Ezekiel 28 - Introduction

XXVIII.

This chapter consists of two prophecies: the first and larger one against the prince of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:1); the second, a very brief one, against Zidon (Ezekiel 28:20). The first prophecy consists of two parts, corresponding to Ezekiel 26, 27; in the former of these the pride of the prince is described, and he is warned of his approaching death (Ezekiel 28:1), and then follows a lamentation (Ezekiel 28:11). It has been thought surprising that so commercial a nation should have been governed by a monarch; but not only is this a fact of Phœnician history, but the name of the prince who sat on the throne at this time, Ithobal II., has been preserved.

The whole prophecy is full of most varied and striking imagery, and there is no other passage in Scripture where there is such detailed and peculiar irony. It brings out most powerfully “the impiety of all ambition, and the vanity of all greatness, which seeks its foundation and support elsewhere than in the power and goodness of the Eternal.”