Eze_26:1. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first of the month, that the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 2Son of man, because Tyre [Heb. Zor] says upon Jerusalem, Aha, broken is [has become] the gate of the people; it turns itself [or, is turned] to me; I will be [become] full; she is [has become] desolate. 3Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I am against [over] thee, Tyre, and I bring up upon thee many nations [heathen peoples], as the sea mounts up by his 4waves. And they destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers; and I 5sweep her dust out of her, and give her as a mere [bald] rock. A spreading of nets shall she be in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken—sentence of the Lord Jehovah—and she is for a booty to the nations. 6And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they know that I am Jehovah. 7For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, out of the north, a king of kings, with horse, and with chariot, 8and with riders, and company, and much people. Thy daughters in the field he will kill with the sword, and he gives against thee a battering-tower, and casts up 9a wall against thee, and places against thee a buckler. And the thrust of his breaker will he give against thy walls, and break down thy towers with his 10swords. From the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee; from the sound of the rider, and the wheel, and the chariot shall thy walls shake, at his entering into thy gates, as one cometh into a broken city. 11With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread all thy streets: thy people shall he slay with the sword, 12and the pillars of thy strength he shall throw down to the earth. And they plunder thy wealth, and despoil thy merchandise [thy commercial goods], and break down thy walls, and the houses of thy pleasure shall they pull down, and shall 13lay thy stones and thy timbers and thy dust in the midst of the sea. And I make to cease the noise of thy songs, and the sound of thy harps shall no more 14be heard. And I give thee as a mere [bare] rock: a spreading of nets shalt thou be; thou shalt be built no more: for I, Jehovah, have spoken it—sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 15Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre, Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, of the groaning of the pierced-thought, at the murder and 16murder in thy midst? And all the princes of the sea descend from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and shall put off their embroidered garments: in terror shall they clothe themselves: upon the ground shall they sit and tremble 17every moment, and are astonished at thee. And they raise over thee a lamentation, and say to thee: How art thou destroyed, inhabited, out of the seas, renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which gave their terror to all her inhabitants! 18Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy downfall, and the islands which are in the sea shall be amazed at thy disappearing [lit., going out]. 19For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, When I give thee as a desolate city, as cities [are] which are not inhabited, when I make the 20flood to come over thee, and the waters, the many, cover thee; and I make thee to come down with those that go down to the pit, to the people of ancient time; and I cause thee to dwell in the land of the depths, in wildernesses from of old, with those that go down to the pit, so that thou mayest not be inhabited: there 21have I given beauty in the land of the living. For a terror will I give thee, and thou art not [any more]; thou shalt be sought for, and shalt not be found any more for ever. Sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze_26:1. Sept.: ...
ìéá ôïõ ìçíïò ôïõ ðñùôïõ
—
Eze_26:2. …
óõíåôñéâå
,
ἀðïëùëåí
,
ôá ἐèíç ἐðåóôñáöç ðñïò ìå
,
ἡ ðëçñçò ἠñçìùôáé
—Sept. read:
ðîìàä
; so also Chald., Ar., Syr.: desolata est.
Eze_26:11. ...
ê
.
ôçí ὑðïóôáóéí ô
.
ἰó÷õïò óïõ ἐðé
…
êáôáîåé
.
Eze_26:13.
Ê
.
êáôáëõóåé
…
ô
.
ìïõóéêùí óïõ
…
ôùí øáë ôçñéùí óïõ
—
Eze_26:16. ...
ἐê ô
.
ἐèíùí ô
.
èáëáóóçò
…
ô
.
ìéôñáò ἀðï ô
.
êåöáëùí áὐôùí
…
êáé ἐêóôáóåé ἐêóôçóïíôáé
…
öïâçèçóïíôáé ô
.
ἀðùëåéáí áὐôùí
.—Vulg.: … auferent exuvias suas… et attoniti super repentino casu tuo admirabuntur.
Eze_26:17. Sept.: ...
êáé êáôåëõèçò ἐê èáëáóóçò
…
ἡ äïõóá ô
.
öïâïí áὐôçò
.—Vulg.: … quos formidabant universi.
Eze_26:18. Vulg.: … eo quod nullus egrediatur ex te (other read.
äàééí
).
The year indicated in this verse is that of the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem (Jer_39:2); therefore the parallels suggested are: Tyre against Jerusalem, Tyre as Jerusalem. The blank month (as also at Eze_32:17) some (for example, Hengst.) would supply out of Eze_24:1, therefore the tenth, as pointing back to the beginning of the siege; others, and of these already the Sept., by taking the number given for the day (on the first) as applying also to the month. If we do not resort to a slip of the scribe (Keil), we may as well suppose, with Hävernick, the fifth month suggested by the specified year as that of the destruction of Jerusalem, as, with Kimchi, the fourth month of the same year for the conquest of the city (Jer_52:5-6; Jer_52:12). With both suppositions Eze_26:2 agrees, where the hostile utterances might well enough have proceeded on the ground of what, if not actually done, was certainly in the course of being done.
Eze_26:2-6
. Outline of the Judgment in the general
Eze_26:2 (Eze_25:3).
öåּø=öåֹø
,
öֹø
, that is, flint-stone, rock (sarra)—the Greek designation
Ôὐñïò
, from the Chaldaic form
îåּø
—was that Phenician city which for a long course of time possessed the supremacy that had previously been exercised by Sidon. In the present time it is pronounced by the Arabians Ssur. On account of its connection with the coalition, Tyre forms the more clamant an occasion for God’s judgment, as, being, according to Hävernick, “on the summit of external splendour, it then deemed itself to be invincible;” and according to Hengst., it was, “along with Egypt and Babylon, the most glorious concentration of the worldly power.”
ãìúåú
, plural, the gate-leaves, for the gate, hence with the sing, of the verb. Jerusalem was not thus spoken of by Tyre, because many people were generally going and coming there, which also would not have been expressed by
äòîéí
(the peoples), but either with reference to the messengers of the coalition, who assembled there (Jeremiah 27), or, as Hitzig supposes, as a centre of foreign commerce, a business-mart, for which a natural jealousy could speak, since Solomon had established the commerce of Palestine. Hengst. looks upon Jerusalem as a “world-city, because it regarded the true religion as the highest good,” and makes the Messianic expectations of Zion to have been known in Tyre, and to have awakened bad blood in the proud queen of the seas (?). The streaming of the peoples thither, on account of which the gate was said to be broken, is to him the Jerusalem for the future brought to view (Isa_2:2; Mic_4:1), as Jerusalem was at all times a magnet for the minds in heathendom that sought after God.—
ðñáä
, Niph. from
ñáá
, fitly spoken of a gate (comp. Pro_26:14). If with reference to Jerusalem it was broken down, then with reference to Tyre it is turned towards him; that is, the commerce of the people is open to him; he has that alone now which hitherto he had to share with Jerusalem. [Kliefoth: into Jerusalem’s gate, hitherto shut to the peoples, on religious grounds, Tyre might now especially draw in, turn it to account (?). Hitzig derives the subject from what follows, and translates: “her fulness turns itself to me.”]—The being full (Eze_27:25) has respect to traffic and the wealth which flows from it.
Eze_26:3 (Eze_13:8; Eze_13:20)—the many nations correspond as well to the general comprehensive outline of the prophecy in this first section, as they answer to the outspoken scorn of Tyre and his malicious arrogant speculations (Eze_26:2).—The pictorial representation is derived from the marine situation of Tyre. Hitzig, who thinks of the particular bands of the host to be brought up, makes the sea the accusative, supplies the subject from the context, and takes
ìְâìéå
distributively; as the sea in regard to its waves, one after the others, and over the others. According to Ewald,
ìְ
denotes the accusative. Hengst. explains according to Eze_26:19 : “as if I brought up the sea and its waves.” This representation already suggests the younger Tyre (
Öïéíéóóá íáóïò
in Euripides), which stood upon the island-rock hard by the coast, that is now united to the land. The walls and towers in Eze_26:4 appear to be quite in accord with the general character of the prophecy, and to go farther beyond the time of Nebuchadnezzar than some have supposed (Curtius, iv., Arrian, ii.), although the five years’ siege which it sustained against Salmanassar seems to imply the existence then of walls and towers (Josephus, Antiq. viii. 5). Hiram II. not only built the temple of Melkarth, and formed both the islands into one, but also added an entirely new quarter to the city (Eurychoron), and surrounded the city with a strong wall. A second harbour was besides added by him, and a palace erected for him, while old Tyre fell more into the background. What is here said, however, of the fortifications might equally, if not rather, be said of the old city, which was built upon the land; since insular Tyre came into consideration pre-eminently on account of the Melkarth temple, the old national sanctuary of the “Tyrian Heracles,” which stood upon its north side, on a second small island somewhat farther to sea, on account also of the maritime power of the state, what belonged to it as a fleet-station. Whence the name very specially reflected its insular position; so that insular Tyre must here be regarded as a pregnant title for the whole.—Her dust is the rubbish of the demolished buildings.
ñçéúé
, I sweep, only here, from
ñçä
, to sweep, forms a paronomasia with
ùׁçúé
, and prepares for the following, in which Tyre, that in Eze_26:2 had boasted it over the desolated Jerusalem as being full, should be reduced to its original bare condition. A papyrus roll, which has preserved to us an account of an Egyptian officer’s journey, describes insular Tyre in its beginnings as a village, which lies on a rock in the midst of the sea: people bring water to it in wherries, and the place abounds with fish.—Eze_24:7-8Nomen omen.
Eze_26:5.
îùׁèç
denotes a place where something is spread out, here: the fishermen lay out their draw-nets to dry. So precisely did Robinson find it.—Eze_7:21.
Eze_26:6. The daughters of Tyre in the field are manifestly to be regarded as distinguished from insular Tyre, but, according to the general style of the section, in correspondence too with the plural, such as, if not dependent on her, submitted to the supremacy of Tyre, and then had under the ascendency of Assyria withdrawn from this relationship—as the insular city Aradus (Arvad), on the coast Antaradus (Tortosa), and Marathus (Amrit), Simyra (Sumra), Botrys (Batrun), Gebal (Byblos, Dschebeil), Beryton (Beirut), Sidon (Saida), Ssarpat (Sarepta), etc.; so, too, Palætyrus, the old city, where still exists the great old aqueduct, the Khan, and the smithy of Ras Al Ain.
Eze_26:7-14
. The Execution by Nebuchadnezzar
In these verses the general outline is exhibited in a detailed description suited to the time of Ezekiel, as it was to be carried into execution by Nebuchadnezzar. Here and elsewhere he is named Nebuchadrezzar (Greek: Nabuchodonosor, Nabuchodonosorus, Nabukodrosoros), upon the old Persian inscriptions at Bisutun: Nabuqadratschar, Nabuqudratschar, a name compounded of Nabu (Nebo), the name of God, Zar or Sar (prince), and Kadr (in Arab. might). According to Niebuhr, the form given here in the text would come very near to the native one. That he should be represented as coming out of the north points to the way by which he was to come on Judah.—King of kings, on account of the vanquished princes, along with Great King, a common title in the inscriptions.—The rhetorical delineation of the army is not to be pressed. Horse and chariot look away in the first instance from the manning; they fetch up the riders for horse, for chariots, perhaps company (
÷äì
), in order to close with the great multitude of people on foot. Hengst. understands by the riders the chariot warriors (Eze_26:10). According to others, the company consists of much people (
òñÎøá
); comp. Eze_23:24.
Eze_26:8. The population of the towns on the land fall under the enemy directing his attack from thence, chiefly put to the sword; and so Eze_26:6 is fulfilled.—Eze_21:27; Eze_4:2.—Buckler designates the long bucklers held close together, so that in a siege men could work under their cover, and get near to the walls. On account of the distinction indicated by thy daughters in the field, the expression against thee is used, and it must consequently be the insular Tyre against which the siege conducted by Nebuchadnezzar was directed.
Eze_26:9.
îçé
from
îçä
is the thrusting.
÷ֹáֶì
must, according to Gesenius, be that which lies over against, therefore, with
îçé
, percussio oppositi, for wall-breaker (battering-ram).
÷áì
without doubt indicates a besieging instrument in general, if not some one in particular. (Chald. percussio tormentorum suorum.) Meier thinks of what envelopes, protects, covers (
÷åáò
, buckler), hence of the protecting cover under which men attacked with the battering-ram, similarly as
öðä
in Eze_26:8. “The thrust of his protecting cover,” that is, what he effects under the same, etc. Hävernick translates
îçé
by extirpation, and
÷áìֹ
by defence (?). Hengst.: “The destruction of his battering-ram, or engine.” “
îçä
, from which
îçé
comes, is always used in the sense of destroying, extirpating, etc.; and so, not thrusting or striking, but destruction is the natural meaning of the noun.
÷áìֹ
is anything in front of, or opposition to, another; hence kaballo is a general designation of what the enemy was to put in hostile array against the walls of Tyre—his enginery. And the two words together may be fitly expressed by, his enginery of destruction.”—P. F.]—The swords kill the defenders of the towers, in consequence of which the towers are torn down. As Häv. justly remarks, the unusual, the superhuman, the fact that God Himself was in the work, is meant to be represented. This idea, however, is found by Häv., not in the words killing the defenders of the towers, but being said to break down the towers—as if the words had imparted to them a supernatural force, to do a work not proper to them.—P. F.] Most, however, generalize the expression
áçøáåúéå
into: “through his iron,” thinking of iron hooks, which were driven in, cutting into the hook-work J. H. Michaelis: securibus).
Eze_26:10. The expressions here are of a poetico-rhetorical character. The land moves into the sea, as it where, with its dust, through the excessive number of cavalry moving into the island-city. Wheel and chariot are distinguished with reference to the wound, which is ascribed to them, rolling and battling. As the siege already described, so show the pressing into the taken city presupposes silently, because quite self-evidently, a connecting found between the land and insular Tyre, which, according to Hengst., must already have existed, but probably was thrown up by Nebuchadnezzar or the purposes of the siege. It is made perfectly hear by the
ëîáåàé
that Tyre as well as every their (land-city) was vanquished. (“The uncommon sea-fortress must sink down before his power into a common stronghold.”)
îá÷òä
, Hitzig: “more exactly, one burst open, taken by storm.”
Eze_26:11.
îöáä
, from
ðöá
, is something it right up, a pillar, not to be thought of as applying to memorial pillars of heroes or kings, but monuments of national strength in the temple if Hercules, such as the two mentioned by Herodotus (of gold [chrysolith] and emerald). Sepp.: At the entrance into the temple of Melkarth Mood two pillars (like Boaz and Jachin at Jerusalem), as the well-known boundary-pillars or an-stadia in front of all the temples of Hercules, which should set a bound to deluges and conflarations—water and fire. “According to others: the gods of Tyre go down in the dust. Hengst.: These pillars were symbols of the power and glory of Tyre.”
Eze_26:12.
øëì
of going about, tafficking. Treasures and wares.—
åáúé çîãúê
, Hengst.: “Thy beautiful houses,” corresponding to palaces, Isa_23:13. Hitzig: “More exactly after which one has desire, which please one.” wald: “The beautiful turreted dwellings and summer towers of the rich merchant-princes.” Häv.: “On account of the limited space, very high houses, such as did not exist even in Rome” (Strabo, 16). These were to the home-returning merchants the object of their longing desire; as in Isaiah 23, it is with the impression upon such home-voyagers that the prophecy opens. Arsenals and wharfs, the buildings adapted for marine trade, might also be meant.—Stones, wood, dust, point to the entire ruins; comp. Eze_26:4.
Eze_26:13. So comes the constrained Sabbath upon song and lyre, noise and pleasure. Nothing remains but the silent rocks and the desert sea.
Eze_26:14. The resumption (as already at Eze_26:12) of Eze_26:4-5 conducts back what was accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar to the general outline at the beginning, just as what is said in Isa_23:15 sq. is to be thought of episodically in the Epos on Tyre. To this latter point matters were tending with Tyre, and Nebuchadnezzar was a force in regard to it.
Eze_26:15-18
. The Impression made by the Fall of Tyre
Eze_26:15.
äìà
, in the form of a question we have the sure prognostication of what would, on the spreading of the report of Tyre’s fall, be the impression made by it in the colonies. The same enemy, indeed, did not harass them; but what can now any longer be placed aloft above others? What can still be secure before others?—The fall must be rendered palpable by the groaning, etc.—
àééí
are the seaboard regions as well as the isles.—Hitzig notices the excellent choice of the expression, as the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean are precisely those which have been commonly visited by a shaking (earthquake,
øòù
).
Eze_26:16. We must call to mind the settlements of the Phœnicians in the Sidonian and Tyrian period along the various coasts, in Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, the Baleares, and think of Utica, Gades (Cadiz), Kalpe (Gibraltar), Malaka (Malaga), etc. On the princes of the sea, comp. Isa_23:8. One can imagine the princely might and pomp of the chief men in these places of commerce, the aristocratic style of their public appearances.—What follows is a description of the Eastern way of mourning.—Jon_3:6; Eze_21:31 [26].—
îòéì
, outer garment, wide for display.—Eze_16:18.—Instead of all glory, which they lay aside, they clothe themselves in terrors.—Eze_7:27; Job_12:13.—
åçøãå
repeats
çøãåú
.—
ìøâòéí
, at moments, so that the trembling, like a fever, never for a moment leaves them (Hitzig).
Eze_26:17; Eze_19:1.—The catastrophe and ruins ask, How could so peculiar, wonderful, famous, powerful a place have met its overthrow?—Häv.: “Ah! how art thou condemned to the ground, thou inhabitress of the seas!” since
îéîéí
is = upon the seas there; but the city that dwelt away upon the seas is that whose inhabitants spread themselves over the seas, settled down there. Others: inhabited, peoples from the seas, that is, sea-dwellers, sea-peoples. Hitzig: “Thou populous in the sea,” properly, forth of the sea, or more exactly, from out of the sea. “Bearing a human population, it jutted up immediately above the surface of the water, as if it had sprung from the lap of the sea.”—Ewald reads, after Eze_27:34,
ðִùְׁëַּøְúְּ
, shattered out of the seas. Some have also read
îִéָּîִéí
= from days (of old), from everlasting inhabited.—
ääììä
from
äìì
, to make shining, to praise.—She is called strong in the sea (
áéí
); Hitzig: through the sea, her maritime position. More correctly: in the sea, in the strong element it was a strong city; therefore not only a sea-power, but a power in the mighty sea.—
çúéúí
is the terrors ascribed to Tyre and its inhabitants. These terrors of her name she gave far and wide through the sea (in consequence of her wealth, her greatness, and power), to all her inhabitants, which would point to Venice similarly situated, if therewith it were meant that the city with its population inspired before it fear into all its individual inhabitants, held them over against one another in fear and trembling (Cocc.). It must rather be meant that the terror of the Tyrian supremacy stuck and adhered to every Tyrian, as later something of the same sort to every Roman. Comp. Hitzig. [Hengst.: “Tyre had a double class of inhabitants—her citizens, and her connections in the colonies, who, ideally taken, dwelt in Tyre, because the roots of their existence were there. The inhabitants in the one sense were the terror of the inhabitants in the other. They must bow before them, and obey their commands.” So previously Hävernick. (Isa_23:2.) Ewald refers the second
éåùׁáéä
to the inhabitants of the sea, which is hardly feminine. The Syriac supplies
çàøõ
, omnibus habitatoribus terrœ.]
Eze_26:18. Hitherto Tyre had frightened all; now all are frightened over Tyre.
àùׁø ðéí
sharpens the idea of island, and intensifies the preceding
äàéï
.—Comp. Eze_26:16.—If Tyre fell, what issue then awaits even islands in the midst of the sea? The issue, outgoing, is more nearly defined by the fall. Others have thought of emigration, flight in the ships.
Eze_26:19-21
. The End and—a Beginning
An epilogue in these verses.—
ðçøáú
looks back to
äçøáä
in Eze_26:2.—
áäòìåú
parallel to
áúúé
, hut containing the thought of destruction in an image, which at the same time prepares for Eze_26:20-21. The flood rises out of the depth to fetch down the city covered with many waters, with its rubbish and its corpses.—
úäåí
, from
äåí
(
äîä
), is the swelling depth, the boiling mass of water up from the sea. [According to Hengst., it is ideal: the overflowing of the nations—for which Eze_26:3 supplies no ground.]
Eze_26:20. The city goes along with it, as with the dead generally,
àìÎòñ òåìí
, either general: to the people among the hidden, in the darkness of the realms of death; or more special: to the people of ancient time; or quite special: to the people covered, buried by the deluge (Hengst.: the ancestral guests of hell, Gen_6:4).—
úçúéåú
, the lowest depths, pictured out by
áçøáåú îòåìí
, in the uninhabited places from everlasting, by means of which “the image of the destruction, the annihilation of all human greatness, is thoroughly completed” (Häv.). As the going down, so also the dwelling is coloured by the fellowship of the dead, in parallel sentences.—
ìîòï ìà úùׁáé
, some, so that thou dwellest not, namely, longer where thou dost dwell; Hengst: “that thou sit not,” but mayst lie down. The intention is perhaps to be understood of the entire disappearance from among the dwelling-places of men; comp. at Eze_29:11.—
åðúúé
, unless dependent upon
ìîòï
, introduces a new sentence, and then fitly a conclusion. Or Eze_26:20 : “Then I make thee go down,” sq., “then I make thee dwell,” sq., “then give I thee,” sq. Over against the ruin of Tyre comes beauty (ornament, Eze_25:9)—(with that
áàøõ úçúéåú
, with this
çééñ áàøõ
)—the land of the living, earth with its life-hope, life-development, over against the lower world separated by death; Psa_27:13. [Hitzig: “And that thou shed not forth renown in the land of the living.” Ewald reads
åìà úִðָּöְáִé
, and translates: “that thou remain not, nor exist in,” etc. Kliefoth: “that thou be not inhabited, and I do not make glorious (namely, in respect to thee, Tyre (?)) in the land.” The negative ought to be applied to both clauses of the verse: not be inhabited, and not set as an ornament. The Chaldee and those who followed it understood the last clauses of Judah, and hence took it positively. But the Sept. properly understood both clauses of Tyre, and took both negatively.—P. F.]
Eze_26:21. Close of Tyre,
áìäåú
, of frightful judgments, and indeed of sudden destruction. Therefore to be made an example of such. Gesenius concretely: I will make thee for the down-going, that is, into something that goeth down. Philippson: “I suddenly annihilate thee.”—The
ðúúé öáé
is met by this
áìäåú àúðê
.—Comp. besides, Psa_37:10; Psa_37:36.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
On Ch.26
Eze_26:1-6. Tyre, the home of the first learned jurist, Ulpian, is the burial-place of the gifted theologian Origen; and the ruins of its once gorgeous cathedral cover the bones of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.—“Selfishness is a very great sin, especially when one seeks to become rich through other people’s hurt” (Cr.).—Tyre against Jerusalem: a study for the times.—“The prophet would check the despondency which a sight of the world shining in its glory can so readily evoke in the people of God when sighing under the cross” (Hengst.).—The loud triumph of the world over the Church is still only an apparent triumph.—The Church may be brought down, but the world with all its lust must utterly go down.
Eze_26:3. Yes; many nations shall come; God took Tyre at her word, but how?—Against the high wave-stroke of the towering heart, there come the high beating waves of retribution.—“God serves Himself of men in executing punishment, where an angel might rather have done it (Sennacherib), in order that we may become more sensible of our impotence” (Stck.).—The sea, which had been the hope of Tyre, now its terror.—God, the Leader of the enemies of His enemies.
Eze_26:4. Walls, towers, all is nothing, if God is not all.—What survives if God falls upon us?—The comforting and the terrible faithfulness of God to His word.—All things and persons are included in the annihilating judgments of God.
Eze_26:7-14. Nebuchadnezzar, a servant of God: in Egypt the insects were such.—The world-conqueror and the world-ruler.—The king out of the north is, above all, death; and if he draws up in array, he has a multitude also for his host, and there will be pain for the soul as well as for the body.—No fortress stands so secure and so firmly guarded that God’s judgment cannot reach and enter it.—Every power is broken at last.—“Whosoever does not tremble before the divine law will be only the more affrighted before the divine punishment when it alights” (Stck.).
Eze_26:12. The spoiling of our goods is the final end of all upon earth; therefore should we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, which remain for ever. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Eze_26:13-14. The lust of the world shall be one day suffering; the suffering of the pious eternal glory.—Let not thy heart be so stunned by the noise which the world makes as not to mark the bare rock which lies beneath; be not deceived by the merry songs and lively instruments of music: upon the graves even of the rich and the great all is still.—Here the fishing-net, elsewhere the cobwebs.
Eze_26:15 sqq. The interest in the downfall of others, arising from the consideration of the nothingness and perishableness of all earthly things, from the feeling of one’s own impotence and weakness, from the consciousness of sin and guilt.—The echo of misery.—“When God punishes, He does it not merely on account of the ungodly, who must feel such punishment, but also on account of other ungodly persons, that they may become better by such examples” (St.).—Herakles, the strength of Tyre, the might of commerce (comp. the Heb. word rakal).—The fall of Tyre an impressive preaching of repentance.—“The downfall of the ungodly is more readily mourned and bewailed than the tribulation of the righteous” (St.).—“That may be accomplished in a moment which was not expected to take place in years” (Stck.).—The Bible also represents tragedies, in which whole peoples may weep and kings take their place in the dust.—“When earthly well-being departs, the world complains—only its eternal perdition troubles it not” (Stck.).—The fall of the great should make us shy of seeking after such perishable greatness.—The unrighteous grief of the world, and the righteous lamentation of the world.—The terror before Tyre, and the terror upon Tyre.—If thou art frightened at sin in time, thou shalt not need to be frightened at its punishment when it is too late.
Eze_26:19-21. “These three verses hang together. The overthrow of the great city, and the glorification of the church. The one is the consequence of the other. There was a time when Rome was desolated, and the peoples covered it like water. At last it also went down to the dead in the Council of Trent, where, by its anathemas, it cut itself off from true believers. God has delivered His church, the land of the living, from Babylon, and adorned her with peace and manifold gifts” (Cocc.).—Tyre in the going down, Zion in the rising up again.—“He who has such hope may well let the scorn of Tyre pass—respice finem” (Hengst.).—“Just as God overthrows the proud antichristianism, so much the higher will He one day raise His church”(Tüb. Bible).—“Even in the hardest threatenings there is an under-current of promise for the children of God” (St.).
Eze_26:21. As there is a seeking and not finding, so also shall there be a being sought and not found.—“This is likewise said of every ungodly one who has been prosperous, Psa_37:36. He is not to be found in heaven for ever, and in hell none cares to seek or to be found” (B. B.).
