27.4–9 The ship described.
27.4 Your borders, the shape of the hull below the surface of the sea. Beauty. Cf. 28.12, 17.
27.5–6 Ezekiel stresses the variety of woods used for this masted galley. Such variety comes from diverse locales: Senir—the Anti-Lebanon, Lebanon, Bashan—east of the sea of Galilee in southern Syria, and Cyprus. Inlaid with ivory. The Hebrew is problematic.
27.7 Textiles on board—sails, ensigns, awnings—also come from abroad. Elishah, another name for Cyprus. The trade attested to in vv. 5–9 underlines Tyre as merchant of the peoples (v. 3).
27.8 The crew came from Zemer (Hebrew Tyre), Arvad, and Sidon, Phoenician coastal cities north of Tyre (moving south to north).
27.8–9 Portions of these verses are problematic.
27.10–11 Land-based military mercenaries and their armaments. Paras, Persia. Lud, Lydia. Put, Libya. Arvad, Phoenicia. Helech, in Hebrew lit. “your army,” and Gamad are difficult.
27.12–25a This prose section provides a virtual catalog of ancient Near Eastern international commerce, which begins and ends with Tarshish (vv. 12, 25a), a port (Tartessos) located in southern Spain and important for metal ore. Apart from this literary envelope, the toponyms move generally from the western Mediterranean to the eastern Mesopotamian environs, e.g., from western places like Javan (v. 13, Ionia), Tubal, and Meshech (v. 13, Asia Minor), Beth-togarmah (v. 14, in Armenia), and Rhodes (v. 15, in the Aegean Sea) to eastern ones like Sheba (v. 23, the southern Arabian Peninsula), Asshur (v. 23, northern Mesopotamia), and Chilmad (v. 23, a reference to Media). You and your emphasize the central role of Tyre as an intermediary in these trade routes.
27.17 Judah and Israel provided agricultural goods. Minnith, if a place-name, lies outside Israelite territory (Judg 11.33). Wheat, oil, and honey are part of the standard inventory for the promised land; see, e.g., Deut 8.8. Hebrew pannag, translated millet, is uncertain; it may refer to a fig. Balm, resin from a tree; see Gen 37.25; 43.11; Jer 8.22; 46.11; 51.8.
27.25b–36 The poem resumes, in virtual narrative form.
27.25b–27 The ship founders; the entire cargo and crew are lost.
27.26 The east wind, a destructive agent attested elsewhere (Ps 48.7). Cf. Ezek 19.12; Jer 18.17.
27.28–36 The lament. Cf. 26.17–18. Poignantly, other mariners mourn the fate of those drowned.
27.32b The Hebrew is difficult. Alternately, “Who like Tyre like such silence” or, preferably, “Who may be compared to Tyre?”
27.33–35 The prominence of royalty (kings) in such international trade as well as the role of the seas in the destruction of the ship is emphasized.
EZEKIEL 28
Proclamation against the King of Tyre
1The word of the LORD came to me: 2Mortal, say to the prince of 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 the gods,
in the heart of the seas,”
yet you are but a mortal, and no god,
though you compare your mind
with the mind of a god.
3You are indeed wiser than Daniel;a
no secret is hidden from you;
4by your wisdom and your understanding
you have amassed wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
into your treasuries.
5By your great wisdom in trade
you have increased your wealth,
and your heart has become proud in your wealth.
6Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you compare your mind
with the mind of a god,
7therefore, I will bring strangers against you,
the most terrible of the nations;
they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendor.
8They shall thrust you down to the Pit,
and you shall die a violent death
in the heart of the seas.
9Will you still say, “I am a god,”
in the presence of those who kill you,
though you are but a mortal, and no god,
in the hands of those who wound you?
10You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
by the hand of foreigners;
for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.
Lamentation over the King of Tyre
11Moreover the word of the LORD came to me: 12Mortal, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD:
You were the signet of perfection,b
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire,c turquoise, and emerald;
and worked in gold were your settings
and your engravings.d
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
14With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you;e
you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked among the stones of fire.
15You were blameless in your ways
from the day that you were created,
until iniquity was found in you.
16In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and the guardian cherub drove you out
from among the stones of fire.
17Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I exposed you before kings,
to feast their eyes on you.
18By the multitude of your iniquities,
in the unrighteousness of your trade,
you profaned your sanctuaries.
So I brought out fire from within you;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of all who saw you.
19All who know you among the peoples
are appalled at you;
you have come to a dreadful end
and shall be no more forever.
Proclamation against Sidon
20The word of the LORD came to me: 21Mortal, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:
I am against you, O Sidon,
and I will gain glory in your midst.
They shall know that I am the LORD
when I execute judgments in it,
and manifest my holiness in it;
23for I will send pestilence into it,
and bloodshed into its streets;
and the dead shall fall in its midst,
by the sword that is against it on every side.
And they shall know that I am the LORD.
24The house of Israel shall no longer find a pricking brier or a piercing thorn among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Future Blessing for Israel
25Thus 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 soil that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26They shall live in safety in it, and shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall live in safety, 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.
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a Or, as otherwise read, Danel
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Or lapis lazuli
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
e Meaning of
Heb uncertain
28.1–10 Proclamation of indictment (vv. 2–6) and sentence (vv. 7–10) against the king of Tyre. The fate of the city is personified through the figure of its prince or ruler.
28.2 Your heart is proud, elsewhere explicitly an affront to God (Prov 16.5). The seat of the gods, related to Tyre’s island setting. El, head of the Canaanite pantheon, is described in Canaanite epic texts as dwelling “at the springs of two rivers, amid the channels of the double watery deep.” On such self-deification, cf. Isa 14.13–14. The deity’s response echoes language in Isa 31.3 and introduces the motif of wisdom.
28.3 On Daniel, see note on 14.12–20. The legendary king Danel was not only righteous but also wise, a typical attribute of kings (see 1 Kings 3; Isa 11.2). Ezekiel, however, admits that the prince was even wiser than Danel.
28.4–5 The working out of such wisdom results in vast wealth (cf. 1 Kings 10.14–22), which itself has engendered pride.
28.6 A recapitulation of the theme of self-deification (introduced inv. 2) and the conclusion of the indictment.
28.7 Cf. 26.7–12, which suggests that the strangers are the Neo-Babylonians.
28.8 The Pit. See note on 26.20; cf. 32.17–32.
28.10 The death of the uncircumcised, i.e., the fate of non-Israelites, particularly Mesopotamians, who did not practice the rite of circumcision, on which see 32.17–32.
28.11–19 Lamentation over the king of Tyre. The text is obscure at numerous points, though it seems clear that Ezekiel attests a variant form of the Eden story focusing on the expulsion of the king from the primal garden.
28.12 Signet, as in a royal signet ring. The initial perfection involves wisdom, beauty, and adornment.
28.13 Eden, here as in Gen 2.8, 10, is a place; cf. Gen 2.15. On the precious stones and metals, cf. Gen 2.11–12 and the description of the ephod, Ex 28.17–20.
28.14 The cherub functions here as a guardian of, not against, the human; cf. 10.2; esp. Gen 3.24. The holy mountain of God, the divine dwelling place, upon which in this tradition the divine garden was located; cf. Isa 14.13; Ps 48.13. Stones of fire, possibly the aforementioned gems (v. 13).
28.15–19 The imagery of expulsion focuses on removal from the mountain.
28.18 Instead of iniquity (v. 15) the poet now offers specific indictments: improper trade practices, defilement of sanctuaries. Punishment is multiple: being cast down, exposure, fire.
28.20–23 Pronouncement against Sidon, another Phoenician port, twenty-five miles north of Tyre. The two cities often occur as a formulaic pair, e.g., in Joel 3.4; Zech 9.2. The language is typical of other Ezekiel texts: I am against you (5.8), gain glory (39.13), execute judgments (5.10), pestilence (5.12). No specific reason is offered for the punishment of Sidon.
28.24–26 Conclusion to chs. 25–28.
28.24 The aforementioned Syro-Palestinian states are likened to briers and thorns, imagery used elsewhere to describe the pre-Israelite population of the land (Num 33.55; Josh 23.13) and as instruments of torture (Judg 8.7).
28.25–26 Oracle of return and renewal. God promises to bring back those who lived in exile, a theme elsewhere important to Ezekiel (11.17; 20.41; 34.13;39.27). On living in safety, see chs. 34, 36. The imagery of restoration is primarily rural and agricultural; cf. Isa 65.21 on the motif of building houses and planting vineyards.
EZEKIEL 29
Proclamation against Egypt
1In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:
I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.”
4I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.
I will draw you up from your channels,
with all the fish of your channels
sticking to your scales.
5I will fling you into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your channels;
you shall fall in the open field,
and not be gathered and buried.
To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air
I have given you as food.
6Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the LORD
because youa were a staff of reed
to the house of Israel;
7when they grasped you with the hand, you broke,
and tore all their shoulders;
and when they leaned on you, you broke,
and made all their legs unsteady.b
8Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you human being and animal; 9and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
Because youc said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” 10therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.d 11No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
13Further, thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered; 14and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16The Egyptianse shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel; they will recall their iniquity, when they turned to them for aid. Then they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt
17In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 18Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it. 19Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord GOD.
21On that day I will cause a horn to sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
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a Gk Syr Vg: Heb they
b Syr: Heb stand
c Gk Syr Vg: Heb he
d Or Nubia; Heb Cush
e Heb It
29.1–32.32 Seven pronouncements against Egypt and its rulers. As with his contemporary Jeremiah, Ezekiel addresses Egypt more than any other foreign state. Like Tyre, Egypt had remained outside the sway of God’s punitive force, the Neo-Babylonians; hence they, along with Israel, deserved judgment. All the pronouncements except 30.1–19 are prefaced by a date formula, which refers to Jehoiachin’s regnal years.
29.1 Tenth year…month, January 7, 587 BCE (see note on 1.2). This date precedes that in 26.1.
29.2 Pharaoh king of Egypt, Hophra (589–570 BCE).
29.3–7 A poem in which Pharaoh is likened to a great dragon, probably an allusion to a Nile crocodile. Because of boasting, Pharaoh will be captured and along with others—the fish of your channels (the various channels of the Nile)—will be destro
yed.
29.5 Not…buried, a violation of standard pharaonic funerary practice.
29.6 A staff of reed, a new image, that of the bulrush (cf. Isa 36.6), to depict the pharaoh.
29.7 When they grasped you, a reference to Judah’s unsuccessful alliance with Egypt against the Babylonians (cf. Jer 37).
29.8–9a Language of judgment typical of Ezekiel (cf. 14.13;25.13).
29.9b–16 Pharaoh’s boast (v. 3) is repeated, thereby allowing another statement of judgment that highlights the extent of destruction. Migdol, probably in the Nile Delta region. though the site is unknown; Syene, just north of the first cataract on the Nile; from Migdol to Syene is therefore a portion of the land signifying its entirety (cf. Hebrew, “from Dan to Beer-sheba,” e.g., Judg 20.1). Ethiopia (Hebrew, “Cush”), another reference to the southern border.
29.11 Forty years, a traditional number of years for national exile; cf. 4.6; Num 14.33.
29.13–16 Just as with Israel (11.17;20.34; 28.25), God will return Egypt to its land.
29.14 Pathros, a reference to Upper or southern Egypt. Egypt will be limited, as a lowly kingdom, to a smaller territory than it possessed under Hophra. Though a nation, Egypt will no longer be an empire; cf. Jer 46.26.
29.17–21 The second pronouncement is prefaced by the latest date in the book, later than the pronouncements that follow it, April 26, 571 BCE (v. 17; see note on 1.2).
29.18 Ezekiel refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s thirteen-year siege against Tyre, which ended ca. 573 BCE. This verse makes it clear that Nebuchadnezzar did not despoil Tyre (cf. 26.7–14).
29.19–20 Since Nebuchadnezzar had worked for God and without sufficient reward, he will be permitted to attack Egypt instead. Such an attack was launched in 568 BCE, again without conclusive results.
29.21 A horn. Cf. Ps 132.17, which suggests that the promise involves restoration of Davidic kingship. Open your lips, a reference to exercise of the prophetic role; cf. 16.63.
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