Ezekiel 28:14 Komentář

In this chapter we have, I. A prediction of the fall and ruin of the king of Tyre, who, in the destruction of that city, is particularly set up as a mark for God's arrows (Eze 28:1-10). II. A lamentation for the king of Tyre, when he has thus fallen, though he falls by his own iniquity (Eze 28:11-19). III. A prophecy of the destruction of Zidon, which as in the neighbourhood of Tyre and had a dependence upon it (Eze 28:20-23). IV. A promise of the restoration of the Israel of God, though in the day of their calamity they were insulted over by their neighbours (Eze 28:24-26).

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 28 This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of the prince of Tyre; a lamentation for the king of Tyre; a denunciation of judgments on Zidon, and a promise of peace and safety to Israel. The order given the prophet to prophesy of the ruin of the prince of Tyre, Eze 28:1, the cause of his ruin, his pride on account of his wisdom and riches, which rose to such a pitch, as to make himself God, Eze 28:2, the manner in which his destruction shall be accomplished, Eze 28:7, the lamentation for the king of Tyre begins Eze 28:11, setting forth his former grandeur and dignity, Eze 28:13, his fall, and the cause of it, injustice and violence in merchandise, pride because of beauty and wisdom, and profanation of sanctuaries, Eze 28:16, next follow the judgments on Zidon, Eze 28:20, and the chapter is concluded with a promise of the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and of great tranquillity and safety in it, Eze 28:24.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth,.... In allusion to the cherubim over the mercy seat, which covered it with their wings; and which, as the ark of the testimony and all the vessels of the tabernacle were anointed, were so likewise; in all probability the king of Tyre is called a "cherub" because of his wisdom and power; "anointed", because of his royal dignity; and "that covereth", because of his office, which was to protect his people; all which he either was, or ought to be, or was in his own opinion so: antichrist makes great boasts of his wisdom, power, and authority, as a teacher, pastor, or bishop, the cherubim being symbolical of the ministers of the word; and of his being anointed by men, that he may be the cover and shield of the church; and of his being the Lord's anointed, and the vicar of Christ, and head and protector of the church, as he calls himself (s). The Targum understands all this of regal power, and renders it, "thou art a king anointed for a kingdom:'' and I have set thee so; from whom all kings have their sceptres, crowns, and kingdoms; and by whom they reign; and who can put them down as well as set them up at his pleasure. It may be rendered, "I have given thee" (t); or suffered thee to be so, as the word "give" is often used; it is by divine permission that antichrist has taken such power to himself, and in judgment to them over whom he rules, who are given up to believe a lie; yea, God "put", or, as it is in the original text, "gave" it into the hearts of the kings to agree and give their kingdom to the beast, Rev 17:17, thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; not on Sinai, nor on Zion; on neither of which was the king of Tyre; nor was this literally true of him; for to say, as Kimchi does to illustrate it, that Hiram king of Tyre assisted Solomon with materials to build the temple, is very foreign; but this is true of the antitype of the king of Tyre, antichrist; who has set his foot on God's holy mountain the church; here he first appeared and stood, as before observed on the preceding verse: thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire; which some understand of the precious stones with which the king of Tyre was adorned, which glittered like fire; though rather they design the people of God, those living lively stones of which the spiritual house is built; who, for their clear light, and burning zeal and love, may be said to be as stones of fire; and among these the bishop of Rome, or the antichristian king of Tyre, first walked: so Kimchi interprets them of the Israelites, who were a holy people; and Jarchi of the kings of Israel, who were as the ministering angels; the seraphim perhaps he means, so called from their burning and flaming love. The Targum is, "and over the holy people thou hast thought to rule.'' (s) Vid. Gurtler. Voc. Typic. Prophet. Explicat. p. 238. (t) "et dedi te", Montanus.

For the king who was anointed with the holy oil was called a cherub. And he was overshadowing all his people.… They were sitting in the shadow of the king, while he was standing at their head. And when the crown of their head fell, they were without shade. And if anyone should say that this word is spoken concerning Christ, let him accept what I write for him without dispute, and he will be persuaded that it was said with reference to the king.

(Vers. 11 seqq.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, onyx, and beryl, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald. Gold was the workmanship of your settings and your engravings; on the day that you were created they were prepared. You, Cherub, stretched out and protecting, I placed you on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the fiery stones; you were perfect in your ways from the day of your creation until iniquity was found in you. Your heart was filled with iniquity in the multitude of your trading, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out from the mountain of God and destroyed you, O Cherub protecting amidst the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. Therefore, I cast you down to the ground. I set you before kings, that they might gaze at you. In the multitude of your iniquities and the injustice of your trading, you have defiled your sanctification. Therefore, I will bring forth fire from your midst that will consume you, and I will turn you into ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you. All who see you among the nations will be astonished at you. You have become nothing and will be no more forever. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over the prince of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and adorned with the crown of beauty; you were in the delights of the paradise of God. You are surrounded by every good gemstone: sardius and topaz, and emerald, and carbuncle, and sapphire, and jasper, and silver, and gold, and ligure, and agate, and amethyst, and chrysolite, and beryl, and onyx, and you have filled your treasuries with gold and your storehouses with silver. From the day you were created, you were prepared with the anointed Cherub from God, and dwelling in the tabernacle, I have given you on the holy mountain of God. You have become in the midst of fiery stones. You were blameless in your days, from the day you were created; until iniquities were found in you, you filled your storehouses with iniquity from the abundance of your trade, and you sinned and were wounded by the mountain of God, and the cherub who overshadowed you led you out of the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; your wisdom was corrupted by your splendor. Because of your many sins, I cast you to the ground; I made you a spectacle before kings, that you might be dishonored. Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquities of your trade, you have defiled your holy places. And I will bring forth fire in your midst; it will devour you. And I will make you like ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you, and all who know you among the nations will be dismayed over you. You have become a ruin, and you will never be again. For we have declared what the prince of Tyre is and how he has fallen because of his pride, let us know his lamentations over his former glory. First, let it be agreed what it was, so that he may regret having lost what he had. 'You,' he says, 'are the seal of likeness;' according to that, which John the Evangelist rightly says about the Savior: 'For this God has sealed, the Father' (John 6:27). And about men: 'He has sealed, because God is true' (John 3:33). And in the Psalms: 'The light of your face, O Lord, has been sealed upon us' (Psalm 4:7). And in another place: 'Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be.' We know that when he appears, we shall be like him. (1 John 3:2) That is why it is said to God: Who will be like you? (Psalm 35:10) For similarity is one thing, equality is another. Therefore, the most savage heresy is the one that confesses only the Father's similarity in Christ and takes away his nature. But we not only say similarity in the Son, but also equality. That is why the Jews persecuted him: because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also made himself equal to God. (John 5) But where there is equality, there is the same nature and one substance. This is what the Apostle speaks of regarding similarity: My little children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19), so that you may receive, namely, his likeness, which you have lost through your own fault. And because in Latin codices the word for sign or seal is read as "resignaculum", expressing word for word the Greek word κακοζήλως, which is interpreted according to the Septuagint translation as ἀποσφράγισμα, that is, seal or sign. Some people understand it in this way, that the seal of God and the image which was as if expressed in the softest wax, the king of Tyre erased and lost, so that he made a reseal, not having the image and likeness of God, according to which the first man was created, as God says: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). And it should be noted that the image was only made then, and the likeness is fulfilled in Christ's baptism. And accordingly, to her to whom it has been said: You are a likeness of the seal, is joined, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, or, a crown of glory. For where the likeness of God is, there is also the fullness of wisdom, and perfect beauty, or as a crown adorned with different flowers, and composed of virtues, which the diligent increases by his own efforts, while the industry nourishes the good of nature, and the negligent diminishes it, according to what is said in Proverbs under the figure of a beautiful and ill-mannered woman: As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion (Prov. XI, 22). It follows: In the delights of the paradise of God, you were: for which reason it is called Eden in Hebrew, which also the history of Genesis narrates. Eden, however, is translated into delights. And beautifully it is named paradise of God to distinguish it, so as to show that there is a contrary paradise not of God, among those who change the truth into lying (Rom. 1), and boast of having a paradise. By this speech he demonstrates, that the one of whom it is written is by no means a human being, but a contrary fortitude, which formerly dwelt in God's paradise: although the Jews estimate prophetically, by that metaphor which is called hyperbole, that it refers to King Hiram of Tyre. But to whom is it said: You were in the delights of the paradise of God, or you have become, it shows what he had, or what he lost. Moreover, what is joined to the habitation of paradise, every precious stone is your covering, or your binding, and encirclement, jasper, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, and onyx, and beryl, sapphire, and carbuncle, and emerald, or, as in the LXX, in a different order and with other names, twelve stones are contained, this must be observed, not every precious stone surrounded the king of Tyre, or covered, and as Symmachus translated, bound and confined: but every stone that the prince of Tyre had was precious. Moreover, there are many precious stones that Scripture does not mention in this place, such as chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, hyacinth, crystal, and the most precious pearl. Even Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion differ greatly from each other in this place, not only in order, but also in number and names. In the Book of Revelation, where the city of Jerusalem is described as built with living stones, there is a slight change in order towards the end, and the same stones are set in its foundations, so that its gates are inscribed with the light of crystal (Rev. 21). But also in the breastplate of the high priest, through the four rows in the Rational (Exod. 28), the same stones are described, and on his shoulders two onyx stones, on which are written the names of the twelve patriarchs, which the true high priest, of whom it is written: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4), carries on his breast, carries on his shoulders, in order to represent the number of the twelve stones of the apostles; and in the two sacraments of both Testaments, one of which John the Evangelist leaned on his breast, in order to drink from the streams of wisdom, and could say: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2). These are living stones, from which the Church is built, and about which the Apostle Peter writes: If you have believed, because the Lord is sweet: approaching him, the living stone, indeed rejected by men, but chosen and honored by God, and you yourselves, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. For the Scripture says (Isa. XXVIII, 16): Behold, I am laying in Zion a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame (I Pet. II, 3 et seqq.). Moreover, the vessel of election is united by equal votes, saying: Upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the corner stone being Christ Jesus Our Lord: in whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord (Eph. II, 10). These are the stones of which we read in another place: And the holy stones are rolled over the earth, like wheels (Zach. IX, 16), touching but little the ground, and hastening with their rolling to the heavenly places. Of which the Scripture also speaks: Behold, I will prepare thy carbuncle stone, and thy foundations sapphire, and I will make thy bulwarks jasper, and thy gates crystal, and thy walls precious stones: and all thy children shall be taught of God, and in much peace thy children shall be, and thou shalt be built in justice (Isa. 54:11-13). Concerning which, we have explained in the interpretations of the same prophet. The twentieth Psalm sings of stones of this kind: The king shall rejoice in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation he shall greatly rejoice. Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden from him the will of his lips. For thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness: thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones (Psalm XX. 1 seq.). These are the pearls of the prophets and apostles, which, in comparison with Christ, are all sold in the Gospel (Matthew XIV), that the most precious pearl may be bought, and the stone of which Zacharias writes, which has seven eyes, that is, the seven graces of the Holy Spirit (Zach. III and IV). Read Isaiah. And it is placed by the apostle Paul as the foundation of the Church, upon which gold, silver, and precious stones are built (I Cor. III): the colors, natures, and efficacies of each of which are not to be discussed in this time; but they desire a separate volume: so that in Ezekiel, and in Exodus, and in Revelation, and in Isaiah, all the stones and orders of stones compared to each other make a great question for both the reader and the discussant. Super quibus et vir sanctus Epiphanius episcopus proprium volumen mihi praesens tradidit. Et XXXVII liber Plinii Secundi, Naturalis Historiae, post multiplicem omnium rerum scientiam, de gemmis et lapidibus disputat. Ad quorum notitiam diligens à nobis mittendus est lector. Porro Symmachi interpretatio, istum principem Tyri, quasi pretiosissimum monile lapidibus scribit esse distinctum. Denique auri tympanum vocat, in quo infixi sint lapides. And according to the Hebrew, it follows: Gold is the work of your adornment, and your holes are prepared on the day you were buried. For this reason, the Septuagint says: You filled your treasuries and storehouses with gold, reflecting the understanding and intention that his thoughts have revealed in divine sacraments, and he has gathered for himself spiritual riches, about which the Lord commanded: Store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, nor thieves dig and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. This is the hidden treasure, of which he also speaks in the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. But the apothecae, or storehouses, are those of which it is written elsewhere: Blessed shall be thy barns and rich thy tables. After this, it is said, according to the Hebrew: 'You are the stretched out and protecting Cherub, with the ark of God and the propitiatory beneath it,' or, according to the Septuagint, that he himself, anointed and created, was with the Cherub. From this it is shown that this does not pertain to a human prince of the city of Tyre, but rather to the once holy and eminent strength that was placed as prince of the city of Tyre. And I have set you, he says, on the holy mountain of God; without a doubt, this signifies paradise, to which Paul the Apostle says he was caught up after the third heaven (1 Corinthians 12). But the cherub, of the male gender, is called in the singular number: and in the plural number they are called cherubim, which are interpreted as a multitude of knowledge. God rests and sits upon them, and uses this chariot, as the prophet says: You who sits upon the cherubim, manifest yourself (Ps. 79:2). And in another place: He ascended upon the cherubim, and flew; he flew upon the wings of the wind (Ps. 18:11). This cherub, or creature with cherub, extended and protecting the sacraments, is placed on the holy mountain of God, as we have often said. And the Apostle Paul speaks, if anyone receives the Epistle to the Hebrews: You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to thousands of angels (Heb. XII, 22). Or certainly the holy mountain of God, as we have said, is to be understood as a paradise. He also walked among fiery stones, of which it is written: He makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire (Ps. CIII, 4). And not only God, who is called consuming fire, consumes hay, wood, and straw (Deut. IV): but also the angels, who are called fiery stones, and fervent in spirit. Hence the Lord says: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I desire but that it be kindled (Luke XII). And what follows: You are perfect in your ways from the day of your creation (in the Septuagint: You were blameless in your days, from the day you were created), until iniquity was found in you, shows that every creature, created good by God, had perfect virtue, and that even the prince of Tyre was blameless, so that sin is not a part of nature, but of will. Until iniquity was found in you. Iniquity invented by God, which was kept enclosed in the treasure chests of your heart through pride and the abuse of power that you had received. Also, the inner chambers, or storehouses, of his wickedness were filled with a multitude of his dealings. For while he sought after many things and was not satisfied with the knowledge he had gained, nor with the power he had been given, he filled the storehouses and inner chambers of his heart so that, being satiated and made fat, he kicked against his Creator. For Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and the beloved one rebelled, becoming fat and sleek, and enlarged, and forsaking the God who made him (Deut. XXXII, 15). And from the heart come evil thoughts (Matth. XV, 19): because of which God says: You have sinned, and I have cast you out from the mountain of God, or you have been wounded by the mountain of God, which we who read are compelled to fear. For if the Cherub extended and protecting, placed on the holy mountain of God, and in the midst of fiery stones, perfect and immaculate, filled his interior with iniquity because of the abundance of trade, and sinned, and was cast out from the mountain of God, that is, from the dwelling of paradise, or wounded by the mountain of God, which clearly refers to Christ, or certainly wounded by the mountain of God, established and dwelling in himself, he is pricked in conscience by evil, while he realizes himself unworthy of the habitation of the mountain: what, then, is to be said of us? Therefore he says to him: 'And I have destroyed you, Cherub, protecting you from the midst of burning stones, so that you would not remain among the burning stones, but perish. O Cherub himself, or Cherubim, who protected you, I have brought you out from the midst of burning stones, according to what is also written about Adam: He drove out Adam, and stationed him (or Cherubim) opposite the paradise of delights (Gen. III, 24). And he gives the reasons why he was brought out, or cast out, from the midst of burning stones.' For your heart has been lifted up in your beauty, thinking that what is God's is yours. Therefore, the apostle says that he received a thorn in the flesh and an angel of Satan to buffet him, so that he would not be exalted by the greatness of his revelations and fall into the judgment of the devil (2 Corinthians 12). And so, your doctrine is corrupted, he says, along with your beauty, or you have lost your wisdom in your beauty. While you desire to be more than what you were created to be and to know more than what you have received from God, you have even lost what you had, and deformity and foolishness have possessed you instead of beauty and knowledge. Therefore, you have been cast down to the earth, you who once dwelled on the mountain of God. About which Isaiah writes: How has Lucifer fallen, who used to rise in the morning (Isa. XIV, 12)? And the Savior in the Gospel says: I saw, he said, Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke X). This is also what Jeremiah speaks to Jerusalem. How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in His anger: He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel (Lamentations II, 1)? But you have been cast down in the sight of all kings, to terrify them by your example, either of good kings, whose heart is in the hand of God (Prov. XXI), or of evil ones, whose kingdoms the devil showed to the Savior (Matt. IV): who encountered the Babylonian king, saying: And you have been captured like us, and considered among us. Therefore, he defiled his sanctification which he had when he dwelt on the mountain and conversed among the burning stones. It follows: I will bring fire in the midst of you which shall devour you. This fire was kindled in the heart of the king of Tyre by him whose arrows are kindled, as it is written: All those who commit adultery are like an oven, their hearts (Hosea). About this fire, Isaiah also speaks: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame you have kindled (Isaiah 50), so that when you go out, it may devour the possessor, according to what is written in the same Isaiah: It consumed like the grass the fuel (Isaiah 5). On that day the mountains and hills and forests will be extinguished, and it will devour from soul to flesh. This fire, which is called alien, Nadab and Abihu offered to the altar of the Lord, and for this reason they were consumed by divine fire (Leviticus 10). Hence Moses says: This is the word that the Lord spoke: In those who approach me, I will sanctify myself. But the sanctification of God is the punishment of sinners. After this it is said: And I will turn you into ashes, so that all that you have built will be consumed by the fire of your guilty conscience. When you should have rested on the Sabbath, and should not have done any servile work, you gathered wood on the Sabbath so that you would have something to fuel the fire in your heart. He will also destroy all evil works, reducing them to ashes, so that the harmful fire may be completely extinguished, so that all may see and marvel at the destruction of the king of Tyre, and that it has become nothing, not for many centuries, but in one instant, or certainly forever, so that what is written may be fulfilled: I will not spare you, and I will not have pity. The Hebrews, among their other fables and genealogies and endless questions, are accustomed to understand these words against Hiram, king of Tyre, when they say that from Solomon to Ezekiel there are many years, which it is obvious that men did not live at that time: and thus they pronounce, as if the prophet spoke to him ironically: Are you the seal of the likeness of God, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty? You are adorned with all precious stones, you are a cherub, or created with a cherub: whereas in reality you have sinned, and you will be dissolved into ashes. And they add to their story a miracle, that contrary to Scripture, indeed without the authority of Scripture, they say that Hiram lived for a thousand years. But how violent this interpretation is, a prudent reader understands without our judgment.

The first part of this chapter relates to a King of Tyre, probably the same who is called in the Phoenician annals Ithobalus. He seems to have been a vain man, who affected Divine honors. The prophet treats his foolish pretensions with severe irony, and predicts his doom, Eze 28:1-10. He then takes up a funeral dirge and lamentation over him, in which his former pomp and splendor are finely contrasted with his fall, in terms that seem frequently to allude to the fall of Lucifer from heaven, (Isaiah 14), Eze 28:11-19. The overthrow of Sidon, the mother city of Tyre, is next announced, Eze 28:20-23; and the chapter concludes with a promise to the Jews of deliverance from all their enemies, and particularly of their restoration from the Babylonish captivity, Eze 28:24-26.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth - The irony is continued; and here he is likened to the Cherub that guarded the gates of Paradise, and kept the way of the tree of life; or to one of the cherubs whose wings, spread out, covered the mercy-seat. Thou mast upon the holy mountain of God - The irony is still continued; and now he is compared to Hoses, and afterwards to one of the chief angels, who has walked up and down among the stones of fire; that is, thy floors have been paved with precious stones, that shone and sparkled like fire. Lucan, describing the splendor of the apartments of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, speaks in nearly a similar language: - Nec summis crustata domus, sectisque nitebat Marmoribus, stabatque sibi non segnis achates, Purpureusque lapis, totusque effusus in aula Calcabatur onyx; Pharsal. lib. x. Rich as some fane by slavish zealots reared, For the proud banquet stood the hall prepared: Thick golden plates the latent beams infold, And the high roof was fretted o'er with gold. Of solid marble all the walls were made, And onyx e'en the meaner floor inlaid; While porphyry and agate round the court In massy columns rose, a proud support. Of solid ebony each post was wrought, From swarthy Meroe profusely brought. With ivory was the entrance crusted o'er, And polished tortoise hid each shining door; While on the cloudy spots enchased was seen The trusty emerald's never-fading green. Within the royal beds and couches shone, Beamy and bright with many a costly stone, The glowing purple rich. Rowe.

PROPHETICAL DIRGE ON THE KING OF TYRE, AS THE CULMINATION AND EMBODIMENT OF THE SPIRIT OF CARNAL PRIDE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF THE WHOLE STATE. THE FALL OF ZIDON, THE MOTHER CITY. THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL IN CONTRAST WITH TYRE AND ZIDON. (Eze. 28:1-26) Because, &c.--repeated resumptively in Eze 28:6. The apodosis begins at Eze 28:7. "The prince of Tyrus" at the time was Ithobal, or Ithbaal II; the name implying his close connection with Baal, the Phœnician supreme god, whose representative he was. I am a god, I sit in . . . seat of God . . . the seas--As God sits enthroned in His heavenly citadel exempt from all injury, so I sit secure in my impregnable stronghold amidst the stormiest elements, able to control them at will, and make them subserve my interests. The language, though primarily here applied to the king of Tyre, as similar language is to the king of Babylon (Isa 14:13-14), yet has an ulterior and fuller accomplishment in Satan and his embodiment in Antichrist (Dan 7:25; Dan 11:36-37; Th2 2:4; Rev 13:6). This feeling of superhuman elevation in the king of Tyre was fostered by the fact that the island on which Tyre stood was called "the holy island" [SANCONIATHON], being sacred to Hercules, so much so that the colonies looked up to Tyre as the mother city of their religion, as well as of their political existence. The Hebrew for "God" is El, that is, "the Mighty One." yet, &c.--keen irony. set thine heart as . . . heart of God--Thou thinkest of thyself as if thou wert God.

anointed cherub--GESENIUS translates from an Aramaic root, "extended cherub." English Version, from a Hebrew root, is better. "The cherub consecrated to the Lord by the anointing oil" [FAIRBAIRN]. covereth--The imagery employed by Ezekiel as a priest is from the Jewish temple, wherein the cherubim overshadowed the mercy seat, as the king of Tyre, a demi-god in his own esteem, extended his protection over the interests of Tyre. The cherub--an ideal compound of the highest kinds of animal existence and the type of redeemed man in his ultimate state of perfection--is made the image of the king of Tyre, as if the beau ideal of humanity. The pretensions of Antichrist are the ulterior reference, of whom the king of Tyre is a type. Compare "As God . . . in the temple of God" (Th2 2:4). I have set thee--not thou set thyself (Pro 8:16; Rom 13:1). upon the holy mountain of God--Zion, following up the image. in . . . midst of . . . stones of fire--In ambitious imagination he stood in the place of God, "under whose feet was, as it were, a pavement of sapphire," while His glory was like "devouring fire" (Exo 24:10, Exo 24:17).