Ezekiel 27

Ezekiel 27:1-25

In this chapter we have, 1. A large account of the dignity, wealth, and splendor of Tyre, ver. 1—25, which is designed to make its rank the more lamentable. 2. A predilection of its fall, and the confirmation which all its neighbours shall thereby be put into, ver. 26—30. And this is intended to claim the pride of all worldly glory, and by setting the one ever against the other, to let us for the twenty and uncertainty of the riches, beavers, and pleasures of the world, and what little reason we have to place our happiness in them, or to be confident of the continuance of them.

1. THE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2. Now thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; 3. And say unto Tyrus, ‘O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many ifles, Thus faith the Lord GOD, O Tyrus, thou hast said, ‘I am of perfect beauty. 4. Thy borders are in the + midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. 5. They have made all thy deep-boards of fir-trees of Soter; they have taken cedars from Lebanon, to make masts for thee. 6. Of the oaks of Bafhan have they made thine oars; the company of the Atharites have made thy beaches of ivory, brought out of the ifles of Chittim. 7. Fine linen with brodered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadeth forth to be thy fall; blue and purple from the ifles of Elifash was that which covered thee. 8. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wife men, O Tyrus, that Vos. II.

were in thee, were thy pilots. 9. The ancients of Gabal, and the wife men thereof, were in thee thy + calkers, all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. 10. They of Perfia, and of Lud, and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee, they set forth thy cornelionels. 11. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about: they have made thy beauty perfect. 12. Tarthihi was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs. 13. Javan, Tubal, and Melarch, they were thy merchants, they traded the persons of men, and vessels of brals, in thy + market. 14. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs, with horses, and horsemen, and mules. 15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants, many ifles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present, horns of ivory and ebony. 16. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and brodered work, and fine linen, and coral and + agate. 17. Judah and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market; wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and + balm. 18. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches: in the wine of Holbon, and white wool. 19. Dan alfo and Javan going to and fro, occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, callia, and calamus were in thy market. 20. Dulan was thy merchant in the precious clothes for chariots. 21. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. 22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. 23. Ha’an, and Cannah, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Ashur, and Chilmad were thy merchants. 24. Their were thy merchants in + all sorts of things, in blue + clothes, and brodered work, and in chefts of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar among thy merchandise. 25. The ships of Tarthihi did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.

Though Tyre was a heathen land, the prophet must make lamentation over it; for a gracious heart is filled with universal charity, and, touched with tender sympathy, laments over the miseries of the afflicted wherever they appear.

We have,

1. The great prosperity of Tyre, which made her fall the more grievous.

(1.) She was most conveniently situated, at the entry of the sea, and surrounded by it, v. 4. her harbour most commodious, and the grand mart of the world, whither all the produce of the east and west was brought and exchanged.

(2.) The city was most beautifully adorned with noble structures, where magnificence, elegance, and use contributed to perfect her beauty, ver. 4.

(3.) Her fleets were numerous, admirably built and rigged, and some most superbly adorned; the very sails fine linen embroidered from Egypt; the pavilions covered with purple and blue; and the very benches inland with ivory, ver. 6, 7.

(4.) Her ships were excellently manned; the pilots and chief officers Tyre supplied, v. 8. the seamen, the adjacent country; and in her docks the wisest artificers were employed to rest and repair her navy.

(5.) The choicest soldiery were hired for her guard, from distant martial nations, v. 10. furnished with weapons for war, which in time of peace were hung up in the armouries, ready to be used on any emergence, affording at once safety and ornament to the city, v. 11. Note, The way to maintain a nation’s peace is thus to be ever ready for war.

(6.) Her trade was vast and universal: ships from all quarters of the globe crowded her harbour, v. 9. The nations, and the several commodities of their traffic, are mentioned, v. 12—14. The countries of many of these are well-known, some utterly uncertain, and only afford the articles scope for conjecture; but of such immaterial points we may well be content to remain ignorant. Observe, however, the vast advantages of trade, what an intercourse it opens, and brings in the produce of the most distant lands, with as great plenty as if it had been the native growth of our own soil: but with increasing wealth

3 L increasing Before Christ $25 16th. Strengthenness, or dispers of Himbs. 1 yr overchandl. 16th. Aton. 16th. Thy worn. 16th. Chesapeake. 1 Kings v. 6: 11. Fam in. 7. Bills in. 8. 1stg. sl. $3. Or eslin. 16th. Church of Gardam. 16: in 7. 16th. What the men church of the land. 8: Vas. 12a 6: on, sl. 1 Kings vs. 14. Or, everlast things. 16th. Sisterage. 1st. 1st. 1. No. 1st. 14.

Increasing luxury usually rushes in, and the feeds of ruin are often springing up in the midst of the greatest prosperity.

2. Tyre prided herself on her beauty, and all nations praised and extolled her, v. 3, 25. Thus is wealth often the food of vanity: and they who abound in riches are tried up and praised. The great are usually much more noticed and honoured than the good.

by the claim. 1. 2. Hoh. Homer. 1. Poor. vi. 4. Rev. xviii. 4. &c. 2. Go even with all. 5. Hoh. Homer. 2. Go warm, as heart. f Go for as great thee, Var. 11c. Rev. xviii. 11. = Joh. ii. 4. Rev. xviii. 20. = S.Th. iv. 3. Jac. vi. 28. 8. Rev. xviii. 18. 8. Rev. xviii. 25-25. a Chap. xxvi. 30. a Rev. xviii. 9. a Chap. xxvi. 11. 2. Hoh. Tremor. 4. Rev. xviii. 11. 2. Hoh. Shall not be for even.

26. ¶ Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east-wind hath broken thee in the + midst of the seas. 27. Thy riches and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war that are in thee, ¶ and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the § midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin. 28. The § suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots. 29. And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land; 30. And shall cause their voice to be heard + against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall + cast up dust upon their heads, they + shall wallow themselves in the ashes. 31. And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart, and bitter wailing. 32. And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, ‘What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea? 33. When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou fiftieth many people, thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches, and of thy merchandise. 34. In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall. 35. All the inhabitants of the siles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be fore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance. 36. The merchants among the people shall hail at thee, ’thou shalt be a terror,’ and it never shall be any more.

Ezekiel 27:26-36

The greatness of her wealth and excellence serves but to increase the misery of her fall. Behold this proud city laid low in ruins: a monument to other trading nations not to be secure in the day of prosperity.

1. Like a rich vessel wrecked by the unfulfulness of the rowers, so was Tyre brought into great waters, exposed by some imprudent conduct of her governors to the resentment of the king of Babylon, the east wind, that dashed this gallant ship in pieces in the midst of the seas, and her merchandize, riches, inhabitants, soldiers and seamen, perished in the waters, v. 27. Thus hath the unfulfulness of her pilots often ruined a nation.

2. The dreadful cries of the sinking city shall reach the suburbs, the cities and villages on the continent, and the few who escape to the shore, as men from a shipwreck, shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, blaming the imprudent conduct of the pilots, who provoked the king of Babylon’s resentment; or for thee, bewailing the desiccations they beheld, with deepest expressions of anguish and vexation, with dust on their heads, wailstering its ashes, tearing off their hair, and weeping with bitterness and heart-felt grief, bemoaning in plainly lamentations the dire catastrophe; once so great, so rich, a joyous city, replenishing with her merchandize the kings of the earth, now fallen into the lowest state of abject wretchedness, and, instead of the holy hum of clouded streets, solitude and silence reign throughout. So awful a change can God in judgment quickly make, when his wrath arises against a guilty land.

3. The utter ruin of this proud city shall fill some with terror and astonishment, the kings of the neighbouring siles shall be fore afraid. If Tyre could not stand, which they deemed impregnable, how should they? Others shall hail at her, mocking her vain confidence, and hoping, as she had done on the ruin of Jerusalem, that the trade of Tyre shall be transferred to their ports, and they shall be enriched thereby: for, being thus fallen, she never shall be any more; never rebuilt on the same spot, or rise to the same empire of the seas. Some think this means no more than a long time, during seventy years, for life. xxiii. 15, 17. though the prophecy may respect her last destruction, since which to this day she hath lain in ruins. The traffic and fall of the antichristian powers are described in expressions borrowed from this prophecy, see Rev. xviii. for their ruin shall as allorably come in the season fixed by the divine decree.