I will make your island a bare rock, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken. Yes, the Sovereign Lord has spoken!
Parallel translations
- WEB I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets; you shall be built no more: for I Yahweh have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
- KJV And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
- BSB I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the LORD, have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.’
- NKJV I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,’ says the Lord God.
- NASB I will turn you into a bare rock; you will become a dry place for the spreading of nets. You will not be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,” declares the Lord God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God reaffirms that Tyre will be a bare rock for spreading nets, never rebuilt, because He has spoken. It stresses the certainty and finality of His word.
Overview
The repetition of the bare-rock and fishing-net imagery frames the oracle with emphatic finality. 'You shall be built no more' applies most directly to the ancient island fortress, whose former glory was never restored even as the site saw later settlement. The phrase 'I Yahweh have spoken it' anchors the prophecy's certainty in God's unchanging character, a sure foundation for all His promises.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
- Mal 1:4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places”; Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever.”
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Ezek 26:4–5They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.
- Deut 13:16You shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all every bit of its plunder, to Yahweh your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
- Isa 14:27For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
- Ezek 22:14Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.
- Ezek 30:12I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
- Ezek 26:12They shall make a plunder of your riches, and make a prey of your merchandise; and they shall break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses; and they shall lay your stones and your timber and your dust in the middle of the waters.
- Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
- Ezek 5:13“‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
- Ezek 5:15So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes — I, Yahweh, have spoken it —
- Ezek 17:21–24All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’
- Ezek 21:32You will be for fuel to the fire. Your blood will be in the middle of the land. You shall be remembered no more; for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”’”
- Job 40:8Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
- Ezek 5:17I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’”
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 26:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.