Ezekiel 26:1

And it came to pass in the eleventh year,.... Of Jehoiachin's captivity and Zedekiah's reign, the same year that Jerusalem was taken: in the first day of the month; but what month is not mentioned;

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, In Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel sets forth: (1) Tyre's sin; (2) Its doom; (3) The

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 26 Tyrus, for insulting over the distress of Jerusalem, is threatened with destruction, : of which Nebuchadrezzar shall be made the instrument, . The consternation and mourning of the isles and princes of the sea for her fall, . The eleventh year of Jeconiah’ s captivity, the year wherein Jerusalem was taken. The first day of the month; that month which followed the taking of Jerusalem, i.e. the fifth month; for Jerusalem was taken on the fourth month, ninth day, and in twenty days after the news was brought to Tyrus, which behaved herself as the prophet will declare.

Ezekiel 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,Ver. 1. In the eleventh year.] Of Jehoiakim’ s captivity and Zedekiah’ s reign. In the first day of the month,] i.e., Of the fifth month, when the news came to Tyre of the destruction of Jerusalem twenty days before, which occured on the ninth day of the fourth month.

(1) In the first day of the month.—The year was that in which Jerusalem fell (2 Kings 25:2-4; 2 Kings 25:8-9), 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 and the language in Ezekiel 25:3, which could only have been used after the capture of the city. This prophecy may therefore well have been given at any time during the eleventh year. Possibly the Alexandrine Septuagint is right in supplying “the first” month; but as this is omitted in the Roman copy, it is more likely to have been a mere conjecture. There is a similar omission in Ezekiel 32:17, but the number is easily supplied there from Ezekiel 26:1. Probably, in both cases the omission is a mere error of the scribes.

CHAPTER XXVI 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, 1, 2. Upon which God denounces utter destruction to Tyre, and the cities depending on her, 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, 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, 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 centre 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! NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI Verse 1.

1. All prophecy is moral, is based on moral considerations. What the prophet aims his threats against is not the prosperity of Tyre, but its pride of heart, which was rebellion against Jehovah, God over all. The humiliation of Tyre was morally as good as its ruin, in so far as it shewed that there were higher forces in the world than itself.

Prophecies against Tyre. The siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years beginning 585 b.c., about three years after the capture of Jerusalem.

AGAINST TYRE AND SIDON, CHAPS. 26-28.1. First day of the month — The number of the month has dropped out. Was it the fifth? (Jeremiah 52:6; Jeremiah 52:12.)