1. This is a message about Tyre.Howl with grief, you sailors out on the ocean! Your home port of Tyre has been destroyed; its houses and its harbour are in ruins. As your ships return from Cyprus, you learn the news.
2. Wail, you merchants of Sidon! You sent men
3. across the sea to buy and sell the corn that grew in Egypt and to do business with all the nations.
4. City of Sidon, you are disgraced! The sea and the great ocean depths disown you and say, “I never had any children. I never brought up sons or daughters.”
5. Even the Egyptians will be shocked and dismayed when they learn that Tyre has been destroyed.
6. Howl with grief, you people of Phoenicia! Try to escape to Spain!
7. Can this be the joyful city of Tyre, founded so long ago? Is this the city that sent settlers across the sea to establish colonies?
8. Who was it that planned to bring all this on Tyre, that imperial city, whose merchant princes were the most honoured men on earth?
9. The Lord Almighty planned it. He planned it in order to put an end to their pride in what they had done and to humiliate their honoured ones.
10. Go and farm the land, you people in the colonies in Spain! There is no one to protect you any more.
11. The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea and overthrown kingdoms. He has ordered the Phoenician centres of commerce to be destroyed.
12. City of Sidon, your happiness has ended, and your people are oppressed. Even if they escape to Cyprus, they will still not be safe.