Ezekiel 28
PATpcndance upon God. The same crime was in like manner punished in the king of Egypt, (xxix. 3.) and afterward in Nebuchadnezzar himself, (Dan. iv. 30, 31.) So Babylon is represented as ascribing self-sufficiency to herself, and saying in her heart, I am, and there is none else besides me, (Isa. xlvii. 10.) I?i the midst of the sea.] See xxvii. 4. Yet thou art aman, and not God.] A weak, mortal man: an unequal match for the king of Babylon’s forces* (See ver. 9. and Isa. xxxi. 3.) were nearest in attending upon the Divine Majesty. So Isaiah’s description of the fall of the king of Babylon does plainly allude to the downfal of Satan out of heaven. (Isa. xiv. 12, &c.) Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.) The temple is often styled God’s holy mountain; (see xx. 43.) and the temple being the place of God’s peculiar residence, is now’and then put for heaven itself. (SeePsal.xi.4. xviii. 6. Jonah ii. 7.) So the phrase denotes, that this prince might be compared to the cherubims overshadowing the mercyseat, or the angels who stood before the throne of God, typified by the cherubims in the temple: the expressions still alluding to the high station of Satan before his apostacy. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.] Thy dominion was in the upper region of the sky, where hailstones and lightning are formed; or, as Tertullian paraphrases the expression, (lib. ii. contr. Marcion. cap. 10.) " Inter gemmantes siderum Tadios demoratus:" Thou hadst thy abode among glittering stars; as the angels are sometimes called. (See Job xxxviii. 7. Isa. xiv. 13.) [The words may allude to the sparkling stones of Aaron’s breastplate: so they agree with whatgoes before, ver. 13, 14. Sec Dr. More’s Synopsis Prophet, book ii. chap. 16.]
Ezekiel 28:3
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. The fame of Daniel’s wisdom was quickly spread over Chaldea, upon his being advanced to several posts of honour and dignity by Nebuchadnezzar. (See Dan. ii. 48.) Queen Nitoeris, who was Belshazzar’s mother, gives Daniel a great character for his wisdom aud other accomplishments, (Dan. v. 11, 12.) So here the prophet, in an ironical manner, upbraids the vain boasts which the prince of Tyre made of his wisdom, aud the policy of those about him, as if it exceeded tho endowments of Daniel, so famous, though a young man, for his skill in the several parts of knowledge, and the arts of government. The Phoenicians, of whom the Tyrians were a colony, (see the note on Isa. xxiii. 12.) valued themselves for their wisdom and ingenuity, as being the inventors of navigation, of letters, and sciences. (Compare Zech. ix. 2.) Ver; 4. With thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, &c] Thy skill in navigation and trade has increased thy wealth. (See ver. 5. and Zech. ix. 3.)
Ezekiel 28:7
Behold, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations. The Babylonians, who by their conquests have made themselves terrible to all the countries round about them. [(Seexxx. 11, 12.)’ They shall draw their swords against the perfection of thy beauty,.] They shall deface and destroy every thing which thou valuest as ornamental, or useful. (Compare ver. 12.)
Ezekiel 28:8
Thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas-. Thou and thy mariners shall be slain in a sea-fight, or shall be destroyed as those that are swallowed by the sea in a tempest. (See xxvi. 15. xxvii. 27, Ver. £). Wilt thou yet say to him that slayeth thee, I am as God?] Mortality will certainly convince thee of thy folly in pretending to divinity. (Compare xxxii. 19.) So Plutarch tells us of Alexander, that he vainly affected to be thought Jupiter’s son, and next in honour to ^Bacchus and Hercules: yet when he saw the blood run out of a wound he had received, which at the same time gave him much pain, he confessed that was not such blood as Homer said issued from the immortal gods, (lib. ii. de Alexandri Fortuna.)
Ezekiel 28:10
TJtou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised. Thou shalt die by such a remarkable judgment as God usually inflicts upon notorious offenders: thou shalt come to the same ill end as befals the other enemies of God and of his truth. (Compare xxxi. 18. xxxii. 19; 21. 23, 24, &c.) Circumcision being the rite which distinguished God’s people from the heathen, uncircumcised is equivalent in sense to wicked or profane. So the Chaldee paraphrase renders it here, Thou shalt die the death of the wicked, and to the same purpose again, xxxi. 18. In the same sense we are to understand that expression, Lev. xxvi. 41. Jf their uncircumcised heart be humbled; and those of Jeremy, vi.10. Tlieir ear is uncircumcised: and, ix. 26. The hojise of Israel is uncircumcised in their leart. Vcr. 12. Take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus.] Sco xxvii. 32. Thousealest up thefullsum of wisdom and perfect beauty.] In thine own opinion thou art the perfect pattern of wisdom, and all other excellences: (compare ver. 7J) the expression is taken from vessels and other repositories, which, when they are full, used to be sealed up in order to. the preserving what is contained in them, (sceDeutxxxii.4. Job xiv. 17.) The LXX. and Vulgar Latin render the former part of the verse, Thou art the seal of likeness; i. e. Thou art the image of God, or an exact impression taken from that great copy. The following verse shews that the expression alludes to Adam, when he was first created, and came pure out of the hands of his Maker. And then the following words in this verse are to be translated, Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty: an exact description of the state of innocence. The word tacnithis translated pattern, xliii. 10. of this prophecy, and so it signifies, Exod. xxx. 32. to which sense the Targum there explains it: but our translation renders it composition. Vcr. 13. TJiou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.] As thy situation was pleasant, so thou wast plentifully supplied with every thing that could contribute to make thy life pleasant and happy. A state of paradise does in common speech denote a condition every way complete and happy. (See Isa. Ii. 3.) But this expression, as well as the whole context, alludes to the complete happiness which Adam enjoyed in Paradise before his apostacy and fearful fall. Every precious stone was thy covering, &c] Like a great prince or monarch, thy crown was adorned with the choicest jewels, and thou wast arrayed with royal robes, enriched with gold and precious stones of all sorts. The stone probably alludes to the precious stones which were placed in the high-priest’s breast-plate, as the next verse alludes to the eherubims over the mercy-scat. Accordingly the LXX. enlarge the number of the stones here mentioned from nine to twelve, and place them in the same order in which they are ranked, Exod. xxviii. 17, &c. * • The workmanship of thy tabrets, and’ of thy pipes, was prepared in thee [or, for thee] in the day thou wast created.] The highest expressions of joy, such as are the sounding of all sorts of musical instruments, ushered thee into the world, according to the usual practice at the birth of great princes; and ever since thou hast been brought up in the choicest delicacies, which a royal palace or a luxurious city could furnish. (Sce xxvi. 13. Isa. xiv. 11.) Vcr. 14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth.] Anointing is the ceremony wherewith kings are inaugurated; so the prophet.compares the prince of Tyre, to a ruling or principal cherub, one of the chief of the angelical order, who attend upon God in heaven, and are represented by the eherubims in the temple overshadowing the mercyseat. To this sense St. Jerome translates it, The extended cherub that covereth: i. e. whose wings were stretched out to cover the mercy-seat: (see Exod. xxv. 20.) reading mcmushak instead ofmimshak. The words allude to the high advancement of Satan in heaven before his fall, where he was placed in one of the highest orders of angels, such as
Ezekiel 28:15
Thou wast perfect in thy ways — tilliniquity was found in thee. An exact description of the angelical purity in which the devil was created, and in which he continued, till, being lifted up with pride, he fell from his first estate.
Ezekiel 28:16
By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, &c. Thy skill in trading hath degenerated into violence, cheating, and extortion; for which I will degrade thee from the honour of being nearly related to me, as my minister, and the executor of my commands, by which thou didst resemble the dignity of the angelic order. (See ver. 14.)
Ezekiel 28:17
Thine heart was lifted np because of thy beauty. Compare ver. 9. 13. xxxi. 10. So the devil was lifted up with pride upon the account of his perfections. (Sec 1 Tim. iii. 6.) Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.] That height of glory and authority to which I had advanced thee has perverted thy judgment, and made thee abuse thy wisdom to craft and deceit. (Sec ver. 16.) I will lay thee before kings, that. they may behold thee.] I will make thee a spectacle to other princes, expose thee as a miserable object before their eyes, that thou mayest be an example to them to deter them from the like practices. (Sec xvi. 41. xxiii. 48. xxxi. 14.)
Ezekiel 28:18
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, &c. The word mikdash does sometimes signify a palace, in which sense it is probably taken Amos viii. 13. where our translation renders it the king’s chapel. Thus Bishop Patrick understands it, Exod.xxv. 8. where, the English reads, Let them make me a sanctuary, but it may probably mean a palace: for God commanded himself to be served and attended upon in the tabernacle, as a king is in his court. The cherubims were his throne, the ark his footstool, the altar his table, and therefore called by that name, xli. 22. Mai. i. 7. the priests his attendants, and the shew-bread and sacrifices his provisions. Thus the word may most probably be taken here to this sense: That since their palaces and stately buildings DigitizGu by are filled with the iniquity and injustice which they have practised in their trade and commerce, therefore God will utterly destroy them by Nebuchadnezzar, who reduced the whole city to a heap of ashes and rubbish, which Alexan^ der afterward made use of to make a bank or causey, by means of which he assaulted the new city of Tyre, and took it (See Dr. Prideaux, par. i; p. 484.) IF we follow the common translation, it imports a denunciation of God’s judgments for filling their idolatrous temples with riches and presents gotten by injustice. So God often punishefe the contempt of religion, in general, in those who are mistaken in their own way of worship.
Ezekiel 28:19
Thou shalt be a terror, &c. Sec xxvi. 21.
Ezekiel 28:21
Set thy face against Zidon, &c. Direct thy face and thy speech towards Zidon; (see vi. 2.) and foretell its destruction by the king of Babylon. (See xxxii. 30. Jer. xxv. 22. xlviii. 4.) Tyre and Zidon were neighbours, and partakers of the same fate both in prosperity and adversity. Zidon was afterward utterly destroyed by Ochus king of Persia.
Ezekiel 28:22
1 will be glorified in the midst of thee, &c. I will make my power and justice known by the judgments T will execute upon thee. In the same sense God saith, Exod. xiv.17. 1 will get me honour upon Pharaoh; where the word in the original is the same. And will be sanctified in her.] God is said to be sanctified in those, for whose preservation or destruction he exerts his power in a remarkable manner. (Compare ver. 25. and see xx. 41.) /«
Ezekiel 28:23
And I will send unto her pestilence and blood into her streets. The pestilence, which often accompanies long sieges, shall destroy her inhabitants as well as the sword. (See v. 12. xxxviii. 22.).
Ezekiel 28:24
And there shallbe no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, &c. My people shall dwell in their land quietly and securely, when the rest of their ill neighbours are destroyed, who were a continual vexation to them, and as so many thorns in their sides. (Compare Numb, xxxiii. 55. Josh, xxiii. 13.) So a thorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. xii. 7. signifies a cruel enemy or persecutor, as appears by comparing that place with the context, ver. 9, 10. The following verse shews, that this promise chieflyrclatcs to the general restoration of the Jews, when all the enemies of God’s church and truth are vanquished and subdued, often denoted in the prophetical writings, by the names of Edom, Moab, and other neighbouring countries, who upon all occasions shewed their spite and ill will against the Jews. (See the note upon xxxviii. 17. and upon Isa. xi.14. and compare Jer. xii. 14. with this place.)
Ezekiel 28:25
When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from among the people among whom they were scattered, &c. This, if wc follow the literal sense of the words, is a plain prophecy of the general restoration of the Jews, and their return into their ownl and, as [will appear by comparing the words with tho parallel texts in this prophet, viz. xi.17. xx. 38. 41. xxxiv. 13. xxxvi.24. xxxvii. 12. 14. 21. 25. xxxix. 27. and the-rules laid down concerning the division of the land among the twelve tribes, (chap, xlvii. xlviii.) do very much favour this interpretation; (compare Isa. lxv. 9,10. Jer. xxx. 18. xxxii. 41.) in which prediction most of the other prophets agree with him. (See the note on Isa. xi. 11.) Mtcrosoft® [ciiAr. xxix. And shall be sanctified in them,’] Seo ver. 22. andxxxvi. 23. Vcr. 2G. And they shall dwell safely therein.] This denotes outward peace and freedom from the annoyance of enemies. (Compare xxxvi. 21. xxxviii. 11. Jer. xxiii. G.) And shall build houses, and plant vineyards.] Building and planting are commonly joined together. (Compare Isa. bey. 21. Jer. xxxi. 4, 5. Amos ix. 14.). When I shall have executed judgments upon all those thai despised them.] Seo ver. 24. The prophets conclude their thrcatenings against infidels with gracious promises to God’s people; implying, that he will not make an utter destruction of them as of other people, but reserve a remnant, to whom he may fulfil his promises made to their fathers. (Compare Jer. xlvi, 27, 28.)