Ezekiel 27:11 - Exposition

(For Arvad , see Ezekiel 27:8 .) Gammadim . The LXX . translates "guards" ( φύλακες ); the Vulgate, Pygmies, probably as connecting the name with Gamad (equivalent to "a cubit"). The Targum gives "watchmen;" Gesenius, "warriors:" Hitzig, "deserters." The name probably indicates that they were the flower of the Tyrian army—the life-guards (like the "Immortals" of the Persians) of the merchant-city. On the whole, we must leave the problem as one that we have no data for solving. The grouping with Arvad, however, suggests a Syrian or Phoenician tribe. They hanged their shields . The custom seems to have been specially Phoenician. Solomon introduced it at Jerusalem (So Ezekiel 4:4 ). The sight of the walls thus decorated, the shields being sometimes gilt or painted, must have been sufficiently striking to warrant Ezekiel's phrase that thus the beauty of the city was "made perfect" by it. The custom reappears in 1 Macc. 4:57.