Verses 35-36 describe the reactions of three groups of people who have watched the fall of Tyre. These two verses continue the funeral song begun at verse 32b (so Revised Standard Version) even though Good News Translation ends it at the end of verse 34.

All the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled at you: The inhabitants of the coastlands were the people who lived in the areas along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and on the islands just off the coast (see the comments on 26.15). They are appalled at you means they are “shocked” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version) or “stunned” (New Jerusalem Bible) at what happened to Tyre. For the Hebrew verb rendered appalled, see the comments on 3.15, where it is translated “overwhelmed.”

And their kings are horribly afraid: Revised Standard Version captures only one part of the meaning here. As well as strong fear, the Hebrew verb rendered are horribly afraid carries the sense of “horror” (so Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt), that feeling of strongly disliking something and wanting to turn away from it or keep it away from oneself. The Hebrew verb is repeated here for emphasis. New English Bible and Revised English Bible render this line well with “their hair stands on end,” which is a picture of one’s hair bristling when one becomes afraid when something terrible seems to be about to happen, or something spooky has happened.

Their faces are convulsed is literally “they thunder with respect to their faces,” which describes the expression on the faces of the kings who have watched Tyre fall, but it is not clear what this expression is. Some translations think it is a look of “terror” (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version) or “horror” (so Revised English Bible), or both (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Others think that their faces are drawn out of shape (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt). Still others put the two ideas together; for example, New International Version has “distorted with fear,” and New International Reader’s Version says “twisted in horror.” Some use a fairly neutral term, such as “troubled” (King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible) or “downcast” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Jerusalem Bible), but these renderings do not seem strong enough in this context. There does not seem to be any justification to understand that their faces were contorted in any way. Greenberg has identified it as a sullen look, where the face is dark, gloomy and threatening. It was probably mixed with some anger and much fear as well. Translators will do well to look for words in their own language that capture this mixture of emotions.

Verse 35 is another example of the type of parallelism seen in verse 33 whereby the second part adds something to the first part. The first half speaks of inhabitants, the second half of their kings. In the first half the people are shocked, but the kings in the second half are absolutely horrified and even their faces show terror and distress. Revised English Bible captures this parallelism well as follows:

All who dwell on the coasts and islands
are aghast at your fate;
horror is written on the faces of their kings
and their hair stands on end.

Another model is:

• All the people who live along the coast are shocked at what happened to you.
As for the kings, their hair stands up in terror and their faces show how horrified they are.

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 .