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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 first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, ​
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: ​
3
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. ​
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. ​
5
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations. ​
6
And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD. ​

Nebuchadnezzar's Siege and Destruction 7–14

7
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. ​
8
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. ​
9
And he shall set engines of war 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 wheels, 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 by the sword, and thy strong garrisons 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 water. ​
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 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. ​

The Lament of the Maritime Nations 15–18

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? ​
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. ​
17
And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! ​
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.

Tyre's Permanent Desolation 19–21

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; ​
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; ​
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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · 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).