, sailors, soldiers, population — would sink together on the day of its fall.
  28. Ezekiel 27:28The pilots’ cry as they sink is so loud that it shakes even the outskirts of the city — Tyre’s fall is described as a catastrophe felt across the whole region.
  29. Ezekiel 27:29Sailors and pilots abandon their ships and come ashore just to mourn — even those who lived on the sea must come down to weep over the loss of the great port.
  30. Ezekiel 27:30Dust on the head and rolling in ashes were common mourning rituals in the ancient Near East — the same gesture used to grieve a death, here applied to an entire city.
  31. Ezekiel 27:31Shaving the head and putting on sackcloth were visible signs of deep mourning; here they mark the scale of the loss felt by those who depended commercially on Tyre.
  32. Ezekiel 27:32The lament uses a classic rhetorical question of the genre — ‘What city is like Tyrus?’ — to highlight how such a unique and powerful city disappeared.
  33. Ezekiel 27:33It reinforces how much Tyre enriched other peoples: entire kings grew wealthy from the trade passing through its ports, which makes the fall even more shocking.
  34. Ezekiel 27:34The exact moment of the shipwreck is described: everything that made Tyre run — goods and people — sinks together into the depths of the sea.
  35. Ezekiel 27:35The astonishment of the isles and their kings shows the chain reaction of Tyre’s fall across the whole maritime economy of the region, not just on the city itself.
  36. Ezekiel 27:36The chapter ends with Tyre becoming a byword hissed at in astonishment among the merchants — and the confirmation that it would never exist again as it once had.

Chapters

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play