Chapter Twenty-Eight

Prophecy against the King of Tyre and Sidon

1–10. Sin and punishment to the king. 11–19. A lamentation for him. 20–26. Prophecy against Sidon.

Ezekiel 28:2. “Son of man! Tell the ruler in Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is proud and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas,’ when you are a man and not a god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god, The king of Tyre at that time was Ithobal II (Josephus, C. Apionem, 1, 21), but since the king in Tyre wielded insignificant power and influence and nothing is known of any aspirations of the Tyrian, as indeed of Semitic kings in general, not only to deifying themselves but also to claiming descent from the gods, the king is taken here (as in the subsequent prophecy against Egypt the Pharaoh) as a representative of Tyre itself. Thus, the self-deification with which the prophet charges the Tyrian king is that very same pride which from another side, the external side, is described in chapter XXVII; here it is examined psychologically, from the internal side. Furthermore, the ancients correctly observed that many features by which the pride of the Tyrian king is described here are applicable to the devil and his fall from God, whereupon Tyre then would be understood as the world, of which the devil is so often called the “prince” (Origen, Peri archon, Tertullian, Adv. Marc. 2, 10 — in the proper sense, while blessed Jerome and Theodore in the commentary on this passage — in the metaphorical; blessed Augustine (in the commentary on ) denies such a meaning). Gen 11:25 “Ruler,” Slavonic “prince.” Hebrew nagid in verse 12 is replaced by melek — “king,” therefore it should be more than nasi — “prince” and is intended, perhaps, to point out the particularity of royal power in Tyre: something like the “suffetes” of Carthage and the “judges” among the Hebrews. But in the book of Kings the word is applied to Saul and David. “I am a god” — for Ezekiel, with his zeal for the glory of God, must have sounded especially abominable. A stunning characterization of pride, an exposure of all its dark depths and terrible essence. “On the seat of gods in the heart of the seas.” The maritime position of Tyre made it seem to him as inaccessible as the throne of God. In God is represented as sitting on the waters. The Tyrians called their island holy (in Sanchuniathon); every center of special worship was considered a sacred place. “Heart” — the Slavonic more precisely “mind,” that is, self-awareness. Living in such a place on earth which could be considered the dwelling of God, Tyre thought that it could act and conduct itself entirely according to the inclinations of its heart. Ps 103:3

Ezekiel 28:3. “Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you; A remarkable testimony concerning the glory which Daniel won himself by interpreting dreams for Nebuchadnezzar (cf. ). Although Ezekiel had in mind his readers from among the Jewish captives, to whom Daniel could be well known not only for his wisdom (danu in Sanskrit “wise”), but as a prophet, the prophet apparently presumes that the king of Tyre was not unfamiliar with this first sage of the contemporary east: the universal fame and significance of Nebuchadnezzar ensured the same fame and recognition of Daniel. “There is no secret hidden from you.” The Slavonic “the wise did not teach you with their craft” (you need no teachers); the Hebrew satum “secret” the LXX gave a personal meaning, perhaps reading it like Hartum (Babylonian scholars), and gamam — “to bind,” “to close” they considered an Aramaic game — “to know, to reveal”; “with their craft” — a doublet of the first word of the next verse. Dan 4:6

Ezekiel 28:4. “By your wisdom and your understanding you have gathered wealth for yourself, and have amassed gold and silver in your treasuries; The second sin of the Tyrian king is that he used his wisdom, this gift of God to him, which antiquity regarded as a treasure, only for the acquisition of perishable wealth. “Wealth,” the Slavonic more precisely “strength” (meaning; Hebrew chail).

Ezekiel 28:5. “By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your wealth, and your heart has become proud because of your wealth,— It is more specifically defined how Tyre acquired wealth by wisdom: by means of trade; and it is pointed out what his wealth led him to: to pride.

Ezekiel 28:6. “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you consider yourself wise as God is wise, This pride gradually reached the terrible degree of which was already said at the end of verse 2.

Ezekiel 28:7. “Behold, I will bring against you foreigners, the most terrible of the nations, and they will draw their swords against your beauty and will defile your brightness; “Foreigners” — the Chaldeans. — “The most terrible of the nations.” Perhaps the wild hordes that were in the Babylonian army are meant; cf. and following. — “Against your beauty of wisdom” — the splendor which the city, like its wealth, owed to its wisdom. The frequent references to Tyre’s wisdom are striking, by which the prophet gives it its due, at the same time revealing in himself a high appreciator of wisdom and learning. — “Will defile” — literally “will profane” (Tyre considered itself holy); the Slavonic “will cover” (with the slain and wounded). Ezek 7:21

Ezekiel 28:8. “They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die the death of those slain in the heart of the seas. He who thought to sit on the throne of God will find himself in the grave. He who considered himself God did not deserve even an ordinary human death, but will die the death of the slain, who for the most part are denied burial. The sea, the position on which inspired such presumption, will serve as an instrument of his destruction. — “The slain,” the Slavonic “wounded,” the wounded, which aggravates death.

Ezekiel 28:9. “Will you then say before your slayer, ‘I am a god,’ when you are but a man, not a god, in the hand of those who slay you? The words ring with angry mockery (Kraetzschmar).

Ezekiel 28:10. “You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. “The death of the uncircumcised,” that is, of the wicked (), whose lot after death should be worse than that of the circumcised. Since the Phoenicians were circumcised (Herod. II, 104), this threat can be understood as the impossibility of proper burial in war (lamentation, washing), which for the dead is as important as circumcision for the living (Smend). Kimchi: “you will fall by the hand of the uncircumcised.; Acts 7:51”

Ezekiel 28:12. “Son of man! Take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. A lamentation for the king of Tyre follows the prophecy against him just as a similar lamentation over Tyre follows the prophecy against that city (chapters XXVI and XXVII), which nicely expresses the sorrow with which the Lord punishes the sinner. As though according to the saying: de mortuis aut bene aut nihil (of the dead say only good or nothing), this lamentation, like that one, is devoted to depicting what was good in the deceased and even more so — presents an enthusiastic panegyric (at least in its first and main part, verses 12–15). “The seal” and in Hebrew (in the Mishna, for example) meant both in our language the completion, the fullness. “Of perfection,” Hebrew takhnit appears also in , where it means measure, model, carefully manufactured, cf. Assyrian takintu — “careful preparation,” “magnificence”; the LXX “of likeness” (that is, to God: the most perfect likeness to God), probably reading tabnit. This perfection of the Tyrian king is as much interior as exterior: he is wise and beautiful. But “full of wisdom” is not in the Vatican and some other codices. Ezek 43:10

Ezekiel 28:13. “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite, and jasper, topaz, onyx, and lapis lazuli, turquoise, and beryl were your covering. Gold filigree work and settings were prepared for you on the day you were created. “You were in Eden, the garden of God,” the Slavonic, taking Hebrew Eden as an appellative: “in the sweetness of the paradise of God you were.” In what sense could it be said of the Tyrian king that he was, lived in the paradise of God? Since in the Old Testament paradise, Eden, is not only compared to but directly called any beautiful place on earth (; ; ), paradise here could have been the name for Tyre itself, if not for its position in a fertile and beautiful location (neither distinguished itself in either respect), then for its immeasurable wealth, which is further enumerated in detail. But it seems the expression wants to say more: the prophet, willing to recognize Tyre’s king, who considered himself a god, acknowledging the extraordinary external and internal advantages of his position on earth, as almost a supernatural being, a dweller in paradise (the primordial Adam or, as it is apparent from verse 14, a cherub, having as it were taken the place of Adam in paradise), which nevertheless does not change the terrible fate awaiting him but rather intensifies it (thus increasing the height of the fall: verse 15). If it is probable that the image of the devil’s fall before the prophet’s mind, then in the Tyrian king he could see as it were a repetition and continuation of this fall, which can hardly be imagined in the narrow frame of earthly time. “In the garden of God.” God — here Elohim (not Jehovah), as is mostly the case in the first chapters of the book of Genesis. Ezek 31:9 Isa 51:3 Joel 2:3 “Garments,” Hebrew mekusah, hapax legomenon not rendered by the LXX. — “Adorned with precious stones.” It is remarkable that precious stones are also set in connection with the location of paradise in , and in with the appearance of cherubim, to which the Tyrian king is compared in verse 14. The garments of eastern kings were thickly studded with precious stones. — Further is given an enumeration of these stones. The Hebrew text and Vulgate enumerate 9 stones, the Greek 12 and 14, the Slavonic 15, adding to the stones gold and silver; the Peshitta 8. The Hebrew list, apparently, is the most probable, giving a significant and simplest number: 3 × 3. Gold, mentioned further separately, and silver in the LXX are very much out of place, breaking the row of stones. The stones named are the same as those in the breastplate of the high priest () in its ranks: in the 1st (here 1, 2, and the 9th stones), 2nd (here 8, 7, and 3rd stones) and 4th ranks (here 4, 5, and the 6th stones). The stones are conjecturally identified with the following of ours: 1) Odem (“red”) the LXX, Vulgate and Peshitta “sardonyx” (carnelian), Russian ruby (both red). 2) Pitda (Sanskrit pita — yellow), the LXX, Vulgate and Russian topaz. 3) Yachlom, the LXX emerald, the Vulgate and J. Fl. jasper, Russian diamond. 4) Tarshish, the Slavonic should be hyacinth, Russian chrysolite, see explanation of . 5) Shoham, Targum, Peshitta, and LXX ( and others, and probably here) beryl, Russian Academy of Sciences p. Akad., Symmachus, Vulgate onyx. 6) Yasip, similar to the Russian jasper, which in the Slavonic is the 14th, and in Greek 13. The Vulgate beryllus. 7) Sapphire Vulgate and Russian (see explanation of ), the Slavonic 6th, the Greek 5th. 8) Nophek, Fl., Vulgate and Russian carbuncle, the LXX presumably αξθραξ (the Slavonic 5th, Greek 4th). 9) Barkat, the LXX (3rd) Fl., Vulgate smaragdus, Russian emerald (from Sanskrit marakata). Gen 2:10-12 Ezek 1:1 Exod 28:17 Ezek 1:16 Ezek 28:20 Ezek 1:25 Consequently, of these identifications more or less reliable are 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9. Manchot (Lehrbuch t. protest. Theol. 14, 472) from the letters of the stones makes up the names of countries under Xerxes’ rule. “All skillfully set in gold and every precious stone prepared for you on the day you were created” — a conjectural translation of 8 Hebrew words with unestablished meaning, doubtless jewelry terms; the Vulgate sees here discourse of musical instruments, and in the following words: “prepared on the day of your creation” sees an indication of music on the birthday of the Tyrian king. The Slavonic: “with gold you filled your treasuries and your granaries” (the latter — not with gold in the proper sense, but with grain, which can be turned into gold). Ewald’s interpretation is original: the Tyrian king was once the first of all men in paradise, so that he had such perfection as no one else and wore from the first day of his life the 12 precious stones of the priestly breastplate as an instrument of divination and prophecy; to get such meaning Ewald considers one of the Hebrew words the same as “urim” and changes another into “thummim.” “Prepared on the day you were created.” Wealth was destined for the Tyrian king (that is, Tyre in general), as the lot of every man, even at the time of his creation. Teaching about predestination.

Ezekiel 28:14. “You were an anointed guardian cherub, I placed you; you were on the holy mount of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. One of the most mysterious verses of the book. Comparing the Tyrian king with a cherub, the prophet enters into such details of Old Testament teaching on cherubim which apparently have not been preserved for us either in Holy Scripture or in Holy Tradition. “You (in Hebrew for some reason feminine; this pronoun is repeatedly used in feminine instead of masculine: ; and others) were... a cherub.” Literally “you are a cherub.” “In application to the Tyrian king, these words are an incredible hyperbole and receive their true meaning only when we assume that behind this king the prophet beheld the original perfections and fall of one of the angels” (Glagolev A. A. Old Testament Biblical Teaching on Angels, 700). The LXX, punctuating differently (et instead of at), have: “You, (doublet) with a cherub I appointed you”; most modern commentators accept this reading, but the Hebrew is stronger. The Tyrian king is compared with a cherub, as a bearer of the highest fullness of created life (cf. explanation of 1:5): Tyre represented the highest step to which earthly, not only material but also spiritual, or at least intellectual life could go. Consequently, he was truly on earth what a cherub is in the world. Num 11:15 Deut 5:24 “Anointed.” The cherubim of the tabernacle and temple were anointed with the holy oil along with other sacred objects (). Perhaps an indication of royal anointing, which communicated to the king special height and fullness of spiritual life granted by God both to it and to Tyre, which the king represents. Both the one and the other — something sacred, because God communicated to them from His majesty and because all earthly greatness is sacred as long as it does not fall and become defiled (Trochon.). But the meaning of anointing is not ascribed to the Hebrew mimshach (from which the name “Messiah” derives) by the Vulgate and all modern; the Vulgate — extensus, having in view widely spread wings of cherubim; Symmachus κατα μ. εμετρημενος. Indeed, the application of the epithet “anointed” to a cherub is somewhat unexpected. The LXX do not have, as the following word either. Exod 30:22-30 “To protect.” Literally “protecting.” The same reference to the cherubim of the tabernacle and temple, who with their wings covered the ark. The Tyrian king shaded (Vulgate protegens) his people, and Tyre — the earth. “You were on the holy mount of God.” So in the Old Testament is called only Zion. Consequently, the cherubim of the temple that stood on Zion in a broad sense (Moriah could be viewed as an offshoot of Zion) are had in mind. According to the opinion of commentators, Tyre, situated on an island, washed by the sea, stood as it were on the mountain of the sea, which could be called “holy” and “of God” for the abundance of God’s blessing on Tyre. “You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.” The stones are more likely to be called fiery for their brilliance, so they are called also in cuneiform inscriptions (Delitzsch, Wol. d. Par. 118). Discourse about them is most likely expected here in view of the preceding verse: as cherubim walk in fire (), so the Tyrian king was surrounded and showered with precious stones, this so to speak hidden, resting fire. One can recall with Grotius that the high priest appeared before the cherubim in a breastplate of precious stones, and — with Hävernick, that in the Tyrian temple of Hercules stood an emerald column. — Modern commentators find that the idea of the temple cherubim does not fully cover all the comparisons used here by the prophet, especially the last two expressions, and think that the prophet has in mind the conception prevailing in the pagan world of that time about the mount of God (see explanation of “from the north”) — the Indian Meru and Kailash, the Iranian Garaberezay or Alborsh, the Greek Olympus; paradise, according to pagan conceptions, must have had some connection with this mount, if it was not directly identical to it; therefore a cherub, being in paradise, was also on this mount, shading and making it inaccessible. As for the fiery stones, with them perhaps instead of ordinary stones is meant to be covered this mount, to be inaccessible to a mortal, and only fiery cherubim could freely walk among them. These stones are also compared with the arrows of thunder or strokes of lightning by which, according to Indian conceptions, the dwelling of the gods is protected (why a place struck by lightning was considered sacred. See Ewald.) or fire-breathing mountains (Hitzig). All these parallels may be accepted by an Orthodox interpreter only insofar as pagan religions preserved echoes of the truth. Bertholet proposes to read instead of “anointed and shading” — “lived in trusting communion with the cherubim,” and Kraetzschmar instead of “stones of fire,” abney esh — “sons of God” — beney el: “The Tyrian king walked among the sons of God, the angels.; Ezek 1:13 Ezek 1:4”

Ezekiel 28:15. “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. “Blameless,” the Slavonic more precisely: “spotless.” Such praise cannot be fully applied to the Tyrian king as such, or to the pagan Tyre which it represented. The image of a cherub or primordial man here, as in the preceding verse, obscures before the prophet’s eyes the thing being compared. Hence also the expression “from the day you were created,” which in relation to the Tyrian king can mean only the day of his accession to the throne. — “Unrighteousness,” what sin, says verse 18: primarily pride, the desire to be compared with God.

Ezekiel 28:16. “By the abundance of your trade you became filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as profane from the mount of God, and I destroyed you, guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. “Inside you,” that is, your heart; the Slavonic “treasures.” — “Violence,” literally wrongdoing, deception. Do not cheat, do not deceive. This is where the moral fall of Tyre began. “I cast down” — Hebrew chalal, to profane: from the divine sphere the Tyrian king, a sacred being, fell into the worldly. The LXX give a different meaning of the word — to wound: “you were wounded by the mount of God”; to the unclean it was harmful to remain on the fiery mount. — “I destroyed you, Cherub.” The LXX considered the last word the subject (“and the cherub removed you”) in view of . Gen 3:24

Ezekiel 28:17. “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings for them to gaze on you. “Corrupted your wisdom.” Unwise policy toward Nebuchadnezzar. — “I cast you to the ground” — deposed you from the throne or the holy mount. — “For mockery” — a conjectural translation of Hebrew hapax legomenon; the Slavonic “for exposure.”

Ezekiel 28:18. “By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; therefore I have brought fire from your midst; it shall devour you, and I will turn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you. “Sanctuaries” — scarcely the pagan ones, for example, the temple of Melkart, but rather the state of innocence and purity, the holiness of the mount of God, where plural is — pluralis majestatis. — “Fire,” “ash” — an indication of the burning of the city, whereupon the image of the Tyrian king changes to the image of the city represented, which is natural at the conclusion of the discourse. Some see here an indication of the phoenix (a mythological distortion of the idea of a cherub) with his self-immolation.

Ezekiel 28:19. “All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become a terror, and you shall be no more forever. Cf. . The refrain of the lamentation over Tyre. Ezek 27:36

Ezekiel 28:21. “Son of man, turn your face toward Sidon and prophesy against it, Sidon — a city older than Tyre (), already named in the Tell el-Amarna inscription (Ziduna, in other inscriptions Sidinu, meaning “hunt,” “fishing”), from ancient times was under the hegemony of the more powerful Tyre; so it seems was the case in Ezekiel’s time (); but at this he felt behind him a certain independence (in and others, Sidonian kings are named alongside Tyrian). The fate of Sidon in the Old Testament is always linked with that of Tyre (; ; ; ). After a thirteen-year siege by Nebuchadnezzar not entirely successful but nonetheless weakening Tyre, Sidon takes its place: it was a great and powerful city when Artaxerxes III Ochus destroyed it in 351. After it was restored and now presents a flourishing city (Saida). — Only one conflict with Israel is known in , but from it came Jezebel. The prophecy of Ezekiel against it, according to its significance, is much shorter than the prophecy against Tyre. Gen 10:19 Ezek 27:8 Jer 25:22 Jer 47:4 Isa 23 Joel 3:4 Zech 9:2 Judg 10:12

Ezekiel 28:22. “and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in your midst. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I execute judgments in you and display my holiness in you; The guilt of Sidon is not pointed out for brevity, only hinted at in verse 24. — “I will be glorified” in Sidon’s punishment for wickedness and for the sin of verse 24 (see there). — “Among you,” which until now despised Me. — “And they shall know that I am the Lord”; in the sense of . — “And display my holiness in you” — the same as “I will be glorified”: the glory of God is His holiness (), manifesting itself in punishment and the destruction of wickedness. Ezek 25:5 Isa 6:3

Ezekiel 28:23. “and I will send pestilence into you, and blood shall flow in your streets; and the slain shall fall in your midst, by the sword against you on every side. And they shall know that I am the Lord. “Pestilence and blood,” see ; the first effects of a siege. — “Whose sword turns against you from all around you.” The Slavonic “on you and around you” (the outlying settlements). Ezek 5:12

Ezekiel 28:24. “And there shall be no more for the house of Israel a pricking briar or a painful thorn from any of their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the Lord God. “A briar” (). Jezebel. “From all around.” The Hebrew mi, “from” allows also a simple distributive meaning: Sidon among other neighbors was contemptuous toward Israel; the Slavonic “from.; Num 33:55”

Ezekiel 28:25. “Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall settle on their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. Ezekiel 28:26. “And they shall dwell securely in it, and build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God. The discourse against the neighboring heathen peoples, who are to be removed for the benefit of the Israelite kingdom, naturally concludes with a Messianic prediction for Israel, chiefly the spiritual kingdom. — “Build houses, plant vineyards” cf. . Isa 65:21 * * * According to Indian legends, griffins (a mythological distortion of cherubim) appear as guardians of gold; they dig it and build their nests from it, while the Indians receive only shavings (Ctes Aelian. Hist. anim, IV, 27. Paus. CXXIV, 6. Philostr. Vit. Apollon, III, 48). Herodotus places these digging and guarding gold griffins in the north and says that the Arimaspians steal gold from them (III, 116; IV, 13, 27). The wings of the phoenix, to which verse 18 is seen as an allusion, were χρυσοκομα (Herod. I, 73 and others).