Ezekiel 27:29-36

29 Sailors everywhere abandon ship. Veteran seamen swim for dry land.
30 They cry out in grief, a choir of bitter lament over you. They smear their faces with ashes,
31 shave their heads, Wear rough burlap, wildly keening their loss.
32 They raise their funeral song: "Who on the high seas is like Tyre!"
33 "'As you crisscrossed the seas with your products, you satisfied many peoples. Your worldwide trade made earth's kings rich.
34 And now you're battered to bits by the waves, sunk to the bottom of the sea, And everything you've bought and sold has sunk to the bottom with you.
35 Everyone on shore looks on in terror. The hair of kings stands on end, their faces drawn and haggard!
36 The buyers and sellers of the world throw up their hands: This horror can't happen! Oh, this has happened!'"

Ezekiel 27:29-36 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 27

This chapter contains a lamentation on Tyre; setting forth her former grandeur, riches, and commerce; her ruin and destruction; and the concern of others on that account. The prophet is bid to take up his lamentation concerning it, Eze 27:1,2, observing her situation and magnificence, of which she boasted, Eze 27:3,4, describing the excellency of her shipping and naval stores, Eze 27:5-7, declaring who were her mariners, pilots, and caulkers, Eze 27:8,9, her military men, Eze 27:10,11 her several merchants, and the things they traded in with her in her fairs and markets, Eze 27:12-25, then follows an account of her destruction, Eze 27:26,27, the lamentation of pilots and mariners because of it, Eze 27:28-32, and of the kings and inhabitants of the isles, and merchants of the people, Eze 27:33-36.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.