Chapter 26

In king Sedecias’ eleventh year, on the first day of the … month, word came to me from the Lord:

Son of man, what was the cry of Tyre over Jerusalem? Joy, joy, the toll-gate1 of the world has been broken down! It is mine now; I shall grow fat on Jerusalem’s ruin!

This doom the Lord God pronounces: Have at thee, Tyre! I mean to bring hordes of nations marching on thee, like wave upon wave of the sea.

Walls of Tyre they shall break down, and towers of her overthrow; all the soil I will scrape away from her, and leave her bare rock,

doom her to be but an island where fisher-folk dry their nets; I, the Lord God, will give her over as a prey to all the nations.

Daughter-towns that stand in her territory shall be put to the sword, and learn my power at last.

Here is Nabuchodonosor of Babylon, the Lord says, a king that has kings for his vassals, marching from the north with horse and chariot, with his knights and all his retinue, a great army of men,

to put thy daughter-towns to the sword, compass thee with siege-works and raise a mound about thee. A barrier of shields he will raise under thy walls,

ply engine and battering-ram against them, and bring down thy towers with grappling-irons.

Of horses such a company, as shall cover thee all with dust; with cries of horsemen and rattle of chariot-wheels entering thy gates, thy walls shall ring again like the walls of a breached city.

Never a street of thine but must echo with hoofs; butchered thy citizens shall be, thy fair pillars cast down,

thy wealth plundered, thy merchandise taken for spoil. Down shall come walls, palaces totter in ruins; stone and timber and mortar of thine shall strew the seas.

Hushed the murmur of thy songs; never more the sound of harp shall be heard in thee.

Bare rock thou shalt be, for fisher-folk to dry their nets on; there shall be no building thee again, says the Lord God.

This too: The very isles shall echo with the crash of thy fall, ring with the cries of the wounded dying in thy streets.

Down from their thrones they shall come, all the lords of the sea-harbours, throw robe aside, broidered coats lay down; wrapped in dismay they sit on the bare ground, at the sudden fall of thee bewildered and amazed.

And thus they shall sing thy dirge: What a doom was thine, sea-built city, far renowned! Mistress of the seas, mother of a race that all held in dread!

Day of terror, that affrights the very ships, fills the islands with alarm, to see no ships leave thy harbour now!

This too: Desolate thou shalt be, thy place among the lost cities; higher and higher yet the fathomless ocean shall rise about thee, swallowing thee up under its waters.

Among the dead thy place is, that go down into the grave, where time is not; entombed with those other ruined cities in the depths of earth, tenanted no longer. The living world shall see the glory of my presence,

but thou shalt have no part in it, thou shalt no longer be; who searches for thee will search evermore in vain, says the Lord God.