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Ezekiel Chapter
Twenty-six
Ezekiel 26
Chapter Contents
A prophecy against Tyre.
Commentary on Ezekiel 26:1-14
(Read Ezekiel 26:1-14)
To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others
when we are likely to get by it; or with their fall
when we may thrive upon
it
is a sin that easily besets us
yet is not thought so bad as really it is.
But it comes from a selfish
covetous principle
and from that love of the
world as our happiness
which the love of God expressly forbids. He often
blasts the projects of those who would raise themselves on the ruin of others.
The maxims most current in the trading world
are directly opposed to the law
of God. But he will show himself against the money-loving
selfish traders
whose hearts
like those of Tyre
are hardened by the love of riches. Men have little
cause to glory in things which stir up the envy and rapacity of others
and
which are continually shifting from one to another; and in getting
keeping
and spending which
men provoke that God whose wrath turns joyous cities into
ruinous heaps.
Commentary on Ezekiel 26:15-21
(Read Ezekiel 26:15-21)
See how high
how great Tyre had been. See how low Tyre
is made. The fall of others should awaken us out of security. Every discovery
of the fulfilment of a Scripture prophecy
is like a miracle to confirm our
faith. All that is earthly is vanity and vexation. Those who now have the most
established prosperity
will soon be out of sight and forgotten.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 26
Verse 1
[1] 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
In the eleventh year — Of Jechoniah's
captivity
the year wherein Jerusalem was taken.
The month — That month which followed the
taking of Jerusalem.
Verse 2
[2] Son of man
because that Tyrus hath said against
Jerusalem
Aha
she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned
unto me: I shall be replenished
now she is laid waste:
Because — Probably God revealed this to the prophet as soon as
these insulting Tyrians spoke it.
The gates — The great mart of nations
people
from all parts.
She is turned — The trading interest will turn to
me.
Verse 4
[4] And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus
and break
down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her
and make her like the
top of a rock.
Scrape — I will leave thee nothing; thou shalt be scraped
and
swept
that not so much as dust shall remain in thee.
Like — As bare as was the rock on which thy city is built.
Verse 6
[6] And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain
by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Her daughters — The lesser cities.
In the field — On the firm land.
Verse 11
[11] With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy
streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword
and thy strong garrisons shall
go down to the ground.
Garrisons — Bastions
or forts
or triumphal
arches.
Verse 12
[12] And they shall make a spoil of thy riches
and make a
prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls
and destroy thy
pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in
the midst of the water.
Shall lay — It had been a quicker way
to
have burnt all; but the greedy soldier might dream of treasures hid in walls
or under the timber
and therefore take the pains to pull all down
and throw
it into the sea.
Verse 14
[14] And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt
be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD
have spoken it
saith the Lord GOD.
No more — Tho' there was a city of that name built
yet it was
built on the continent; and in propriety of speech
was another city.
Verse 15
[15] Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles
shake at the sound of thy fall
when the wounded cry
when the slaughter is
made in the midst of thee?
The isles — Isles which are places freest
from danger of invasions
will shake with fear
when they learn that Tyre is
fallen.
Verse 16
[16] Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from
their thrones
and lay away their robes
and put off their broidered garments:
they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground
and shall tremble at every moment
and be astonished at thee.
The princes — Who were lords of the islands of
that sea.
Come down — In token of condolence.
Trembling — They shall be afraid of their own
concerns
and astonished in the midst of their fears.
Verse 18
[18] Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea
the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.
In the sea — At a great distance
and farther
from land.
Departure — Leaving thy ancient dwelling
to
go into captivity.
Verse 19
[19] For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a
desolate city
like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up
the deep upon thee
and great waters shall cover thee;
The deep — Nebuchadnezzar's army.
Great waters — Great afflictions.
Verse 20
[20] When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into
the pit
with the people of old time
and shall set thee in the low parts of
the earth
in places desolate of old
with them that go down to the pit
that
thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living;
Bring thee down — When I shall slay thee
and throw
thee into the grave.
With the people — Who are long since dead
and gone
to eternity.
The low parts — Another description of the grave
from the situation and solitude of it.
Set glory — Then I will restore the beauty
strength
and wealth of Israel
and bring them back to Jerusalem.
In the land — In the land of Judea
called
land of the living
because a land
where God will bless
and give life by his
word
ordinances
and spirit: thus different shall Tyre's captivity and
Jerusalem's be.
Verse 21
[21] I will make thee a terror
and thou shalt be no more:
though thou be sought for
yet shalt thou never be found again
saith the Lord
GOD.
A terror — To all that hear of thee.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
26 Chapter 26
Verses 1-21
Verses 7-14
Behold
I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon.
The prophecy against Tyre
I. What were the
grounds of her judgment. She was judged for her sins.
1. She abused the privilege of civilisation. Tyre was the most
cultivated state of antiquity
invented letters
weights and measures
money
arithmetic
the art of keeping accounts. She made her painting and sculpture
and architecture and music and letters
all her skill and learning and
refinement
instruments of corruption.
2. Tyre abused also the privilege of commerce. The Tyrians were a
nation of merchants. But there are two classes of merchants. There are those
who aim to develop new countries
to introduce new crops and arts and
industries
to elevate races
to make commerce the servant of God. There are
others who make everything bend to gain. A prince or an entire people may thus
abuse the privilege of commerce. So Tyre abused her privilege.
3. She abused the privilege of her intimate connection with the
Jewish people. In the enjoyment of this distinction she stood alone. Tyre was a
bulwark of Israel
covering Zion as the wing of the cherub covered the altar.
In the unscrupulousness of her lust of empire and gain she broke the “brotherly
covenant
” and when Jerusalem fell she rejoiced in her overthrow. To her
unscrupulousness nothing was too sacred to be turned to profit.
II. The delay of
the judgment. The method of God
sometimes
is swift retribution
as with Sodom
and Gomorrah
sometimes slow
as with Tyre. She was long in filling her measure
of guilt. Over two hundred years before the siege of Nebuchadnezzar
Joel
prophesied against her. A few years later Amos took up the prophecy
then
Isaiah in 712 B.C.
Ezekiel in 590
Zechariah in 487. Yet the judgment delayed.
She suffered calamities
but always rose above them. The prophecies were not
literally fulfilled. The Christian era came in. Tyre still stood; Shalmaneser
had besieged it; Nebuchadnezzar had invested it by sea and land for thirteen
years
and conquered it; Alexander the Great
in 332 B.C.
after a frightful
siege of six months
had stormed
captured
and destroyed it
massacring
thousands of its inhabitants
and selling thirty thousand into slavery. But
after each disaster it had arisen anew
In the days of Jerome
in the fifth
century
it was still standing
e city powerful and opulent. It was still
flourishing eight hundred years later
in the times of the Crusades. It was the
seat of a Christian bishopric. It had stood over twenty-five hundred years. The
prophecies against it were nearly two thousand years old. Was the Bible
then
which had proved true in prophecies against Egypt and Nineveh
and Edom and
Judah
to be found at fault here?
III. The literal
fulfilment of judgment. In the year 1291 the Sultan of Egypt laid siege to the
strong city of Ptolemais or Acre. Terror spread through the crusaders’ kingdom.
Tyre shared it. Capture meant massacre and slavery. Ptolemais fell on the very
day on which the evil news reached Tyre. At vespers the people in mass forsook
their city. In panic and haste they embarked upon their galleys
and went out
never to return. The Mahometan came. He overthrew the city. He choked one of
the matchless harbours with the ruins. He cast into the sea
statues and
columns and the huge stones of warehouses and palaces. He set the last fire to
her splendour. He scraped the rock. Standing amid the ruins we may see the dust
and ashes of her conflagration
the broken marble columns beneath the sea and
scattered upon the shore
the fishers’ nets spread upon the rock
and feel
with every traveller who thus stands
that the last prophecy concerning her
must also prove true
“That shalt be built no more.”
1. The fate of Tyre is a warning to those engaged in traffic. Beware
of the iniquity of traffic
of the pride
the luxury
the unscrupulousness
the
atheism.
2. The fate of Tyre exalts the Word of God. If we look upon its ruins
simply as a record of fulfilled prophecy
they force the conviction
This is
the accomplishment of the Word of God
the one thing on earth amid the vast
mutations of time
as passes unceasingly the glory of the world
which is
unchangeable. (Sermons by Monday Club.)
Verse 12
And they shall make a spoil of thy riches.
Spoliation of treasure is a moral gain
Scholars and artists have mourned for ages over the almost
universal destruction of the works of ancient genius. I suppose that many a
second-rate city
in the time of Christ
possessed a collection of works of
surpassing beauty
which could not be equalled by all the specimens now
existing that have been discovered. The Alexandrian library is believed to have
contained a greater treasure of intellectual riches than has ever since been
hoarded in a single city. These
we know
have all vanished from the earth. The
Apollo Belvidere and the Venus de Medicis stand in almost solitary grandeur to
remind us of the perfection to which the plastic art of the ancients had
attained. The Alexandrian library furnished fuel for years for the baths of
illiterate Moslems. I used myself frequently to wonder why it had pleased God
to blot out of existence these magnificent productions of ancient genres It
seemed to me strange that the pail of oblivion should thus be thrown over all
to which man
in the flower of his age
had given birth. But the solution of
this mystery is found
I think
in the remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii. We
discover that every work of man was so penetrated by corruption
every
production of genius was so defiled with uncleanness
that God
in introducing
a better dispensation
determined to cleanse the world from the pollution of
preceding ages. As when all flesh had corrupted his way
He purified the world
by the waters of the flood
so
when genius had covered the earth with images
of sin
He overwhelmed the works of ancient civilisation with a deluge of
barbarism. It was too bad to exist: and He swept it all away. (F. Wayland.)
Verse 13
And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease.
Sin silencing song
The classics tell of a lake called Avernus
which means
“birdless.” A poisonous vapour arises from its foul waters. Birds attempting to
fly across it fall stupefied into its bosom. The eagle’s wing becomes
powerless
and gradually the proud bird sinks down
until its lifeless body
floats upon the dark waters. The nightingale loses by degrees her power of
song
and at length the sweet singer falls trembling into the waves of death.
This may be a fiction; it is nevertheless a picture of life. There is a lake of
sinful pleasure lying along our path. Heedless of it
many spread their wings
of strength and beauty upon its outer shore. They think to go a little beyond
its margin
and then return. But the spell is on them. Before they are aware
the wing has lost its strength and the voice its charm. The momentum gained
bears them onward and down until they sink in the dark and fatal flood. (Monday
Club Sermons )
Verse 15
Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall?
Tyre’s fall awakens alarm in others
As when a great merchant breaks
all that he deals with are
shocked by it
and begin to look about them. Or when they see one fail and
become bankrupt
of a sudden
in debt a great deal more than he is worth
it
makes them afraid for themselves
lest they should do so too. Thus the isles
which thought themselves safe in the embraces of the sea
when they see Tyrus fall
shall tremble and be troubled
saying
What will become of us?” And it is well
if they make this use of it
to take warning by it not to be secure
but to
stand in awe of God and His judgments. (M. Henry.)
Verse 21
I will make thee a terror
and thou shalt be no more.
The humiliation of Tyre
All prophecy is moral
is based on moral considerations. What the
prophet aims his threats against is not the prosperity of Tyre
but its pride
of heart
which was rebellion against Jehovah--God over all. The humiliation of
Tyre was morally as good as its ruins
in so far as it showed that there were
higher forces in the world than itself. (A. B. Davidson.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》