Ezekiel 25-26

New Living Translation

A Message for Ammon

25 Then this message came to me from the Lord: ² “Son of man, turn and face the land of Ammon and prophesy against its people. ³ Give the Ammonites this message from the Sovereign Lord: Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord! Because you cheered when my Temple was defiled, mocked Israel in her desolation, and laughed at Judah as she went away into exile, ⁴ I will allow nomads from the eastern deserts to overrun your country. They will set up their camps among you and pitch their tents on your land. They will harvest all your fruit and drink the milk from your livestock. ⁵ And I will turn the city of Rabbah into a pasture for camels, and all the land of the Ammonites into a resting place for sheep and goats. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁶ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you clapped and danced and cheered with glee at the destruction of my people, ⁷ I will raise my fist of judgment against you. I will give you as plunder to many nations. I will cut you off from being a nation and destroy you completely. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

A Message for Moab

⁸ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the people of Moab^[a] have said that Judah is just like all the other nations, ⁹ I will open up their eastern flank and wipe out their glorious frontier towns—Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. ¹⁰ And I will hand Moab over to nomads from the eastern deserts, just as I handed over Ammon. Yes, the Ammonites will no longer be counted among the nations. ¹¹ In the same way, I will bring my judgment down on the Moabites. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

A Message for Edom

¹² “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The people of Edom have sinned greatly by avenging themselves against the people of Judah. ¹³ Therefore, says the Sovereign Lord, I will raise my fist of judgment against Edom. I will wipe out its people and animals with the sword. I will make a wasteland of everything from Teman to Dedan. ¹⁴ I will accomplish this by the hand of my people of Israel. They will carry out my vengeance with anger, and Edom will know that this vengeance is from me. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!

A Message for Philistia

¹⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The people of Philistia have acted against Judah out of bitter revenge and long-standing contempt. ¹⁶ Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will raise my fist of judgment against the land of the Philistines. I will wipe out the Kerethites and utterly destroy the people who live by the sea. ¹⁷ I will execute terrible vengeance against them to punish them for what they have done. And when I have inflicted my revenge, they will know that I am the Lord.”

A Message for Tyre

26 On February 3, during the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,^[b] this message came to me from the Lord: ² “Son of man, Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir! Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy!’

³ “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am your enemy, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the waves of the sea crashing against your shoreline. ⁴ They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. I will scrape away its soil and make it a bare rock! ⁵ It will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their nets, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign Lord. Tyre will become the prey of many nations, ⁶ and its mainland villages will be destroyed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I will bring King Nebuchadnezzar^[c] of Babylon against Tyre. He is king of kings and brings his horses, chariots, charioteers, and great army. ⁸ First he will destroy your mainland villages. Then he will attack you by building a siege wall, constructing a ramp, and raising a roof of shields against you. ⁹ He will pound your walls with battering rams and demolish your towers with sledgehammers. ¹⁰ The hooves of his horses will choke the city with dust, and the noise of the charioteers and chariot wheels will shake your walls as they storm through your broken gates. ¹¹ His horsemen will trample through every street in the city. They will butcher your people, and your strong pillars will topple.

¹² “They will plunder all your riches and merchandise and break down your walls. They will destroy your lovely homes and dump your stones and timbers and even your dust into the sea. ¹³ I will stop the music of your songs. No more will the sound of harps be heard among your people. ¹⁴ I will make your island a bare rock, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken. Yes, the Sovereign Lord has spoken!

The Effect of Tyre’s Destruction

¹⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: The whole coastline will tremble at the sound of your fall, as the screams of the wounded echo in the continuing slaughter. ¹⁶ All the seaport rulers will step down from their thrones and take off their royal robes and beautiful clothing. They will sit on the ground trembling with horror at your destruction. ¹⁷ Then they will wail for you, singing this funeral song:

¹⁹ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will make Tyre an uninhabited ruin, like many others. I will bury you beneath the terrible waves of enemy attack. Great seas will swallow you. ²⁰ I will send you to the pit to join those who descended there long ago. Your city will lie in ruins, buried beneath the earth, like those in the pit who have entered the world of the dead. You will have no place of respect here in the land of the living. ²¹ I will bring you to a terrible end, and you will exist no more. You will be looked for, but you will never again be found. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”