Ezekiel 26

Ezekiel 26:1-14

The city of Tyre, the famed mart of nations, and known throughout the world, is next brought to God’s bar. We have here, 1. The sin charged upon Tyre, which was triumphing in the destruction of Jerusalem, ver. 2. 2. Its destruction foretold, (1.) The extremity of it, it shall be utterly ruined, ver. 4—6, 12, 13, 14. (2.) The instruments of this destruction, many nations, ver. 3. particularly the king of Babylon, with his well-willness away, ver. 7—11. (3.) The great forgeries and alarm that this should give to the neighbouring nations, ver. 15—21.

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, 2. Son of man, because that Tyros hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me, I shall be replenished and she is laid waft: 3. Therefore thus faith the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyros, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea cauleth his waves to come up. 4. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyros, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 5. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, faith the Lord GOD, and it shall become a spoil to the nations. 6. And her

daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am the LORD. 7. For thus faith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will bring upon Tyros Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses, and with charrots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. 8. He shall stay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. 9. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. 10. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee, thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein a breach is made. 11. With the hoofs of his horses shall be tread down all the streets; he shall stay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. 12. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise, and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the water. 13. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. 14. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon: thou shalt he built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, faith the Lord GOD.

The same year Jerusalem was destroyed, was this prophecy delivered. We have,

1. The joy the Tyrians took in their ruin, and the hopes of advantage which they conceived would accrue to them from her fall. Jerusalem had been the gates of the people, much frequented, a place of great trade, but was now broken down; and they hoped all the traffic that had been carried on there, would be transferred to them, and that they should be replenished, both with people who might fly thither, or with captives, and the spoil sold by the conquerors. Note, It is very sinful to be pleased with the death or misfortunes of those who were our rivals in trade, or whose fall is our advantage; and the envy and covetousness which appear herein, God will assuredly remember and punish.

2. God threatens to visit Tyre for her iniquity. I am against thee; and he is more to be feared than innumerable hosts. At his beck, and under his guidance, the king of Babylon shall besiege the city with an immense army, raging like the waves of the sea: the dust raised by the multitude of his cavalry shall obscure the skies as a thick cloud, and his military engines shake down the walls, till at the breach his troops shall enter, and spread defoliation on every side. Her daughters shall be slain with the sword; either the cities and people of the continent subject to Tyre; or to terrible should be the massacre when the city was taken, that not even the women will be spared: her garrisons beat to the ground; the statues of her strength, the images of her idols, on whom she placed her confidence, trodden under foot; the very pavements broken with the prancings of the horses; the rich merchandise becomes a prey to the besiegers; the walls razed; the whose city laid in ruins; the very dust scraped off, and made bare as the top of a rock. Deferred now, no songs of mirth, no music, shall be heard any more in her; nor shall she ever be rebuilt, at least not on the same spot, or be restored to her former splendour, but remain a defact waft, as the top of a rock; a place for fishermen to dry their nets; which, according to the reports of those who have been there, is to this day literally true of Tyre, since its final destruction. God hath spoken it, and therefore the fulfilment is sure, and in these judgments he will make himself terribly known to them.

3. ¶ Thus faith the Lord GOD to Tyros, I shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? 16. Then I all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their brodered garments: they shall cloath themselves with trembling, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee. 17. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed that was inhabited of sea-faring men, the renowned city which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it? 18. Now shall the isles tremble in the day

of thy fall; yea, the ifles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. 19. For thus faith the Lord GOD, When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; 20. When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited, and I shall set glory in the land of the living: 21. I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be fought for, yet shall thou never be found again, faith the Lord GOD.

Vol. 19—21. The dreadful ruin of Tyre is here farther described.

1. The islands of the sea, terrified with her fall, will quake for fear; their princes descending from their thrones, with ex-prefions of deepest sorrow shall mourn over her desolations, whilst they tremble in expectation of shining her fate. They shall take up their lamentation, astonished how such a glorious city could be destroyed, and weeping over the mighty fallen. Once so remeared had Tyre been; firing in the sea; fortified by the waves as bulwarks, and filled with mariners, the most expert and bold; the terror of all that ploughed the main: the refined the unrivalled misfere of the ocean; but now was deserted and desolate; the people departed into captivity; the city, with its inhabitants, sunk under the waters; demolished by the army of the Chaldeans, rushing with resisters; they were then, and bringing them down to the sides of the pit with those who have been long dead. Yes, so total and entire shall be the overthrone, that scarce the vestiges shall remain where once it stood; and never again shall it be inhabited, at least not in the same spot, or with the same splendor. So weak is human strength, so tending human greatness; so tottering the foundations of the flims, as they are, if we would dwell abidingly in safety, we must look above the earth for that better city whose maker and builder is God.

2. The Lord will do this, v. 19—21. I will make thee a terror, so I hold shall be visible in their ruin; and his design in her fall is to give her neighbours warning, that, terrified with her deflection, they may avoid her fate.

3. The restoration of Israel, over whom the triumphed, shall aggravate the irreparable ruin of Tyre. I shall set glory in the land of the living; in Israel, whither many souls, spiritually alive to God, should return from the captivity, and God will exalt and distinguish them with his love, favour, and protection. Note, (1.) The church of the redeemed is the land of the living; blessed and happy are they who have their portion therein. (2.) The souls alive to God by grace are assuredly designed for glory, for grace is glory begun. (3.) The joy and glory of the saints in heaven will aggravate the torments of the damned in hell, when they behold the bliss from which they are eternally excluded, and gnath with rage and despair.