Your borders are in the heart of the seas: This line reflects that the city of Tyre was on an island, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. This is where the picture language of Tyre as a ship starts, because the Hebrew word for borders may also mean “edges,” that is, the rim or hull of a ship. New Living Translation renders this line as “You extended your boundaries into the sea,” but this translation loses the picture of the small island or ship surrounded by the sea, so we do not recommend it. Revised English Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh are better with “Your frontiers were on the high seas.” The heart of the seas refers to the deepest parts of the sea, so another possible model is “Your edges [or, hull] extend right out into the middle of the sea.”

Your builders made perfect your beauty: Your builders can refer to the builders of the city and those who built the ship. Some translations make the reference to the ship explicit at this point; for example, Good News Translation renders this line as “Your builders made you like a beautiful ship,” and Contemporary English Version has “You are a ship built to perfection.” These renderings are acceptable, but it is best to keep both meanings open for as long as possible. Parole de Vie provides a good model here, saying “and those [people] who built you made you perfectly beautiful.”

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 .