Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
TIte Jtulc/mail of Tyre. EZERIEL XXVI. Tlie Power of Nebwhadneizor. liereditary grudge in the posterity of Esan, when they one of particular note, viz., the ^ftmrth month, also the fifth, on which it was actually destroyed (Jeremiah 52. 6, 12, 13), Rabhi-David reasonably supposes that Tyre uttered her taunt at the close of the fourth month, as her nearness to Jerusalem enabled her to hear of its fall very soon, and that Ezekiel met it with his threat against herself on "the first day" of the fifth month, ti. Tyre—(Joshua fca,\\- llio younger branch rising to the pre-eminence which tliey thouglit of riglit heloasjed to tliemselves. More recvnlly, for David's subjugation of Edoni to Israel (2 Samuel 8. U). They therefore gave vent to their spite by joinlug the Chaldeans in destroying Jerusalem (Psalm 137.7; Lamentations i. 22; Obadiali H>-1-1), and then intercepting and killing the fugitive Jews (Amos 1. 11), and occupying part of the Jewish land as far as to Hebron. 13. Teinnn
19. 29; 2 Samuel 24. 7), lit., meaning "the rock-city,"
JSor ; a name applying to the island Tyre, called New Tyro, rather than Old Tyre on the mainland. They were half a mile apart. New Tyre, a century and a half before the fall of Jerusalem, had successfully resisted Shalmaneser of Assyria, for live years besieging it (MeNANDKK, from the Tyrian archives, quoted by Josbphus, . . . tlw-y of DlKiii—rather, "I will make it desolate from Tenian (in the south) even to Dedau" (in the north-west)
[Grotiu.s], (Jeremiah 49. 8), t. e., the whole country from north to south, stret<:hing from the south of the Deiul Sea to the Elanitic gulf of the Ucd Sea. 14. by . . . i«>' people Jm-ael—va., by Ju<las Maccabeus. The Idumcans were linally, by compulsory circumcision, incorporated with the Jewish state by Jolm fiyrcanus (see Isaiah 31. 5; Anli()ui:iies, 9. 14. 2). It was the stronger and more important of the two cities, and is the one chiefly, though not exclusively, here meant. Tj-re was originally a colony of Zidoii. Nebucha<lnezz!ir's siege of it lasted thirteen years
63. 1, itc. ; 1 Maccabees 3. 3). So complete was the amalgamation ill Christ's time, that the Herods of Idumean ori- (ch. 29. IS; Isaiah -li). Though no profane author mentions his having succeeded in the siege, Jeuome states he gin, as Jews, ruled over the two races as one people. Thus the ancient prophecy was fullilled (Genesis 25. 23), "The elder shall serve the younger." 15. (I Samuel 13., re.ad the fact in Assyrian histories. Alia!—exultation over a fallen rival (Psalm 35. 21, 25). she . . . thatwasthe gates i. e., the si ngle gate composed of two folding doors. Hence the verb is sin<ji Uar. "Gates" were the place of 14.; 2 Chronicles 2S. IS.) Tlie"old hatred" refers to their coutiiiual enmity to llie covenant people. They lay along Judea on the sea-coast at the opposite side from Amnion and iloab. They were overthrown by Uzziah (2 Chroniresort for traffic and public business: so here it expresses a mart of commerce frequented by merchants. Tyre regards Jerusalem not as an open enemy, for her territory being the narrosv, long strip of land north of Philistia, between Mount Lebunou and the .sea, her interest was to cultivate friendly relations with the Jews, on whom she was dependent for corn (ch. 27. 17; 1 Kings 5. 9; Acts 12. 20). But Jerusalem liad intercepted some of the inland tiafflc which .she wished to monopolize to herself; so, in her intensely selrisli worklly-mindedness, she exulted heartlessly over the fall of Jerusalem as her own gain. Hence she incurred the wrath of God as pre-eminently the world's representative in its ambition, selfishness and pride, in defiance of the will of God (Isaiah 23. 9). she is tnrned unto me— t. e., the mart of corn, wine, oil, balsam, Ac, whieli she once was, is ti'ansferred to me. The caravans from Palmyra, Petra, and the East will no longer be intercepted by the market (" the gates") of Jerusalem, but will come to me. 3, 4. nations ... as the sea . . . waves—In striking contrast to the boasting of Tyre, God threatens to bring against her Babylon's army levied from "many nations," even as the Mediterranean wave.= that dashed against her rock-founded city on all sides, scrape her dust . . . make her . . . top of . . . rock—or, "a bare rock." [Gkotius.] The soil which the Tyrlans had brought together upon the rock on which they built their city, 1 will scrape .so clean away as to leave no dust, but only the liare rock as it was. An awful contrast to her expectation of tilling herself with all the wealth of the East now that .Jerusalem has fallen. 5. in the midst of the sea—plainly referring to New Tyre (ch. 27. .'52). 6. her daughters . . . in tike Held—t. e., the surrounding villages dependent on her in the open country, shall share the late of the mother-city. 7. from the north—the original locality of the Chaldeans; also, the direction by which they entered Palestine, taking the route of Riblah and Hamatli on the Orontes, in preference to that across the desert between Babylon and Judea. king of kings—so called because of the many kings who owned allegiance to him (2 Kings IS. 2S). God had delegated to him the universal earth-empire which is His (Daniel 2. 47). The Son of God alone has the right and title inherently, and shall assume cles 2(i. (i), and by Hezekiali (2 Kings 18. 8). Nebuchadnezzar overran the cities on the sea-coast on his way to Egypt after besieging Tyre (Jeremiah 17). God will take vengeance on those who take the avenging of themselves out of His hands into their own (liomans 12. 19-21; James 2.
13). IG. cut off tlie ClieretHilms—There is a play on similar sounds in the Hebrew, "Hichratti Cherethim," I will slay the slajjers. The name may have been given to a section of the Philistines from their warlike disposition (1 Samuel 30. 14; 31. 3). They e.\;celled in archery, whence David enrolled a body-guard from them (2 Samuel 8. 18; 1.5. IS; 20. 7.) They sprang from Caphtor, identified by many with Crete, which was famed for archery, and to which the ntxme jChere.lhim seems akin. Though in emigration, wliich mostly tended westwards, Crete seems more likely to be colonized from Philistia than Philistia from Crete, a section of Cretans may have settled at Cherethim in South Philistia, whilst the Philistines, as a nation, may have come originally from the East (cf. Deuteronomy 2.23; Jeremiah 47.4; Amos 9. 7; Zephaniah 2.
5). In Genesis 10. 14 the Philistines are made distinct from Vie Cap?dorim, und are said to come from the Casluhim; so that tlie Cherethim were but a part of the Philistines, which 1 Samuel 30. 14 confirms, remnant of—i. e., "on. the sea-coast" of the Mediterranean: those left remaining after the former overthrows inflicted by Samuel, David, Hezekiah, and P.sammetichus of Egypt, father of Pharaoh-necho (Jeremiah 25. 20). 17. know . . . vengeance —they shall know me, not in mercy, but by my vengeance on them (Psalm 9. 16).
CHAPTER XXVI.
Ver. 1-21. The Judgment on Tyue through NebuCHADNEZZAK (Ciis. 26.-28). In ch. 20., Ezekiel sets forth :—
1. Tyre's sin; 2. its doom; 3. the instruments of executing
St; 4. tlie effects proiluced on other nations by her downfall. In ch. 27., a lamentation over the fall of such earthly Bplendour. In ch. 28., an elegy addressed to the king, on the humiliation of his sacrilegious pride. Ezekiel, in his prophecies as to the heathen, exhibits the dark side only it when the world-kings shall liave been fully proved as abusers of the trust (1 Timothy 6. 15; Revelation 17. 12-14; because he views them simply in their hostility to the people of God, which shall outlive them all. Isaiah
19. 15, 16). Ezekiel's prophecy was not based on conjecture from the past, for Shalraaneser, with all the might of the Assyrian empire, had failed in his siege of Tyre. Yet Nebuchadnezzar was to succeed. Josephus tells ua that Nebuchadnezzar began the siege in the seventh year of Ithobal's reign, king of Tyre. 9. engines of war—lit., " an apparatus for striking.'' " He shall apply llie stroke of the battering-ram against thy walls." HAVEitNiCK trans- (Isaiali 23.), on the other hand, at the close of judgments, holds out t he prospect of blessing, when Tyre should turn to the Lord. 1. The specification of the date, which had been omitted in the case of the four preceding objects of Judgment, marks the greater weight attached to the fall of Tyre, eleventh year—mz., after the carrying away of Jehoiachin, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. The number of the month is, however, omitted, and the day only given. As the month of the taking of Jerusalem was regarded as lates, "His enginery of destruction;" lit., the destruction (not merely ilie atrok?) of his enginery." axes—lit., swoi-oa,