The Lord told Ezekiel to take up a lamentation over Tyre, and the prophet obeyed by describing the city as a ship. Tyre stood at the entry of the sea, trading with many islands, and its own boast was that it was perfect in beauty. The Lord did not dispute that claim. He simply let Ezekiel show what that beauty consisted of, and then let the ship sink.
Tyre’s builders had done their work well. They made its planks from fir trees of Senir, its mast from a cedar of Lebanon, its oars from the oaks of Bashan. The benches were inlaid with ivory from the coasts of Kittim. Its sail was fine embroidered linen from Egypt, its awning blue and purple from the isles of Elishah. Everything about the city was imported, refined, and meant to be seen.
The crew was international. Men of Sidon and Arvad pulled the oars. Tyre’s own wise men served as pilots. The old men of Gebal were the caulkers. All the ships of the sea and their mariners came to deal in Tyre’s merchandise. The city was a floating market, and every nation had a hand in its motion.
Persia, Lud, and Put supplied its army. Men of Arvad stood on its walls. Shields and helmets hung there, adding to the city’s comeliness. Tyre could afford warriors from three continents, and it displayed them like ornaments.
The list of trade partners is long and precise. Tarshish sent silver, iron, tin, and lead. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech traded slaves and bronze vessels. Togarmah brought horses and mules. Dedan supplied ivory and ebony. Syria came with emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies. Judah and Israel brought wheat, honey, oil, and balm. Damascus traded wine of Helbon and white wool. Arabia and the princes of Kedar brought lambs, rams, and goats. Sheba and Raamah offered spices, precious stones, and gold. Haran, Canneh, Eden, Asshur, and Chilmad all joined the traffic. Tyre was replenished and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.
Then the east wind broke the ship. The rowers had brought Tyre into great waters, and that was where the break came. The Lord said that Tyre’s riches, wares, merchandise, mariners, pilots, caulkers, dealers, and men of war would all fall into the heart of the seas on the day of ruin. Nothing would stay afloat.
The pilots cried out, and the suburbs shook. Every man who handled an oar came down from his ship and stood on the land. They wept bitterly, threw dust on their heads, wallowed in ashes, shaved themselves bald, and put on sackcloth. They took up a lamentation and asked who could compare to Tyre, now brought to silence in the middle of the sea.
The lament itself recalls what Tyre had been. When its wares went out, it filled many peoples. It enriched the kings of the earth. But when it was broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, its merchandise and company fell inside it. The inhabitants of the isles were astonished. Their kings were horribly afraid, their faces troubled. The merchants among the peoples hissed at Tyre. It became a terror, and the Lord said it would never have any being again.
Ezekiel did not argue with Tyre’s beauty. He simply recorded the cargo list and then watched the ship go down. The lament is not a moral lecture. It is a precise description of a city that built itself like a vessel, filled itself with the goods of the earth, and then was broken by wind and water. The merchants who once traded with Tyre did not rescue it. They stood on the shore and mourned, and then they hissed.