The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 God's Message came to me,
1
The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 "Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, 'This is what God, the Master, says: "'Your heart is proud, going around saying, "I'm a god. I sit on God's divine throne, ruling the sea" - You, a mere mortal, not even close to being a god, A mere mortal trying to be a god.
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Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
3 Look, you think you're smarter than Daniel. No enigmas can stump you.
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Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
4 Your sharp intelligence made you world-wealthy. You piled up gold and silver in your banks.
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With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
5 You used your head well, worked good deals, made a lot of money. But the money has gone to your head, swelled your head - what a big head!
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By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
6 "'Therefore, God, the Master, says: "'Because you're acting like a god, pretending to be a god,
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Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
7 I'm giving fair warning: I'm bringing strangers down on you, the most vicious of all nations. They'll pull their swords and make hash of your reputation for knowing it all. They'll puncture the balloon of your god-pretensions.
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Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
8 They'll bring you down from your self-made pedestal and bury you in the deep blue sea.
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They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
9 Will you protest to your assassins, "You can't do that! I'm a god"? To them you're a mere mortal. They're killing a man, not a god.
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Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
10 You'll die like a stray dog, killed by strangers -
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Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
11 Because I said so. Decree of God, the Master.'"
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Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 "Son of man, raise a funeral song over the king of Tyre. Tell him, A Message from God, the Master: "You had everything going for you.
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Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, God's garden. You were dressed in splendor, your robe studded with jewels: Carnelian, peridot, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald, all in settings of engraved gold. A robe was prepared for you the same day you were created.
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Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 You were the anointed cherub. I placed you on the mountain of God. You strolled in magnificence among the stones of fire.
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Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 From the day of your creation you were sheer perfection... and then imperfection - evil! - was detected in you.
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Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 In much buying and selling you turned violent, you sinned! I threw you, disgraced, off the mountain of God. I threw you out - you, the anointed angel-cherub. No more strolling among the gems of fire for you!
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By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your beauty went to your head. You corrupted wisdom by using it to get worldly fame. I threw you to the ground, sent you sprawling before an audience of kings and let them gloat over your demise.
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Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 By sin after sin after sin, by your corrupt ways of doing business, you defiled your holy places of worship. So I set a fire around and within you. It burned you up. I reduced you to ashes. All anyone sees now when they look for you is ashes, a pitiful mound of ashes.
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Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All who once knew you now throw up their hands: 'This can't have happened! This has happened!'"
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All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
20 God's Message came to me:
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Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21 "Son of man, confront Sidon. Preach against it.
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Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
22 Say, 'Message from God, the Master: "'Look! I'm against you, Sidon. I intend to be known for who I truly am among you.' They'll know that I am God when I set things right and reveal my holy presence.
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And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
23 I'll order an epidemic of disease there, along with murder and mayhem in the streets. People will drop dead right and left, as war presses in from every side. Then they'll realize that I mean business, that I am God.
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For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
24 "No longer will Israel have to put up with their thistle-and-thorn neighbors Who have treated them so contemptuously. And they also will realize that I am God."
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And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
25 God, the Master, says, "When I gather Israel from the peoples among whom they've been scattered and put my holiness on display among them with all the nations looking on, then they'll live in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob.
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Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
26 They'll live there in safety. They'll build houses. They'll plant vineyards, living in safety. Meanwhile, I'll bring judgment on all the neighbors who have treated them with such contempt. And they'll realize that I am God."
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And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.