Ezekiel 27:31

And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. THEY SHALL MAKE THEMSELVES UTTERLY BALD - literally, bald with baldness. The Phoenician custom in mourning, which, as being connected with paganish superstitions, was forbidden to Israel ( )....

26-36 The most mighty and magnificent kingdoms and states, sooner or later, come down. Those who make creatures their confidence, and rest their hopes upon them, will fall with them: happy are those who have the God of Jacob for their Help, and whose hope is in the Lord their God, who lives for ever. Those who engage in trade should learn to conduct their business according to God's word. Those who possess wealth should remember they are the Lord's stewards, and should use his goods in doing good to all. Let us seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness....

UTTERLY BALD - See Ezekiel 7:18 note....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 27:2 TAKE UP A LAMENTATION FOR TYRUS. The dirge over the merchant-city that follows, the doom _sic transit gloria mundi, _worked out with a fullness of detail which reminds us of the Homeric catalogue of ships ('Iliad,' 2:484-770), is almost, if not altogether, without a parallel in the history of literature. It can scarcely have rested on anything but personal knowledge. Ezekiel, we must believe, had, at some time or other in his life, trod the sinful streets of the great city, and noted the mingled crowd of many nations and in many costumes that he met there, just as we infer from Dante's vivid description of the dockyards of Venice ('Inf.,' 21.7-15) that he had visited that city. Apart from its poetic or prophetic interest, it is for us almost the _locus classicus _as to the geography and commerce of t

AND THEY SHALL MAKE THEMSELVES UTTERLY BALD FOR THEE,.... Either by shaving their heads, or tearing off their hair, as mourners in distress have been used to do: AND GIRD THEM WITH SACKCLOTH; about their loins, as was very customary in such distressed cases: AND THEY SHALL WEEP FOR THEE WITH BITTERNESS OF HEART AND BITTER WAILING; not in show only, but in reality; not like the "preficae" or mourning women, though the allusion may be to them, who only mourned outwardly; but these from the very heart, and in great bitterness of spirit this is expressive of the inward grief of their minds on this melancholy occasion, as what follows declares the lamentation they expressed vocally; see Revelation 18:19....

Ezekiel 27:1. Ezekiel 27:1 give an interesting description of the world-wide commerce and glory of this proud world city. “Sic transit gloria mundi,” thus passeth the glory of the world! Of the proud and wicked mistress of the sea nothing but ruins remain and her very site is no longer known. What her past glory was is made known by the prophet, yet Ezekiel never had been to that city, nor did he have any knowledge of her grandeur, her great wealth and far reaching commerce. God revealed all unto him. The description of her great commerce reminds us of that coming world-system as described in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation. Babylon the Great will be both an ecclesiastical and commercial world center. Her commerce is just like the commerce of Tyrus...

EZEKIEL 27. THE DIRGE OVER TYRE. The interest of the brilliant poem that follows is greatly enhanced by the description of the commerce of Tyre in a passage (Ezekiel 27:9_ b_ - Ezekiel 27:25_ a_) remarkable alike for its textual difficulty and for its importance as a source for our knowledge of the trade of the ancient world. Tyre is compared to a gallant ship, of finished beauty, with equipments the finest and costliest, manned and piloted by the most skilful of sailors (Ezekiel 27:1). In Ezekiel 27:5, Senir = Herman. In Ezekiel 27:6, Kittim =

HEART. soul. Hebrew. _nephesh_. App-13....

> No pillar speaking of the gate of heaven, No Teraphim with strange mysterious gleam Shall give their signs oracular. (_Lazarus_, p. 90.) It follows from this passage of Hosea that the worship of Jehovah in northern Israel presented features altogether alien to the orthodox worship of Jehovah according to the Law, and that Hosea raises no protest against it. He refers to its suspension as a privation corresponding to and equally felt with that of king and princes. We must remember however that the kings of N. Israel were regarded by Hosea as usurpers. _without an ephod_ The high priest's ephod is described in Exodus 28:6-14. It was a sleeveless coat of splendid and costly material, and with two ouches of onyx on the shoulders, bound by a rich girdle. Over it was worn the so-called _choshen_, a jewelled breastplate, with the Urim and Thummim.

II. THE LAMENTATION OVER TYRE 27:1-36 Chapter 27 consists of an allegorical dirge song artistically interrupted by a prose section. Tyre is pictured as a beautiful ship superbly fitted out and manned by a skilled crew (Ezekiel 27:3-11). In the prose section the ship is said to stop at various ports to collect her cargo (Ezekiel 27:12-25 a). The ship becomes so laden with merchandise that she sinks into the depths of a stormy sea (Ezekiel 27:25 b - Ezekiel 27:36). This exquisite composition stresses the abiding truth that worldly wealth is transitory and ultimately self-defeating to those who worship it....