CHAPTER XXVIII _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 honours. The prophet treats his foolish pretensions_ _with severe irony, and predicts his doo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:2. _SAY UNTO THE PRINCE OF TYRUS_] But who was this prince of Tyrus? Some think _Hiram_; some, _Sin_; some, the _devil_; others, _Ithobaal_, with whom the chronology and circumstances best agree. _Origen_ thought the guardian angel of the city was intended. _I_ AM _A GOD_] That is,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:3. _THOU_ ART _WISER THAN DANIEL_] Daniel was at this time living, and was reputable for his great wisdom. This is said _ironically_. See Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 26:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:5. _BY THY GREAT WISDOM_] He attributed every thing to himself; he did not acknowledge a Divine providence. As he got all by himself, so he believed he could keep all by himself, and had no need of any foreign help.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:7. _I WILL BRING STRANGERS UPON THEE_] The Chaldeans.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:9. _WILT THOU YET SAY BEFORE HIM THAT SLAYETH THEE_] Wilt thou continue thy pride and arrogance when the sword is sheathed in thee, and still imagine that thou art self-sufficient and independent?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:10. _THE DEATHS OF THE UNCIRCUMCISED_] _Two_ deaths, _temporal_ and _eternal_. Ithobaal was taken and killed by Nebuchadnezzar.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:12. _THOU SEALEST UP_] This has been translated, "Thou drawest thy own likeness." "Thou formest a portrait of thyself; and hast represented thyself the perfection of wisdom and beauty." I believe this to be the meaning of the place.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:13. _THOU HAST BEEN IN EDEN_] This also is a strong irony. Thou art like _Adam_, when in his innocence and excellence he was in the garden of Eden! _EVERY PRECIOUS STONE_ WAS _THY COVERING_] For a description of these stones Exodus 28:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:14. _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 WAST UPON THE HOL... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:15. _THOU_ WAST _PERFECT IN THY W__ays_] The irony seems still to be kept up. Thou hast been like the angels, like Moses, like the cherubs, like Adam, like God, till thy iniquity was found out.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:16. _I WILL CAST THEE AS PROFANE_] Thou shalt be cast down from thine eminence. _FROM THE MIDST OF THE STONES OF FIRE._] Some, supposing that _stones of fire_ means the _stars_, have thought that the whole refers to the _fall of Satan_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:18. _THOU HAST DEFILED THY SANCTUARIES_] Irony continued. As God, as the angels, as the cherubim, thou must have had thy sanctuaries; but thou hast defiled them: and as Adam, thou hast polluted thy Eden, and hast been expelled from Paradise.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:19. _THOU SHALT BE A TERROR_] Instead of being an object of _adoration_ thou shalt be a subject of horror, and at last be destroyed with thy city, so that nothing but thy name shall remain. It was entirely burnt by Alexander the Great, as it had been before by Nebuchadnezzar.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:22. _I_ AM _AGAINST THEE, O ZIDON_] Sidon for a long time had possessed the empire of the sea and of all Phoenicia, and Tyre was one of its colonies; but in process of time, the daughter became greater than the mother. It seems to have been an independent place at the time in which... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:23. _AND THE WOUNDED_] חלל _chalal_, the _soldiery_. All its supports shall be taken away, and its defenders destroyed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:24. _THERE SHALL BE NO MORE A PRICKING BRIER_] Nothing to excite Israel to idolatry when restored from their captivity. Perhaps there is an allusion to _Jezebel_, daughter of _Ethbaal_, king of Sidon, and wife to Ahab, king of Israel, who was the greatest curse to Israel, and the un... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 28:25. _WHEN I SHALL HAVE GATHERED THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL_] In their long captivity, God had been preparing the land for them so as to make it a _safe dwelling_; and hence he executed judgments on all the heathen nations round about by means of the Chaldeans. Thus Tyre and Sidon were dest... [ Continue Reading ]