And wail aloud over you, and cry bitterly: When the sailors from the other ships see the fall of Tyre, they begin the usual mourning practices as though someone had died. Wail aloud over you is literally “make their voice heard over you,” which means “cry loudly about you” (New Century Version) in this context. Cry bitterly means “cry very much” (New Century Version), expressing deep sorrow and anguish. It is acceptable to combine these two lines; for example, Good News Translation has “They all mourn bitterly for you.” But again, retaining the parallelism is preferable, as in “They cry loudly because of you. They mourn bitterly [or, at length].”

The next two lines of this verse and the first two lines of the next one mention four items that were typical ancient mourning rites. They cast dust on their heads involves putting dust on one’s head as an expression of sorrow. This may have been done by throwing dust up into the air and letting it fall on one’s head.

And wallow in ashes means “rolling in ashes” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) as another expression of sorrow. The more usual expression for this mourning rite is “sit in ashes” (see Job 2.8; Jonah 3.6), “lie in ashes” (see Est 4.3), or “put ashes on one’s head/body” (see 2 Sam 13.19; Est 4.1).

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .