23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:
Wail, you large ships, 1
for the port is too devastated to enter! 2
From the land of Cyprus 3 this news is announced to them.
23:2 Lament, 4 you residents of the coast,
you merchants of Sidon 5 who travel over the sea,
whose agents sail over 23:3 the deep waters! 6
Grain from the Shihor region, 7
crops grown near the Nile 8 she receives; 9
she is the trade center 10 of the nations.
23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,
for the sea 11 says this, O fortress of the sea:
“I have not gone into labor
or given birth;
I have not raised young men
or brought up young women.” 12
23:5 When the news reaches Egypt,
they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. 13
23:6 Travel to Tarshish!
Wail, you residents of the coast!
23:7 Is this really your boisterous city 14
whose origins are in the distant past, 15
and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?
23:8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, 16
whose merchants are princes,
whose traders are the dignitaries 17 of the earth?
23:9 The Lord who commands armies planned it –
to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, 18
to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.
23:10 Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile;
there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre. 19
23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, 20
he shook kingdoms;
he 21 gave the order
to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. 22
23:12 He said,
“You will no longer celebrate,
oppressed 23 virgin daughter Sidon!
Get up, travel to Cyprus,
but you will find no relief there.” 24
23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,
these people who have lost their identity! 25
The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals.
They erected their siege towers, 26
demolished 27 its fortresses,
and turned it into a heap of ruins. 28
23:14 Wail, you large ships, 29
for your fortress is destroyed!
23:15 At that time 30 Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, 31 the typical life span of a king. 32 At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: 33
23:16 “Take the harp,
go through the city,
forgotten prostitute!
Play it well,
play lots of songs,
so you’ll be noticed!” 34
23:17 At the end of seventy years 35 the Lord will revive 36 Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. 37 23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. 38
24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, 39
the master as well as the servant, 40
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, 41
the seller as well as the buyer, 42
the borrower as well as the lender, 43
the creditor as well as the debtor. 44
24:3 The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment. 45
24:4 The earth 46 dries up 47 and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth 48 fade away.
24:5 The earth is defiled by 49 its inhabitants, 50
for they have violated laws,
disregarded the regulation, 51
and broken the permanent treaty. 52
24:6 So a treaty curse 53 devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt. 54
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, 55
and are reduced to just a handful of people. 56
24:7 The new wine dries up,
the vines shrivel up,
all those who like to celebrate 57 groan.
24:8 The happy sound 58 of the tambourines stops,
the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,
the happy sound of the harp ceases.
24:9 They no longer sing and drink wine; 59
the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.
24:10 The ruined town 60 is shattered;
all of the houses are shut up tight. 61
24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; 62
all joy turns to sorrow; 63
celebrations disappear from the earth. 64
24:12 The city is left in ruins; 65
the gate is reduced to rubble. 66
24:13 This is what will happen throughout 67 the earth,
among the nations.
It will be like when they beat an olive tree,
and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest. 68
24:14 They 69 lift their voices and shout joyfully;
they praise 70 the majesty of the Lord in the west.
24:15 So in the east 71 extol the Lord,
along the seacoasts extol 72 the fame 73 of the Lord God of Israel.
24:16 From the ends of the earth we 74 hear songs –
the Just One is majestic. 75
But I 76 say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!
Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” 77
24:17 Terror, pit, and snare
are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth! 78
24:18 The one who runs away from the sound of the terror
will fall into the pit; 79
the one who climbs out of the pit,
will be trapped by the snare.
For the floodgates of the heavens 80 are opened up 81
and the foundations of the earth shake.
24:19 The earth is broken in pieces,
the earth is ripped to shreds,
the earth shakes violently. 82
24:20 The earth will stagger around 83 like a drunk;
it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. 84
Its sin will weigh it down,
and it will fall and never get up again.
24:21 At that time 85 the Lord will punish 86
the heavenly forces in the heavens 87
and the earthly kings on the earth.
24:22 They will be imprisoned in a pit, 88
locked up in a prison,
and after staying there for a long time, 89 they will be punished. 90
24:23 The full moon will be covered up, 91
the bright sun 92 will be darkened; 93
for the Lord who commands armies will rule 94
on Mount Zion in Jerusalem 95
in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor. 96
25:1 O Lord, you are my God! 97
I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. 98
For you have done extraordinary things,
and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. 99
25:2 Indeed, 100 you have made the city 101 into a heap of rubble,
the fortified town into a heap of ruins;
the fortress of foreigners 102 is no longer a city,
it will never be rebuilt.
25:3 So a strong nation will extol you;
the towns of 103 powerful nations will fear you.
25:4 For you are a protector for the poor,
a protector for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm,
a shade from the heat.
Though the breath of tyrants 104 is like a winter rainstorm, 105
25:5 like heat 106 in a dry land,
you humble the boasting foreigners. 107
Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, 108
so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. 109
25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. 110
At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –
tender meat and choicest wine. 111
25:7 On this mountain he will swallow up
the shroud that is over all the peoples, 112
the woven covering that is over all the nations; 113
25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. 114
The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,
and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 115
25:9 At that time they will say, 116
“Look, here 117 is our God!
We waited for him and he delivered us.
Here 118 is the Lord! We waited for him.
Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
25:10 For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure. 119
Moab will be trampled down where it stands, 120
as a heap of straw is trampled down in 121 a manure pile.
25:11 Moab 122 will spread out its hands in the middle of it, 123
just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim;
the Lord 124 will bring down Moab’s 125 pride as it spreads its hands. 126
25:12 The fortified city (along with the very tops of your 127 walls) 128 he will knock down,
he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground. 129