“And you, son of man, take up a song of mourning over Tyre;
Parallel translations
- WEB You, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;
- KJV Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
- BSB “Now you, son of man, take up a lament for Tyre.
- NKJV “Now, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre,
- NLT “Son of man, sing a funeral song for Tyre,
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 commands Ezekiel to take up a lamentation over Tyre. It frames the coming prophecy as a funeral dirge for the doomed city.
Overview
A 'lamentation' is a mournful song normally sung over the dead, here applied prophetically to Tyre as if already fallen. The form conveys both the certainty of judgment and a note of sober gravity rather than gleeful triumph. By mourning Tyre's fate in advance, the oracle invites reflection on the tragic end of misplaced glory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ezek 19:1“Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
- Ezek 28:12Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
- Jer 9:17–20Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come.
- Jer 9:10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.
- Ezek 26:17They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there!
- Ezek 27:32In their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, Who is there like Tyre, like her who is brought to silence in the middle of the sea?
- Jer 7:20Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”
- Amos 5:16Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
- Amos 5:1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
- Ezek 32:2Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you broke out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
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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 27:2 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.