Ezekiel 27

The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 36 verses.

Textual witnesses

The ruins of Tyre

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).[2]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^Q; 6th century).[3][lower-alpha 1]

Map of Phoenician cities. Byblos is identical to Gebal.

Map of trading ports related to the Phoenicians.

"“Now, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre" (NKJV)[5]

• "Son of man" (Hebrew: בן־אדם ḇen-’ā-ḏām): this phrase is used 93 times to address Ezekiel.[6]
• "Lamentation" (Hebrew: קינה qî-nāh; plural: קִינִים in Ezekiel 2:10 or קִּינֽוֹת in 2 Chronicles 35:25): the Hebrew word has a meaning of "elegy, dirge", "a mournful song",[7][8] a funeral song in the New Living Translation.[9]

The people of Tyre, seeing themselves as the great merchants, will have a great downfall despite their past glory.[10] A similarly worded lament for Babylon the Great appears in the New Testament in Revelation 18:11–16.

and say to Tyre, which sits at the entrance to the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands ...[11]

The word for "entrance" or "gateway" is literally "entries" (plural), "reference possibly being to the two harbours of Tyre, one of which was to the north east of the island, called the Sidonian harbour, because looking towards Sidon, and the other on the south or south-east of the island, the exact position of which is uncertain owing to the silting which has taken place".[12] Ancient Tyre was on an island, which is now connected to the mainland by a causeway.

• Related Bible parts: Genesis 10, Joshua 13, Isaiah 23, Ezekiel 26, Revelation 18

• Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: vol. iv, Q-Z. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837844.
• Brown, Francis; Briggs, Charles A.; Driver, S. R. (1994). The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (reprint ed.). Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 978-1565632066.
• Clements, Ronald E (1996). Ezekiel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664252724.
• Gesenius, H. W. F. (1979). Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures: Numerically Coded to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, with an English Index. Translated by Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux (7th ed.). Baker Book House.
• Joyce, Paul M. (2009). Ezekiel: A Commentary. Continuum. ISBN 9780567483614.
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.