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Ezekiel

About this book
Chapter 26

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the Lord’s message came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,’ 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against you, O Tyre! I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.⁠ 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.⁠ 5 She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6 and her daughters who are in the field will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord. 7 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Take note that I am about to bring King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings,⁠ against Tyre from the north, with horses, chariots, and horsemen, an army and hordes of people. 8 He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build a siege wall against you, erect a siege ramp against you, and raise a great shield against you. 9 He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his weapons. 10 He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls. 11 With his horses’ hooves he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will tumble down to the ground. 12 They will steal your wealth and loot your merchandise. They will tear down your walls and destroy your luxurious homes. Your stones, your trees, and your soil he will throw into the water.⁠ 13 I will silence the noise of your songs; the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place where fishing nets are spread. You will never be built again, for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. 15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Oh, how the coastlands will shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan at the massive slaughter in your midst! 16 All the princes of the sea will vacate their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you. 17 They will sing this lament over you: “‘How you have perished—you have vanished from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror! 18 Now the coastlands will tremble on the day of your fall; the coastlands by the sea will be terrified by your passing.’ 19 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you desolate like the uninhabited cities, when I bring up the deep over you and the surging waters overwhelm you, 20 then I will bring you down to bygone people, to be with those who descend to the Pit. I will make you live in the lower parts of the earth among the primeval ruins, with those who descend to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or stand in the land of the living.⁠ 21 I will bring terrors on you, and you will be no more! Though you are sought after, you will never be found again, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Ezekiel 26:4 and Psalm 137:9

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 137 describes infants dashed against a rock, language that may echo Ezekiel 26, where Tyre becomes a bare and exposed rock. In both, the rock signals destruction paired with public exposure and shame.

Passages

Ezekiel 26:4

Hebrew Bible
2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,’ 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against you, O Tyre! I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. 5 She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6 and her daughters who are in the field will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

Psalm 137:9

Hebrew Bible
7 Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, “Tear it down, tear it down, right to its very foundation!” 8 O daughter Babylon, soon to be devastated, how blessed will be the one who repays you for what you dished out to us. 9 How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies and smashes them on a rock.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... The use in the psalm suggests the idea of retaliation: just as Babylon shattered nations and kingdoms, man and woman, old and young (Jeremiah 51:20, 22), so her little ones will be shattered in return. The phrase “on the rock” at the end of the verse seems superfluous. Nowhere else in the Bible is it said where or how the dashing is carried out. Mentioning the rock of course intensifies the horror of the act, but it might have additional significance. The rock may signify that the blood is visible to all. This is the sense in Ezekiel 24:7–8: “For the blood she shed is still in her; she set it upon a bare rock; she did not pour it out on the ground to cover it with earth. She set her blood upon the bare rock so that it was not covered so that it may stir up my fury to take vengeance.” It is more probable, however, that the rock serves to indicate dry, infertile land, as in Ezekiel 26:4, 14: “They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers; and I will scrape her soil off her and leave her a naked rock. I will make you a naked rock, you shall be a place for drying nets; you shall never be rebuilt.” The rock at the end of the psalm thus functions as an antithesis to the waters at the beginning ..."
Shimon Bar-Efrat, “Love of Zion: A Literary Interpretation of Psalm 137,” in Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg, ed. Mordechai Cogan, Barry L. Eichler, and Jeffrey H. Tigay (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 3–12.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Ezekiel 26:4 and Psalm 137:9

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