Knox Bible

1

And word came to me from the Lord:

2

Son of man, do thou thyself sing the dirge over Tyre.

3

A message from the Lord God to the city that is built by the sea’s gates, and trafficks with many peoples on many shores! Thine was the boast of perfect beauty,

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the embosoming sea thy frontier. A well-fitted ship thou wert, such as they build on yonder coast;

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of fir-wood from Sanir thy outer planks, of Lebanon cedar thy mast,

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oars shaped from Basan oak, thy thwarts of box-wood✻ from the western islands, with marquetry of Indian ivory.

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Of broidered linen from Egypt the sails they spread for thee, awning of blue and purple from the Grecian isles gave thee shade.

8

For thee, men of Sidon and of Arad manned the oar; thyself, Tyre, gavest men of skill, thy own citizens, to be helmsmen.

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For thy dockyards,✻ all the grey-haired wisdom of Gebal was at thy command, and for trafficking, never was ship or sailor in the world but visited thee.

10

Warriors from Persia, from Lydia, from Africa, fought thy battles, with shield and helmet decked thy walls;

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men of Arvad ringed the battlements, thy defenders, and the Gammadim,✻ too, were mounted on thy towers, on thy walls hung their quivers; lacked nothing for thy adornment.

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And for the merchants that dealt with thee, how Carthage poured her wealth into thy market-place, of silver and iron, of tin and lead!

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What purveyors of thine were Ionia, Thubal, and Mosoch, with their slaves to sell thee, their urns of bronze;

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and the men of Thogorma, with horse and horseman and mule!

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The sons of Dedan were thy pedlars; riches came to thee from the islands far away; ivory and ebony thou couldst win by barter.

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Syria, too, for the multitude of thy wares, must trade with thee, exposing in thy mart carbuncles, and purple, and embroidery, and lawn, and silk, and rubies.

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Juda and Israel themselves had their yield to bring thee, fresh wheat and balm and honey and oil and gum for thy stalls.

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Damascus, for thy many goods, had much to exchange, rare wines and brightly dyed wool;

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Dan and Ionia and Mosel offered wrought iron for sale, with cassia and calamus supplied thee.

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Dedan brought thee saddles;

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Arabia and Cedar’s chieftains were at thy call, driving in lamb and ram and goat for thy purchasing.

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The merchants of Saba and Reema were thy merchants too, with spices and precious stones and gold to shew in thy fairs;

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Haran, Chene and Eden, Saba, Assur and Chelmad, none of them but exchanged traffick with thee;

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and how rich the variety of it, the coverlets of blue, the embroideries, the treasure-caskets wound about with cords, the cedar-wood, all for thy profit!✻

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But the ships, they were thy pedlars in chief; the ocean-going ships, that gave thee thy wealth, gave thee thy sea-environed renown.

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Alas, that those oarsmen of thine should have ferried thee out into deep waters, for the storm-wind to wreck thee, out in the heart of the sea!

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All thy wealth and treasure and merchandise, thy mariners and helmsmen, dockyard masters and captains, all the warriors thou hast, and the common folk that dwell in thee, must sink down to the sea’s depths in this day of thy fall.

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Bewildered, all thy navy, with the helmsmen’s shouts;

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down come the rowers from their ships, mariner and pilot line the shore.

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Loud they bewail thee, bitter their cry, as they throw dust on their heads and sprinkle themselves with ashes;

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heads are shaven, sackcloth is every man’s wear; woeful hearts are all around, and woeful lament.

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And a sad dirge they shall sing as they mourn over thee: City was none like Tyre, that now lies forgotten in the depths of the sea!

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Peoples a many thy trafficking supplied; all the kings of the earth were richer for wealth of thine, enterprise of thine;

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and now the sea has swallowed thee up; buried in the deep waters all the prosperity that was thine, all the citizens that thronged thee.

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The island peoples, how they stood aghast at thy fall; the island kings, how their faces fell at the news of thy shipwreck!

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How they hissed in derision, the traders of other nations! Only ruin is left of thee, for ever vanished and gone.