Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:
Tyrus - (Joshua 19:29, "the strong city of Tyre;" 2 Samuel 24:7) literally meaning 'the rock-city.' х Tsor (H6865)] - a name applying to the island-Tyre, called New Tyre, 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 Shalmanneser of Assyria, for five years besieging it (Menander, from the Tyrian archives, quoted by Josephus, 'Antiquities,' 9: 14: 2:) It was the stronger and more important of the two cities, and is the one chiefly, though not exclusively, here meant. Tyre was originally a colony of Zidon. Nebuchadnezzar's siege of it lasted 13 years (Ezekiel 29:18; Isaiah 23:1.) Though no profane author mentions his having succeeded in the siege, Jerome states he read the fact in Assyrian histories. Aha!-exultation over a fallen rival (Psalms 25:21,25).
She is broken that was the gates of the people - i:e., the single gate, composed of two folding doors. Hence, the verb is singular. "Gates" were the place of resort for traffic and public business: so here it expresses a mart of commerce frequented by merchants. JERUSALEM was such a mart in relation to the inland traffic. Tyre regards Jerusalem not as an open enemy, for her territory being the narrow, long strip of land, north of Philistia, between mount Lebanon and the sea, her interest was to cultivate friendly relations with the Jews, on whom she was dependent for grain (Ezekiel 27:17, "Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat," etc.; so Solomon supplied Hiram king of Tyre with "food for his household," 1 Kings 5:9; and "they of Tyre and Sidon came with one accord to Herod, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country," Acts 12:20). But Jerusalem had intercepted some of the inland traffic, which she wished to monopolize to herself; so, in her intensely selfish worldly-mindedness, she exulted heartlessly over the fall of Jerusalem as her own gain. Hence, she incurred the wrath of God as preeminently the world's representative in its ambition, selfishness, and pride, in defiance of the will of God (Isaiah 23:9).
She is turned unto me - i:e., the mart of corn, wine, oil, balsam, etc., which she once was, is transferred to She is turned unto me - i:e., the mart of corn, wine, oil, balsam, etc., which she once was, is transferred 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.