By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade: By rewording the ideas of verse 16, God stresses the wickedness of the king’s actions. The multitude of your iniquities were those that he committed while conducting his dishonest trade. New International Version says “By your many sins and dishonest trade” (similarly New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version). Good News Translation is better with “You did such evil in buying and selling.” Contemporary English Version says “You have cheated so many other merchants,” and Revised English Bible has “So great was the sin in your dishonest trading.” Instead of the plural word iniquities, Revised English Bible reads it as a singular with “sin” (so also New English Bible; similarly New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This is acceptable.

You profaned your sanctuaries: The king’s wickedness in business made all his places of worship unclean and unusable. For profaned see 7.21. Your sanctuaries refers to Tyre’s pagan temples. It may be helpful to restructure the first three lines of this verse as follows: “You committed many sins when you were dishonest in your trade. This made all your places of worship unfit for worship.”

So I brought forth fire in the midst of you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you: Although on the surface God still addresses the king of Tyre, he now focuses on the city itself. God destroyed the city of Tyre with fire. It began in the midst of you, that is, in the city (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It consumed you means the fire “burned it [the city] down” (Contemporary English Version). Turned you to ashes upon the earth means the fire left the city in ashes. Good News Translation says “reduced to ashes.” In the sight of all who saw you means the city’s punishment was visible and public, just as was the king’s punishment in the previous verse. This line may be rendered “Everyone could see what happened to you.” New Century Version provides a clear model for the last four lines of this verse, saying “So I set on fire the place where you lived, and the fire burned you up. I turned you into ashes on the ground for all those watching to see.”

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 .