1And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 2Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy heart is high, and thou sayest, I am God, the seat of the gods I occupy in the heart of the seas; and thou art man, and not God, and thou makest thy heart as the heart of the Godhead: 3Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; nothing concealed is dark to 4thee: In thy wisdom and in thy prudence thou hast made for thee wealth, 5and makest [procurest] gold and silver in thy treasures: In the fulness of thy wisdom in thy traffic thou didst increase thy wealth, and thy heart was high in thy wealth: 6Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou makest 7thy heart as the heart of the Godhead; Therefore, behold, I bring strangers upon thee, the violent of the heathen; and they draw their swords upon the 8beauty of thy wisdom, and they dishonour thy shining beauty. To the grave they will bring thee down, and thou diest the death of the pierced through 9in the heart of the seas. Wilt thou say and [still] say, I am God, in the presence of him that slayeth thee? and thou art man, and not God, in the 10hand of him that pierceth thee through! Deaths of the uncircumcised shalt thou die in the hand of strangers: for I have spoken: sentence of the Lord 11Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 12Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Thou confirmedst the measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty! 13In Eden, the garden of God, wast thou; every precious stone was thy covering, Sardine, topaz, and diamond, Tarshish-stone, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald, and gold: the work of thy kettledrums and of thy pipes was with thee; in the day that thou wast made they were prepared. 14Thou cherub of the anointing, that covered; and I have given thee [therefor, thereto]; upon the holy mountain of God wast thou, in the midst of fiery stones 15thou didst walk. Blameless wast thou in thy ways from the day that thou 16wast made, till perverseness was found in thee. In the abundance of thy merchandise they filled thy midst with mischief, and thou sinnedst; and I will profane thee from off the mountain of Godhead; and I will destroy thee, 17covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thy heart was high in thy beauty; thou didst corrupt thy wisdom on account of thy shining beauty; to the earth will I throw thee down; I give thee before kings, that 18they may look upon thee. From the multitude of thy iniquities, in the corruptness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; and I will make fire go forth from the midst of thee, which burns thee up; and I will give thee 19to ashes upon the earth in the eyes of all who see thee. All who know thee among the people are amazed at thee; for terrors thou art become, and thou art no more even to eternity.
20And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 21Son of man, direct thy face toward Zidon, and prophesy upon it, 22And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I [come] upon thee, Zidon, and glorify Myself in the midst of thee: and they know that I am Jehovah, when I do judgments in [oh] her, 23and sanctify Myself in her. And I send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the pierced-through fall in the midst of her by the sword upon her round about; and they know that I am Jehovah. 24And there shall no more be to the house of Israel a pricking thorn and a smarting sting from all round about them, who despised them; and they know that I am the Lord Jehovah. 25Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered, then I sanctify Myself in them before the eyes of the heathen, and they dwell upon their 26ground which I have given to My servant Jacob. And they dwell upon it in security, and build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell in security, when I do judgments on all who despised them of those round about them; and they know that I, Jehovah, am their God.
Eze_28:9. Sept., Vulg., Syr., Ar. read:
äåøâéê
and
îçììéê
.
Eze_28:12. Sept.: ...
Óõ åἰ ἀðïóöñáãéóìá ὁìïéùóåùò
…
ê
.
óôåöáíïò êáëëïõò
—
çåúָí
, or in stat. const.—For
çëðéú
some codices read
çáðéú
.
Eze_28:13. Another reading:
ëòãï
= quasi Eden. Sept.:
ἐí ôῃ ôñõöῃ ô
.
ðáñáäåéóïõ
…
ê
.
ἀåãõñéïí ê
.
÷ñõóéïí ê
.
ëéãõñéïí ê
.
ἀ÷áôçí ê
.
ἀìåèõóôïí ê
.
÷ñõïëéèïí ê
.
âçñõëëéïí ê
.
ὀíõ÷éïí ê
.
÷ñõóéïí ἐíåðëçóáò ôïõò èçóáõñïõò óïõ
,
ê
.
ôáò ἀðïèçêáò ó
.
ἐí óïé
.
Ἀö
’
ἡò ἡìåñáò ἐêôéóèçò óõ
.— Vulg.: In deliciis parodisi … aurum opus decoris tui; et foramina tua in die—
Eze_28:14. Sept.:
ìåôá ×åñïõâ
,
ἐèçêá óå ἐí ὀñåé
…
ἐãåíçèçò ἐí ìåóῳ
.—Vulg.: Tu Cherub extentus et protegens,—
Eze_28:26. …
ἐí ἐëðéäé
…
ὁ Èåïò áὐôùí
,
ê
.
ὁ Èåïò ô
.
ðáôåñùò áὐôùí
.
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Eze_28:1-10. The Prophecy on the Prince of Tyre
Eze_28:1. There is first, therefore, a prophecy of judgment, as in Ezekiel 26, with reference to Tyre.
Eze_28:2.
ðâéã
; Meier: one who holds together, a governor, director. In Ethiopic, Nĕ is king, Gesen.: he who goes before, duke, doge. The special prominence given to this person, designated king in Eze_28:12, was natural from the marked parallel with Jerusalem; comp. Eze_17:19. But there was expressed in the kingdom, and especially in the case of Tyre, also a characteristic state-constitution. Small as many of the Phœnician cities were, each still had its king, and Tyre, in particular, kept by a hereditary kingdom, so that even in the latest times only those related to the old royal house were admitted to the throne. This kingdom combined with a rich and powerful aristocracy the mercantile interest, the gains of commerce, which founded it (Eze_28:16). After the analogy of Carthage, a senate stood by the side of the king, of the old families, which must in many respects have limited him, so that the Oriental despotism could not develope itself here. According to Josephus, it was Ethbaal II.; but not the person, only the position comes into consideration, and especially as in him the mercantile power of Tyre had its proud, secure representative.—As elsewhere also (Ezekiel 25), so here the sinning goes first on to Eze_28:6.—The self-exaltation which is ascribed to him has respect, on one side, to the high opinion entertained of himself; on the other, to the same in connection with his dwelling-place. What is to be made account of in the latter respect is plain from the assertion, I am God,—to be distinguished from the likeness of the Most High (
àãîä ìòìéåï
) in Isa_14:14, also from Act_12:22; it expresses the heathenish-mythological consciousness. The rock on which Tyre was built is at the same time to be viewed in its connection with the oft-mentioned temple. The Phœnician myth represented the two islands as moving about in the sea, until an eagle was sacrificed as an atonement. Down to the third century Tyrian coins exhibit the two islands, with the inscription,
ἀìâñüóåå ðÝôñå
(immortal rock). According to Sanchoniathon, Astarte, when wandering through the world, consecrated a star that fell down before her eyes to the island Tyre. The foundation of the temple to Melkarth was represented by its priests as contemporaneous with that of the city—about 2750 b. c. So Herodotus relates; and Arrian calls it the oldest sanctuary known in the annals of mankind. Thus
îåùá àìäéí
is sufficiently explained; while Hengst. still thinks of an “absolute inaccessibleness,” and Hitzig of the circumstance that this kingly residence “sprang up out of the water, as the palace of God out of the heavenly ocean.” [“Sanchoniathon expressly calls it ‘the holy island’; and it is known that the Tyrian colonies all reverenced it as the mother-city of their religion, not less than the original source of their political existence. It was only in the spirit of ancient heathenism to conclude, that a state which was not only strong by natural position, and by immense maritime resources, but also stood in such close connection with the divine, might be warranted in claiming, through its head, something like supernatural strength and absolute perpetuity of being.”—P. F.]—In the heart of the seas is an echo from Eze_27:4; Eze_27:25-26.—The rejoinder, and thou art man, etc., is sharp, yet at the same time sober—the simple contrast between man and God (El).—And thou makest thy heart, etc., continues the thou sayest, as well explaining
ìëê âáä
, as giving forth the speech that naturally flowed from it, the thoughts, the ebullitions of a heart which was the heart of Godhead.—Hitzig:
ðúï
indicates what is made.
Eze_28:3 begins an interlude, which, however, does not picture forth the imagination of his being God, to which the mention of Daniel would as little suit as what thereafter follows; but rather proceeds on the ground of the admitted manhood, and so does only the more feelingly censure the loftiness of spirit. It needs not be understood either as a question, or as spoken ironically. Behold, what exists, according to thy mistaken notion; it shows the being wiser than Daniel to be merely an imagination. There hence arises, at the same time, a clear confirmation of the book of Daniel (comp. Hengst. here), since Daniel’s wisdom was at any rate well known in the circle of Ezekiel, one also recognised at the Chaldean court, and therefore to be held up against the Tyrian sovereign. On the
ëìÎñúåí
, that to him nothing concealed, secret, was unknown, comp. Dan_2:10-11; Dan_2:19; Dan_4:6. Here also, indeed, is only a man, but with a generally admitted superhuman, truly divine wisdom, which God had in reality given (that is the main element in the comparison with Daniel), which he has not, as thou hast done, in his imagination appropriated to himself. Hengst. lays stress also upon the statesmanlike, the really princely position of Daniel, which so excellently grounded the kind of counter-position assigned him in relation to the king of Tyre.
Eze_28:4 goes a step deeper still, namely, to the real standpoint of the Tyrian prince,—his wisdom and prudence in the matter of worldly riches (1Ki_4:29). In connection therewith, one naturally thinks of the traditions according to which an ancestor of the royal house was the first sailor, who was borne to the island in the hollow trunk of a tree, and there erected pillars to the wind and fire; that the forefathers of the Tyrian kings alleged they had found purple on the island (the Tyrian colour, scarlet, the lack-dye of Sor).—
çéì
is presently specified in the gold and silver.—
àåöø
is: provisions, treasure, treasury (Zec_9:2-3).
Eze_28:5. However great this wisdom might be, however much and varied its manifestations, it centred in the merchandise; and with the growth which accrued to the wealth, the heart also became swollen, as its self-elation found in that wealth its proper element.
Eze_28:6 connects itself in a summary way with Eze_28:2, and prepares for the conclusion in Eze_28:7, which joins the punishment to the course of sin that had just been described.—
òøéõ
, terrible, powerful and violent: those who are so pre-eminently above others—the Chaldeans (Eze_26:7). Hitzig: “Against (why not upon?) the beauty of thy wisdom.” What is meant is: that the beauty of the mercantile state of things in Tyre was the offspring of the wisdom which distinguished its king,
éôé
and
éôòä
are almost the same, the latter, however, indicating more the shine or glitter of the beauty. The shine of the beauty may be referred. especially to the princehood of Tyre. [Ewald: “they draw their swords upon thy most beautiful wisdom.”]
çìì
, to pierce through, Pi. to dishonour, to make common.
Eze_28:8.
áåø=ùׁçú
, Eze_26:20.—The plural
îîåúé
, deaths, admits of explanation partly from the representative character of the Tyrian princehood, partly from the feeling therewith connected, of his dying in the death of every Tyrian that was slain. Hengst. compares Eze_29:5; Gen_14:10. Others: as the pierced through dies of many death-wounds (Eze_21:30; Eze_21:19 [25]). Even without rendering
çìì
, “profane,” there is a pointing back to
åçììé
in Eze_28:7 in this way, namely, that the princehood should at last share the fate of every one who was pierced through, and, stripped of all splendour, should be cast into the grave.
Eze_28:9. The word here goes still farther back than
åîúä
in Eze_28:8, and transfers the scene to the very moment of being killed, and confronts the vaunting discourse (in Eze_28:2).
ìôðé çøâê
, Eze_21:16 [11].—The extremely cutting argumentation, and thou art man, etc.—
îçììê
, Pi.
=
îçåìì
, Poel (Isa_51:9)
Eze_28:10.
îåúéí
, plur. from
îָåֶú
, comp. at Eze_28:8.—
òøì
is uncircumcised (comp. Eze_44:9; Isa_52:1); for Jews, on account of the sacramental import of circumcision, it designates the heathen world as outside the covenant of God (1Sa_17:36; 1Sa_31:4, barbari?). The opposite in Num_23:10 : “the death of the righteous.” Also for the Tyrian, as here, it is hardly to be understood without the circumcision reported by Herodotus of the Phœnicians (II. 104). Earlier, in Eze_28:8 : as every one that is pierced through; here there is an ascension: as a non-Tyrian through strangers.
Eze_28:11-19
. Lamentation over the Prince of Tyre
Now Eze_28:11, as Ezekiel 27
Eze_28:12. The lamentation is in fitting adaptation to the person who was just killed. Comp. at Eze_27:2.—In the connection with
îìà çëîä
and
ëìéì éôé
, which in themselves, and after what has preceded, are quite clear,
çåúí úëðéú
cannot possibly be rendered, with Hitzig: “thou art a curiously wrought seal-ring.” Ewald has: “O thou seal of the completion.”
çåúí
means: to cut in, to impress with a seal, to seal; therefore partic.: thou wast sealing. Also
çåֹúָí
, the seal-ring, is properly the impressor. The transferred signification: to seal, that is: to attest, to confirm, to verify, recommends itself through
úëðéú
(from
úëï
, to determine exactly, to weigh), the measure, the determinate, that which must have a certain amount (Eze_43:10); accordingly: thou confirmedst the measure, thou fulfilledst, madest the right measure good; therefore a threefold thing is boasted of the Tyrian kingdom: measure, wisdom, and beauty. The first of these may be said against despotism; comp. at Eze_28:2. [“According to the present text and punctuation, the expression plainly means: thou art the one sealing exactness (the noun
çåúí
denoting anything that is of an exact or perfect nature). To say of the king of Tyre that he sealed up this, was in other words to declare him every way complete: he gave, as it were, the finishing stroke, the seal, to all that constitutes completeness; or, as we would now say it, he was a normal man—one formed after rule and pattern. Hence it is immediately explained by what follows: ‘full of wisdom and perfect in beauty’ in this stood his sealing completeness.”—P. F.]
Eze_28:13. In Eden; comp. Eze_36:35; Isa_51:3. And the delightsome land, wherein the garden for primeval man lay, brings up the garden of God (El, not Jehovah); Eze_31:8-9; Gen_13:10. As the Tyrian king himself was certainly not God, but what was said of him in Eze_28:12, so his dwelling was unquestionably not
îåùׁá àì
, the habitation of God; it might, however, be named paradisiacal, since all fulness of what was pleasant, and all possible magnificence, surrounded the same, covered it (
îñëúê
). Hitzig freely: “every precious stone was thy figure-work;” because out of the stones the figuration of the ring must be composed! The transition to every precious stone brings to remembrance Gen_2:11-12. The distribution of the particulars forms three groups, each having three precious stones, rounded oil by the gold, which makes ten (the symbolical number of completeness). This emblematic representation of kingly greatness and glory, therefore, carries no respect to the breastplate of the high priest and its twelve stones, where also they are ranged in a different order; comp. however, on the signification of the particular names, at Exo_28:17 sq., 39:10 sq. Comp. also here at Eze_1:16; Eze_1:26; Eze_27:16.—
îìàëä
may signify business, performance, work, also goods. Manifestly music is meant by it here, as the older expositors have rendered, an ordinary accompaniment of the pomp of royalty (comp. Pan. 3:5)!
úó
is therefore the (hand) kettledrum, as a specimen of all instruments that were struck (
úôó
); and
ð÷á
will be the pipe (from
ð÷á
, to push through, bore through), for the wind instruments as they were then constructed. [Ges. takes
úó
for the socket in which the gem is put, and
ð÷á
as ring-socket. Ewald: “were appointed for thy oracle and soothsaying work on the day of thy creation.” He would take it ironically: the man—who might be called the seal, that is, the consummation, etc., was once certainly as the first of all men in paradise (Job_15:7), so that he has a completeness beyond any other person—took, doubtless, for his holy ornament, which covered him from the first day of his life, all the twelve stones of the high priest’s oracle-sign, and was doubtless made by God a cherub upon the mountain of the gods, and was also, doubtless, unblameable from his birth—only, alas! till his guilt was discovered! Others thought of
ðְ÷ֵáָä
, the female (woman). So Häv.: “the service of thy kettledrums and of thy women was ready for thee on the day of thy creation,” which (by a reference to Gen_1:27) must indicate the king’s entrance on his government, and the ladies of his harem, who surrounded him with dance and song.]—On the
äáøàê
, comp. Ezekiel 21:35 [Eze_21:30]. With the creation of this princedom, as it took in Tyre precedence of the still older Zidon, there forthwith existed all sorts of parade and glory, such as could be found only in kings’ courts. (
ëåðï
, Pual from
ëåï
?). Firm and well prepared did this kingdom start into being.
Eze_28:14. As the colour given to the representation has already, with its kettledrums and its pipes, forsaken Eden and paradise, and “the day of creation” does not quite constitute the Tyrian king a second Adam—as the whole representation generally appears to take into account only the very ancient origin on which this kingdom prided itself, perhaps also not without some touch of irony—so certainly the cherub here has little or nothing at all to do with paradise (comp. at Ezekiel 1; Eze_9:3; Ezekiel 10); for it is unnecessary for the following context to think of the history of the Tyrian kingdom after the analogy of the history of the fall. Rather may we suppose that the designation of cherub points simply to the temple at Jerusalem, and especially to the most holy place there. There is thereby symbolized out of the history of this kingdom that historical epoch when it came through Hiram II. into connection with David and with Solomon, so important, in particular, for the design of the temple-building, and important also for the commerce of Tyre. Already, as architect of the temple of Solomon (and that Hiram was a connoisseur as well as a promoter of the building art is testified by Josephus, in addition to what is said in the Bible, from the fragments of Dius and Menander in his possession), the king of Tyre takes beside Solomon in this respect a position which makes his appearance under a name borrowed from the architecture of the holy of holies, the cherub, not unsuitable. That cherub is applied to him only symbolically is rendered plain by the otherwise incomprehensible addition of
îîùׁç
, that is, of the anointing, which imports as much as: anointed cherub, therefore: who is king. What Hengst. concludes from Exo_30:22 sq., that “anointed” = holy, because all the vessels of the temple were anointed, to impress on them the character of holiness, runs out to this result, that the king of Tyre, as king, was res sacra, because God had communicated to him of His greatness—therefore, that he is said to be anointed because he was king. Since
äñåëê
, “the covering,” repeated in Eze_28:16, refers to Exo_25:20, and we know (comp. Doctrinal Reflections on Ezekiel 9) that the cherubim, screening with their wings the ark of the covenant, symbolized the life of creation, confessing, as it actually does, the heavenly King, the Holy One in Israel, the Most High over all, so it is not out of the way if the king of Tyre, who has shown himself to be, along with Solomon, the protector of the temple,—a building which unquestionably culminated in the most holy place,—should, agreeably to this testimony, be honoured as “the anointed cherub that covereth.” Yea, as the whole creation serves the eternal King of Israel, so also has the Tyrian kingdom served Him in His house at Jerusalem (on which also Isa_23:18 leans), and thus a proper contrast to the self-elevation in Eze_28:2; Eze_28:5 is brought out, as is expressly said through the immediately following
ðúúéê
, I have given thee. Upon the holy mountain of God is here, therefore, as always, to be understood of the temple-mount at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3.), where He right truly was, as architect of the temple. And because there the sanctuary for the ministrations of the priestly service in Israel was executed through him, and in the high priest of Israel the whole Israelitish priesthood culminated, it might be said, with reference to the high-priestly Urim and Thummim, of the Tyrian king, that “he walked in the midst of stones of fire.”
[Other Explanations.—Häv. thinks that the king of Tyre was named cherub as the ideal of a creature (so, too, Bähr previously in his Symbolik);
îîùׁç
is with him to be distinguished from
îùׁéç
, an anointed object (Exo_30:26), and
äñåëê
is as much as: a reflection of the divine glory. He thinks of a holy gods’-mountain (Isa_14:13), wherein the king of Tyre, as one of those mighty mountain-gods (1Ki_20:23) whom the Tyrians honoured, was located; and the fiery stones were, according to Häv., those in the temple of Herculus as the fire-god, which may have been illuminated. Hengst. takes the cherub, with Häv., as a representation of the earthly creature-life in its highest grade, and in its highest perfection; which, however, cannot be conceived of as proper to the Tyrian king. As “covering,” he covered Tyre so long as God’s favour was with him and his people. The mountain of God must be his elevation to the holy mount of God, a participation in the divine greatness (Psa_30:8); and the fiery stones correspond to the walls of fire, which indicate the divine protection (Zec_2:9). Ewald: “thou—into the wide-covering cherub, into that I make thee;” and from the holy mountain of the gods rush down the sparkling stones of fire, namely, thunderbolts against the wicked (!). Hitzig, like the Sept., takes
àú
as
àֶú
, with: “beside the cherub, etc., so have I set thee;” then: “cherub of the width of the covering.” But he is in some doubt; he thinks by the mountain of God might be meant Horeb; but it might be the Albordsch of Asiatic mythology, and in the stones of fire there lies at bottom the idea of a Vulcan. One sees the despair which attaches to every rationalistic exposition.]
[The rationalistic explanations of this singular passage are certainly bold and unsatisfactory enough; but our author’s own appears to make greatly too much account of the historical relation of Hiram to the temple at Jerusalem, and too little of the poetical element which pervades the representation. “It is one of the most highly figurative representations of prophecy, and is only to be compared with Isaiah’s lamentation, Ezekiel 16, over the downfall of the king of Babylon, It characteristically differs from this, however, in that, while it moves with equal boldness and freedom in an ideal world, it clothes the ideal, according to the usage of our prophet, in a historical drapery, and beholds the past revived again in the personified existence of which it treats. It is a historical parable. The kings of Tyre are first personified as one individual, an ideal man—one complete in all material excellence, perfect manhood. And then this ideal man, the representative of whatever there was of greatness and glory in Tyre, and in whom the Tyrian spirit of self-elation and pride appear in full efflorescence, is ironically viewed by the prophet as the type of humanity in its highest states of existence upon earth. All that is best and noblest in the history of the past he sees in imagination meeting in this new beau-ideal of humanity. It was he who in primeval time trod the hallowed walks of paradise, and used at will its manifold treasures, and regaled himself with its corporeal delights. It was he who afterwards appeared in the form of a cherub—ideal compound of the highest forms of animal existence—type of humanity in its predestined state of ultimate completeness and glory; and, as such, had a place assigned him among the consecrated symbols of God’s sanctuary in the holy mount, and the immediate presence of the Most High. Thus, occupying the highest spheres of created life, and familiar even with the sight of the divine glory, he knew what it was to dwell amidst the consuming fire, and to walk as on burning stones of sapphire (Exo_24:10). So thou thinkest, thou ideal man, thou quintessence of human greatness and pride—thou thinkest that manhood’s divinest qualities, and most honourable conditions of being, belong peculiarly to thyself, since thou dost nobly peer above all, and standest alone in thy glory. Let it be so. But thou art still a man, and, like humanity itself in its most favoured conditions, thou hast not been perfect before God: thou hast yielded thyself a servant to corruption, therefore thou must be cast down from thine excellency, thou must lose thy cherubic nearness to God, etc. … So that the cry which the prophet would utter through this parabolical history in the ears of all is, that man in his best estate—with everything that art or nature can bring to his aid—is still corruption and vanity. The flesh can win for itself nothing that is really and permanently good; and the more that it can surround itself with the comforts and luxuries of life, the more only does it pamper the godless pride of nature, and draw down upon itself calamity and destruction.”—P. F.]
Eze_28:15. To wish to bring
úîéí
into connection with Adam’s sinless constitution, has against it the expression
áãøëéê
, in thy ways. It is simply the contrast to the expression: perverseness was found in thee; therefore: blameless in thy walk. One might suppose, after the exposition given of the walking in the midst of the fiery stones in Eze_28:14, an allusion to the
åְúֻîִּéí
! The earlier procedure of the kingdom of Tyre, as seen in the fellowship it then maintained with the David and Solomon of Israel, must be viewed as set over against the corruption into which it latterly fell (Eze_26:2; Eze_27:3; Eze_28:2 sq.). A dogmatic antithesis, such as Hengst. supposes, is not to be imagined.
Eze_28:16. Here now follows the origin of the perverseness that was found in him, namely, in his vast commerce (Eze_28:5); and so one has to think of the Tyrian kingdom as carrying on and plying merchandise, and that in all sorts of ways, by which it fell into pernicious and sinful courses.—
îìå
, indeterminate as to its subject, or (Hengst.): thy inhabitants (?); more properly: fellow-citizens, subjects, if they are not to be regarded as the merchants from all countries. Rosenm. preferred the intransitive signification of the verb: “through the multitude, etc., was thy interior filled.” [Hitzig:
îְìåֹà=îְìåֹ
, “the filling of thy interior was injustice.”] Thus, in place of the former blamelessness, there has come to be a ground for punishment. Hence for the punishment there must now, through God, be a withdrawal from the relations once held to Israel, the most elevated reminiscences of its history, as through God it had been introduced to these. This lies in
îäø
; and that it is contemplated as a holy downfall, with a view to the building up of the sanctuary in Israel at the time, we perceive from the
åàçììê
—ch. 7:21, 22. [Hitzig: “and thou, covering cherub, art quite rooted out”!!]—For the rest, comp. at Eze_28:14.
Eze_28:17. The discourse here, with
âáä×
, again reverts to the subject announced at the very beginning (Eze_28:2), the corruption of the Tyrian kingdom: the proud self-elation in or on account of his beauty; comp. at Eze_28:7. The higher man raises himself, so much the poorer does he become as to his wisdom. A proud man, a fool; so it is said in common life, for this special reason, that the splendour of wealth, the whole attractive display of its outward position, so apt to bewitch strangers even and to beget envy, brings the possessor so much the sooner and the more to a self-pleasing condition. This is distinctly involved in the
òì
, on account of, which does not need to be taken as = with, together with. Ewald: “thou hast lost thy wisdom upon thy splendour.”—The self-destruction and annihilation (
ùׁçú
) of such self-elation corresponds, as to time, with the casting down effected by God (
òìÎàøõ
), and, with respect to the preceding glory, with the abandonment to the astounded and at the same time malicious gaze of those who were companions as to rank and position. Hengst. remarks that
øàä
, with
á
, marks the affecting contemplation, especially with a joyful participation.
ìøàåä
, the infinitive form, like
ìãàáä
,
ìàäáä
.
Eze_28:18.
îøá òåðéê
is parallel with
áøá øëìúê
in Eze_28:16, and
áòéì øëìúê
throws light on
òåðéê
.—The profanation proceeded from the moral offence; the unrighteous mammon in commerce brought along with it sin and guilt. After what is said in Eze_28:16 in reference to God as to the profaning, the words
çììú î÷ãùׁéê
can occasion no difficulty. The sanctuaries of the Tyrian kingdom are those holy reminiscences regarding the mountain of God and the sanctuary of the Lord, and of Israel’s high-priesthood. One cannot possibly serve God and mammon. (Others have thought of the temple, which Tyre made on his holy island (?!). With Hengst. every sort of greatness ordained by God, or of glory distributed by Him, is a sanctuary.)—The fire, according to Hitzig, must be the perverseness with which his interior was penetrated, as fire bound up in him (!!). Some, too, have under it thought of a traitor, who would pass over to Nebuchadnezzar. Vatke has also mentioned the phœnix, giving itself to be burnt. It is a biblical form of speech, frequently used, for the punishment of divine wrath which comes from sin, and which, as is evident from the term ashes, was to annihilate the kingdom of Tyre (Eze_19:12).—
åàúðê
, contrast to
åðúúéê
in Eze_28:14.—The seeing once more emphasizes the spectacle, which will be presented to every one in the subject so judged.
Eze_28:19. Here at last is the conclusion. With the seeing with the eyes there is conjoined the knowing, the understanding with the spirit.—Comp. Eze_26:16. They are prophetic preterites.—Eze_27:36; Eze_26:21.
Eze_28:20-26
. The Prophecy on Zidon
Eze_28:20-21. The brief and supplementary manner in which this prophecy respecting Zidon is introduced arose from the backgoing character of this city, though it was more ancient than Tyre (hence sung of by Homer, while Tyre is not), and, according to such tradition, still very commonly represented the Phœnician state (for example, Isa_23:4; Isa_23:12); comp. Gen_10:15; Gen_49:13. On coins, as among the Greeks, Zidon is called the metropolis of Tyre. On account of its still always preserved independence, whence it took part in the coalition against Babylon (Jeremiah 27),—one may say, the Genoa of the old world,—there was due to it a word, however short, especially since, as a representative of Canaan, with which no such relations were maintained as between Tyre and Israel under Hiram and Solomon, it formed most fitly the contrast for the promise which bore respect to the people of God. Comp. Jdg_10:12.
Eze_28:21.
öéãåï
, that is, “fishing,” which indicates the earliest employment of its inhabitants, lay in a plain, which resembled an orchard, several hours’ walk along the sea, and had a summer and a winter harbour; at present a small, insignificant place. Of the old fortress there still remains a square tower. Fishing and traffic in fish are still practised there.
Eze_28:22.
äððé òìéã
, as at Eze_26:3.—
åðëëãúé
; comp. Exo_14:4; Exo_14:17-18. May a preparation have been intended, through this reference to Egypt, for what follows in Ezekiel 29.? In such a being sanctified, or in God sanctifying Himself, as is done by means of a judicial punishment, there is presupposed the certainty that Zidon would not have sanctified Him. The impressive transition from the second to the third person makes the fact appear, in a manner, as already accomplished, so that one speaks of Zidon as of such a person.
Eze_28:23. For which sort of judgments see Eze_5:17. Pestilence in connection with war,—that in the houses; this as the shedding of blood in the streets, as is presently brought vividly out.—
åðôìì
, Pil. equivalent to Kal, but strengthening, enhancing, as also alliterating; producing a resemblance of sound which has in it something graphic (Häv.). Continually, as it were, the pierced-through fall.—The sword, through which God will act upon them, comes upon Zidon from round about, so that there is no escape.—The representation of the predicted judgment is kept general. With Zidon the analogous prophecies respecting judgment first reach their end. And thus also can the following be joined to it the more fitly.
Eze_28:24. The point of contrast is presented by the idea of neighbourhood—the nearer (Ezekiel 25), or the more remote, as was the case with Tyre and Zidon; it is said expressly: from all round about them. On
ñìåï
, comp. at Eze_2:6. Ges.: “like the young shoots and twigs of the palm.”—
îîàéø
, partic. Hiph. from
îָàַø
, to thrust; intransitive: to be sharp, bitter. Ges.: “raising bitter pain.”
÷åõ
is something cutting, stinging.—
ëָàֵá
, to bend oneself for pain, hence Hiph.: to cause pain.—The Promise, accordingly, amounts to this, that the sensible pain which the people of Israel must have experienced through the contempt of their neighbours shall cease in the future. The figurative representation is a marked repetition of Num_33:55; the pain experienced was punishment; comp. Gen_15:18 sq.; Jos_13:19; Jdg_1:31-32; Jdg_3:3. But now the Lord accomplishes what His people had slightingly neglected. Comp. also Eze_16:57.—The negative side is followed by the positive in Eze_28:25; the scornful heathen go down, but the people in whom the Lord sanctifies Himself, in contrast to them, come gloriously up. Comp. Eze_11:17; Eze_20:41.—The change, also, from Israel to Jacob, is to be noticed, and the relation of house of Israel to My servant Jacob.
Eze_28:26. In consequence of the added definition
Ó
ìáèç
, in security, it is repeated that they should dwell upon their home-soil.
áָּèַç
, according to Meier: to stretch forth oneself, i.e. give away oneself, confide; hence: to be careless, secure. Ges.: the same derived from a primary meaning, “to be void, empty.”—But also the secure possession in the confidence of faith is in this comforting promise repeated, and finally, such grace of God is again, and still more expressly than before, set over against the divine judgments. Comp. besides, Isa_65:21. Hitzig: “the first
åéùׁáå
preceding the building and planting is inchoative: they settle down; the second: they are established, dwell, or abide.” Hengst. remarks: “It is designed to meet the despair which, after the opening of the siege of Jerusalem, had become the most formidable enemy. So that here, in the onesidedness which so commonly adheres to prophecy, because everywhere connecting itself with definite temporal relations and issues, only the light side of the future of the covenant-people is brought into view. Along with that there was also a shady side, which is supplied by the successors of Ezekiel, Zechariah and Malachi. A great national judgment was destined to follow the Chaldean.” Häv.: “This is the eternal blessing which rests upon Israel, that it shall one time attain to a blessed peace, while the heathen powers shall lie under the penal judgment of God.” He calls to mind the gathering through the gospel. That here, as in Eze_26:20, in the shape of a brief glance into the future, there are traits of Messianic colouring, is manifest. Comp. also at Amo_9:14.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. The time for the fulfilment of these prophecies against the aliens, where no dates of a definite nature are to be found in the prophecies themselves, depends on the kind of realization applied to them. Tholuck admits of a wide interval “in the relation between truth and reality in the prophecies.” But when he presently, again, limits the principle, that “the mode of realization may be to us a matter of indifference,” since “the simply religious spirits” are to be distinguished from divine seers, nothing is gained but the arbitrary definition that the prophets, “though not uniformly, yet in great part, saw the truth of the future not merely in abstracto, but under the concrete veil of their historical realization.” And what is meant by “seeing the truth in abstracto”? Is there not a self-contradiction in this as applied to the prophets, to whom the ideas presented themselves as matters of fact, and these facts in this or that actual form? There must, first of all, be admittedly something of human weakness, especially in the subsequent reproduction of the previously received divine communications and visions. Many an intermediate link in this way was lost; but thereby the end came so much nearer to the beginning, the ultimate background to the foreground. In this and other respects there is the dust of finiteness on these prophetic paintings, which but so much the more furnishes a pledge of their divine origin. With this agrees what is said in 1Pe_1:10-12,—said, indeed, with reference to the time of the Christian salvation, yet admitting also of a more general application,—where there is ascribed to the prophets an “inquiring” and “searching into,”—a matter of study, therefore, also for them, since, when the meaning had not been expressly made manifest to them, they sought for traces [of the fulfilment], and made trial of them in regard to the times which lay near at hand. If their prophecies had been the product of their own spirit, such want of knowledge in regard to the cases in question, and their procedure in consequence thereof, must have been strange; but in this way we have, with their searching concerning their prophecies, perhaps the proper soul of their so-called literary activity.
2. In the prophecies of judgment contained in the earlier chapter [i.e. Ezekiel 25], the execution of the judgment rests wholly in the hand of God. So upon Ammon, upon Moab, upon the Philistines; only in respect to Edom was it said that the accomplishment would be made specially through Israel. The divine sentence speaks throughout of the extirpation of the very name. As regards place and time, no other fulfilment could lie nearer to the prophet and his contemporaries than that through Nebuchadnezzar. That this was only the beginning of the end could not be concluded without some insight into the divine patience, and the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. Still more clearly do these relations discover themselves in the case of Tyre.
3. The transition to Tyre is made by our prophet through the Philistines. Considered generally, this has its ground in the heathenish character of the race. More specially, for their appearance in this connection, account has been made of a notice (see Movers, Phœn. ii. 313), according to which the Zidonians, after they had (b. c. 1209) been brought into subjection by the Philistines, laid the foundation of the island-city of Tyre. Lenormant (Manuel d’ Hist. Anc. de l’Orient), and, leaning upon him, M. Busch, have woven thence the story, that a Philistine fleet, sailing from Askalon, had surprised Zidon, and put an end to the hitherto Zidonian supremacy. Thus would the Philistines, as having furnished the occasion for the origination of Tyre, have had their proper place assigned them, in a historical-genetical respect, at the close of Ezekiel 25 and before the beginning of Ezekiel 26 of Ezekiel. M. Duncker (Hist. of Antiq. i. 519) merely says: “In the year b. c. 1254, a number of the Zidonian race emigrated from Zidon, and over against Old Tyre, upon an island-rock, beside the temple of Melkarth, founded New Tyre. This New Tyre grew into a commonwealth with the old city on the land. The strengthening which Tyre hereby received put it in the position of setting up a rivalry with the commerce and the colonization of Zidon. From b. c. 1100 Tyre saw herself at the head of the Phœnician cities.”
4. Tyre, as very commonly happens with commercial states, and still more with commercial cities, presents, in the few and disconnected things that we know of its history, an image of ups and downs, and inversely. Commonly it is said, in connection with our chapter, that Tyre was then at the summit of its power. But this might rather be said of the times of David and Solomon (Duncker, p. 520). For the period under consideration it comes nearer to the truth to say, that Tyre had again revived, and continued to maintain a certain precedence among the Phœnician cities. For though the revolt of Kition in Cyprus had been suppressed, and the island stronghold of Tyre had under King Elulæos successfully withstood the Assyrians (Salmanassar), yet the dependent relationship of the Phœnician cities toward Assyria from the year b. c. 900 became more and more marked, and Tyre had to stretch all her powers to preserve her position, or again to make it good. During the Assyrian siege it lost its last colony in the Thracian seas, namely, Thasos; and an Assyrian fleet ere long robbed it anew of the island of Cyprus, which it had again reconquered. A memorial stone in the Berlin Museum commemorates this success of Salmanassar against Tyre. According to Lenormant’s representation (ii. p. 313; Busch, p. 247 sq.), while Salmanassar, b. c. 720–15, had been successfully resisted, there were, about b. c. 700, decided failures against Sennacherib, who conquered the island Tyre, and set up there a vassal (Toubaal) as king. The bas-reliefs in the rocks of Nahr el Kelb, around Beirût, even to the present time, according to Lenormant, bear witness to the complete subjection of Phœnicia by Sennacherib (? Sargana-Salmanassar!), and the overthrow of the Tyrian supremacy. (If this French representation were to be trusted, the prophecy of Isaiah in Ezekiel 23 would have to be applied to it, though the Chaldeans were already to be descried in the distance; and Ezekiel would connect with the restoration which intervened (Isa_23:15 sq.) the prophecy of a new judgment upon Tyre by the hand of the Chaldeans, as generally the judgment upon Tyre. But also in the otherwise general representation, which knows only of the unsuccessful siege of the island-city by Salmanassar, is the reference thereto of the prophecy of
HOMILETICAL HINTS
On Ch. 28
Eze_28:2-11. “The prophet had the more reason to bring forward the king of Tyre in his fall, as he thus obtains a counterpart to the glorious rise of the kingdom of Israel in Christ” (Hengst.).—“God resisteth the proud, 1Pe_5:5. Whoever, therefore, is proud has God for his enemy” (Stck.). “I am God—many, indeed, will not speak plainly out; but they bear themselves so as if no one had the right to say anything to them. God may well enough call governors gods, but they are not themselves to assume anything on that account, else their divinity will soon come to a disgraceful end with Dagon, 1. Sam. 5:3, 4” (B. B.).—“The new wisdom teaches, man is God, and there is no God except in man—which points to the man of sin, 2Th_2:4, whose typical foreshadowing the king of Tyre was” (Schmieder).—“It belongs to the nature of God to be and have everything out of Himself; to the nature of man, to derive all from the fulness of God” (Hengst.).—“Nothing is more foolish than when a man forgets his human condition” (Stck.).—Thou sayest, I am rich, etc., see Rev_3:17.
Eze_28:3. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom.—“Our wisdom puffs us up, when love fails” (H. H.).—“Imaginary wisdom hinders prayer for the true wisdom” (St.).—The worldly wisdom of Daniel, as compared with that of the prince of Tyre.
Eze_28:4. The husbandman, also, gathered much into his granary; yet he was a fool, whose soul was that night to be required of him, Luke 12.
Eze_28:5. God demands the heart; mammon lifts it up, that it may not betake itself to God.—No one can become happy by means of riches.
Eze_28:6. The king of Tyre and the king of Babylon, Dan_4:27.—“The punishment for pride is humiliation” (H. H.).—“To come from a pit to a high position is an agreeable change, as with Joseph and David; but the coming for the ungodly is in the opposite direction” (Stck.).—God must bring us to the height, and keep us in the height, if we are not to fall from all real and imaginary heights into the depths of the abyss.
Eze_28:9. “In the day of trouble men employ quite another language than in prosperity, nay, learn then what they would not learn throughout their whole life” (Stck.).
Eze_28:10. “Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous” (Stck.).—The death of the ungodly is death manifold—bodily, spiritual, eternal.
Eze_28:11-19. Even this lamentation shows that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.—“Impress of the original, therefore the image of God, Heb_1:2. More exactly: he who not only in himself, but also in all his works, expresses the prototype. This Jesus testifies of Himself, John v.19, 36” (Schmieder).
Eze_28:13 sq. To whom much is given, of him also shall much be required.—The great spirits, who think the law was not given for them, in the judgment.—“So also we must regard as precious stones Christ and His name, the Holy Spirit, faith, the prophets, God’s word, the sacraments, the virtues, the patience of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, etc.—with which a false Christ seeks to bedeck and to adorn himself, Rev_17:4” (B. B.).—“Ungodly people have their Eden in this world, but believers seek it in heaven” (St.).
Eze_28:15. “On the common ground of hereditary corruption, there still are in the life of individuals and of whole nations differences, times of comparative innocence as well as of deep declension, provoking the judgments of God. As a rule, youth is the better time; the older the worse. Sin, when not combated, is continually on the increase,” etc. (Hengst.)—“It does not always happen that they who promise well in youth shall be the same in advanced life, for many change their habits” (St.).—“Every man flatters himself, and every king is flattered by his Tyre” (Schmieder).
Eze_28:16. The perils of merchandise for entire peoples, and for individuals.—“They who aim at being rich fall into dangerous snares” (Stck.).
Eze_28:17. “The foundation of wisdom is humility, which sees things as they are, has an open eye for one’s own weaknesses and the excellences of others, and is on its guard against dangerous undertakings, Psa_131:1. The ‘brightness’ received into the heart blinds the eye, so that one regards himself alone as great, everything else as little, and rushes wantonly into dangers for which he is not prepared, adventures upon paths which lead to perdition—as the combat (of Tyre) with the flourishing Chaldean monarchy. But haughtiness itself works its own ruin. This is the rock on which all the heathen powers of the old world were wrecked” (Hengst.).—“But God-fearing kings will thence derive the instruction that the king, not less than the meanest subject, has to pray daily to God on his knees for a wise and humble heart” (Schmieder).—The dust of kings appears and is treated exactly as the dust of the very poorest. Sursum corda, but in the right sense!—Our heart should be a sanctuary of God.
Eze_28:18-19. “The fire of lust and covetous desire draws after it the other fire of judgment” B. B.).—“A destruction like that of Sodom in the olden time, in which the sin-root of Canaan first came to full development, while the judgment upon Tyre forms the close of the long series of judgments upon the Canaanites” (Hengst.).—“On the other hand, he who does the will of God abides for ever, 1Jn_2:17” (Stck.).—“Where thou wilt not be for ever, there seek for thyself no fixed abode” (B. B.).
Eze_28:20. “In the judgments of God shines forth His glory, so that men are obliged to confess that He is righteous, and that His judgments are righteous” (Stck.).
Eze_28:24. “God’s judgment on the ungodly tends to the good of His church” (Cr.).—God sets His own free at length.—“How easily is a thorn drawn out!” (Stck.)—“How well is it to be under the protection of the Lord Messiah, and under His gracious wings to dwell securely!” (Tüb. B.)—“Hence has it been fully made good through Christ, as Zacharias says (Luk_1:74 sq.), that we are redeemed from the hand of our enemies to serve Him without fear,” etc. (H. H.)—“Then do believers first come to their true and perfect rest, when all their bodily and spiritual enemies have been rooted out” (O.).—“This prophecy is fulfilled in the Christian Church, which is the true seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those born under the Old Covenant were in bondage, while believers under the New Testament are free” (Cocceius).
