Ezekiel 26:9

And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. HE SHALL SET ENGINES OF WAR AGAINST THY WALLS - literally, 'an apparatus for striking.' 'He shall apply the stroke of the battering-ram against thy walls.' Havernick translates, 'His enginery of destruction;' literally, the 'destruction (not merely the stroke) of his enginery.' WITH HIS AXES - literally, swords....

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...

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 HE SHALL SET ENGINES OF WAR AGAINST THY WALLS,.... Which some Jewish writers understand of crossbows, out of which stones or arrows were cast; but rather, according to Kimchi and Jarchi, they were warlike machines, invented to throw large stones against the walls of a place, to beat them down. Some think they were the same with the battering rams, used in sieges for the demolishing of walls; which was a late invention of those times, Ezekiel being the first writer, it is said, that makes mention of them: AND WITH HIS AXES HE SHALL BREAK DOWN THY TOWERS; the word here used signifies anything made of iron, as swords, spears, hammers, and axes; the latter, being more proper to demolish towers, is here pitched on by our translators. The Targum renders it, "with stones of iron"; that is, with iron balls cast out of their engines....

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...

ENGINES OF WAR. battering rams. Occurs only here. AXES. weapon...

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)....

B. The Agents of Destruction 26:7-14 TRANSLATION (7) For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the north, king of kings, with horses and chariots, horsemen, a company, even much people. (8) He shall slay with the sword your daughters in the field; and be shall make movable towers against you, and cast up a mound against you, and raise up shields against you. (9) And he shall set his battering rams against your walls, and your towers he shall break down by his axes. (10) Because of the multitude of his horses, their dust shall cover you; at the noise of his horsemen, wheels, and chariots your walls shall shake, when he enters into your gates as men would enter a city through a breach. (11) With the hoofs of his horses he shall tread down all your streets; he shall slay your people with the sword, and the pillars of your str...