Ezekiel 28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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.

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.

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.

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, Συ αποσφραγισμα ομοιωσεως, και στεφανος καλλους, Thou, as appears by this verse, compared with Amos 6:4: a custom which was continued in after times as is evident by divers passages in the gospels, read in the original, which speak, not of persons sitting, but lying down, or reclining, at meat. As the prophet here speaks of their laying themselves down by every altar, it is manifest he refers to the feasts which were made of part of their idolatrous sacrifices, and were eaten in some of the apartments of their temples, according to the custom both of the Jews and Gentiles. And the prophet reproves them for three abuses. 1st, That they kept the clothes which they had received as pledges from the poor, contrary to the law, which commanded that the clothes received in pledge should be returned by the going down of the sun: see Exodus 22:6. 2d, That they made feasts in the houses, or temples, of their idols, or golden calves, no longer coming to the temple at Jerusalem; and, as if to insult the holiness of God's laws, and to carry the marks of their iniquity even to the feet of their altars, they sat down in their temples upon the garments which they had received in pledge from the poor. 3d, That they caroused at the expense of those on whom they had unjustly laid fines, or, as it is expressed in the text, They drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their god As drink-offerings, made with wine, were a necessary part of the sacrifices, so some portion of these was likewise reserved for the entertainments that followed. And this the prophet here signifies was bought with the fines or mulcts laid on the innocent.

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries Thy throne, palace, judgment-seats. The word מקדשׁ, 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.

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.

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.