Bible Strands
Ezekiel 28:7
behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to the ruler of Tyre immediately after condemning his claim to divine status in verse 6. The declaration marks the shift from prophetic indictment to imminent historical judgment.
The words — הִנְ/נִי (hi./Ni) translates literally as "here/I," signaling immediate divine action, while עָרִיצֵי (a.ri.Tzei) means "ruthless," characterizing the foreign military force.
The thread — The phrase "the most ruthless of nations" recurs in Ezekiel 30:11, Ezekiel 31:12, and Ezekiel 32:12, consistently identifying the instruments God uses to execute judgment against arrogant powers.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that human wisdom and splendor are vulnerable to sovereign judgment. It demands the admission that no earthly authority can outlast divine decree.
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
Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 31:12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.
- Ezekiel 30:11 He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.
- Ezekiel 32:12 I will make your hordes fall by the swords of the mighty, the most ruthless of all nations. They will ravage the pride of Egypt and all her multitudes will be destroyed.
- Habakkuk 1:6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
- Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
- Isaiah 23:8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?
- Isaiah 25:3 Therefore, a strong people will honor You. The cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
- Ezekiel 26:7 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great company of troops.
- Daniel 7:7 After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.
- Amos 3:6 If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?