Ezekiel 27:1-36
1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
3 And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfecta beauty.
4 Thy borders are in the midstb of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
5 They have madec all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
6 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the companyd of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
7 Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; bluee and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
8 The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
9 The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers:f all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
10 They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
11 The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.g
14 They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
16 Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.h
18 Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
19 Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
20 Dedan was thy merchant in preciousi clothes for chariots.
21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupiedj with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
23 Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
24 These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
25 The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midstk of the seas.
27 Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
28 The suburbsl shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
29 And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;
30 And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31 And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
32 And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
33 When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
34 In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall.
35 All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
36 The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror,m and never shalt be any more.
TYRE’S FORMER GREATNESS, SUGGESTING A LAMENTATION OVER HER SAD DOWNFALL (Chap. 27)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—“The lamentation commences with a picture of the glory of the city of Tyre, its situation, its architectural beauty, its military strength and defences (Ezekiel 27:3), and its wide commercial relations (Ezekiel 27:12); and then passes into mournful lamentation over the ruin of all this glory (Ezekiel 27:26).”—Keil.
Ezekiel 27:1. Introduction and description of the glory and might of Tyre.
Ezekiel 27:3. “At the entry of the sea.” This should be rendered, “by the entrances of the sea.” The description is that of insular Tyre with her two harbours, one on the north and the other on the south. The former was called the Sidonian harbour, because it was on the Sidonian side; and the latter the Egyptian, because of the direction in which it pointed. “A merchant of the people for many isles.” Rather, “the peoples unto.” Tyre is thus described as the mercantile emporium of the peoples of many sea coasts, both from the East and from the West. Thus Isaiah describes her as, “a mart of nations” (Isaiah 23:3).
Ezekiel 27:5. “They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees.” In Ezekiel 27:4, Tyre is described as a stately ship built of the best material, manned with the best marines and most skilful pilots. The allegory is broken off in the middle of Ezekiel 27:9, but it is resumed in Ezekiel 27:26, where this noble ship so well furnished and managed by able hands is at last wrecked in tempestuous seas.
Ezekiel 27:7. “Broidered work.” Devices were worked in the sails, so that they served also for the purpose of ensigns.
Ezekiel 27:10. “They set forth thy comeliness.” The meaning is, that Tyre must feel herself honoured in having so many nations to supply her with hired soldiers. The commercial greatness of the city rested upon a military basis.
Ezekiel 27:12 A description of the commerce of Tyre with all nations who delivered their productions in the market of this metropolis of the commerce of the world, and received the wares and manufactures of this city in return.
Ezekiel 27:12. “Tarshish.” This was “Tartessus,” in Spain, famed for its various metals, which were mostly exported to Tyre. It is probable that most of the “tin” was conveyed by the Phœnicians from Cornwall to Tarshish. “The enumeration of the different peoples, lands, and cities which carried on trade with Tyre commences with Tarshish in the extreme west, then turns to the north, passes through the different lands of Anterior Asia and the Mediterranean to the remotest north-east, and ends by mentioning Tarshish again, to round off the list.”—Keil.
Ezekiel 27:13. “Traded in the persons of men.” They were addicted to the slave-trade. To this day the Turkish harems are supplied with female slaves from Circassia and Georgia, such being remarkable for their beauty. Compare Joel 3:6.
Ezekiel 27:14. “House of Togarmah.” “The northern Armenians, who call themselves the house of Torgom, and claim Torgom, or Togarmah, the son of Gomer, as their founder. (Genesis 10:3; 1 Chronicles 1:6.) They inhabit the rough mountainous regions on the south side of the Caucasus. The country was celebrated for its breed of horses, which were in great request by the Persian kings.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 27:15. “Denda.” “An island, or commercial town in the Persian Gulf, established by the Tyrians to secure the trade of India, which abounded in ivory. The tusks resembling horns will account for the term being here employed.” “Ebony.” “Gesenius thinks the reason why this word is plural in the Hebrew, is that it was obtained only in planks split into pieces for transportation. Its great hardness made it an article of value.”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 27:25. “The ships of Tarshish.” “The prophet now returns from his enumeration of the various articles of commerce with which Tyre enriched herself, and the various countries with which she traded, to commemorate her fall. But just before entering upon that part of his subject, he stops for a moment to advert to her navy, by which her wares were conveyed to Spain and other coasts of the Mediterranean. The ships of Tarshish were, comparatively speaking, like our old Indiamen. They are called the walls of Tyre, for the same reason that we speak of our ships of war as the wooden walls of Old England. They were the glory and defence of the merchant city.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 27:26. “The east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.” This wind, blowing from the direction of Lebanon, is the most violent of all in the Mediterranean (Psalms 48:8) Nebuchadnezzar is represented under this figure.
Ezekiel 27:31. “They shall make themselves utterly bald for thee.” Alluding to the Phœnician custom in mourning, which, on account of its connection with heathenish superstitions, was forbidden to Israel (Deuteronomy 14:1).
Ezekiel 27:32. “In the midst of the sea.” Thus showing that the prophecy is to be understood of insular Tyre.
Ezekiel 27:33. “Thou didst enrich the kings of the earth.” The custom dues levied on her wares were a source of wealth to the surrounding nations.
Ezekiel 27:36. “The people shall hiss at thee.” With the hiss of astonishment, as in 1 Kings 9:8.
HOMILETICS
When Tyre rejoices over Jerusalem, then the prophet rejoices over Tyre: this is the recompense of the pious. If we must not repay evil with evil, there still is with God a recompensing of evil with evil. All human and earthly things go out at last in lamentation. This is the lamentation of the spirit, that the world sows to the flesh, and of the flesh reaps corruption. With kettledrums and flutes the world begins, but it ends with wailing and misery. “We must profoundly know the gloria mundi, if we are to take to heart the sic transit gloria mundi.”—(Hengstenberg). Let no one boast of his strength or worldly elevation; how soon can the Lord, if His judgment should break forth, bring all to the dust of desolation! (Ezekiel 27:3; Jeremiah 9:23; Jeremiah 9:25). There is a perfection of beauty which is nothing else than ripeness for judgment. Beauty is a transient splendour, but the knowledge of the eternal, leads from glory to glory. In boasting one sees what things the heart is full of. Mark the contrast between Tyre and the daughter of the king, who is all beautiful within (Psalms 45). The security is very different: one is of faith, since we know that we are reconciled through Christ, and, even if the world should fall in ruin, can remain in peace; the other proceeds from unbelief, which has respect to men, walls, etc., and relies upon these. The buildings of men, and the building of God, namely, His church, against which not even the gates of hell can prevail. When people once surrender themselves to pride, pomp, and dissipation, they can hardly lay them aside again; nay, they often know not, from inconsideration and wantonness, what they should do (Deuteronomy 32:15, etc.). Every land has its peculiar gift from God, and the gifts of God must thus shamefully minister to the vanity of men. It is quite right to take into one’s service and pay qualified persons, but woe to him who makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord!
Men run through the wide world for the sake of merchandise, while the word of God, which makes rich without trouble, and imparts treasure which neither moth nor rust corrupts, nor can thieves steal, is so near us! The one pearl of great price Tyre did not make an article of traffic. What advantages it to gain the whole world if the soul suffers damage. Oh, how many gifts of God are in the service of sin? Great merchant-cities, great cities of sin. How often, and how many ways are men’s souls the objects of buying and selling (Ezekiel 27:13). With things perfectly beautiful man was certainly to occupy himself. But where are they to be found in the earthly sphere? (Colossians 3:2). That Tyre was so full and honoured, while Zion became always poorer and poorer, and sunk miserable—this formed a stumbling-block to the people of God, But what has become of all the fulness and glory of Tyre? Zion, on the other hand, has gloriously blossomed anew.
The glory of the earth shall become dust and ashes. The higher we reach, so much the more precipitous, and so much the deeper will be the fall. The element of our security can so easily become the element of our misery: here the sea, elsewhere gold, one’s position, &c. A person of high estate when cast down is lower than one who has always been in a humble position. The wind does not always fill our sails; it often also, and suddenly, tears them short and small. In prosperity men so rarely consider how vain it is, that in adversity they cry out the more loudly; but, alas! only upon the vanity of earthly things, and not upon the vanity of their earthly hearts. Remember that thou art dust, and bethink thyself that thou hast a soul. Fear is salutary, but there is also a fear which we again shake off, and which we do not suffer to warn us. The loss of earthly things gives such trouble and for the loss of heavenly things men will laugh! A Christian should not so mourn, but should smite his breast alike in prosperity and in adversity. Michael and Tyre (Ezekiel 27:32). Who is as thou? This it is proper to say only of God in reference to glory. In respect to nothingness, on the other hand, one of us is as another. Mournful times should be times of repentance.—The holy sense of the nil mirari. From Ezekiel 27:34 we learn, the end of earthly things, their scale value, and true estimation. All this world is nothing; how surely must there be what is something! But faith cries out of the depths to God. Contrast the glory of the children of God with the world’s glory.—(Lange).