The big picture
God tells his prophet Ezekiel to mourn Tyrus, a sea-trading city proud of its beauty. The city is pictured as a finely built ship, supplied and staffed by many lands. A long list of goods reveals the reach of its trade, including the buying and selling of human beings. Then the image changes from full cargo to wreck. The people, wealth, and skill gathered aboard go down together. Those enriched by its trade stand on shore in grief and fear.
In this chapter
- Many Lands Equip the Proud Ship Ezekiel 27:1-11
Ezekiel must address the city as a merchant among many coastlands.
- The Markets Include Goods and Human Lives Ezekiel 27:12-19
The trade list moves through metals, animals, luxury goods, and food.
- Rich Cargo Fills the Sea Routes Ezekiel 27:20-25
The list continues with fine coverings for chariots, flocks, spices, gems, and gold.
- The East Wind Breaks the Loaded Vessel Ezekiel 27:26-32
The rowers carry the ship into deep water, where an east wind breaks it.
- Those Enriched by Trade React in Fear Ezekiel 27:33-36
The city's goods once fed many peoples and made rulers rich.
Central truth
The city's wealth depends on a vast network of people and trade, yet all its gathered strength goes down with the ship.
Scripture beside the summary
Ezekiel · King James Version · 36Ezekiel 27:1-11
Many Lands Equip the Proud Ship
Ezekiel must address the city as a merchant among many coastlands. It claims complete beauty, and the ship picture lists fine materials that support that claim. Timber becomes planks, masts, and oars; ivory adorns its fittings. Embroidered linen and dyed cloth make sail and covering. Skilled sailors, pilots, and repair workers serve aboard, while foreign soldiers guard walls and towers. The city has gathered craft, wealth, and defence from many places. All of it contributes to the splendour about which it boasts, though the command to mourn already points towards loss.
In everyday life
A shipwright lays out the supplier plates from a restored vessel: timber yard, sail loft, metal shop, and repair crew. No single builder supplied all that makes it seaworthy. She fixes the plates where visitors can see the shared work. Ezekiel's ship is a city headed for ruin, not a vessel restored for display.
Notice
Ezekiel 27:9 Repair workers appear alongside sailors and traders. The city's splendour depends on maintaining what carries its wealth, not only on the precious materials visible to an admirer.
Ezekiel 27:1-11
King James Version1The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
3And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.
4Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
5They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
6Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
7Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
8The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
9The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
10They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
11The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
Ezekiel 27:12-19
The Markets Include Goods and Human Lives
The trade list moves through metals, animals, luxury goods, and food. Silver, iron, tin, and lead arrive alongside bronze vessels. Human beings are also traded, a plain reminder that people are treated as market goods within this wealth. Horses and mules, ivory and dark wood, gems and fine cloth fill the exchanges. Judah and Israel, the lands of God's people, supply grain, honey, oil, and balm. Wine, wool, iron, and fragrant plants extend the list. The city's riches are made concrete through what it buys and sells rather than left as a vague claim.
In everyday life
A shipping-ledger curator stops at an entry that places enslaved people between metal goods and animals. She separates that line in the display so visitors do not absorb lives into a list of cargo. The ledger's neat columns do not make the trade harmless. Ezekiel names the trade within a lament over a city's gathered wealth.
Notice
Ezekiel 27:13 Human lives are listed alongside bronze vessels. The detail prevents the wealth catalogue from being read as an innocent collection of attractive objects alone.
Ezekiel 27:12-19
King James Version12Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
13Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
14They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
15The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
16Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
17Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
18Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
19Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
Ezekiel 27:20-25
Rich Cargo Fills the Sea Routes
The list continues with fine coverings for chariots, flocks, spices, gems, and gold. Distant merchants bring dyed cloth, embroidered work, and rich clothing packed in cedar chests bound with cords. These goods are meant to travel. Once delivered, they will display wealth. Large trading ships serve the city's commerce and add to its glory at sea. The picture has reached a full cargo hold. Many routes and suppliers contribute to the abundance, but the chapter has not yet named anything that can keep that abundance safe from the coming wind.
In everyday life
A freight packer ties a cedar chest shut over costly cloth, then checks the livestock and spice entries on the loading sheet. Each supplier expects the same vessel to carry a different part of the trade. The full hold joins their fortunes. Ezekiel makes the loaded ship an image of a city's whole life, not one scheduled shipment.
Notice
Ezekiel 27:24 The cloth is packed in chests and bound with cords. Such details make the long trade list physical. These are goods prepared to move, not wealth in the abstract.
Ezekiel 27:20-25
King James Version20Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
21Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
22The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
23Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
24These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
25The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
Ezekiel 27:26-32
The East Wind Breaks the Loaded Vessel
The rowers carry the ship into deep water, where an east wind breaks it. Riches, cargo, sailors, pilots, repairers, traders, and soldiers all fall into the sea. The cry of the pilots shakes the shore. Other sailors leave their vessels and stand on land, weeping bitterly. Dust, ashes, shaved heads, and rough cloth mark their grief. They mourn a city unlike any other, now destroyed at sea. Everything that made the ship impressive has been aboard together. The ruin takes skilled people with the goods, not cargo alone.
In everyday life
A seafarers' chaplain reads the names from a lost vessel's crew list while the waiting families stand on shore. Job titles that once divided duties now appear within one shared loss. He leaves space for grief between the names. Ezekiel's wreck portrays the fall of an entire trading city under God's announced judgement.
Notice
Ezekiel 27:27 Pilots and repair workers go down with traders and soldiers. The list of losses answers the earlier list of strengths, showing that specialist skill does not prevent the wreck.
Ezekiel 27:26-32
King James Version26Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.
27Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
28The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
29And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;
30And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
32And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
Ezekiel 27:33-36
Those Enriched by Trade React in Fear
The city's goods once fed many peoples and made rulers rich. Now merchandise and people sink into the depths. Coastal inhabitants stare in dismay, and kings show fear in their faces. Merchants respond with a hiss of shock or scorn as the once-admired city becomes a terror. The closing statement says it will be no more. The reactions spread along the same wide connections that once brought wealth. A city whose trade reached many lands also sends fear across those lands when its gathered strength collapses.
In everyday life
A grain importer closes the day's order book after learning that the port supplying much of the region has fallen. Warehouse owners arrive with the same news on different routes. Their shared prosperity now becomes shared alarm. Ezekiel announces the city's final ruin, not merely a disruption that traders can solve by finding another supplier.
Notice
Ezekiel 27:33 The city's trade enriched kings as well as ordinary peoples. Its fall frightens a wide network because many had gained from the goods passing through it.
Ezekiel 27:33-36
King James Version33When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
34In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall.
35All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
36The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Ezekiel 27:1 begins with “The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,”
Where the chapter turns
Ezekiel 27:32 forms a natural hinge: “And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of…”
The final note
Ezekiel 27:36 leaves the reader with “The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words merchants, merchandise, midst, fairs, seas, isles help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- calkers
- Workers who seal gaps in a ship to keep water out.
- fairs
- Markets or trading exchanges where goods are bought and sold.
- sackcloth
- Coarse cloth worn as an outward sign of grief.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
