XXVII. This chapter has been very well called “The Dirge of Tyre.” It is a lamentation over its fall, not because the prophet could wish it to be otherwise, but simply because of the terror and sorrowfulness of the event itself. It is unique among Scripture representations in the fulness of detail w... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THE ENTRY OF THE SEA. — The word for “entry” in the original is plural, and means the approaches to the sea, or harbours. Tyre had two of these, both remarkably good: the “Egyptian,” facing the south, and the “Sidonian,” facing the north, the latter having also an outer harbour or roadstead, form... [ Continue Reading ]
SHIP BOARDS. — Planking for the sides of the ship. The word in the original is in the dual, with reference to its two sides. Senir was the Amorite name of Hermon, or Antilebanon, called by the Sido-nians Sirion (Deuteronomy 3:9). Ezekiel wished to use a foreign name, and the latter may at this time... [ Continue Reading ]
THE COMPANY OF THE ASHURITES HAVE MADE THY BENCHES OF IVORY. — The literal rendering of this clause (with two words of doubtful meaning left blank) is, _they made thy... of tooth_ (_ivory_)_, daughter of..._ The sense will depend upon the filling up of these blanks. For the first there need be no di... [ Continue Reading ]
FINE LINEN WITH BROIDERED WORK. — To a modern sailor “fine linen “may seem both an extravagant and an insufficient material for a ship’s sails, but the State ships of antiquity were often fitted out in this way, and the sails embroidered in colours in place of a pennon. The clause literally is, _Lin... [ Continue Reading ]
ARVAD. — The description now turns to the sailors. The Arvadite is mentioned among the family of Canaan in Genesis 10:18, and corresponds to the Greek Aradus. There were two islands of this name: one in the Persian Gulf, the other (the one here intended) a rocky island north of the coast of Tripoli,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ANCIENTS OF GEBAL. — “The ancients” is a thoroughly Semitic expression for the prominent men of a city. Gebal, the ancient Byblos, the modern Gébeil, and the Gu-ba-lu of the Assyrian inscriptions, was a famous Phœnician town just north of Beirût. Its site is still rich in ruins. Its people were... [ Continue Reading ]
OF PERSIA AND OF LUD AND OF PHUT. — Tyre, like most commercial nations, depended chiefly on mercenaries for the rank and file of its army. Persia, more anciently called Elam, was just now rising into prominence. Its soldiers were probably obtained by the Tyrians from their commerce in the Persian Gu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GAMMADIMS WERE IN THY TOWERS. — No people of this name is known, and it is extremely unlikely that the responsible posts upon the watch-towers would have been entrusted to foreigners. The word occurs only here, and is probably not a proper name, but should be translated _brave men. _... [ Continue Reading ]
TRADED IN THY FAIRS. — Tarshish, Tartessus in Spain, was famous in antiquity for the metals enumerated, especially silver. The word for “fairs” occurs only in this chapter (Ezekiel 27:14; Ezekiel 27:16; Ezekiel 27:19; Ezekiel 27:22; Ezekiel 27:33). In the last case it is translated _wares,_ as it sh... [ Continue Reading ]
JAVAN, TUBAL, AND MESHECH. — Javan is strictly Ionia, more generally Greece. Tubal and Meshech are the classic _Tibareni_ and _Moschi,_ between the Black and Caspian Seas. They were famous for dealing in slaves and in brass, or rather copper, of which their mountains still contain abundant supplies.... [ Continue Reading ]
TOGARMAH. — A name for the Armenians, a race of Japhetic descent (Genesis 10:3). They dealt from most ancient times in horses and asses.... [ Continue Reading ]
DEDAN. — This Dedan is a descendant of Ham through Cush (Genesis 10:7). The tribe was located in Arabia, probably upon the shores of the Persian Gulf (Isaiah 21:13). The Dedan of Ezekiel 27:20, on the other hand, is a Semitic tribe, spoken of also in Ezekiel 25:13; Jeremiah 49:8. The “many isles” of... [ Continue Reading ]
EMERALDS. — The precious stone intended here, and in Exodus 28:18, is now generally understood to be the carbuncle. The word for “fine linen” is not that of Ezekiel 27:7, but a Phœnician word, occurring only in the books written in the time of the captivity. It is thought to mean _cotton,_ for the w... [ Continue Reading ]
MINNITH, AND PANNAG. — Minnith was in Ammon (Judges 11:33), rich in wheat (2 Chronicles 27:5), and the Tyrians obtained its products through the Israelites. Pannag is unknown; it is even uncertain whether it is a proper name at all, or some sweet confection, as grape syrup.... [ Continue Reading ]
WINE OF HELBON. — Helbon is identified with a village of the same name, three and a half hours north of Damascus, rich in ruins, and still devoted to the culture of the vine, from which the costliest wine of the country was made. It was probably the same with the wine of Chalybon, so much prized in... [ Continue Reading ]
DAN ALSO AND JAVAN. — This is the only instance in this enumeration in which the name of a people is introduced with a conjunction. Besides this structural difficulty, there seems no appropriateness in the name Dan, a tribe of Israel long since carried into captivity. The city Dan was of quite too l... [ Continue Reading ]
DEDAN. — See note on Ezekiel 27:15. “Precious clothes,” literally, _clothes of spreading,_ by which saddlecloths are probably meant.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARABIA... KEDAR. — Arabia is never used in the Old Testament for the whole of the country now called by that name, but only for the desert part of it occupied by nomadic tribes. Kedar is the name of a nomadic pastoral race descended from Ishmael (Genesis 25:13; comp. Isaiah 60:7).... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEBA AND RAAMAH were both Hamites, descended from Cush (Genesis 10:7). They occupied that part of Arabia in the south-east which lies on the Bay of Oman, in the Persian Gulf, and were famous in antiquity for the products mentioned in the text, and which, with the exception of gold, are still found... [ Continue Reading ]
HARAN, AND CANNEH, AND EDEN. — The description now turns from Arabia to the Tyrian trade with Mesopotamia. Haran, important in the story of Abraham (Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:4), the Charræ of the Romans, was in north-western Mesopotamia, at the junction of two great caravan routes, the one along th... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL SORTS OF THINGS. — The margin, _excellent things,_ is better. The word means “that which is perfect.” In Ezekiel 23:12 it is “most gorgeously,” and in Ezekiel 38:4, as here, “all sorts.” In all “excellent” or “excellently” is the true sense. “Clothes” — literally, _foldings_ — refers to the purp... [ Continue Reading ]
SHIPS OF TARSHISH means simply, _ships of the largest size,_ such as were fitted for the voyage to Tarshish: as we now say, “East Indiaman.” (Comp. 1 Kings 22:48; Psalms 48:7.) “Did sing of thee in thy market” is, literally, _thy —, thy trade,_ the blank being an uncertain word, supposed by our tran... [ Continue Reading ]
THY ROWERS. — As the chief means of propelling vessels when the art of sailing was imperfectly understood. The figure of the ship is here resumed. “The east wind” is powerful, gusty, and dangerous in the Levant. (Comp. Psalms 48:7 : “Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.”)... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN ALL. — Better, as in the margin, _with all._ The thought is that all that went to make up the strength and the glory of Tyre perished in one great catastrophe. Many classes are enumerated, and the statement is made general by adding “with all thy company.” All are represented as going down to... [ Continue Reading ]
SUBURBS. — This word means _an open place_ around a building or city. There was no land around Tyre, and it is here used, therefore, in a general sense — all thy surroundings.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL COME DOWN FROM THEIR SHIPS. — The colonies and dependencies of Tyre are, in keeping with the figure, the smaller craft which escape to the shore, and there lament the fall of their mistress.... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST THEE. — Rather, _over thee._ The commercial nations were not inimical to Tyre, but rather caused their wail for her to be heard over the seas where she had been engulphed. The usual signs of mourning are poetically attributed to them (Ezekiel 27:30), and then a dirge is put in their mouths ... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL HISS AT THEE. — In Ezekiel 27:35 the prophet again drops the figure of the ship, and looking forward (as in Ezekiel 26:4; Ezekiel 26:12) to the end, speaks of the final and utter overthrow which shall come upon Tyre. The word _hiss_ is used, as in Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 7:18; Zechariah 10:8, &c.,... [ Continue Reading ]