Ezekiel 26:18

the isles See on Ezekiel 26:15. The form of plur. nowhere else occurs, and appears to be adopted in order to gain a parallelism to "isles" (ordinary form) in the next clause. The phrase "at thy departure," lit. outgoingis strange; but might have a parallel Psalms 144:14.

The elegy seems confined to Ezekiel 26:17, but probably through explanatory amplifications that have crept into the text, Ezekiel 26:18 has also been drawn into it. LXX. reads in a shorter form: And the isles shall be terrified at the day of thy fall.

Ezekiel 26:18 can hardly refer to the memoryof Tyre's fall, but to the fall itself, Ezekiel 27:27 (Ezekiel 32:10), which being represented as future, is unsuitable to the dirge in the mouth of the princes. The verse hardly belongs to the dirge but forms the transition to the next strophe, Ezekiel 26:19. In the phrase "all her inhabitants" it seems necessary with A.V. (Ew.) to refer "her" to the sea, or with Corn. to alter the pronoun in order to gain this sense.