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?
Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall? The impression is herein noticed which the overthrow of Tyre produced on other maritime nations and upon her own colonies, e.g., Utica, Carthage, and Tartessus or Tarshish in Spain.
The isles - maritime lands. Even mighty Carthage used to send a yearly offering to the temple of Hercules at Tyre; and the mother-city gave high priests to her colonies. Hence, the consternation at her fall felt in the widely-scattered dependencies, with which she was so closely connected by the ties of religion, as well as commercial contact.
Shake - metaphorically: be agitated (Jeremiah 49:21, "The earth is moved at the noise of their fall").
Verse 16. All the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones ... they shall sit upon the ground - "The throne of the mourners" (Job 2:13; John 3:6). The "princes of the sea" are the merchant rulers of Carthage and other colonies of Tyre, who had made themselves rich and powerful by trading on the sea (Isaiah 23:8).
They shall clothe themselves with trembling - Hebrew, 'tremblings.' (Compare Ezekiel 7:27, "Clothed with desolation;" Psalms 132:18. In a public calamity the garment was changed for a mourning garb.)
Verse 17. How art thou destroyed that wast inhabited of seafaring men - i:e, which wast frequented by merchants of various sea-bordering lands (Grotius). Fairbairn translates х nowshebet (H3427) miyamiym (H3220)], with Peshito, 'Thou inhabitant of the seas.' The Hebrew literally means either this, or else 'inhabited on account of the seas,'-namely, on account of the facilities afforded for traffic by the seas on which it was situated. Tyre rose as it were out of the seas, as if she got thence her inhabitants, being populated so closely down to the waters. So Venice was called 'the bride of the sea.'
Which wast strong in the sea - through her insular position.
She and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! - namely, the sea. The Hebrew is rather, 'they put their terror upon all her (the city's) inhabitants' - i:e., they make the name of every Tyrian to be feared (Fairbairn).
Verse 18. The isles ... shall be troubled at thy departure - Isaiah 23:6; Isaiah 23:12, predicts that the Tyrians, in consequence of the siege, should pass over the Mediterranean to the lands bordering on it, ("Chittim," "Tarshish," etc.) So Ezekiel implies here. Accordingly Jerome says that he read in Assyrian histories that, 'when the Tyrians saw no hope of escaping, they fled to Carthage or some islands of the Ionian and AEgean seas' (Dr. Newton). (See the note at Ezekiel 29:18.) Grotius explains "departure," - i:e., 'in the day when hostages shall be carried away from thee to Babylon.' The parallelism to "thy fall" makes me think "departure" must mean 'thy end' in general, but with an included allusion to the "departure" of most of her people to her colonies at the fall of the city.
Verse 19. Great waters shall cover thee - appropriate metaphor of the Babylonian host, which literally, by breaking down insular Tyre's ramparts, caused the sea to "cover" part of her. Verse 20. When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit. Tyre's disappearance is compared to that of the dead placed in their sepulchre and no more seen among the living (cf. Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:23; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 14:15; Isaiah 14:19).
I shall set glory in the land of the living. In contrast to Tyre consigned to the "pit" of death, I shall set in Judah glory (i:e., my presence, symbolized by the Shekinah cloud of glory, the antitype to which shall be Messiah, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father," John 1:14; Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 4:5; Zechariah 6:13, "He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne").
Of the living - as opposed to Tyre consigned to the "pit" of death, Judea is to be the land of national and spiritual life, being restored after its captivity (Ezekiel 47:9, "They shall be healed; and every thing shall live where the river cometh"). Fairbairn loses the antithesis by applying the negative to both clauses, 'and that thou be not set as a glory in the land of the living.'
Verse 21. I will make thee a terror - an example of judgment, calculated to terrify all evil-doers. What a contrast to the time when "she caused her terror to be on all that haunt the sea"! (Ezekiel 26:17.)
Thou shalt be no more - not that presently there was to be no more a Tyre, but she was no more to be the Tyre that once she was: her glory and name were to be no more. As to Old Tyre the prophecy was literally fulfilled, not a vestige of it being left.
Remarks:
(1) The sin of commercial nations, such as Tyre was anciently and England is in our days, is not merely the frauds practiced by some, or even many, but mainly the spirit of selfishness and worldliness which is almost universal in such communities. Thus, in the instance of Tyre, while she had maintained friendly relations with Judah and Jerusalem, as suited her interest, in the time of their prosperity, yet when their calamity came she rejoiced over their fall, as that of a rival in respect to the commerce of the East. Jerusalem had intercepted some of the inland traffic which she wished to monopolize wholly to herself, and therefore, with the intense selfishness which characterizes the worldly mind, she heartlessly exulted over Jerusalem's misery as her own gain. Though men may, like Tyre, do their fellow-men no direct injury, yet if they are secretly glad at the downfall of others, and especially of the people of God, they incur grievous guilt. To cherish a feeling of pleasure at the misfortunes or death of a rival, or of any one by whose fall we think to rise or be gainers, is not an uncommon feeling, and is but little censured in the world. But in the eyes of God it is a very serious provocation of His displeasure; because it is of the essence of the pride, selfishness, and love of the world as our portion, which the love of God is utterly incompatible with. Therefore, Tyre is made an awful example of, as being the embodiment of the self-seeking ambition and covetousness of the world which God abhors.
(2) The Lord hath said, "He that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished" (Proverbs 17:5). Impregnable as New Tyre seemed to herself, being surrounded by the sea and founded a rock, she nevertheless fell before the "many nations" which the Lord "caused to come up against her" as the waves that washed her ramparts (Ezekiel 26:3). Since God was "against her" (Ezekiel 26:3), what defense could avail for her? She had thought to scrape all the wealth of the East together through the fall of Jerusalem; but God was about to dismantle her of everything. yea, even to scrape her very dust from her, and leave the rock on which she was built in its primitive nakedness (Ezekiel 26:4). Many of the maxims and ways of the trading world are against the laws of God; therefore God is also against them. Let us beware of the love of gain and a selfish regard to our worldly interest, which harden the heart and blind the conscience and moral perceptions, and at last destroy the soul interest, which harden the heart and blind the conscience and moral perceptions, and at last destroy the soul forever.
(3) When Ezekiel uttered his prophecy, nothing seemed more improbable than that Tyre should fall; because she had some time before withstood Shalmaneser and the powerful armies of Assyria, and there was every human reason to think she would similarly withstand Nebuchadnezzar and the forces of Babylon. But God had revealed to the prophet His decree which delegated the universal world-empire under God to the Babylonian king as "a king of kings" (Ezekiel 26:7). No defense of Tyre, therefore, should avail against Nebuchadnezzar. Her "riches," in which she trusted, should be the very cause of her fall, by tempting his cupidity. Her "merchandise," the pursuit of which had led her to exult over the fall of Jerusalem as that of a rival, should be "a spoil" and "a prey." Her pleasant houses should be laid, "stones, timber, and dust, in the midst of the water" (Ezekiel 26:12). Her music and mirth should cease; and the site of her palaces should become "a place to spread nets upon" (Ezekiel 26:14). By a series of successive overthrows in different ages all this has exactly come to pass. Hence, let us learn that no word of the Lord shall ever fail, however unlikely the event may seem to man. Every fresh fulfillment of Scripture prophecy should confirm our faith. Let us avoid the sins of Tyre, that we may escape her punishment.
(4) The fall of Tyre spread consternation among her dependencies far and near, which had been connected with the mother-country by the ties of commerce and a common idolatry, as Tartessus, Utica, and Carthage. All earthly greatness is passing away; and all whose sole or chief portion is the world she ere long, like Tyre's "princes of the sea," come down from their eminence to the ground, and instead of robes of state "shall clothe themselves with trembling" (Ezekiel 26:16). The ties which combine earthly potentates, nations, and families shall soon be snapped asunder. Let us see that we as united with the family of God by the tie of faith and love, which shall never be dissolved.
(5) Tyre, once so strong that she "caused her terror to be on all that haunt the sea" (Ezekiel 26:17), was made to become "a terror" herself, to warn all of the evil consequences of her sins (Ezekiel 26:21). Brought down to the pit of destruction (Ezekiel 26:20), she teaches us how little cause we have for glorying in gain and riches, which cost anxiety in the getting and the keeping, and which excite the envy and cupidity of others, and often are the sources of sin and sorrow to the possessor.
(6) In contrast to Tyre's transitory glory, and her very existence brought to a perpetual death, stands Yahweh's promise, "I shall set glory in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 26:20). Judah, restored hereafter to political and religious life in her own land, shall have Yahweh as "a wall of fire round about, and the glory in the midst of her" (Zechariah 2:5). That this blessed consummation may soon come to pass, should be our constant prayer, while we for ourselves are careful that, by a living faith in Him who is the brightness of the Father's glory, we may be numbered among the saints in glory everlasting!