1 It happened in the eleventh year, in the first (day) of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste: 3 therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. 5 She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh; and she shall become a spoil to the nations. 6 Her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am Yahweh. 7 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and many people. 8 He shall kill your daughters in the field with the sword; and he shall make forts against you, and cast up a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you. 9 He shall set his battering engines against your walls, and with his axes he shall break down your towers. 10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover you: your walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into your gates, as men enter into a city in which is made a breach. 11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all your streets; he shall kill your people with the sword; and the pillars of your strength shall go down to the ground. 12 They shall make a spoil of your riches, and make a prey of your merchandise; and they shall break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses; and they shall lay your stones and your timber and your dust in the midst of the waters. 13 I will cause the noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of your harps shall be no more heard. 14 I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets; you shall be built no more: for I Yahweh have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh. 15 Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre: shall not the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you? 16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at you. 17 They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there! 18 Now shall the islands tremble in the day of your fall; yes, the islands that are in the sea shall be dismayed at your departure. 19 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep on you, and the great waters shall cover you; 20 then will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living: 21 I will make you a terror, and you shall no more have any being; though you are sought for, yet you will never be found again, says the Lord Yahweh.
This prophecy, beginning here and ending in the twentieth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter, is a declaration of the judgments of God against Tyre, a very famous commercial city of antiquity, which was taken by Nebuchadnezzar after an arduous siege of thirteen years. The prophet begins with introducing Tyre insulting Jerusalem, and congratulating herself on the prospect of accession to her commerce now that this city was no more, Ezekiel 26:1, Ezekiel 26:2. Upon which God denounces utter destruction to Tyre, and the cities depending on her, Ezekiel 26:3-6. We have then a particular account of the person raised up in the course of the Divine providence to accomplish this work. We see, as it were, his mighty hosts, (which are likened to the waves of the sea for their multitude), raising the mounds, setting the engines, and shaking the walls; we hear the noise of the horsemen, and the sound of their cars; we see the clouds of smoke and dust; we see the sword bathed in blood, and hear the groans of the dying. Tyre, (whose buildings were very splendid and magnificent, and whose walls were one hundred and fifty feet in height, with a proportionable breadth), immediately disappears; her strong (and as she thought impregnable) towers are thrown down; and her very dust is buried in the sea. Nothing remains but the bare rock, Ezekiel 26:7-14. The scene is then varied. The isles and adjacent regions, by a very strong and beautiful figure, are represented to be shaken, as with a mighty earthquake by violent concussion occasioned by the fall of Tyre. The groans of the dying reach the ears of the people inhabiting these regions. Their princes, alarmed for themselves and grieved for Tyre, descend from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and clothe themselves with - sackcloth? - no, but with trembling! Arrayed in this astonishing attire, the prophet introduces them as a chorus of mourners, lamenting Tyre in a funeral song or dirge, as customary on the death of renowned personages. And pursuing the same image still farther, in the person of God, he performs the last sad office for her. She is brought forth from her place in solemn pomp; the pit is dug for her; and she is buried, to rise no more, Ezekiel 26:15-21. Such is the prophecy concerning Tyre, comprehending both the city on the continent and that on the island, and most punctually fulfilled in regard to both. That on the continent was razed to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar, b.c. 572, and that on the island by Alexander the Great, b.c. 332. And at present, and for ages past, this ancient and renowned city, once the emporium of the world, and by her great naval superiority the center of a powerful monarchy, is literally what the prophet has repeatedly foretold it should be, and what in his time was, humanly speaking, so highly improbable - a Bare rock, a place to spread nets on!
INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 26
This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of Tyre. The time of the prophecy, Ezekiel 26:1, the cause of the destruction of it, rejoicing at the ruin of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 26:2, the instruments of it, many nations, particularly the king of Babylon, Ezekiel 26:3, the manner in which it shall be done, Ezekiel 26:8, the lamentation of other isles, and the princes of them, on account of it, Ezekiel 26:15, the utter destruction of it, so as never to be found any more, Ezekiel 26:19.
A prophecy against Tyre.
Against Tyre and Sidon - Ezekiel 26-28
The greater portion of these three chapters is occupied with the prophecy concerning Tyre, which extends from Ezekiel 26:1 to Ezekiel 28:19. The prophecy against Sidon is limited to Ezekiel 28:20-26. The reason for this is, that the grandeur and importance of Phoenicia were concentrated at that time in the power and rule of Tyre, to which Sidon had been obliged to relinquish the hegemony, which it had formerly possessed over Phoenicia. The prophecy against Tyre consists of four words of God, of which the first (Ezekiel 26) contains the threat of destruction to the city and state of Tyre; the second (Ezekiel 27), a lamentation over this destruction; the third (Ezekiel 28:1-10), the threat against the king of Tyre; the fourth (Ezekiel 28:11-19), a lamentation over his fall.
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