Ezechiel xxvii.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 2. Lamentation. Such canticles were usual, and very poetical.
Ver. 3. Entry, whence merchants may proceed from an excellent harbour to any place.
Ver. 4. Neighbours of Sidon, Josue xix. 29. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “thy children.” Protestants, “thy builders.” (Haydock) — The description of the Tyrian grandeur, shews their more woeful ruin. (Worthington)
Ver. 5. Thee. Hebrew, “all thy ship-boards.” (Septuagint) (Protestants) (Haydock) — St. Jerome has divided (Calmet) leuthim, “decks of the sea,” as yam denotes the sea. (Haydock)
Ver. 6. Benches. Septuagint, “temples.” — Italy. Hebrew Cetim. Macedonia. (Bochart) (Calmet) — All distant places were styled islands, (Haydock) when they went by water to them.
Ver. 7. Linen. Cotton, (Exodus xxv. 4.) used for standards. Septuagint, “for bed coverlets,” or for sails. — Mast. Cleopatra and Caligula were still more sumptuous in their sails. — Elisa, or Elis, famous for purple: yet Tyre was more so.
Ver. 8. Aradians. Sidon and Arad were then subject to Tyre, and supplied rowers. — Pilots. They studied no other science.
Ver. 9. Gebal. Septuagint, “Biblos,” which is the same, 3 Kings v. 18. — Furnished. Hebrew, “were in thee to repair thy breaches.” Septuagint, “strengthened thy designs.”
Ver. 10. Lybians. Hebrew, “Phut.” They had been expelled by the Cyreneans. Tyre had in her pay the most warlike nations of Persia, &c. Cyrus soon after shook off the yoke of the Medes, and conquered the Lydians. — Hung up, ver. 11. This was very usual, Canticle of Canticles iv. 4., and Isaias xxii. 8. (Calmet)
Ver. 11. The Pygmeans. That is, strong and valiant men. In Hebrew Gammadim. (Challoner) — He does not speak of those fabulous men hardly a cubit high. Gomed signifying a “cubit,” has caused them to be styled so here. Septuagint, “guards;” or Symmachus, “Medes.” Ezechiel (xxxviii. 6.) speaks of the Gomerim.
Ver. 12. Carthaginians. Hebrew, “Tharsis,” in Cilicia; (Genesis x. 4.; Calmet) or distant merchants, who came by sea. (Haydock)
Ver. 13. Slaves. Those from Greece were much esteemed. (Calmet) — Alas! thirty thousand Tyrians were themselves thus sold by Alexander [the Great]! (Haydock)
Ver. 14. Horses. Those of Sarmatia (Calmet) were in high repute. (Pliny, [Natural History?] viii. 42.
Ver. 15. Dedan. Septuagint, “Rhodians;” or rather Arabs are meant, ver. 20. They might receive ivory from Ethiopia. — Teeth. Hebrew, “horns or tusks,” which the elephant casts every year. The ivory is less brittle, 3 Kings x. 18. (Calmet) — Ebony; a hard black wood, like horn. (Bochart)
Ver. 16. Syrian: always much addicted to commerce. (St. Jerome) — Septuagint read Adam for Aram, as if the traffic in men was meant: (Calmet) “ivory, and to those who brought, thou gavest thy rewards. (16) Men of thy traffic,” &c. (Haydock) — Linen. Hebrew buts, “silk” extracted from the pinna fish, 1 Paralipomenon xv. 27. Silk. Hebrew ramoth, may rather denote unicorns, Job xxviii. 18. (Calmet) — Chodchod. It is the Hebrew name for some precious stone, but of what kind in particular, interpreters are not agreed. (Challoner) — Some say the carbuncle, &c. St. Jerome renders it the jasper, Isaias liv. 12. (Worthington) — Here he confesses he knows not the meaning. (Calmet)
Ver. 17. Rosin. Our version generally renders this, balm. (Haydock) — It was much used to heal, Jeremias viii. 22., and Genesis xxxvii. 25.
Ver. 18. Rich. Hebrew Chelbon; perhaps the city Chelba, Judges i. 31. The kings of Persia used this wine, and planted vines at Damascus on purpose.
Ver. 19. Dan: the citizens of Peneas, the tribe of Dan was in captivity. Grotius places these nations in Zeilan, (Calmet) or Ceylon. (Haydock)
Ver. 20. Seats, such as the Turks still use, or to throw over horses instead of saddles.
Ver. 23. Haran, or Charę, famous for the residence of Abraham and the defeat of Crassus. — Eden, the province where Paradise was situated.
Ver. 24. Cords, in boxes, which had then no locks.
Ver. 25. Sea. Hebrew Tharsis, in Cilicia; or large, and fit for long voyages. Thine were the best. (Calmet)
Ver. 26. South. Hebrew kodim, (Haydock) “eastern,” or rather “burning,” here means Nabuchodonosor, who came from the north, (chap. xxvi. 7.; Calmet) or east. The fall of Tyre is described as a shipwreck. (Haydock)
Ver. 30. Ashes. They followed the same customs as the Jews. (Calmet) — The latter were ordered to avoid cutting the hair, like them; yet did so, Deuteronomy xiv., and Isaias xxii. 22. (Worthington)
Ver. 36. Hissed, through pity and astonishment. (Calmet)
Bible Text & Cross-references:
A description of the glory and riches of Tyre: and of her irrecoverable fall.
1 And *the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Thou, therefore, O son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre:
3 And say to Tyre, that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, being the mart of the people for many islands: Thus saith the Lord God: O Tyre, thou hast said: I am of perfect beauty,
4 And situate in the heart of the sea. Thy neighbours, that built thee, have perfected thy beauty:
5 With fir-trees of Sanir they have built thee, with all sea planks: they have taken cedars from Libanus to make thee masts.
6 They have cut thy oars out of the oaks of Basan: and they have made thee benches of Indian ivory, and cabins, with things brought from the islands of Italy.
7 Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for thy sail, to be spread on thy mast: blue and purple from the islands of Elisa, were made thy covering.
8 The inhabitants of Sidon, and the Aradians were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were thy pilots.
9 The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof, furnished mariners, for the service of thy various furniture: all the ships of the sea, and their mariners, were thy factors.
10 The Persians, and Lydians, and the Lybians, were thy soldiers, in thy army: they hung up the buckler and the helmet in thee for thy ornament.
11 The men of Arad were with thy army upon thy walls round about: the Pygmeans also that were in thy towers, hung up their quivers on thy walls round about: they perfected thy beauty.
12 The Carthaginians, thy merchants, supplied thy fairs with a multitude of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead.
13 Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, they were thy merchants: they brought to thy people slaves and vessels of brass.
14 From the house of Thogorma they brought horses, and horsemen, and mules, to thy market.
15 The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many islands were the traffic of thy hand, they exchanged for thy price teeth of ivory, and ebony.
16 The Syrian was thy merchant, by reason of the multitude of thy works, they set forth precious stones, and purple, and broidered works, and fine linen, and silk, and chodchod, in thy market.
17 Juda, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants with the best corn: they set forth balm, and honey, and oil, and rosin, in thy fairs.
18 The men of Damascus were thy merchants in the multitude of thy works, in the multitude of divers riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best colour.
19 Dan, and Greece, and Mosel, have set forth in thy marts wrought iron: stacte, and calamus were in thy market.
20 The men of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for seats.
21 Arabia, and all the princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of thy hand: thy merchants came to thee with lambs, and rams, and kids.
22 The sellers of Saba, and Reema, they were thy merchants: with all the best spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they set forth in thy market.
23 Haran, and Chene, and Eden, were thy merchants: Saba, Assur, and Chelmad, sold to thee.
24 They were thy merchants in divers manners, with bales of blue cloth, and of embroidered work, and of precious riches, which were wrapped up, and bound with cords: they had cedars also in thy merchandise.
25 The ships of the sea, were thy chief in thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and glorified exceedingly in the heart of the sea.
26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the south wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.
27 Thy riches, and thy treasures, and thy manifold furniture, thy mariners, and thy pilots, who kept thy goods, and were chief over thy people: thy men of war also, that were in thee, with all thy multitude that is in the midst of thee: shall fall in the heart of the sea, in the day of thy ruin.
28 Thy fleets shall be troubled at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
29 And all that handled the oar, shall come down from their ships: the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall stand upon the land.
30 And they shall mourn over thee with a loud voice, and shall cry bitterly: and they shall cast up dust upon their heads, and shall be sprinkled with ashes.
31 And they shall shave themselves bald for thee, and shall be girded with hair-cloth: and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of soul, with most bitter weeping.
32 And they shall take up a mournful song for thee, and shall lament thee: What city is like Tyre, which is become silent in the midst of the sea?
33 Which by thy merchandise, that went from thee by sea, didst fill many people: which by the multitude of thy riches, and of thy people, didst enrich the kings of the earth.
34 Now thou art destroyed by the sea, thy riches are in the bottom of the waters, and all the multitude that was in the midst of thee is fallen.
35 All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at thee: and all their kings, being struck with the storm, have changed their countenance.
36 The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.
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1: Year of the World 3416, Year before Christ 588.