A lamentation over fallen greatness. "Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, " etc.? These verses suggest the following observations. I. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE SOMETIMES SO AWFUL AS TO FILL THE EXALTED AND MIGHTY WITH AMAZEMENT AND DISMAY . ( Ezekiel 26:15 , Ezekiel 26:16 ; cf. Jeremiah 4:7-9 .) The isles are the islands of the Mediterranean, and places on the coast also are perhaps... read more
Glory departed. A more imaginative and pathetic picture than that painted in these words will scarcely be found in revelation, or indeed in all literature. The anticipation of Tyre's destruction seems to have awakened all the poetry of the prophet's nature. And no wonder; for never was a contrast more marked and more significant than that between Tyre in its grandeur and Tyre in its desolation. The isles shake with the resounding crash of the city's fall. The groans of the wounded and the... read more
National disaster becomes a public lesson. The world of men is one, although nationalities are many. There is a thread of unity on which the separate jewels of humanity are strung. What affects one affects, in some measure, the whole. I. THERE IS MUTUAL INTERDEPENDENCE OF NATIONS . Nations, like individuals, have been incarnations of selfishness. They have tried to aggrandize for self alone, but they have failed, and in most cases the failure has been a disaster. In... read more
Inhabited of seafaring , etc.; Hebrew, from the seas . The sense is the same, but we lose the poetry of the original in the paraphrase. Possibly, however, the phrase may represent the position of Tyro as rising out of the sea or as deriving its wealth from it. Ewald adopts a conjectural reading, which gives "destroyed from the seas;" or, with another conjecture, "She that was settled from the days of the remote past." read more
It is noticeable that the commercial policy of Tyre is not represented as having been oppressive. The isles do not exult in their deliverance, but mourn over the captured city whose commerce had contributed to their prosperity. The "terror" of Ezekiel 26:17 is rather the impression of awe and wonder made on all who came to it. read more
When I shall bring up the sea . The picture of desolation is completed. The sea washes over the bare rock that was once covered with the palaces of the merchant-princes. read more
When I shall bring thee down , etc. The pit is sheol, Hades, the unseen world of the dead. The image may have been suggested by Isaiah 14:9 , where it is used of Babylon. It was obviously one on which the mind of Ezekiel dwelt, and is reproduced in Ezekiel 32:17-32 . Here, apparently, the sinking in the depth of the waters ( Ezekiel 32:19 ) is thought of as leading to that world of the dead that lay beneath them. The people of old time may possibly include the races of the old... read more
An encouraging assurance for a depressed people. "And I shall set glory in the land of the living." Accepting this rendering as expressing the meaning of the original, and as applicable to Judah, we see in it— I. A REMARKABLE DESIGNATION OF THE HOLY LAND . It is here called "the land of the living." Hengstenberg views "the land of the living" as standing in "contrast to Sheol, the land. of the dead, to which in the foregoing the inhabitants of Tyre are assigned." The... read more
I will make thee a terror . Ewald translates, "To sudden death will I bring thee," which corresponds with the margin of the Revised Version, I will make thee a destruction . read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezekiel 26:1-21
The sin and doom of Tyre. "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," etc. I. THE SIN OF TYRE . "Son of man, because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha! she is broken that was the gate of the peoples; she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste." The sin which is here charged against Tyre is extreme and cruel selfishness. There is no evidence in this chapter that... read more