Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Ezekiel-Chapter 27

Ezek 27.1-36 gives Tyre’s former glory and riches, and then goes on to predict her ruin and destruction, using the metaphor of a ship.

v 1…Moreover, the word of the Lord (Yehovah) came to me saying,

v 2…”And you, son of man (Ezekiel is a human being representing the people), take up a lamentation over Tyre (a song of mourning);

v 3…and say to Tyre, who dwells at the entrance to the sea (a harbor, ports), merchant of the peoples to many coastlands (commercially), ‘Thus says the Lord God (Adonai Yehovah), “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty (a good foundation, walls, towers, streets in good order, etc).

v 4…Your borders are in the heart of the seas (this is the island Tyre not the mainland Tyre, that is why the metaphor of a ship is used);

v 5…They have made all your planks of fir trees from Senir (Lebanon); they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.

v 6…Of oaks from Bashan they have made your oars (famous for this in the Golan); with ivory they have inlaid your deck of boxwood from the coastlands of Cyprus (Kittim, and Kittim will be an idiom in Jewish sources for Rome and later Christianity which came out of Rome).

v 7…Your sail was of fine embroidered linen from Egypt so that it became your distinguishing mark (in order to be recognized); your awning (covering) was blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah (“God the coming one” and is Grecian-Gen 10.4).

v 8…The inhabitants of Sidon (hunting) and Arvad were your rowers (sailors, mariners); your wise men, O Tyre, were abroad, they were your pilots (captains and officers).

v 9…The elders of Gebal and her wise men were with you repairing your seams (carpenters-1 Kings 5.32 says they had the skill); all the ships of the sea and their sailors were with you in order to deal in your merchandise (brought goods to her).

v 10…Persia and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war (mercenaries). They hung shield and helmet in you (had forts and garrisons, towers, etc.); they set forth your splendor (maintained the glory of Tyre).

v 11…The sons of Arvad (in defense) and the Gammadim (brave ones) were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls all around, they perfected your beauty (completed the beauty of her military and militia).

v 12…Tarshish (or “Tartessus” in Spain) was your customer because of the abundance of all kinds of wealth; the silver, iron, tin, and lead, they paid for your wares (exchanged their wealth).

v 13…Javan (Greece), Tubal, and Meshech (both between the Black and Caspian sea-Russian area now), they were your traders; with the lives of men (for slaves) and vessels of bronze they paid for your merchandise.

v 14…Those from Beth-togarmah (Turkey) gave horses and war horses and mules for your wares (they specialized in horses).

v 15…The sons of Dedan (Arabia-Gen 10.7) were your traders. Many coastlands were your market; ivory tusks and ebony (a dark wood) they brought as your payment.

v 16…Syria was your customer because of the abundance of your goods; they paid for your wares with emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies.

v 17…Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders (being near to them); with the wheat of Minnith (Judges 11.33), pannag (cakes), honey, oil, and balm they paid for your merchandise.

v 18…And Damascus was your customer because of the abundance of your goods, because of the abundance of all kinds of wealth, because of the wine of Helbon and white wool.

v 19…Vedan (a tribe and land not known in the Tanak) and Javan paid for your wares from Uzal; wrought iron, cassia, and seed cane were among your merchandise.

v 20…Dedan traded with you in saddlecloths for riding (used to cover chariots).

v 21…Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were your customers for lambs, rams, and goats; for these they were your customers (these traders supplied these with their products).

v 22…The traders of Sheba and Raamah, they traded with you; they paid for your wares with the best of all kinds of spices, and with precious stones, and gold (Psa 72.15).

v 23…Haran, Canneh, Eden, the traders of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you.

v 24…They traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of many colors, and tightly wound cords, which were among your merchandise.

v 25…The ships of Tarshish were carriers of your merchandise. and you were filled and were glorious in the heart of the seas (with great riches and great buildings and towers).

v 26…Your rowers have brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas (Nebuchadnezzar was like a fatal storm).

v 27…Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise, your sailors, and your pilots, your repairers of seams, your dealers in merchandise, and all your men of war who are in you, with all your company that is in your midst, will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your overthrow.

v 28…At the sound of the cry of your pilots the pasture lands (in the suburbs) will shake.

v 29…And all who handle the oar, the sailors, and the pilots of the sea will come down from their ships; they will stand on the land (none left to trade with),

v 30…and they will make their voice heard over you and will cry bitterly (because their livelihood was gone). They will cast dust on their heads, they will wallow in ashes (in mourning).

v 31…Also they will make themselves bald (a pagan and forbidden mourning practice) for you and gird themselves with sackcloth; and they will weep for you in bitterness of soul.

v 32…Moreover, in their wailing they will take up a lamentation for you and lament over you: ‘Who is like Tyre, like her who is silent in the midst of the sea (now that Tyre is destroyed)?

v 33…When your wares went out from the sea, you satisfied many peoples; with the abundance of your wealth and your merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth (they traded costly and rich merchandise).

v 34…Now that you are broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company have fallen in the midst of you (her citizens are included in Yehovah’s judgment).

v 35…All the inhabitants of the coastlands are appalled at you (all who benefited from her commerce), and their kings are horribly afraid; they are troubled in countenance (they are afraid they may share the same fate).

v 36…The merchants among the peoples hiss at you (as Tyre had done to Jerusalem when it fell-Ezek 26.2); you have become terrified (struck with awe), and you will be no more (built on the same spot or with its previous glory, and it hasn’t even to this day).’ ”

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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