Bible Strands
Ezekiel 26:14
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.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks to Tyre through Ezekiel, pronouncing immediate judgment after silencing the city's songs and lyres. This declaration follows the warning that the coastlands will quake at Tyre's downfall.
The words — The Hebrew phrase לִצְחִיחַ סֶלַע (li/tz.Chi.ach Se.la') literally means "into a bare rock," while מִשְׁטַח חֲרָמִים (mish.Tach cha.ra.Mim) translates to "a spreading place of nets." These terms describe the total stripping of urban infrastructure to leave only exposed stone.
The thread — The text's declaration of irreversible destruction runs parallel to Job 12:14, which states that what God tears down cannot be rebuilt, and echoes Malachi 1:4, where God overrides human attempts to rebuild ruins. Numbers 23:19 supports this pattern by affirming that God's spoken word guarantees His action without change.
Why it lands — The text states that Tyre will never be rebuilt because the Lord GOD has spoken, presenting divine declaration as the final historical authority. It asks the reader to accept that human plans cannot override God's fixed word, requiring a response of sober recognition rather than comfort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Job 12:14 What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
- Malachi 1:4 Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.
- Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Deuteronomy 13:16 And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.
- Isaiah 14:27 The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?
- Ezekiel 26:4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and make her a bare rock.
- Job 40:8 Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
- Ezekiel 5:13 And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.
- Ezekiel 5:15 So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.
- Ezekiel 5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”