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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Ezekiel 28:1 - 28:10
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God's Judgment upon the Prince of Tyre
v. 1. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
v. 2. Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, the ruler of the great commercial capital arid metropolis, Thus saith the Lord God, He who holds in his hand the fate of empires as well as of individuals, Because thine heart is lifted up, in sinful, blasphemous pride, and thou hast said, I am a God, a claim advanced by many heathen rulers who demanded for themselves divine veneration, I sit in the seat of God, on the throne of the one heavenly Ruler Himself, in the midst of the seas, considering the stronghold of his capital impregnable as far as men and the forces of nature were concerned; yet thou art a man, merely a lowly and mortal human being, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God, not only imagining himself to hold the position of God, but also thinking of himself as possessing, and able to use, the almighty power of God;
v. 3. behold, thou art wiser than Daniel, that is, the Tyrian ruler held this opinion concerning himself, he placed his knowledge and understanding above that of the wisest man of his time; there is no secret that they can hide from thee, this assertion on the part of the heathen prince again placing him on the level of Daniel with his revelations concerning the future;
v. 4. with thy wisdom and with thine understanding, particularly his business acumen, thou hast gotten thee riches, his business sagacity having brought its own reward, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures, so that the wealth of this commercial metropolis of the world, as later that of Venice, was almost unbelievably great;
v. 5. by thy great wisdom, with which he credited himself, and by thy traffic, the trade which had been established in the course of the centuries, hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches, this being the effect which the possession of wealth has in the majority of cases:
v. 6. therefore thus saith the Lord God, taking up the thought of verse 2 once more, for the intervening statements are intended, of course, only as an ironical concession, picturing the empty boastfulness of the heathen ruler, in his overwhelming opinion of himself, Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, ascribing an honor to himself which only the one true God possesses:
v. 7. behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, invaders from foreign lands, the terrible of the nations, for the Chaldeans were known for the fierceness of their natures; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, for the showiness of the trade and commerce of Tyre was the offspring of the busines s acumen with which the king prided himself, and they shall defile thy brightness, literally, "profane thy shining beauty," treating it with mocking disrespect, destroying it with rough ruthlessness.
v. 8. They shall bring thee, namely, the ruler himself, down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas, the expression denoting that the prince, as it were, died the death of every inhabitant of Tyre who was slain, his fate overtaking him as in a mighty shipwreck.
v. 9. Wilt thou yet say before Him that slayeth thee, I am God? Would the Tyrian prince, after the sentence of God had gone into effect, still make such extravagant claims for himself and his power anti wisdom? But thou shalt be a man and no God, that is, he would be given proof positive to that effect, in the hand of Him that slayeth thee, namely, completely at the mercy of the one and only Ruler of the universe.
v. 10. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised, such as the godless heathen deserve by their blasphemous pride, by the hand of strangers, in further humiliation upon him and in just retribution upon him who had probably often scoffed at the Jews; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Though the unbelievers jeer at the fact, yet it remains true that the Lord resents every insult offered his saints and will in due time take his revenge upon his enemies.