XXVI. Tyre was a great and powerful commercial city, made up of two parts: Old Tyre, situated on a plain on the mainland, and New Tyre, built on a rocky island, or rather two islands joined together, lying about half a mile from the shore. Its territory was insignificant, but it was so strong in its... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH. — The year was that in which Jerusalem fell (2 Kings 25:2; 2 Kings 25:8), but the month is not given here, and cannot now be ascertained. It is plain from Ezekiel 26:2 that Tyre already felt sure of the issue of the siege; but there is a marked difference between this... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE IS BROKEN THAT WAS THE GATES OF THE PEOPLE. — “Gates” is in the plural simply because the word originally means _a leaf_ of a door or gate, and hence the two leaves mean _the gate;_ accordingly the sense would be better conveyed by using the singular in English. On the other hand, “people, both... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY NATIONS. — The prophet here, at the outset, glances down through the ages of Tyre’s future history. He has in mind not merely the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, of which he will speak more particularly presently (Ezekiel 26:7), but all the successive conquests until the proud city should be reduce... [ Continue Reading ]
HER DUST. — Comp. Ezekiel 26:12. The dust is that of her ruined walls and palaces and temples. “Scraping” expresses their utter destruction. As an historic fact, the ruins of the ancient city have all been thrown into the sea, and what now remains is of mediaeval construction, although the greater p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SPREADING OF NETS. — Such has been the chief use of insular Tyre for ages, and although a miserable village of 3,000 people has sprung up, chiefly within the present century, upon a part of its site, other parts have still no more important use. The Tyre upon the mainland has so utterly disappea... [ Continue Reading ]
DAUGHTERS WHICH ARE IN THE FIELD. — Comp. Ezekiel 26:8. A poetic way of describing the dependencies of Tyre upon the mainland. In Ezekiel 26:7 the particular and now impending conquest by Nebuchadnezzar is graphically described, and then, with the change to the plural in Ezekiel 26:12, there seems... [ Continue Reading ]
NEBUCHADREZZAR. — So the name is very often written by Jeremiah and a few times by Ezekiel. It is, perhaps, a closer representation of the _Nabu-kudurriuzur_ of the Babylonian cylinders than the form finally adopted by the Hebrews of Nebuchadnezzar. A KING OF KINGS, FROM THE NORTH. — He is called a... [ Continue Reading ]
A FORT... A MOUNT. — These and the following particulars of the siege indicate the use of the ordinary methods as in the attack of a city on the mainland. The explanation of this is doubtless partly in the fact that Palæotyrus, Old Tyre, upon the mainland, was approached in the ordinary way, and par... [ Continue Reading ]
ENGINES OF WAR. — This is now generally understood to mean _battering-rams,_ although the word is a different one from that used in Ezekiel 4:2; Ezekiel 21:22. There are two words here which may form one compound word. AXES in the original is _swords._ It may either be used, the specific for the ge... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL ENTER INTO THY GATES. — The whole description of this verse again implies that Nebuchadnezzar had contrived some way by which his armies, with horsemen and chariots, could march into the city, and the prophet gives a glowing poetic description of the effect of their entrance.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY STRONG GARRISONS. — This is the only instance in the Bible in which this common word is so translated, although a word closely akin to it is rendered _garrison_ throughout the Books of Samuel. Both words mean a pillar set up as a monument or memorial. Translate, therefore, _the pillars of thy st... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL MAKE. — In Ezekiel 26:12 the nominative changes. It is no longer Nebuchadnezzar who does these things, but “they.” This may intimate that the prophet’s vision now again passes beyond the immediate future to the long succession of calamities, beginning indeed with Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL CAUSE. — Here God speaks of His own direct action, and declares that all these calamities are ordered by Him; and in this and the following verse the prophecy of Ezekiel 26:4, is repeated that Tyre shall be utterly wasted and desolate, and never be rebuilt. In Ezekiel 26:15 the effect of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ISLES. — This word is constantly used in Scripture, not merely for islands, strictly so called, but for any sea-coasts. The main reference here, no doubt, is to the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; but as Tyrian commerce extended also beyond, the language need not be entirely restricted... [ Continue Reading ]
PRINCES OF THE SEA. — Or, as we should say, _merchant princes._ (Comp. Isaiah 23:8.) Actual sovereigns are not meant, but those raised by commerce to wealth and power. Their astonishment and grief is poetically described under the figure of the customs of Oriental mourning. (Comp. Jonah 3:6.) “Thron... [ Continue Reading ]
INHABITED OF SEAFARING MEN. — Rather, _in-habited from the sea._ The word, which is very common, never bears the sense of men. The thought is that the rock of Tyre, built up with dwellings to the water’s edge was like a city rising from the sea. WHICH CAUSE THEIR TERROR. — This clause has occasioned... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ISLES TREMBLE. — “Isles” here, as elsewhere, includes coasts. It must be remembered how numerous the colonies of Phœnicia were. They had been established in Cyprus. Rhodes, Malta, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and Africa. In some of these there were several colonies, as Utica an... [ Continue Reading ]
BRING UP THE DEEP UPON THEE. — With Ezekiel 26:19 begins the closing section of this prophecy, and in it the other parts are summed up and emphasised. The figurative language by which the overwhelming of Tyre is here described is again appropriate to her natural situation.... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH THEM THAT DESCEND INTO THE PIT. — Comp. Isaiah 14:9. Tyre is here represented, as Babylon is there, as joining itself to the dead — a striking figure to indicate its utter and final destruction. This is to be understood of the Tyre that then was, the proud mistress of the sea. The question whet... [ Continue Reading ]