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Ezekiel

About this book
Chapter 28

1 The Lord’s message came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘Your heart is proud and you said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas”—yet⁠ you are a man and not a god, though you think you are godlike. 3 Look, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you.⁠ 4 By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself; you have amassed gold and silver in your treasuries. 5 By your great skill in trade you have increased your wealth, and your heart is proud because of your wealth. 6 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you think you are godlike, 7 I am about to bring foreigners against you, the most terrifying of nations. They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom, and they will defile your splendor. 8 They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die violently in the heart of the seas. 9 Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you—though you are a man and not a god—when you are in the power of those who wound you? 10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” 11 The Lord’s message came to me: 12 “Son of man, sing a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘You were the sealer of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God.⁠ Every precious stone was your covering, the ruby, topaz, and emerald, the chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, the sapphire, turquoise, and beryl; your settings and mounts were made of gold. On the day you were created they were prepared.⁠ 14 I placed you there with an anointed guardian cherub; you were on the holy mountain of God;⁠ you walked about amidst fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your behavior from the day you were created, until sin was discovered in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I defiled you and banished you from the mountain of God—the guardian cherub expelled you from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom on account of your splendor. I threw you down to the ground; I placed you before kings, that they might see you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, through the sinfulness of your trade, you desecrated your sanctuaries. So I drew fire out from within you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth before the eyes of all who saw you. 19 All who know you among the peoples are shocked at you; you have become terrified and will be no more.’” 20 The Lord’s message came to me: 21 “Son of man, turn toward Sidon and prophesy against it. 22 Say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look, I am against you, Sidon, and I will magnify myself in your midst. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments on her and reveal my sovereign power in her.⁠ 23 I will send a plague into the city and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord. 24 “‘No longer will Israel suffer from the sharp briers or painful thorns of all who surround and scorn them. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 25 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I regather the house of Israel from the peoples where they are dispersed, I will reveal my sovereign power over them in the sight of the nations, and they will live in their land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They will live securely in it; they will build houses and plant vineyards. They will live securely when I execute my judgments on all those who scorn them and surround them.⁠ Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Ezekiel 28:22 and Sirach 36:4

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Sirach 36 uses language from Ezekiel 28, such as the description of divine judgment against foreign cities like Sidon. Sirach reshapes Ezekiel to express hope for divine intervention against its own enemies.

Passages

Ezekiel 28:22

Hebrew Bible
21 “Son of man, turn toward Sidon and prophesy against it. 22 Say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look, I am against you, Sidon, and I will magnify myself in your midst. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments on her and reveal my sovereign power in her. 23 I will send a plague into the city and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

Sirach 36:4

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
1 Have mercy upon us, O Lord the God of all, and look at us with favor; 2 and send your fear upon all the nations. 3 Lift up your hand against the foreign nations and let them see your mighty power. 4 As you showed your holiness in us before them, so be magnified in them before us. 5 Let them know you, as we also have known you, that there is no God but only you, O God.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... The parallels between Sirach 36:4 and Ezekiel 28:22 are not so striking as are those between Sirach 36:4 and other Ezekiel passages ... First of all, the prepositional phrase is not found in Ezekiel 28:22. Moreover, instead of an instrumental, the prepositional phrase occurs, which cannot be construed as instrumental. Nonetheless, it seems likely that the author’s inspiration for both halves of the bicolon in Sirach 36:4 derives from these Ezekiel passages. And since most of the Ezekiel passages occur in a context of Israel’s restoration after a period of punishment at the hands of foreigners, the author of the prayer also likely imagined the domination of the Judeans in his day as a kind of divine punishment for Israel’s sins ..."
Greg Schmidt Goering, Wisdom’s Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 218.

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 28:22 and Sirach 36:4

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