Ezekiel 26:15,16 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre, “Will not the isles/coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you? Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their bordered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment and be appalled at you.” '

The description of their tragedy goes on. Those to whom their seamen regularly sailed, and especially their own colonies, (Tyre had colonies in many Mediterranean coastal regions such as Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and Africa), will learn the news of their fall and tremble, and the isles and distant coastlands, the island and city states on the Mediterranean seaboard, themselves will shake when Tyre falls, an exaggerated description of the cataclysmic nature of their fall. The groans of the wounded will, as it were, reach out to them. Then these princes across the sea (the princes of the colonies, and the merchant princes who benefited by them), will mourn for them, stripping off their ordinary clothing and clothing themselves with trembling, i.e. mourning clothes and mourning rites. They will be totally appalled. Such was the myth of Tyre.

Ezekiel 26:15-16

15 Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling;c they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.