Ezekiel 26:3

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. I ... WILL CAUSE MANY NATIONS TO COME UP AGAINST THEE, AS THE SEA CAUSETH HIS WAVES TO COME UP. In striking contrast to the boasting of Tyre, God threatens to bring against her Babylon's army, levied from "many nations," even as the Mediterranean waves that dashed against her rock-founded city on all sides. I WILL ALSO SCRAPE HER DUST FROM HER, AND MAKE HER LIKE THE TOP OF A ROCK - or 'a bare rock' (Grotius). The soil which the Tyrians had brought together upon the rock on which they built their city I will scrape so clean away as to leave no dust, but only the bare rock as it was. An awful contrast to her expectation of filling herself with all the wealth of the East, now that Jerusalem has fallen....

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 26:3. _WILL CAUSE MANY NATIONS TO COME UP AGAINST THEE_] We have already seen that the empire of the Chaldeans was composed of many different provinces, and that Nebuchadnezzar's army was composed of soldiers from different nations: these may be the people meant; but I doubt whether this may not refer to the different nations which in successive ages fought against Tyre. It was at last finally destroyed in the _sixteenth_ century of the Christian era....

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

THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... Who knew the thoughts of the inhabitants of Tyre, and what joy possessed their hearts, and which their lips expressed; and who informs the prophet of it, though at a great distance, and declares his resentment at it: BEHOLD, I AM AGAINST THEE, O TYRUS; and nothing can be more dreadful and formidable than to have God against a nation, city, or a particular person: Tyre was a type of antichrist, who will express a like joy at the death of the witnesses; thinking that the merchandise of Rome will be increased greatly, and there will be nothing to interrupt it, Revelation 11:10, but God will show his displeasure, and bring sudden destruction on it: AND WILL CAUSE MANY NATIONS TO COME UP AGAINST THEE, AS THE SEA CAUSETH HIS WAVES TO COME UP; the Chaldean army, consisting of soldiers of many nations

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...

THE LORD GOD. Hebrew. _Adonai Jehovah_. See note on Ezekiel 2:4 BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos_. App-6....

The punishment of Tyre. Many nations shall be brought up against her (Ezekiel 26:3); her dust shall be scraped from her into the sea, leaving her a naked rock, a place for drying nets (Ezekiel 26:4), and her dependent cities on the mainland shall be laid waste (Ezekiel 26:6). _the sea causeth his waves_ The comparison is powerful. It is not the succession, but the multitude and overwhelming power of the waves that is referred to....

AS THE SEA, &C.— They shall be as loud, as numerous, as irresistible, as the waves of the sea. This is one of the beautiful and expressive ironies which occur in the magnificent prophesy here recorded....