Ezekiel 27:29-31 - Exposition

And all that handle the oar , etc. The picture is, perhaps, figurative. As Tyre itself was the great state-ship, so the other ships may stand for the other Phoenician cities that beheld her downfall. Looking to the picture itself, it presents the rowers and others as feeling that, if the great ship had been wrecked, there was little hope of safety for them, and so they leave their ships and stand on the coast wailing. (For casting dust , as a sign of mourning, see Joshua 7:6 ; 1 Samuel 4:12 ; Job 2:12 , et al .; for "wallowing in the dust, " Jeremiah 6:26 ; Jeremiah 25:34 ; Micah 1:10-16 . For the "baldness" and "sackcloth" of Verse 31, see Ezekiel 7:18 .)