Ezekiel 26:14

And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. I WILL MAKE THEE LIKE THE TOP OF A ROCK. He concludes in nearly the same words as he began (Ezekiel 26:4). THOU SHALT BE BUILT NO MORE - fulfilled as to the mainland Tyre under Nebuchadnezzar. The insular Tyre recovered partly after 70 years (Isaiah 23:17), but again suffered under Alexander, then under Antigonus, then under the Saracens at the beginning of the 14th century A.D. Now its harbours are choked with sand, precluding all hope of future restoration: 'Not one entire house is left, and only a few fishermen take shelter in the vaults' (Maundrell). So accurat...

1-14 To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely to get by it; or with their fall, when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that easily besets us, yet is not thought so bad as really it is. But it comes from a selfish, covetous principle, and from that love of the world as our happiness, which the love of God expressly forbids. He often blasts the projects of those who would raise themselves on the ruin of others. The maxims most current in the trading world, are directly opposed to the law of God. But he will show himself against the money-loving, selfish traders, whose hearts, like those of Tyre, are hardened by the love of riches. Men have little cause to glory in things which stir up the envy and rapacity of others, and which are continually shifting from one to another; and in getting, keeping, and spending which, men provoke that God whose wrath turns j...

Verse Ezekiel 26:14. _THOU SHALT BE BUILT NO MORE_] If this refer to Nebuchadnezzar's capture of the city, _old Tyre_ must be intended: that was destroyed by him, and never rebuilt. But I doubt whether the whole of this prophecy do not refer to the taking of Tyre by Alexander, _three hundred_ years after its capture by Nebuchadnezzar. Indeed it may include more recent conquests of this important city. It went through a variety of vicissitudes till 1289, when it and the neighbouring towns were sacked and ravaged by the Mamelukes. Mr. _Maundrell_, who visited this place, says, "it is a Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, c., there being not so much as _one entire house left_! Its present inhabitants are only a few _poor wretches_, harbouring themselves in the _vaults_, and subsisting chiefly on _fishing_ who seem to be preserved in this place by D...

The description of the siege is that of a town invested by land. Ezekiel 26:7 NEBUCHADREZZAR - Jeremiah 21:2 note. Ezekiel 26:8 LIFT UP THE BUCKLER - i. e., set a wall of shields, under cover of which the walls could be approached. Ezekiel 26:9 ENGINES OF WAR - Or, his battering ram. “axes” swords. They who would break flown the towers, rush on with their swords to slay the defenders....

EXPOSITION The prophetic messages against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines were comparatively short. That against Tyre spreads over three chapters (Ezekiel 26:1). The special prominence thus given to the latter city was probably due to its political importance in Ezekiel's time, possibly also to the personal knowledge which may be inferred from his minute description of its magnificence and its commerce. It is ushered in with special solemnity as "a word of Jehovah." EZEKIEL 26:1 IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR, etc. The last date given (Ezekiel 24:1) was the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year. We have now come to the eleventh year, on which, on the ninth

AND I WILL MAKE THEE LIKE THE TOP OF A ROCK,.... Smooth and bare; Ezekiel 26:4: AND THOU SHALL BE A PLACE TO SPREAD NETS UPON; Ezekiel 26:5: THOU SHALT BE BUILT NO MORE: this must be understood with some restriction and limitation; as that it should not be built any more in the same stately manner; or be raised to royal dignity, and be governed in the grand manner it had been; or be built upon the same spot; or after its last destruction, to which the prophecy may have respect; it being usual in Scripture for prophecies to regard what is more remote as well as more near; for, upon the destruction of it by Nebuchadnezzar, it was to be restored after seventy years, according to Isaiah's prophecy,...

Ezekiel 26:1. A lengthy prophecy concerning Tyrus is found in this and in the Chapter s which follow. These great predictions have found a startling fulfilment. History confirms all that Ezekiel spoke should come to pass. In Ezekiel 26:1 we have the overthrow of the powerful city predicted. The city of Tyrus (which means rock) was partly built upon an island off the mainland in the Mediterranean Sea. It was an ancient Phoenician city and is mentioned in Scripture for the first time in Joshua 19:29, where it is called “the strong city.” It had a wonderful commerce, a description of which in its variety, we find in the twenty-seventh chapter. It was inhabited by seafaring men, and the prophet Isaiah describes this wealthy

EZEKIEL 26. SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF TYRE. Tyre is the incarnation of unrestrained commercialism; and, in the mind of Ezekiel her doom is justified by the malicious joy with which she hailed the fall of Jerusalem, whom, as the gate of the peoples, she regarded as in some sort a rival, taxing, if not partially intercepting, the trade that passed between the south and Tyre (Ezekiel 26:1). The agent of Tyre's destruction is to be Nebuchadrezzar, against whom she had rebelled. At this point there is a realistic description of an ancient siege; and, when at length the island city is taken, it will ring with the unwonted sound of chariot wheels and horses-' hoofs, and be reduced in the end to a bare rock (Ezekiel 26:7). (The pillars of...

THOU. The 1611 edition of tho Authorized Version reads "they". be built no more. Zidon's fate has boon different. Its extinction was not prophesied. See Ezekiel 28:20. THE LORD. The Syriac and Vulgate, with some codices, and two early printed editions, omit "Jehovah" here....

Jehovah's instrument in Tyre's destruction, Nebuchadnezzar The description is graphic: the advance of the assailant with his great army (Ezekiel 26:7); the siege with the powerful train of engines (8, 9); the assault, and capture and sack of the city (10 12), which is left a joyless ruin, a naked rock in the midst of the sea, never again to be built (13, 14)....