Ezekiel 28 AMPC

1. THE WORD of the Lord came again to me, saying,

2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is lifted up and you have said and thought, I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas; yet you are only man [weak, feeble, made of earth] and not God, though you imagine yourself to be almost more than mortal with your mind as the mind of God;

3. Indeed, you are [imagining yourself] wiser than Daniel; there is no secret [you think] that is hidden from you;

4. With your own wisdom and with your own understanding you have gotten you riches and power and have brought gold and silver into your treasuries;

5. By your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches and power, and your heart is proud and lifted up because of your wealth;

6. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have imagined your mind as the mind of God [having thoughts and purposes suitable only to God Himself], [Obad. 3.]

7. Behold therefore, I am bringing strangers upon you, the most terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom [O Tyre], and they shall defile your splendor.

8. They shall bring you down to the pit [of destruction] and you shall die the [many] deaths of all the Tyrians that are slain in the heart of the seas.

9. Will you still say, I am a god, before him who slays you? But you are only a man [made of earth] and no god in the hand of him who wounds and profanes you.

10. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God.

11. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12. Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: You are the full measure and pattern of exactness [giving the finishing touch to all that constitutes completeness], full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the carnelian, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, beryl, onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and your settings and your sockets and engravings were wrought in gold. On the day that you were created they were prepared. [Gen. 3:14, 15; Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 16:23.]

14. You were the anointed cherub that covers with overshadowing [wings], and I set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God; you walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire [like the paved work of gleaming sapphire stone upon which the God of Israel walked on Mount Sinai]. [Exod. 24:10.]

15. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity and guilt were found in you.

16. Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned; therefore I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.

17. Your heart was proud and lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, that they might gaze at you.

18. You have profaned your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities and the enormity of your guilt, by the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; it has consumed you, and I have reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who looked at you.

19. All who know you among the people are astonished and appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and shall never return to being. [Isa. 23; Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:9, 10; Zech. 9:3, 4.]

20. Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

21. Son of man, set your face toward Sidon and prophesy against her.

22. And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will show forth My glory and be glorified in the midst of you. And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord when I execute judgments and punishments in her, and am set apart and separated and My holiness is manifested in her.

23. For I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets, and the wounded shall be judged and fall by the sword in the midst of her on every side, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

24. And there shall be no more a brier to prick the house of Israel or a hurting thorn of all those around them who have treated them with contempt, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

25. Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and I shall be set apart and separated and My holiness made apparent in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.

26. And they shall dwell safely in it and shall build houses and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell securely and with confidence when I have executed judgments and punishments upon all those round about them who have despised and trodden upon them and pushed them away, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord their God [their Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].