The Babylonian Exile

By your wisdom and understanding you have gained your wealth and amassed gold and silver for your treasuries.

By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you regard your heart as the heart of a god,

behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor.

They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas.

Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.

You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.”

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for I had ordained you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways— until wickedness was found in you.

By the vastness of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I banished you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

Your heart grew proud of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor; so I cast you to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings.

By the multitude of your iniquities and the dishonesty of your trading you have profaned your sanctuaries. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the eyes of all who saw you.

All the nations who know you are appalled over you. You have come to a horrible end and will be no more.’”

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

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

And you are to declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified within you. They will know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments against her and demonstrate My holiness through her.

I will send a plague against her and shed blood in her streets; the slain will fall within her, while the sword is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.’

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered, I will show Myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will dwell in their own land, which I have given to My servant Jacob.

And there they will dwell securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.’”

In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.