Ezekiel 26:1 Komentář

The prophet had soon done with those four nations that he set his face against in the foregoing chapters; for they were not at that time very considerable in the world, nor would their fall make any great noise among the nations nor any figure in history. But the city of Tyre is next set to the bar; this, being a place of vast trade, was known all the world over; and therefore here are three whole chapters, this and the two that follow, spent in the prediction of the destruction of Tyre. We have "the burden of Tyre," Isa. 23. It is but just mentioned in Jeremiah, as sharing with the natives in the common calamity, Jer 25:22; Jer 27:3; Jer 47:4. But Ezekiel is ordered to be copious upon that head. In this chapter we have, I. The sin charged upon Tyre, which was triumphing in the destruction of Jerusalem (Eze 26:2). II. The destruction of Tyrus itself foretold. 1. The extremity of this destruction: it shall be utterly ruined (Eze 26:4-6, Eze 26:12-14). 2. The instruments of this destruction, many nations (Eze 26:3), and the king of Babylon by name with his vast victorious army (Eze 26:7-11). 3. The great surprise that this should give to the neighbouring nations, who would all wonder at the fall of so great a city and be alarmed at it (Eze 26:15-21).

This prophecy is dated in the eleventh year, which was the year that Jerusalem was taken, and in the first day of the month, but it is not said what month, some think the month in which Jerusalem was taken, which was the fourth month, others the month after; or perhaps it was the first month, and so it was the first day of the year. Observe here, I. The pleasure with which the Tyrians looked upon the ruins of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was a great way off, in Babylon, but God told him what Tyrus said against Jerusalem (Eze 26:2): "Aha! she is broken, broken to pieces, that was the gates of the people, to whom there was a great resort and where there was a general rendezvous of all nations, some upon one account and some upon another, and I shall get by it; all the wealth, power, and interest, which Jerusalem had, it is hoped, shall be turned to Tyre, and so now that she is laid waste I shall be replenished." We do not find that the Tyrians had such a hatred and enmity to Jerusalem and the sanctuary as the Ammonites and Edomites had, or were so spiteful and mischievous to the Jews. They were men of business, and of large acquaintance and free conversation, and therefore were not so bigoted, and of such a persecuting spirit, as the narrow souls that lived retired and knew not the world. All their care was to get estates, and enlarge their trade, and they looked upon Jerusalem not as an enemy, but as a rival. Hiram, king of Tyre, was a good friend to David and Solomon, and we do not read of any quarrels the Jews had with the Tyrians; but Tyre promised herself that the fall of Jerusalem would be an advantage to her in respect of trade a commerce, that now she shall have Jerusalem's customers, and the great men from all parts that used to come to Jerusalem for the accomplishing of themselves, and to spend their estates there, will now come to Tyre and spend them there; and whereas many, since the Chaldean army became so formidable in those parts, had retired into Jerusalem, and brought their estates thither for safety, as the Rechabites did, now they will come to Tyre, which, being in a manner surrounded with the sea, will be thought a place of greater strength than Jerusalem, and thus the prosperity of Tyre will rise out of the ruins of Jerusalem. Note, To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely to get by it, with their fall when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that does most easily beset us, but is not thought to be such a bad thing, and so provoking to God, as really it is. We are apt to say, when those who stand in our light, in our way, are removed, when they break of fall into disgrace, "We shall be replenished now that they are laid waste." But this comes from a selfish covetous principle, and a desire to be placed alone in the midst of the earth, as if we grudged that any should live by us. This comes from a want of that love to our neighbour as to ourselves which the law of God so expressly requires, and from that inordinate love of the world as our happiness which the love of God so expressly forbids. And it is just with God to blast the designs and projects of those who thus contrive to raise themselves upon the ruins of others; and we see they are often disappointed. II. The displeasure of God against them for it. The providence of God had done well for Tyrus. Tyrus was a pleasant and wealthy city, and might have continued so if she had, as she ought to have done, sympathized with Jerusalem in her calamities and sent her an address of condolence; but when, instead of that, she showed herself pleased with her neighbour's fall, and perhaps sent an address of congratulation to the conquerors, then God says, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus! Eze 26:3. And let her not expect to prosper long if God be against her. 1. God will bring formidable enemies upon her: Many nations shall come against thee, an army made up of many nations, or one nation that shall be as strong as many. Those that have God against them may expect all the creatures against them; for what peace can those have with whom God is at war? They shall come pouring in as the waves of the sea, one upon the neck of another, with an irresistible force. The person is named that shall bring this army upon them - Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, that had many kings tributaries to him and dependents on him, besides those that were his captives, Song 2:37, 38. He is that head of gold. He shall come with a vast army, horses and chariots, etc., all land-forces. We do not find that he had any naval force, or any thing wherewith he might attack it by sea, which made the attempt the more difficult, as we find Eze 29:18, where it is called a great service which he served against Tyrus. He shall besiege it in form (Eze 26:8), make a fort, and cast a mount, and (Eze 26:9) shall set engines of war against the walls. His troops shall be so numerous as to raise a dust that shall cover the city, Eze 26:10. They shall make a noise that shall even shake the walls; and they shall shout at every attack, as soldiers do when they enter a city that is broken up; the horses shall prance with so much fury and violence that they shall even tread down the streets though so ever well paved. 2. They shall do terrible execution. (1.) The enemy shall make themselves masters of all their fortifications, shall destroy the walls and break down the towers, Eze 26:4. For what walls are so strongly built as to be a fence against the judgments of God? Her strong garrisons shall go down to the ground, Eze 26:11. And the walls shall be broken down, Eze 26:12. The city held out a long siege, but it was taken at last. (2.) A great deal of blood shall be shed: Her daughters who are in the field, the cities upon the continent, which were subject to Tyre as the mother-city, the inhabitants of them shall be slain by the sword, Eze 26:6. The invaders begin with those that come first in their way. And (Eze 26:11) he shall slay thy people with the sword; not only the soldiers that are found in arms, but the burghers, shall be put to the sword, the king of Babylon being highly incensed against them for holding out so long. (3.) The wealth of the city shall all become a spoil to the conqueror (Eze 26:12): They shall make a prey of the merchandise. It was in hope of the plunder that the city was set upon with so much vigour. See the vanity of riches, that they are kept for the owners to their hurt; they entice and recompense thieves, and not only cease to benefit those who took pains for them and were duly entitled to them, but are made to serve their enemies, who are thereby put into a capacity of doing them so much the more mischief. (4.) The city itself shall be laid in ruins. All the pleasant houses shall be destroyed (Eze 26:12), such as were pleasantly situated, beautified, and furnished, shall become a heap of rubbish. Let none please themselves too much in their pleasant houses, for they know not how soon they may see the desolation of them. Tyre shall be utterly ruined; the enemy shall not only pull down the houses, but shall carry away the stones and the timber, and shall lay them in the midst of the water, not to be recovered, or ever made use of again. Nay (Eze 26:4), I will scrape her dust from her; not only shall the loose dust be blown away, but the very ground it stands upon shall be torn up by the enraged enemy, carried off, and laid in the midst of the water, Eze 26:12. The foundation is in the dust; that dust shall be all taken away, and then the city must fall of course. When Jerusalem was destroyed it was ploughed like a field, Mic 3:12. But the destruction of Tyre is carried further than that; the very soil of it shall be scraped away, and it shall be made like the top of a rock (Eze 26:4, Eze 26:14), pure rock that has no earth to cover it; it shall only be a place for the spreading of nets (Eze 26:5, Eze 26:14); it shall serve fishermen to dry their nets upon and mend them. (5.) There shall be a full period to all its mirth and joy (Eze 26:13): I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease. Tyre had been a joyous city (Isa 23:7).; with her songs she had courted customers to deal with her in a way of trade. But now farewell all her profitable commerce and pleasant conversation; Tyre is no more a place either of business or of sport. Lastly, It shall be built no more (Eze 26:14), not built any more as it had been, with such state and magnificence, nor built any more in the same place, within the sea, nor built any where for a long time; the present inhabitants shall be destroyed or dispersed, so that this Tyre shall be no more. For God has spoken it (Eze 26:5, Eze 26:14); and when what he has said is accomplished they shall know thereby that he is the Lord, and not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 26 This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of Tyre. The time of the prophecy, Eze 26:1, the cause of the destruction of it, rejoicing at the ruin of Jerusalem, Eze 26:2, the instruments of it, many nations, particularly the king of Babylon, Eze 26:3, the manner in which it shall be done, Eze 26:8, the lamentation of other isles, and the princes of them, on account of it, Eze 26:15, the utter destruction of it, so as never to be found any more, Eze 26:19.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year,.... Of Jehoiachin's captivity and Zedekiah's reign, the same year that Jerusalem was taken: in the first day of the month; but what month is not mentioned; some have thought the first month, and so it was the first day of the year; others the fourth, the same in which the city of Jerusalem was taken; but more probably the fifth, the first of which was twenty days after the taking it; in which time the news of it might be brought to Tyre, at which she rejoiced; and for which her destruction is threatened, and here prophesied of: that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows:

(Chapter 26) And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, because Tyre (or Sidon) has said of Jerusalem: Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken, it is turned to me, I shall be filled, it has become desolate; therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Tyre (or Sidon), and I will bring many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. And they will break down the walls of Tyre, and destroy its towers, and I will sweep away its dust from it, and make it a shining rock. The drying up of the fishing nets will be in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says the Lord God, and it will be a plunder to the nations. Also, her daughters in the field will be killed by the sword, and they will know that I am the Lord. Accordingly, the order of prophecies is woven together. He spoke against the sons of Ammon and Moab and Seir, who are also Edomites, and against the Philistines who are on the coast, and who hold the same boundary on the shore of the sea. After the Philistines, the region of Phoenicia follows, whose metropolis is the city of Tyre, which is called Sor in Hebrew and Syriac. And because Jerusalem was captured, it also rejoiced and insulted, saying: The gates of the peoples are broken, I have the safest harbor, and when they are destroyed, all the multitude turns to me, which was ruled by its authority, and because it is deserted, therefore I will be filled, and whatever was full before will be turned into a wilderness. Therefore, because you have spoken these things and insulted the ruins of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the judgement of God because of its sins, I will not come against you through messengers or through anyone else, but I myself will be against you, Tyre, and I will cause the Babylonians to rise up like the waves of the sea against you, along with many nations, with which the walls and towers of your city will be destroyed to the point where they will fall to the ground and its dust will be scraped off or blown in various directions, and it will be humiliated to the point where it will be compared to the shiniest rocks. And there will be such great desolation in the once most populous city that fishing nets will be spread out a For I, the Lord, have spoken, and my words cannot be made void, and I will deliver them to be plundered by the nations. Also her daughters, who are in the countryside or in the field, that is, on the coast of Phoenicia, cities and towns, villages and castles, will be killed by the sword: metaphorically, because he called them daughters, he puts the killing by the sword, so that they may know by the end of things that I am the Lord, who commanded these things to happen. According to the tropology, since the Hebrew word Sor is translated into distress, every soul that is occupied with disturbances can be called Sor, which, when she sees Jerusalem being overthrown by the judgment of God for her sins and vices, in which the temple and the vision of peace were, she exults and thinks that the once famous empire of the city is to be transferred to herself. And this is also accepted in conflicting doctrines and in worldly men, when they see a holy man fall through negligence and rejoice and exult, as if their own resurrection were the downfall of others. Therefore the Lord threatens that He Himself will fight against such men and cause many nations, like sea waves, to rise up against them, destroying in them everything that seems most fortified and strong, and thus overturning all their arguments, so that they are reduced to dust. He should also cause the nets and fishing equipment by which the multitude was previously deceived to cease, and to be spread out and dried in the deserted soil of the city, so that other fishermen may take their place, whom the Lord has sent to fish. Moreover, he should cause his daughters, who were previously kept as if in a bridal chamber and were not easily believed by anyone in mystical and more secret teachings, to go forth and be extended in public, and to be cut down with the sword of the Church, so that they may understand that He himself is the Lord, who both temporarily left Jerusalem on account of its sins and destroyed the defenses of Tyre on account of its insolence and joy.

This prophecy, beginning here and ending in the twentieth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter, is a declaration of the judgments of God against Tyre, a very famous commercial city of antiquity, which was taken by Nebuchadnezzar after an arduous siege of thirteen years. The prophet begins with introducing Tyre insulting Jerusalem, and congratulating herself on the prospect of accession to her commerce now that this city was no more, Eze 26:1, Eze 26:2. Upon which God denounces utter destruction to Tyre, and the cities depending on her, Eze 26:3-6. We have then a particular account of the person raised up in the course of the Divine providence to accomplish this work. We see, as it were, his mighty hosts, (which are likened to the waves of the sea for their multitude), raising the mounds, setting the engines, and shaking the walls; we hear the noise of the horsemen, and the sound of their cars; we see the clouds of smoke and dust; we see the sword bathed in blood, and hear the groans of the dying. Tyre, (whose buildings were very splendid and magnificent, and whose walls were one hundred and fifty feet in height, with a proportionable breadth), immediately disappears; her strong (and as she thought impregnable) towers are thrown down; and her very dust is buried in the sea. Nothing remains but the bare rock, Eze 26:7-14. The scene is then varied. The isles and adjacent regions, by a very strong and beautiful figure, are represented to be shaken, as with a mighty earthquake by violent concussion occasioned by the fall of Tyre. The groans of the dying reach the ears of the people inhabiting these regions. Their princes, alarmed for themselves and grieved for Tyre, descend from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and clothe themselves with - sackcloth? - no, but with trembling! Arrayed in this astonishing attire, the prophet introduces them as a chorus of mourners, lamenting Tyre in a funeral song or dirge, as customary on the death of renowned personages. And pursuing the same image still farther, in the person of God, he performs the last sad office for her. She is brought forth from her place in solemn pomp; the pit is dug for her; and she is buried, to rise no more, Eze 26:15-21. Such is the prophecy concerning Tyre, comprehending both the city on the continent and that on the island, and most punctually fulfilled in regard to both. That on the continent was razed to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar, b.c. 572, and that on the island by Alexander the Great, b.c. 332. And at present, and for ages past, this ancient and renowned city, once the emporium of the world, and by her great naval superiority the center of a powerful monarchy, is literally what the prophet has repeatedly foretold it should be, and what in his time was, humanly speaking, so highly improbable - a Bare rock, a place to spread nets on!

The eleventh year - This was the year in which Jerusalem was taken; the eleventh of the captivity of Jeconiah, and the eleventh of the reign of Zedekiah. What month we are not told, though the day is mentioned. There have been many conjectures about this, which are not of sufficient consequence to be detailed.

THE JUDGMENT ON TYRE THROUGH NEBUCHADNEZZAR (TWENTY-SIXTH THROUGH TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTERS). (Eze. 26:1-21) The specification of the date, which had been omitted in the case of the four preceding objects of judgment, marks the greater weight attached to the fall of Tyre. eleventh year--namely, after the carrying away of Jehoiachin, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. The number of the month is, however, omitted, and the day only given. As the month of the taking of Jerusalem was regarded as one of particular note, namely, the fourth month, also the fifth, on which it was actually destroyed (Jer 52:6, Jer 52:12-13), RABBI DAVID reasonably supposes that Tyre uttered her taunt at the close of the fourth month, as her nearness to Jerusalem enabled her to hear of its fall very soon, and that Ezekiel met it with his threat against herself on "the first day" of the fifth month.

In four sections, commencing with the formula, "thus saith the Lord," Tyre, the mistress of the sea, is threatened with destruction. In the first strophe (Eze 26:2-6) there is a general threat of its destruction by a host of nations. In the second (Eze 26:7-14), the enemy is mentioned by name, and designated as a powerful one; and the conquest and destruction emanating from his are circumstantially described. In the third (Eze 26:15-18), the impression which this event would produce upon the inhabitants of the islands and coast-lands is depicted. And in the fourth (Eze 26:19-21), the threat is repeated in an energetic manner, and the prophecy is thereby rounded off. This word of God bears in the introduction to the date of its delivery to the prophet and enunciation by him. - Eze 26:1. It came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, that the word of Jehovah came to me, saying. - The eleventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin was the year of the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem (Jer 52:6, Jer 52:12), the occurrence of which is presupposed in Eze 26:2 also. There is something striking in the omission of the number of the month both here and in Eze 32:17, as the day of the month is given. The attempt to discover in the words בּאחד an indication of the number of the month, by understanding לחדשׁ as signifying the first month of the year: "on the first as regards the month," equivalent to, "in the first month, on the first day of it" (lxx, Luther, Kliefoth, and others), is as forced and untenable as the notion that that particular month is intended which had peculiar significance for Ezekiel, namely, the month in which Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed. The first explanation is proved to be erroneous by Eze 26:2, where the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in the fifth month of the year named, is assumed to have already happened. The second view is open to the objection that the conquest of Jerusalem happened in the fourth month, and the destruction in the fifth (Jer 52:6 and Jer 52:12); and it cannot be affirmed that the conquest was of less importance to Ezekiel than the destruction. We cannot escape the conclusion, therefore, that the number of the month has been dropped through a corruption of the text, which has occurred in copying; but in that case we must give up all hope of being able to determine what the month really was. The conjecture offered by Ewald and Hitzig, that one of the last months of the year is intended, because Ezekiel could not have known before then what impression the conquest of Jerusalem had made upon Tyre, stands or falls with the naturalistic view entertained by these writers with regard to prophecy.