Holy Bible

Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus. Ezekiel 28:1-10 The causes of national decadence T. De Witt Talmage. Who has not sometimes, standing on Brooklyn Bridge, and looking off on the forests of masts, or upon the fleets sailing back and forth upon the river, or at the great warehouses upon one side and the homes beautiful and happy upon the other — who has not sometimes called up in his imagination the picture of Ephesus or Athens or Corinth, where great ships once rode at anchor, whose old-time harbour is now a great morass? Who has not wondered whether the time may not come in some far future age when men shall come and look on the ruins of this great bridge and the ruins of this great city and the harbour filled up with its own filth, and will regret it as we regret the forgotten splendours of Mexico or of Central America? Decay is on all men's institutions. Persia, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Venice, Spain, all lived out their life as we are living ours, and all fell into their decay, their senility, and their grave. Are we to follow them? I do not know. But this I know: that behind all these institutions, behind all these governments and laws, there is an eternal law manifested and revealed. I know not how long this republic shall endure; but I know this, that behind all kingdoms and republics, in them and by them, is manifested the eternal kingdom of God; nay, the very governments that set themselves against that kingdom to break down and destroy it are speaking, whether they will or they will not, the word that endureth forever. "Tell me what lessons you have to teach us, O you nations of the past!" And Babylon lifts up her voice and says, "I have to teach you this: that any nation that puts its foot on the neck of prostrate humanity seals its death warrant and hastens to its own doom." And Greece says, "I have this to tell you: that no art, no philosophy, no culture, can save from death the nation that is immoral." And Rome says, "I have this to tell you: that no power of law will make a nation safe and strong if there be corruption eating out the heart of it." And Venice says, "I have this to say to you: that no nation is rich, though its fleets sail all seas, if it be poor in manhood." And Spain says, "I have this to say to you: that pride, for the nation as for the individual, cometh before a fall!" And then I wonder, as I look upon my own dear native land, whether she will learn these lessons writ so large in all the history of the past. Whether we are to illustrate by our own stupendous and awful ruin that, though a nation have power and culture and wealth and law and pride, it perishes without a God; or whether we shall rather teach this: that a nation whose kings are uncrowned kings, and who beckons from far across the sea the ignorant, the unlearned, and the incompetent, is strong and enduring, because it has enshrined God in its heart and has founded itself on that judgment and that justice which are the foundations of His throne. What the history of the future shall have for our dear land, who can tell? But whether this nation is born to teach a lesson by its folly or its wisdom, by its fidelity or by its infidelity, back of all these transitory and decaying nations stands writ the truth of Him who in national life is speaking, and whose word endureth forever. ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) Pride and folly of accumulation of wealth H.W. Beecher strikingly compares the great heaps of wealth that some men pile up to the Pyramids of Egypt. There they stand, looking grand on the outside, but within they contain only the dust of kings. So with these fine appearing fortunes which have been heaped up in forgetfulness of God's service. They contain within only the dust of what might have been a kingly character. Tyre a sacred city A. R. Fausset. This feeling of superhuman elevation in the King of Tyre was fostered by the fact that the island on which Tyre stood was called "the holy island," being sacred to Hercules; so much so that the colonies looked up to Tyre, as the mother city of their religion as well as of their political existence. ( A. R. Fausset. ) Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Ezekiel 28:13, 14 In the garden of God James Dunk. 1. History, it is clear, may be written as poetry; and that, too, without any evaporation of its facts. Ezekiel's figure gives us the essential spirit of a great age. We see its successes; we feel its pride; we thrill with its joys. "Thou hast exploited life — thou hast had days of heaven upon the earth — thou hast been in the garden of God." What testimony this is to God's long-suffering! Tyre did not want Him, though He wanted Tyre. There was no reciprocity; Tyre sang and revelled along its wealthy way, and would not so much as lift its eyes to Heaven, where God sorrowed. She revolted from the pure deep heavens, and vilely dug her gods out of, the hillsides. To have clipped her wings, to have pruned her glories down to life's bare necessities would have seemed the kindliest discipline. Instead, God gives ages of blandishments for ages of contempt. Till the hour of doom comes. 2. It is not impossible to write much modern history in the same brilliant, revelatory style. The Englishman is as the Tyrian. Life in the cities of our empire is full, splendid with colour, seething with joys. We have been, and are, in Eden. We have had our griefs, but he is a bold man who denies our delights. We have been born amid roses, reared amid songs, and there are hours when we are drunken with the rapture of living.Life is a golden cup; God filled it. 3. He who saunters up through the leafy ways of the Sydenham Palace will come at length to a commanding terrace where, upon its lofty pedestal, rises the bold head of Sir Joseph Paxton. The fruit of Paxton's genius stretches around him. His ideal was captivating — a palace of light in a paradise of flowers. And now from his high place he looks out upon his gift to his fellows. He looks upon the rosaries, with their crimson and pink buds; upon lawns and bowers; upon fountains and statuary; upon spreading cedars and majestic oaks; upon sunny glades and shady ways, where the white petals of the syringa drop gently to the grass and the mavis sings from the thorn. With garlanded brow the worker stands in the midst of his work, the creator at the heart of his creation. God, the Bountiful One, has given us Eden; have we found a place for Him in the garden? What, then, is God's place in man's Eden? Beware lest thine heart be lifted up, and thou catch the trick of the Tyrians, and imagine thyself in the seat of God, It is true, "thou art the anointed cherub." In the eyes of inert thou shinest like a visitant from heaven. Thou dwellest amid stones of fire, amid stones that flame with rainbow lights. Thou hast made a robe for thyself of diamonds and gold. Burma and Brazil and Kimberley are upon thy gleaming arms and throat. Thou hast mastered the art of amazing by display. The highways of the earth are full of the stir and noise of those who travel to see thy splendours. There is dazzling of eyes and aching of heart when they behold thee. In good sooth, "thou art the anointed cherub." Well for thee if thou art content in thy cherubic beauty to lay thy heart low before the Giver of every good and perfect gift, for He hath "set thee so."Him that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 4. Let us live up to our Eden. He who lives in the garden of God should have the paradise spirit. Hear St. Paul: "Walk worthy of God, who hath called you to His Kingdom and glory." A keen observer has told us of the splendid landscape gardening that encircles many a country mansion; he tells us how the lobelia and the verbena and the peony blow, how the thrushes whistle in the trees and feed upon the lawns, and how, from under a covert of blue and scarlet blossoms, the stoat will spring upon the birds. Savage beast and lovely flowers in one bed! This is a parable of human life. The goodness of God makes a paradise about us. Broad spaces are rich with bloom and beauty. And there, amid the flowers His love has planted, crouch human passions. How few are touched by the shocking antithesis. Rodway says that in Guiana he has often scared centipedes and tarantulas that were hiding in the thick of rare and gorgeous orchids. It is to be feared that the underworld in the garden of God is often far from attractive. God gives grace; we supply sin. The one thing needed to perfect our Eden is that Christ should cleanse our hearts and fill them with the light of His love. And if we would live up to our Eden, let us note and live by the true purpose of the paradise. God "giveth us all things richly to enjoy." The world's honest laughter does not bore nor offend Him. He reckons it among His pleasures; it goes with the ripple of the tide, the music of the spheres, and the angels' song. He who makes Eden about us can hardly object to our delighting in it. Yet let us remember what we are Let us not discard our intelligence. Who does not know that joy is not for enjoyment's sake only? Enjoyment is for refreshing, and refreshing is for service. The hour you elect to live only for the pleasures of Eden, that hour the light of your paradise begins to fade. Lastly, let none but Christ enlarge your fair garden. The devil is forever seeking to draw you out to new .ground. He is forever saying he will extend your Eden. Be careful that you annex nothing at his suggestion. Pick no flower he praises. He is a liar from the beginning. He covers his foul meaning with fair advertisements. His object is not delectation, but death. Scorn satanic paradises. Grant Allen says there are some flowers that smell like raw meat, that they may attract "blue-bottles." The devil's garden is prepared for flesh flies. Keep a critical eye on your gratifications. ( James Dunk. ) Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Ezekiel 28:14-16 The religious claims of the British colonies W. B. Collyer, D. D. Let Britain recognise, not merely the elements of her greatness in her commercial relations, but the type of her majesty in a state, planted like itself in the midst of the seas, enthroned queen of the nations whom she overshadowed with her powers. Let her look at the character of her own crimes, and consider the peril of corresponding visitations; let her look to her obligations and her responsibilities; and, as the chief of these, hearken to the claims of her colonies. I. THE OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM HER POSITION. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth," etc. If this glowing and magnificent description was true of Tyre, it can lose nothing in its application to Britain. In arts and in arms, in commerce and in agriculture, in facility of local position and fertility of soil — secure from invasion, prolific in produce, rich in cultivation, replenished with merchandise, powerful in political relations, redundant in population — above all, unrivalled in religious advantages; all these secured by a civil constitution peculiar to herself, balancing the national interests, and destroying the elements of internal discord and division: what more can be enjoyed to give national prosperity and preeminence? But whence flows the tide of greatness? and to whom is Britain indebted for her supremacy? It is not self-produced; it cannot be self-sustained: "I have set thee so." Not to know, not to feel, not to acknowledge this, is the source of national decay and ruin. We are exalted to sovereignty, and entrusted with dominion, that the parent state may be to her widely spread and numerous colonies "the anointed cherub that covereth." She owes them political protection, to gather them under her wings, like the eagle: but she owes them also religious instruction; she should engage in a holy traffic, infinitely advantageous to them, and, for the wealth which they pour into her bosom, repay them with durable riches and righteousness. II. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF HER VAST EXTENT OF TERRITORY. The statesman may contemplate this prodigious dependency upon the crown of his country with unmixed emotions of pride and exultation; I see in it, primarily, a corresponding magnitude of national responsibility. It were superfluous here to recount the names and localities of her dominions; but it is of importance to call to mind that the colonial territory of Britain has put under her responsibility not only so many more bodies, but so many more souls; that it is not over inert matter, but over spirit and life, that she rules; that a population vastly surpassing her own is of equal value with her own; that one immortal spirit of all these millions is of more worth than the material universe, and must remain indestructible, in happiness or misery, when the heavens are no more; and that the present all-fluctuating, transient, uncertain existence is the only period to fix its destiny irreversibly and forever. Her responsibility is heightened by the moral condition of that vast extent of territory over which she rules; and which, participating the depravity of fallen nature, common to all presents peculiarities of corruption or of destitution characteristic of the particular states in which they are respectively placed. III. THE REPARATION DUE FROM OPPRESSORS. "Iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned." Ambition has been charged, and justly charged, with trampling upon the rights and liberties of mankind, turning the fruitful land into barrenness, beating down with unsparing force and cruelty whatever withstood its advance, outraging every principle, if expediency required its sacrifice, wasting human life remorselessly in furtherance of its plans, and deluging the earth with blood. What has Commerce to say, in answer to the accusation, should every one of these imputations be alleged against her? Have her crimes been fewer? Have the injuries inflicted upon society been less aggravated, and has the love of money been less powerful than the love of fame? Has the lust of dominion been more persevering and reckless than the cupidity of accumulation? Let the colonies of Britain, even Christian Britain, stand forth and give their testimony, in vindication of the sentiment of the text. It is true, much is without remedy: the early victims of oppression are out of the reach of the oppressor; even a nation's repentance cannot recall a single departed spirit from its dreadful abode; but the children are in the place of the fathers. A debt of crime is incurred which the consecrated energies of the nation alone can repay; let the inheritors of the wrongs of their ancestors remove and redress all their grievances in the ample compensation which the parent state has it yet in her power to effect, in sending to them the glad tidings of salvation. The slave trade has been abolished in vain, and in vain are you now proclaiming liberty to the captive, if this great obligation be neglected. You have not given freedom to the slave thoroughly until you have given him the Gospel; heavier, invisible, infrangible chains remain when you have taken the yoke from his shoulders and struck the fetters from his limbs. IV. THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED AGAINST NATIONAL GUILT. "I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God," etc. This judgment proceeds on two principles. The one is a personal degradation: "I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God." It is national irreligion. The privileges of the Gospel have been neglected or despised; they shall be removed; they shall be insulted no longer; the prosperity that made them of no account shall be withdrawn also. The other principle on which judgment proceeds is relative, commercial, colonial, bears expressly upon the point discussed. "Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries," etc. Every part of this sentence is full of meaning. It is the soul that has been trifled with; it is the blood of souls that is required; it is the blood of the souls of "poor innocents," who knew not what they did, abandoned to ignorance, to negligence, to misery. The negligence is palpable, multiplied; the consequences deplorable; yet insensibility and security fortify the guilty city, even in the midst of impending retribution; and they justify themselves under the scrutiny of that eye from which nothing can be concealed. The judgment threatened is just. Again, as in a glass, the crimes, the danger, and the duty of the country are alike apparent, and the religious claims of her colonies depicted. Jerusalem is not, because of these oppressions, combined with this other neglect of the souls of those depending upon her; and shall we altogether escape? V. AN IRRESISTIBLE APPEAL TO HER CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God." This is the highest of all possible distinctions; the greatest of all possible blessings. And if it were but a presumptuous imagination in the heart of the king of Tyre, or a figure the strongest that could be imagined, of security and felicity, it is unquestionably a reality with us, a reality in respect to privilege; whether a reality in respect to principle, remains to be perceived, and will be determined by the hold which the appeal, So irresistible in its own nature, made to these principles in reference to these claims, shall have upon the conviction, the concurrence. and the energies of the nation at large, and upon the hearts, consciences, and exertions of professors of religion in particular. For it is the work of the nation, and it is the work of the nation in her magnitude, and it has wherewithal to occupy all the labour and talent that can be brought to bear upon it. Here differences should be merged in the prominent object of general concernment, of universal utility, and faithful allegiance to our common Lord. Here, if ever, all envy and strife, all doubts and surmisings, all malice and evil speaking — at all times so unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, so unworthy Christian character, so hateful in themselves, so pernicious in their effects, so opposed to the spirit of our Master — should be laid aside; remembering, that during the time that is consumed in contention the work of God must stand still. Here there should be no emulation, but such as should call forth holy ardour and brotherly affections and stir up to love and to good works. ( W. B. Collyer, D. D. ) By the iniquity of thy traffic. Ezekiel 28:18 Corruption in commerce G. T. Forbes, M. A. The tendency is to measure all things by a money standard. The business that cannot be ruled by Christianity is wrong. What this does for a land, if it grows unchecked, is to make men sell the best things. Phoenicia did, and the spirit of her people died. Her inhabitants became the ministers of vice in every Eastern city. And the man eaten up by love of gain is preparing for himself and all he influences a like fate. Men object that business is a sort of neutral world in which the maxims of New Testament morality cannot come into play. But if this is true, either Christianity cannot be a faith for the whole of a man's life, or the business that cannot be ruled by it is wrong. It is to rule my eating and drinking, my clothing and housing of myself and mine, my buying and selling, my work am! play. Whatsoever ye do, "buying or booking," do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. But men object today that the severity of the competition by which they are pressed makes some moral laxity in the conduct of business most difficult to avoid. They have to contend with others who are not hampered by scrupulosity in the methods by which they obtain orders or make profits. Some time ago, the Rev. Mr. Carter, the Secretary of the Christian Social Union, informs us, the Oxford branch of that society sent out a number of queries to practical men on the subject of commercial morality. In answer to the question: "Do you find it difficult to apply the principles of Christian truth and justice to the conduct of business?" two employers write: "Business is based on the gladiatorial theory of existence. If Christian truth and justice is not consistent with this, business is in a bad case." A commercial traveller writes: "Not only difficult, but impossible, for a man is not master of himself. If one would live, and avoid the bankruptcy court, one must do business on the same lines as others do, without troubling whether, the methods are in harmony with the principles of Christian truth and justice or not. A draper's assistant answers: "Extremely so. The tendency to misrepresent, deceive, or take unfair advantage under circumstances that daily offer the opportunity of so doing is generally too strong to resist where self-interest is the motive power of action, the conventional morality the only check. To me they appear to be opposing principles — the first of self-sacrifice, the second of self-interest." Another says: "If it were possible to do away with competition, the excuse and justification for a large proportion of commercial immorality would be gone." As it is, it is quite plain that honourable trade has to meet with and fight what is unjust. As Arthur Hugh Clough says in one of his poems "Thou shalt not covet, but tradition Approves all forms of competition." ( G. T. Forbes, M. A. ).

Benson Commentary Ezekiel 28:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Ezekiel 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Ezekiel 28:2 . Say to the prince of Tyrus — The name of this prince was Ithobalus, according to the Phenician annals. Because thy heart is lifted up — In pride and self-conceit; and thou hast said — Namely, in thy heart; I am a god — I am like a god. I sit in the seat of God — Inaccessible by mortals. In the midst of the seas — As God is safe from all injury in his throne in heaven, so am I as safe; for the sea secures me. These words express an insolent boast of self-sufficiency, as if he had said, I fear no man, nor stand in need of any: I am seated in a place of impregnable strength: the sea defends me, so that no enemy can assault me. And they represent the excessive pride and carnal security of this prince, who trusted in his own strength, and forgot his dependance upon God. The same crime was in like manner punished in the king of Egypt, Ezekiel 29:3 , and afterward in Nebuchadnezzar himself, Daniel 4:30-31 . Yet thou art man, and not God — Subject to all the infirmities, casualties, sorrows, and distresses that attend human nature, and to all the changes of human affairs, and hast not any of that innate, invincible power, and of that immutability of condition, which is in God. Though thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God — Hast entertained thoughts which become none but God. Ezekiel 28:3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: Ezekiel 28:3-8 . Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel — In thy own conceit. The fame of Daniel’s wisdom was quickly spread over Chaldea, upon his being advanced to several posts of honour and dignity by Nebuchadnezzar. See Daniel 2:8 . So here the prophet in an ironical manner upbraids the vain boasts which the prince of Tyre made of his wisdom, and the policy of those about him, as if it exceeded the endowments of Daniel. The Phenicians, of whom the Tyrians were a colony, (see note on Isaiah 23:12 ,) valued themselves for their wisdom and ingenuity, as being inventors of navigation, letters, and sciences. Compare Zechariah 9:2 . With thy wisdom, &c., thou hast gotten thee riches — Thy skill in navigation and trade has increased thy wealth. Behold, I will bring upon thee the terrible of the nations — The Babylonians, who by their conquests have made themselves terrible to all the nations round about them. They shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom — They shall deface and destroy all the beautiful edifices which thou hast erected with admirable art, and every thing which thou valuest as ornamental or useful, beauteous or magnificent, even all the glory of thy kingdom. They shall defile thy brightness — They shall render thy kingdom, which is now flourishing and glorious, weak and contemptible. Thou shalt die the deaths, &c. — Thou shalt die the death of those who perished in the flood. The expression deaths, in the plural, intimates a still further punishment, even after the death of the body; such as that impious race experienced, and such as this haughty prince had well deserved by his mad pride and blasphemous impiety. And therefore with the same emphasis the prophet tells us, Ezekiel 28:10 , Thou shalt die the deaths, the double death, of the uncircumcised; that is, of unbelievers and enemies to God. For circumcision being the rite which distinguished God’s chosen people from the heathen, uncircumcised is equivalent in sense to wicked or profane. So the Chaldee Paraphrase renders it here. “This is not the only place in this prophecy where the destruction by the deluge is alluded to: for this, and the fall of angels, being two of the greatest events that ever happened, and the most remarkable of God’s judgments, it was very natural for the prophets to recur to them, when they would raise their style in the description of the fall of empires and tyrants. See Ezekiel 26:19-20 ; Ezekiel 27:26 ; Ezekiel 27:32 ; Ezekiel 27:34 . As the style of this prophet is wonderfully adapted to the subject whereof he treats, so he compares the destruction of this famous maritime city to a vessel shipwrecked in the sea, and so sends its inhabitants to the people of old times, as he calls them, who were swallowed up in the universal deluge. Their prince he compares to the prince of the rebel angels, whose pride had given him such a dreadful fall.” See Peters on Job, p. 373, and notes on Ezekiel 28:14 . Ezekiel 28:4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: Ezekiel 28:5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: Ezekiel 28:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Ezekiel 28:7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. Ezekiel 28:8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Ezekiel 28:9 . Wilt thou yet say — Or, Wilt thou then say, before him that slayeth thee, I am God — Nothing can be more finely expressed than this: the prince of Tyrus thought himself, as a god, as invincible, as secure from all harm; God therefore, by his prophet, asks him here if he would have these proud thoughts, if he would think of himself as a god, when he found himself in his enemy’s power, just going to be slain. The question is most sharp and cutting: it sets the folly of his insolent pride in the strongest light; for surely he could not boast of being a god, when he was to fall by the sword of a man; and whatever proud thoughts he now entertained of himself, they certainly would be changed when he saw the sword of his enemy lifted up to slay him. So Plutarch tells us of Alexander, that “he vainly affected to be thought Jupiter’s son, and next in honour to Bacchus and Hercules: yet when he saw the blood run out of a wound he had received, which at the same time gave him much pain, he confessed that was not such blood as Homer said issued from the immortal gods.” — Lib. 2, De Alexandri fortuna. This whole chapter, as well as the foregoing one, is exceedingly fine, both as to the style and composition. Ezekiel 28:10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it , saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 28:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Ezekiel 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Ezekiel 28:12-13 . Take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus — See Ezekiel 27:32 . Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, &c. — In thine own opinion thou art the perfect pattern of wisdom and all other excellences; thou possessest them in full measure, they are thine by an unalienable tenure, sealed up safely among thy treasures. The LXX. render this, ?? ???????????? ????????? , ??? ???????? ??????? , Thou art the seal of likeness, and crown of beauty. To the same purpose the Vulgate, Tu signaculum similitudinis, plenus sapientia, perfectus decore: that is, says Lowth, “Thou art the image of God, an exact impression taken from that great copy. For the following verse shows that the expression alludes to Adam, when he was first created, and came pure out of the hands of his Maker; full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.” Thou hast been in Eden — “As thy situation was pleasant, so wast thou plentifully supplied with every thing which could contribute to make thy life pleasant and happy. The state of paradise, in common speech, denotes a condition every way complete and happy. See Isaiah 51:3 . The expression, as well as the whole context, alludes to the complete happiness which Adam enjoyed in paradise, before his apostacy and fall.” Every precious stone was thy covering — Not only was thy crown adorned with the choicest jewels, but thou wast arrayed with royal robes, enriched with gold and precious stones of all sorts. There is probably an allusion here to the precious stones which were placed in the high-priest’s breast-plate, as the next verse alludes to the cherubim over the mercy-seat. Accordingly the LXX. enlarge the number of the stones here mentioned from nine to twelve, and place them in the same order in which they are ranked Exodus 28:17 , &c. The workmanship of thy tabrets, &c.,was prepared in thee — Or, for thee, in the day thou wast created — The highest expressions of joy, such as are the sounding of all sorts of musical instruments, ushered thee into the world, according to the usual practice at the birth of great princes; and ever since thou hast been brought up in the choicest delicacies which a royal palace or a luxurious city could furnish. Ezekiel 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Ezekiel 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Ezekiel 28:14-15 . Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth — The prophet here alludes to the cherubim in the temple of Solomon, which were a part of the ark, being made of beaten gold, and therefore were with it anointed, and were very large, and covered the mercy-seat with their wings. The prince of Tyrus is here compared to one of these, on account of the high power which he bore among men, and his covering or protecting his people by that power. St. Jerome translates the expression, The extended cherub that covereth: that is, whose wings are stretched out to cover, &c., reading ????? , extended, instead of ????? , anointed. And I have set thee so — It was I myself that determined that thou shouldest be so great a king, and have a vast power to defend and protect thy people. But this prince, like too many of mankind, was insensible of the hand which raised him, and did not consider to whom he owed his power and glory. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God — The image of the cherub is pursued. “Such was thy eminent distinction, that thou wast, as it were, placed in the temple of God on his holy mountain.” Or, thou wast placed in as secure a situation as if thou hadst been fixed on the holy mountain where the temple of God stands. Thou hast walked, &c., in the midst of the stones of fire — Thou hast, as it were, been placed among the twelve precious stones on the breast-plate of the high-priest. Or this obscure sentence may signify that this prince’s palace and his attendants were very richly adorned with precious stones, which shone with a burning brightness, like fire. Lowth thinks “the words allude to the high advancement of Satan in heaven before his fall, where he was placed in one of the highest orders of angels, such as were nearest in attending upon the Divine Majesty.” Thou wast perfect in thy ways, till iniquity was found in thee — “An exact description of the evangelical purity in which the devil was created, and in which he continued till, being lifted up with pride, he fell from his first estate.” “Whoever compares this place in Ezekiel with the parallel place in Isaiah 14:12 , &c., where the downfall of the king of Babylon is foretold in the same prophetic language, will soon perceive that they throw a reciprocal light upon each other, and that the fall of angels is alluded to in both. The beauty and propriety of these allusions of the prophets will appear with greater lustre when it is considered that the host of heaven were the objects of the heathen idolatry; both the visible and invisible host, as well the angels as the lights of heaven; for the superstition seems to have been originally the same, as the worship of the heavenly bodies terminated in the worship of those angels, or intelligences, who were believed to animate and conduct them: and hence we see a reason why the angels were called stars, and morning-stars, in Scripture: as in Job 38:7 , and so here, the covering cherub is the same with Lucifer, the son of the morning, in Isaiah. Thus, while the prophets describe the overthrow of an idolatrous prince or state by a fallen angel, or a falling star, they only make their gods to tumble with them: see Dissertation on Job, p. 374. Ezekiel 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Ezekiel 28:16-17 . By the multitude of thy merchandise, &c. — The riches which thy great trade has produced have but increased thy love of gain more and more, and induced thee to commit acts of violence, fraud, and extortion, to make further additions to thy power and riches; therefore I will cast thee out of the mountain of God — I will cast thee down to contempt from that super-eminent degree of power and glory to which I had raised thee, and from the exalted station of governing others, and being able to afford them protection, and from all thy great pomp and magnificence. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty — Thou becamest vain and insolent on account of thy power, riches, and magnificence. Here the root of this prince’s ruin is pointed out to us. His power and riches produced pride and insolence in him, and those every evil way. His grandeur blinded him, so that he did not see his true happiness, nor the right way of pursuing it, but wandered in ways which led to ruin. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee — I will make thee a spectacle to other princes, expose thee as a miserable object before their eyes, that thou mayest be an example to them to deter them from the like pride and practices. Ezekiel 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. Ezekiel 28:18-19 . Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries — Thy throne, palace, judgment-seats. The word ????? , generally rendered sanctuary, sometimes signifies a palace, in which sense it probably ought to be taken Amos 7:13 , where our translation renders it the king’s chapel. Thus Bishop Patrick understands it, Exodus 25:8 , where our version reads, Let them make me a sanctuary; God commanding that he should be served and attended upon in the tabernacle, as a king in his court or palace. The cherubim were his throne, the ark his footstool, the altar his table, (and therefore called by that name, Ezekiel 41:22 ; Malachi 1:7 ,) the priests his attendants, and the show-bread and sacrifices his provisions. The king of Tyre had filled his palace and courts of judicature, and the Tyrians their stately buildings, with iniquity and injustice, and therefore God was determined utterly to destroy them by the Chaldeans. I will bring fire from the midst of thee — Punishment shall follow thy crimes, and thy own ways shall bring it upon thee: thy destruction shall proceed from thyself. I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth — I will bring thee to dust. Thou shalt be made no more account of than ashes spread on the ground. All that know thee shall be astonished — So low a fall from such a height of glory will astonish all who ever saw thy former magnificence. Ezekiel 28:19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. Ezekiel 28:20 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Ezekiel 28:21 Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it, Ezekiel 28:21-23 . Set thy face against Zidon — Direct thy face and thy speech toward Zidon, and fore-tel its destruction by the king of Babylon. Tyre and Zidon were neighbouring cities, and generally partakers of the same prosperity or adversity. We have, indeed, no history that informs us of the particulars of what befell Zidon; but it is likely that it sent help to the Tyrians, and so (Nebuchadnezzar proving victorious) suffered with them, and was reduced first under the power of the Chaldeans, and afterward of the Persians. Say, Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon — Provoked by thy sins, I am an adversary to thee, and am determined to punish thee. I will be glorified in the midst of thee — I will make my power and justice known by the judgments I will execute upon thee. In the same sense God saith, Exodus 14:17 , I will get me honour upon Pharaoh. And will be sanctified in her — And will get myself reverence, fear, and praise, by the punishment I will bring upon her. God is said to be sanctified in those for whose preservation or destruction he exerts his power in a remarkable manner, so as to get glory to himself. For I will send her pestilence and blood — The pestilence, which often accompanies long sieges, shall destroy her inhabitants. And the wounded shall be judged, &c., by the sword — That is, the wounded shall fall in the midst of her by the sword, and meet with their deserved punishment from it. Ezekiel 28:22 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. Ezekiel 28:23 For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 28:24 And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 28:24-26 . There shall be no more a pricking brier — There shall no more be any nation that shall injure, and be a vexation to the house of Israel; for all their troublesome neighbours, who had been as so many thorns in their sides, shall be destroyed or repressed, and in consequence thereof they shall dwell quietly and securely in their own land. This promise was in part fulfilled after their return from their captivity in Babylon; but the following verse shows that it chiefly relates to the general restoration of the Jews, when all the enemies of God’s church and truth shall be vanquished and subdued, often denoted in the prophetical writings by the name of Edom, Moab, and other neighbouring nations, who, upon all occasions, were wont to show their spite and ill-will against God’s ancient people. When I shall have gathered the house of Israel, &c. — This seems to be a plain prophecy of the restoration of the Jews to their own land, as will appear to any one who will compare the words with the parallel texts referred to in the margin; and the rules laid down concerning the division of the land among the twelve tribes (chap. 47., 48.) do very much favour this interpretation: see note on Isaiah 11:12 . And shall be sanctified in them — See on Ezekiel 28:22 . And they shall dwell safely therein — In comparison of what they have done formerly: they shall have peace, and freedom from the annoyance of enemies. And shall build houses, and plant vineyards — Building and planting are commonly joined together. When I shall have executed judgments — The prophets commonly conclude their threatenings against infidels with gracious promises to God’s people, implying that he will not make an utter destruction of them, as of other people, but preserve a remnant, to whom he may fulfil his promises made to their fathers. Ezekiel 28:25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. Ezekiel 28:26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Ezekiel 28:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, TYRE (CONTINUED): SIDON Ezekiel 27:1-36 ; Ezekiel 28:1-26 THE remaining oracles on Tyre (chapters 27, Ezekiel 28:1-19 ) are somewhat different both in subject and mode of treatment from the chapter we have just finished. Chapter 26 is in the main a direct announcement of the fall of Tyre, delivered in the oratorical style which is the usual vehicle of prophetic address. She is regarded as a state occupying a definite place among the other states of the world, and sharing the fate of other peoples who by their conduct towards Israel or their ungodliness and arrogance have incurred the anger of Jehovah. The two great odes which follow are purely ideal delineations of what Tyre is in herself; her destruction is assumed as certain rather than directly predicted, and the prophet gives free play to his imagination in the effort to set forth the conception of the city which was impressed on his mind. In chapter 27, he dwells on the external greatness and magnificence of Tyre, her architectural splendour, her political and military power, and above all her amazing commercial enterprise. chapter 28, on the other hand, is a meditation on the peculiar genius of Tyre, her inner spirit of pride and self-sufficiency, as embodied in the person of her king. From a literary point of view the two chapters are amongst the most beautiful in the whole book. In the twenty-seventh chapter the fiery indignation of the prophet almost disappears, giving place to the play of poetic fancy and a flow of lyric emotion more perfectly rendered than in any other part of Ezekiel’s writings. The distinctive feature of each passage is the elegy pronounced over the fall of Tyre; and although the elegy seems just on the point of passing into the taunt-song, yet the accent of triumph is never suffered to overwhelm the note of sadness to which these poems owe their special charm. I. Chapter 27 is described as a dirge over Tyre. In the previous chapter the nations were represented as bewailing her fall, but here the prophet himself takes up a lamentation for her; and, as may have been usual in real funeral dirges, he commences by celebrating the might and riches of the doomed city. The fine image which is maintained throughout the chapter was probably suggested to Ezekiel by the picturesque situation of Tyre on her sea-girt rock at "the entries of the sea." He compares her to a stately vessel riding at anchor near the shore, taking on board her cargo of precious merchandise, and ready to start on the perilous voyage from which she is destined never to return. Meanwhile the gallant ship sits proudly in the water, tight and seaworthy and sumptuously furnished; and the prophet’s eye runs rapidly over the chief points of her elaborate construction and equipment ( Ezekiel 27:3-11 ). Her timbers are fashioned of cypress from Hermon, her mast is a cedar of Lebanon, her oars are made of the oak of Bashan, her deck of sherbin-wood (a variety of cedar) inlaid with ivory imported from Cyprus. Her canvas fittings are still more exquisite and costly. The sail is of Egyptian byssus with embroidered work, and the awning over the deck was of cloth resplendent in the two purple dyes procured from the coasts of Elishah. The ship is fitted up for pleasure and luxury as well as for traffic, the fact symbolised being obviously the architectural and other splendours which justified the city’s boast that she was "the perfection of beauty." But Tyre was wise and powerful as well as beautiful; and so the prophet, still keeping up the metaphor, proceeds to describe how the great ship is manned. Her steersmen are the experienced statesmen whom she herself has bred and raised to power; her rowers are the men of Sidon and Aradus, who spend their strength in her service. The elders and wise men of Gebal are her shipwrights (literally "stoppers of leaks"); and so great is her influence that all the naval resources of the world are subject to her control. Besides this Tyre employs an army of mercenaries drawn from the remotest quarters of the earth-from Persia and North Africa, as well as the subordinate towns of Phoenicia; and these, represented as hanging their shields and helmets on her sides, make her beauty complete. In these verses the prophet pays a tribute of admiration to the astuteness with which the rulers of Tyre used their resources to strengthen her position as the head of the Phoenician confederacy. Three of the cities mentioned-Sidon, Aradus, and Gebal or Byblus-were the most important in Phoenicia; two of them at least had a longer history than herself, yet they are here truly represented as performing the rough menial labour which brought wealth and renown to Tyre. It required no ordinary statecraft to preserve the balance of so many complex and conflicting interests, and make them all co-operate for the advancement of the glory of Tyre; but hitherto her "wise men" had proved equal to the task. The second strophe ( Ezekiel 27:12-25 ) contains the survey of Tyrian commerce, which has already been analysed in another connection. At first sight it appears as if the allegory were here abandoned, and the impression is partly correct. In reality the city, although personified, is regarded as the emporium of the world’s commerce, to which all the nations stream with their produce. But at the end it appears that the various commodities enumerated represent the cargo with which the ship is laden. Ships of Tarshish- i.e. , the largest class of merchant vessels then afloat, used for the long Atlantic voyage-wait upon her, and fill her with all sorts of precious things ( Ezekiel 27:25 ). Then in the last strophe ( Ezekiel 27:26-36 ), which speaks of the destruction of Tyre, the figure of the ship is boldly resumed. The heavily freighted vessel is rowed into the open sea; there she is struck by an east wind and founders in deep water. The image suggests two ideas, which must not be pressed, although they may have an element of historic truth in them: one is that Tyre perished under the weight of her own commercial greatness, and the other that her ruin was hastened through the folly of her rulers. But the main idea is that the destruction of the city was wrought by the power of God, which suddenly overwhelmed her at the height of her prosperity and activity. As the waves close over the doomed vessel the cry of anguish that goes up from the drowning mariners and passengers strikes terror into the hearts of all seafaring men. They forsake their ships, and having reached the safety of the shore abandon themselves to frantic demonstrations of grief, joining their voices in a lamentation over the fate of the goodly ship which symbolised the mistress of the sea ( Ezekiel 27:32-36 ):- "Who was like Tyre [so glorious]- In the midst of the sea? When thy wares went forth from the seas- Thou filledst the peoples; With thy wealth and thy merchandise- Thou enrichedst the earth. Now art thou broken from the seas- In depths of the waters; Thy merchandise and all thy multitude- Are fallen therein. All the inhabitants of the islands- Are shocked at thee, And their kings shudder greatly- With tearful countenances. They that trade among the peoples- Hiss over thee; Thou art become a terror- And art no more for ever." Such is the end of Tyre. She has vanished utterly from the earth; the imposing fabric of her greatness is like an unsubstantial pageant faded; and nothing remains to tell of her former glory but the mourning of the nations who were once enriched by her commerce. Ezekiel 28:1-19 -Here the prophet turns to the prince of Tyre, who is addressed throughout as the impersonation of the consciousness of a great commercial community. We happen to know from Josephus that the name of the reigning king at this time was Ithobaal or Ethbaal II But it is manifest that the terms of Ezekiel’s message have no reference to the individuality of this or any other prince of Tyre. It is not likely that the king could have exercised any great political influence in a city "whose merchants were all princes"; indeed, we learn from Josephus that the monarchy was abolished in favour of some sort of elective constitution not long after the death of Ithobaal. Nor is there any reason to suppose that Ezekiel has in view any special manifestation of arrogance on the part of the royal house, such as a pretension to be descended from the gods. The king here is simply the representative of the genius of the community, the sins of heart charged against him are the expression of the sinful principle which the prophet detected beneath the refinement and luxury of Tyre, and his shameful death only symbolises the downfall of the city. The prophecy consists of two parts: first, an accusation against the prince of Tyre, ending with a threat of destruction ( Ezekiel 27:2-10 ); and second, a lament over his fall ( Ezekiel 27:11-19 ). The point of view is very different in these two sections. In the first the prince is still conceived as a man, and the language put into his mouth, although extravagant, does not exceed the limits of purely human arrogance. In the second, however, the king appears as an angelic being, an inhabitant of Eden and a companion of the cherub, sinless at first, and falling from his high estate through his own transgression. It almost seems as if the prophet had in his mind the idea of a tutelary spirit or genius of Tyre, like the angelic princes in the book of Daniel who preside over the destinies of different nations. { Daniel 10:20-21 ; Daniel 12:1 } But in spite of its enhanced idealism, the passage only clothes in forms drawn from Babylonian mythology the boundless self-glorification of Tyre, and the expulsion of the prince from paradise is merely the ideal counterpart of the overthrow of the city which is his earthly abode. The sin of Tyre is an overweening pride, which culminated in an attitude of self-deification on the part of its king. Surrounded on every hand by the evidences of man’s mastery over the world, by the achievements of human art and industry and enterprise, the king feels as if his throne on the sea-girt island were a veritable seat of the gods, and as if he himself were a being truly divine. His heart is lifted up; and, forgetful of the limits of his mortality, he "sets his mind like the mind of a god." The godlike quality on which he specially prides himself is the superhuman wisdom evinced by the extraordinary prosperity of the city with which he identifies himself. Wiser than Daniel! the prophet ironically exclaims; "no secret thing is too dark for thee! By thy wisdom and thine insight thou hast gotten thee wealth, and hast gathered gold and silver into thy treasuries: by thy great wisdom in thy commerce thou hast multiplied thy wealth, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches." The prince sees in the vast accumulation of material resources in Tyre nothing but the reflection of the genius of her inhabitants; and being himself the incarnation of the spirit of the city, he takes the glory of it to himself and esteems himself a god. Such impious self-exaltation must inevitably call down the vengeance of Him who is the only living God; and Ezekiel proceeds to announce the humiliation of the prince by the "most ruthless of the nations"- i.e. , the Chaldaeans. He shall then know how much of divinity doth hedge a king. In face of them that seek his life he shall learn that he is man and not God, and that there are forces in the world against which the vaunted wisdom of Tyre is of no avail. An ignominious death at the hand of strangers is the fate reserved for the mortal who so proudly exalted himself against all that is called God. The thought thus expressed, when disengaged from its peculiar setting, is one of permanent importance. To Ezekiel, as to the prophets generally, Tyre is the representative of commercial greatness, and the truth which he here seeks to illustrate is that the abnormal development of the mercantile spirit had in her case destroyed the capacity of faith in that which is truly divine. Tyre no doubt, like every other ancient state, still maintained a public religion of the type common to Semitic paganism. She was the sacred seat of a special cult, and the temple of Melkarth was considered the chief glory of the city. But the public and perfunctory worship which was there celebrated had long ceased to express the highest consciousness of the community. The real god of Tyre was not Baal nor Melkarth, but the king, or any other object that might serve as a symbol of her civic greatness. Her religion was one that embodied itself in no outward ritual; it was the enthusiasm which was kindled in the heart of every citizen of Tyre by the magnificence of the imperial city to which he belonged. The state of mind which Ezekiel regards as characteristic of Tyre was perhaps the inevitable outcome of a high civilisation informed by no loftier religious conceptions than those common to heathenism. It is the idea which afterwards found expression in the deification of the Roman emperors-the idea that the state is the only power higher than the individual to which he can look for the furtherance of his material and spiritual interests, the only power, therefore, which rightly claims his homage and his reverence. None the less it is a state of mind which is destructive of all that is essential to living religion; and Tyre in her proud self-sufficiency was perhaps further from a true knowledge of God than the barbarous tribes who in all sincerity worshipped the rude idols which represented the invisible power that ruled their destinies. And in exposing the irreligious spirit which lay at the heart of the Tyrian civilisation the prophet lays his finger on the spiritual danger which attends the successful pursuit of the finite interests of human life. The thought of God, the sense of an immediate relation of the spirit of man to the Eternal and the Infinite, are easily displaced from men’s minds by undue admiration for the achievements of a culture based on material progress, and supplying every need of human nature except the very deepest, the need of God. "For that is truly a man’s religion, the object of which fills and holds captive his soul and heart and mind, in which he trusts above all things, which above all things he longs for and hopes for." The commercial spirit is indeed but one of the forms in which men devote themselves to the service of this present world; but in any community where it reigns supreme we may confidently look for the same signs of religious decay which Ezekiel detected in Tyre in his own day. At all events his message is not superfluous in an age and country where energies are well-nigh exhausted in the accumulation of the means of. living, and whose social problems all run up into the great question of the distribution of wealth. It is essentially the same. truth which Ruskin, with something of the power and insight of a Hebrew prophet, has so eloquently enforced on the men who make modern England-that the true religion of a community does not live in the venerable institutions to which it yields a formal and conventional deference, but in the objects which inspire its most eager ambitions, the ideals which govern its standard of worth, in those things wherein it finds the ultimate ground of its confidence and the reward of its work. The lamentation over the fall of the prince of Tyre ( Ezekiel 28:11-19 ) reiterates the same lesson with a boldness and freedom of imagination not usual with this prophet. The passage is full of obscurities and difficulties which cannot be adequately discussed here, but the main lines of the conception are easily grasped. It describes the original state of the prince as a semi-divine being, and his fall from that state on account of sin that was found in him. The picture is no doubt ironical; Ezekiel actually means nothing more than that the soaring pride of Tyre enthroned its king or its presiding genius in the seat of the gods, and endowed him with attributes more than mortal. The prophet accepts the idea, and shows that there was sin in Tyre enough to hurl the most radiant of celestial creatures from heaven to hell. The passage presents certain obvious affinities with the account of the Fall in the second and third chapters of Genesis; but it also contains reminiscences of a mythology the key to which is now lost. It can hardly be supposed that the vivid details of the imagery, such as the "mountain of God," the "stones of fire," "the precious gems," are altogether due to the prophet’s imagination. The mountain of the gods is now known to have been a prominent idea of the Babylonian religion; and there appears to have been a widespread notion that in the abode of the gods were treasures of gold and precious stones, jealously guarded by griffins, of which small quantities found their way into the possession of men. It is possible that fragments of these mythical notions may have reached the knowledge of Ezekiel during his sojourn in Babylon and been used by him to fill up his picture of the glories which surrounded the first estate of the king of Tyre. It should be observed, however, that the prince is not to be identified with the cherub or one of the cherubim. The words "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so" ( Ezekiel 28:14 ) may be translated "With the cherub I set thee"; and similarly the words of Ezekiel 28:16 , "I will destroy thee, O covering cherub,’" should probably be rendered "And the cherub hath destroyed thee." The whole conception, is greatly simplified by these changes, and the principal features of it, so far as they can be made out with clearness, are as follows: The cherub is the warden of the "holy mountain of God,’" and no doubt also (as in chapter 1) the symbol and bearer of the divine glory. When it is said that the prince of Tyre was placed with the cherub, the meaning is that he had his place in the abode of God, or was admitted to the presence of God, so long as he preserved the perfection in which he was created ( Ezekiel 28:15 ). The other allusions to his original glory, such as the "covering" of precious stones and the "walking amidst fiery stones," cannot be explained with any degree of certainty. When iniquity is found in him so that he must be banished from the presence of God, the cherub is said to destroy him from the midst of the stones of fire- i.e ., is the agent of the divine judgment which descends on the prince. It is thus doubtful whether the prince is conceived as a perfect human being, like Adam before his fall, or as an angelic, superhuman creature; but the point is of little importance in ideal delineation such as we have here. It will be seen that even on the first supposition there is no very close correspondence with the story of Eden in the book of Genesis, for there the cherubim are placed to guard the way of the tree of life only after man has been expelled from the garden. But what is the sin that tarnished the sanctity of this exalted personage and cost him his place among the immortals? Ideally, it was an access of pride that caused his ruin, a spiritual sin, such as might originate in the heart of an angelic being. "By that sin fell the angels: how can man, then The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?" His heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he forfeited his godlike wisdom over his brilliance ( Ezekiel 28:17 ). But really, this change passing over the spirit of the prince in the seat of God is only the reflection of what is done on earth in Tyre. As her commerce increased, the proofs of her unjust and unscrupulous use of wealth were accumulated against her, and her midst was filled with violence ( Ezekiel 27:16 ). This is the only allusion in the three chapters to the wrong and oppression and the outrages on humanity which were the inevitable accompaniments of that greed of gain which had taken possession of the Tyrian community. And these sins are regarded as a demoralisation taking place in the nature of the prince, who is the representative of the city; by the "iniquity of his traffic he has profaned his holiness," and is cast down from his lofty seat to the earth, a spectacle of abject humiliation for kings to gloat over. By a sudden change of metaphor the destruction of the city is also represented as a fire breaking out in the vitals of the prince, and reducing his body to ashes-a conception which has not unnaturally suggested to some commentators the fable of the phoenix which was supposed periodically to immolate herself in a fire of her own kindling. III. A short oracle on Sidon completes the series of prophecies dealing with the future of Israel’s immediate neighbours ( Ezekiel 28:20-23 ). Sidon lay about twenty miles farther north than Tyre, and was, as we have seen, at this time subject to the authority of the younger and more vigorous city. From the book of Jeremiah, { Jeremiah 25:22 ; Jeremiah 27:3 } however, we see that Sidon was an autonomous state, and preserved a measure of independence even in matters of foreign policy. There is therefore nothing arbitrary in assigning a separate oracle to this most northerly of the states in immediate contact with the people of Israel, although it must be admitted that Ezekiel has nothing distinctive to say of Sidon. Phoenicia was in truth so overshadowed by Tyre that all the characteristics of the people have been amply illustrated in the chapters that have dealt with the latter city. The prophecy is accordingly delivered in the most general terms, and indicates rather the purpose and effect of the judgment than the manner in which it is to come or the character of the people against whom it is directed. It passes insensibly into a prediction of the glorious future of Israel, which is important as revealing the underlying motive of all the preceding utterances against the heathen nations. The restoration of Israel and the destruction of her old neighbours are both parts of one comprehensive scheme of divine providence, the ultimate object of which is a demonstration before the eyes of the world of the holiness of Jehovah. That men might know that He is Jehovah, God alone, is the end alike of His dealings with the heathen and with His own people. And the two parts of God’s plan are in the mind of Ezekiel intimately related to each other; the one is merely a condition of the realisation of the other. The crowning proof of Jehovah’s holiness will be seen in His faithfulness to the promise made to the patriarchs of the possession of the land of Canaan, and in the security and prosperity enjoyed by Israel when brought back to their land a purified nation. Now in the past Israel had been constantly interfered with, crippled, humiliated, and seduced by the petty heathen powers around her borders. These had been a pricking brier and a stinging thorn ( Ezekiel 28:24 ), constantly annoying and harassing her and impeding the free development of her national life. Hence the judgments here denounced against them are no doubt in the first instance a punishment for what they had been and done in the past; but they are also a clearing of the stage that Israel might be isolated from the rest of the world, and be free to mould her national life and her religious institutions in accordance with the will of her God. That is the substance of the last three verses of the chapter; and while they exhibit the peculiar limitations of the prophet’s thinking, they enable us at the same time to do justice to the singular unity and consistency of aim which guided him in his great forecast of the future of the kingdom of God. There remains now the case of Egypt to be dealt with; but Egypt’s relations to Israel and her position in the world were so unique that Ezekiel reserves consideration of her future for a separate group of oracles longer than those on all the other nations put together. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.