เอเสเคียล 27:8 วิจารณ์

Still we are attending the funeral of Tyre and the lamentations made for the fall of that renowned city. In this chapter we have, I. A large account of the dignity, wealth, and splendour of Tyre, while it was in its strength, the vast trade it drove, and the interest it had among the nations (v. 1-25), which is designed to make its ruin the more lamentable. II. A prediction of its fall and ruin, and the confusion and consternation which all its neighbours shall thereby be put into (Eze 27:26-36). And this is intended to stain the pride of all worldly glory, and, by setting the one over-against the other, to let us see the vanity and uncertainty of the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world, and what little reason we have to place our happiness in them or to be confident of the continuance of them; so that all this is written for our learning.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 27 This chapter contains a lamentation on Tyre; setting forth her former grandeur, riches, and commerce; her ruin and destruction; and the concern of others on that account. The prophet is bid to take up his lamentation concerning it, Eze 27:1, observing her situation and magnificence, of which she boasted, Eze 27:3, describing the excellency of her shipping and naval stores, Eze 27:5, declaring who were her mariners, pilots, and caulkers, Eze 27:8, her military men, Eze 27:10 her several merchants, and the things they traded in with her in her fairs and markets, Eze 27:12, then follows an account of her destruction, Eze 27:26, the lamentation of pilots and mariners because of it, Eze 27:28, and of the kings and inhabitants of the isles, and merchants of the people, Eze 27:33.

The ancients of Gebal,.... A promontory of the Phoenicians, the same with the Gabale of Pliny (n), and with the land of the Giblites, Jos 13:5. It was by the Greeks called Byblus; and so the Septuagint here render the words, the elders of Bybli or Byblus, a place once famous for the birth and temple of Adonis; it is now called Gibyle. Mr. Maundrell (o) says it is pleasantly situated by the seaside, and that at present it contains but a little extent of ground, yet more than enough for the small number of its inhabitants; it is compassed with a dry ditch, and a wall with square towers in it, at about every forty yards' distance; on its south side it has an old castle; within it is a church; besides which it has nothing remarkable; though anciently it was a place of no mean extent, as well as beauty, as may appear from the many heaps of ruins, and the fine pillars that are scattered up and down in the gardens near the town. The old experienced workmen of this place were employed by the Tyrians in mending and refitting their ships, and in the caulking of them, as follows: the wise men thereof were in thee thy caulkers; or, "the strengtheners of thy breaches" (p), or "chinks"; the seams and commissures of the planks; which they stopped with tow, oakum, or such like stuff; at least this is what is used now, whatever might be by those wise men; and it seems by this that it was reckoned a very great art and mystery, and which only wise men were masters of, at least such the Tyrians employed. The Targum renders it, "providing thy necessaries;'' as if they were the ships' husbands: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise; ships from all parts were in her harbours, which brought goods into her, and carried goods out of her, by way of merchandise. So the Targum, "all that go down into the sea, and the ships; they were rowers, and they brought merchandise into the midst of thee;'' the goods of merchants from divers places; and carried back commodities again they traded for at Tyre; see Rev 18:19. (n) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 20. (o) Journey &c. p. 33, 34. (p) "roborantes scissuram tuam", Montanus; "instaurantes fissuras tuas", Munster, Tigurine version; "rimas tuas", Vatablus; "instauratores rupturaram tuarum", Piscator.

(Vers. 8, 9.) The inhabitants of Sidon and Arad were your sailors. Your wise men, Tyre, became your captains. The elders of Biblos and their wise men provided sailors for the service of your various goods. All the ships of the sea and their sailors were in the service of your commerce. LXX: Your princes dwelled in Sidon and the men of Arad were your sailors. Your wise men, Sora, who were in you, they were your captains. The elders of Tyre and its wise men were in you: they strengthened your counsel, and all the ships of the sea, and their sailors became your servants in the west of the west. It was said above: Your neighbors who built you, have filled your beauty: before those who live far away come to them, he describes the aid of neighboring provinces. Your inhabitants, he says, or the princes of Sidon and Arad, which is a nearby island, your sailors. Your wise men, O Tyre, have become your governors. For the governing properly belongs to the wise, as Scripture says: 'Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.' (Proverbs 11:14) The elders or senior men of the Bible, and its wise men, provided sailors for your service, strengthened the counsel of Tyre, and provided various merchandise. And all the ships of the sea, with their sailors, were part of the trading people of Tyre, or in the far west. This, meanwhile, according to the letter. But according to mystical understanding, because Sidonians are interpreted as hunters, and Aradians, who lay down: we will say that Tyre is a glorious and most proud city, which, with the wind blowing, is to be destroyed afterwards, has citizens, or rather hunter princes, about whom it is written: Our soul has been taken like a sparrow from the trap of the hunters. For where we read hunters, in Hebrew it is written, of the Sidonians. These people come to the unwary souls, who are placed in high positions, in order to lead them to earthly things, and they become the steersmen, leading them to shipwrecks. But the wise men of Tyre, who are received in a bad way, through which they are wiser than the sons of light, themselves guide Tyre prepared for shipwreck. The elders of the Bible and its wise men provided sailors to Tyre for service, or they strengthened its counsel. The holy history tells that there were many seniors rejected by the Lord, and the juniors chosen as the symbol of the Synagogue and the Church. Senior Cain is added, and junior Abel is chosen (Genesis IV): Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is estranged from his father, and junior Isaac receives the inheritance (Genesis XXI). Among the sons of Isaac, senior Esau is a hunter and wanders in the forests, while junior Jacob simply dwells at home (Genesis XXV). And it is written in Malachi: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal. I, 2). And rightly, according to the Apostle (Rom. IX, 13), they had done neither good nor evil in their mother's womb, so that one would be chosen and the other rejected, except that in the type, as we have said, the elder is repelled, and the younger assumed. All, he says, the ships of the sea and their sailors were in the people of the trading of Tyre, or in the furthest west. How is the Song of Songs called, and the age of ages, and the work of works; so that the greater song is compared to other songs, and the longer age to other ages, and the more useful work to other works: thus the West of the West is called, to signify the magnitude of the Western parts. And beautifully do the ships of the sea, and their sailors, and the rowers who assist the ship of Tyre, not go towards the East, nor towards the rising of the light, where the sun of justice is born, but towards the West of the West, where the light sets, and where the beginning of darkness is.

This chapter may be considered as the second part of the prophecy concerning Tyre. The prophet pursues his subject in the manner of those ancient lamentations or funeral songs, in which the praeficiae or mourning women first recounted whatever was great or praiseworthy in the deceased, and then mourned his fall. Here the riches, glory, and extensive commerce of Tyre are enlarged upon, vv. 1-25. Her downfall is then described in a beautiful allegory, executed in a few words, with astonishing brevity, propriety, and perspicuity, Eze 27:26; upon which all the maritime and commercial world are represented as grieved and astonished at her fate, and greatly alarmed for their own, Eze 27:27-36. Besides the view which this chapter gives of the conduct of Providence, and the example with which it furnishes the critic and men of taste of a very elegant and highly finished piece of composition, it likewise affords the antiquary a very curious and interesting account of the wealth and commerce of ancient times. And to the mind that looks for "a city that hath foundations," what a picture does the whole present of the mutability and inanity of all earthly things! Many of the places mentioned in ancient history have, like Tyre, long ago lost their political consequence; the geographical situation of others cannot be traced; they have sunk in the deep waters of oblivion; the east wind hath carried them away.

Zidon and Arvad - Or Arad. Two powerful cities on the Phoenician coast, in the neighborhood of Tyre, from which Tyre had her sailors; and the best instructed of her own inhabitants were her pilots or steersmen.

TYRE'S FORMER GREATNESS, SUGGESTING A LAMENTATION OVER HER SAD DOWNFALL. (Eze. 27:1-36) lamentation--a funeral dirge, eulogizing her great attributes, to make the contrast the greater between her former and her latter state.

Arvad--a small island and city near Phœnicia, now Ruad: its inhabitants are still noted for seafaring habits. thy wise men, O Tyrus . . . thy pilots--While the men of Arvad, once thy equals (Gen 10:18), and the Sidonians, once thy superiors, were employed by thee in subordinate positions as "mariners," thou madest thine own skilled men alone to be commanders and pilots. Implying the political and mercantile superiority of Tyre.