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Ezekiel 26

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Prophecy Against Tyre: The Reason for Judgment 1–6

1
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the firstdayof the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ​
2
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: ​
3
therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up. ​
4
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. ​
5
She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah; and she shall become a spoil to the nations. ​
6
And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am Jehovah. ​

Nebuchadnezzar's Siege and Destruction 7–14

7
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and much people. ​
8
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and raise up the buckler against thee. ​
9
And he shall set his battering engines against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. ​
10
By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.
11
With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people with the sword; and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.
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 waters. ​
13
And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. ​
14
And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah. ​

The Lament of the Maritime Nations 15–18

15
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? ​
16
Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at thee. ​
17
And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, that caused their terror to be on all that dwelt there! ​
18
Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be dismayed at thy departure.

Tyre's Permanent Desolation 19–21

19
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: 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 the great waters shall cover thee; ​
20
then will I bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make thee to dwell in the nether parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living. ​
21
I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt no more have any being; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord Jehovah. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 26

Verse 1

in the eleventh year — This is the year Jerusalem was breached (Jer 39:2, 'in the eleventh year of Zedekiah'), and Tyre's cry in v.2, 'now she is laid waste', shows the oracle comes after it. The month is not named in the verse. The oracle against Tyre runs to 28:19, and Zidon follows in 28:20–23.

Verse 2

Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people — Tyre reasons as a trading city: the 'gates of the people' are broken, so the traffic is 'turned' to her, 'I shall be replenished'. Joel charges Tyre and Zidon with selling 'the children of Judah' to the Grecians (Joel 3:4–6), and Amos with delivering up 'the whole captivity' (Amos 1:9).

Verse 3

as the sea causeth his waves to come up — The verb 'come up' (alah) is used twice, of the nations and of the sea: wave after wave against an island city. Babylon is described the same way when judged, 'The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof' (Jer 51:42).

Verse 4

make her like the top of a rock — Tsechiach sela', the phrase of 24:7–8, where Jerusalem's blood was left on 'the top of a rock'. 'Scrape' (sachah) occurs only here: her dust is scraped off. The same words return in v.14, and Amos 1:10 had already sent 'a fire on the wall of Tyrus'.

Verse 5

a place for the spreading of nets — The island city becomes a place where nets are spread 'in the midst of the sea', and, in the same verse, 'a spoil to the nations'. The phrase is repeated in v.14. In Ezekiel's vision of the river from the sanctuary it is used again of the healed shore from Engedi to Eneglaim, 'a place to spread forth nets' (47:10).

Verse 6

her daughters which are in the field — 'Daughters' are the dependent towns of a city, as in 'Samaria, she and her daughters' (16:46). They are 'in the field', outside the walls, and the sentence is repeated in v.8. 'They shall know that I am the LORD' closes the first stage of the oracle.

Verse 7

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings — God says he himself will 'bring' him; in Jeremiah he is 'Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant' (Jer 25:9), and 'all the kings of Tyrus' are among those who must drink the cup of fury (Jer 25:15, 22). 'King of kings' is Daniel's title for him (Dan 2:37).

Verse 8

a fort… a mount… the buckler — The siege is described in the words used of Jerusalem: 'build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it' (4:2; 17:17; 21:22). Dayeq is a battering-tower and solelah a besieger's ramp, and the 'buckler' (tsinnah) is the large shield. The city that said 'Aha' over Jerusalem is besieged as Jerusalem was.

Verse 9

engines of war… his axes — 'Engines of war' are mechi qobel, battering-rams. 'Axes' is chereb, the usual word for 'sword'. The verb 'break down' (nathats) is the one rendered 'destroy' for the 'pleasant houses' in v.12, and the 'towers' (migdal) were already named in v.4.

Verse 12

make a prey of thy merchandise — 'Merchandise' is rekullah, trade, the word of 28:5, 'by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches'. Zechariah records that Tyre 'heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets' (Zech 9:3). Her 'stones… timber… dust' and houses go 'in the midst of the water'.

Verse 13

the noise of thy songs to cease — 'The sound of thy harps' is the end of Tyre's mirth, as Jeremiah says of Jerusalem, 'I will cause to cease… the voice of mirth' (Jer 7:34). Isaiah gave Tyre the harp as her own sign, 'Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten… that thou mayest be remembered' (Isa 23:16).

Verse 14

thou shalt be built no more — The sentence of vv.4–5 is repeated: the 'top of a rock', the 'place to spread nets', and now the finality, 'built no more'. 'I the LORD have spoken it' is the same declaration made of Jerusalem in 24:14. Job's line states the principle, 'he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again' (Job 12:14).

Verse 15

Shall not the isles shake — The 'isles' (iy) are coasts and islands; Tyre was 'a merchant of the people for many isles' (27:3), and v.18 repeats that they 'tremble in the day of thy fall'. 'Fall' (mappeleth) is also the word of 31:16. Revelation's lament over Babylon takes up the picture of kings and merchants watching from afar (Rev 18:9–11).

Verse 16

the princes of the sea… come down from their thrones — 'Broidered garments' (riqmah) is embroidered work, which Tyre traded in (27:7, 16, 24). The princes put off their robes and sit on the ground, the posture of mourning (Lam 2:10; Job 2:13); 'tremble at every moment' returns in 32:10. Cf. the king of Nineveh, who 'laid his robe from him' (Jonah 3:6).

Verse 17

they shall take up a lamentation for thee — Qinah, the funeral song, the word of David's lament for Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:17) and of Ezekiel's own laments for Tyre (27:2) and her king (28:12). 'How art thou destroyed' echoes David's cry, 'How are the mighty fallen' (2 Sam 1:25). Tyre is 'strong in the sea' in the very lament that ends her.

Verse 19

I shall bring up the deep upon thee — Tehom, the 'deep' of Gen 1:2 and the 'great deep' of the flood (Gen 7:11), here made to rise against the island city. It answers v.3: nations come up like waves, and now the sea itself covers her. The same verb 'bring up' (alah) is used of the 'waters of the river' brought up on Judah in Isa 8:7.

Verse 20

the low parts of the earth — The 'pit' (bor) is where Tyre goes down 'with the people of old time', the place also given to Egypt and the great tree in 31:14, 18 and 32:18. 'The land of the living' is the opposite of the pit (cf. Ps 27:13). The verse ends with God setting 'glory' (tsebi) there, the word of 20:6, 'the glory of all lands'.

Verse 21

I will make thee a terror — Ballahah, a thing of terror, is also the last word on Tyre in 27:36 and 28:19, each time with 'never'. 'Though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again' is the form used for Babylon's end: 'shall be found no more at all' (Rev 18:21).