Ezekiel 28:18-19

“By the great quantity of your iniquities,

In the wrong behaviour resulting from your trade,

You have profaned your sanctuaries,

So I have brought forth a fire from the midst of you,

It has consumed you,

And I have turned you to ashes on the earth,

In the sight of all those who saw you.

All those who know you among the peoples,

Will be appalled at you,

You are become a frightening warning (literally ‘terrors'),

And you will never be any more.”

The doom of Tyre is now portrayed. It comes not only from her pride but from all her sins of greed, and dishonesty, and violence, and jealousy, and lack of concern for others, revealed through her activities. Thus her very sanctuaries were profaned. This was very much an Israelite thought. Other gods were not concerned about morality, but Yahweh was. But it confirms that we are to see ‘the king of Tyre' as a human king who had made extravagant claims, but had revealed his humanness by his behaviour, thus profaning the sanctuaries that he had seen as evidence of his divinity.

Thus Tyre is to be destroyed by a fire from within her. The seeds of her own destruction came from within her because of her sins. The fire, instead of revivifying her, will destroy her. She will be turned to ashes and all the nations will look on appalled. And her total extinction will be a warning for ever.