Bible Strands
Ezekiel 27:30
They will raise their voices for you and cry out bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel describes the reaction of Tyre’s former maritime partners as they stand on the shore after their commercial vessel is destroyed. This moment captures the immediate aftermath of the ship’s ruin, when sailors and captains abandon their work to witness the collapse.
The words — The text highlights `hish.Mi.'u` (they will make heard) and `ma.Rah` (bitter), describing a loud, agonized vocal response. `a.Far` (dust) appears in the command to throw dust on heads, marking a concrete physical act of mourning.
The thread — This mourning posture recurs in Jeremiah 6:26, 2 Samuel 1:2, and Lamentations 2:10, where dust, ashes, and bitter wailing signal corporate grief over disaster or judgment. The gestures consistently accompany the collapse of a community or leader.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that divine judgment produces tangible, public lament rather than abstract sorrow. It requires the reader to see grief as a physical, communal response to irreversible loss.
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 shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 6:26 O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- 2 Samuel 1:2 On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
- Lamentations 2:10 The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
- 1 Samuel 4:12 That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
- Isaiah 23:1 This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.
- Ezekiel 26:17 Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men—she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!
- Jonah 3:6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
- Esther 4:1 When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.
- Job 2:8 And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.
- Job 2:12 When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.