Ezekiel 27

Ezekiel 27:1-36 . TYRE'S FORMER GREATNESS, SUGGESTING A LAMENTATION OVER HER SAD DOWNFALL.

2. lamentation--a funeral dirge, eulogizing her great attributes, to make the contrast the greater between her former and her latter state.

3. situate at the entry of the sea--literally, plural, "entrances," that is, ports or havens; referring to the double port of Tyre, at which vessels entered round the north and south ends of the island, so that ships could find a ready entrance from whatever point the wind might blow (compare Ezekiel 28:2 ).
merchant of . . . people for many isles--that is, a mercantile emporium of the peoples of many seacoasts, both from the east and from the west ( Isaiah 23:3 ), "a mart of nations."
of perfect beauty--( Ezekiel 28:12 ).

4. Tyre, in consonance with her seagirt position, separated by a strait of half a mile from the mainland, is described as a ship built of the best material, and manned with the best mariners and skilful pilots, but at last wrecked in tempestuous seas ( Ezekiel 27:26 ).

5. Senir--the Amorite name of Hermon, or the southern height of Anti-libanus ( Deuteronomy 3:9 ); the Sidonian name was Sirion. "All thy . . . boards"; dual in Hebrew, "double-boards," namely, placed in a double order on the two sides of which the ship consisted [VATABLUS]. Or, referring to the two sides or the two ends, the prow and the stern, which every ship has [MUNSTER].
cedars--most suited for "masts," from their height and durability.

6. Bashan--celebrated for its oaks, as Lebanon was for its cedars.
the company of . . . Ashurites--the most skilful workmen summoned from Assyria. Rather, as the Hebrew orthography requires, "They have made thy (rowing) benches of ivory inlaid in the daughter of cedars" [MAURER], or, the best boxwood. FAIRBAIRN, with BOCHART, reads the Hebrew two words as one: "Thy plankwork (deck: instead of 'benches,' as the Hebrew is singular) they made ivory with boxes." English Version, with MAURER'S correction, is simpler.
Chittim--Cyprus and Macedonia, from which, PLINY tells us, the best boxwood came [GROTIUS].

7. broidered . . . sail--The ancients embroidered their sails often at great expense, especially the Egyptians, whose linen, still preserved in mummies, is of the finest texture.
Elishah--Greece; so called from Elis, a large and ancient division of Peloponnesus. Pausanias says that the best of linen was produced in it, and in no other part of Greece; called by HOMER, Alisium.
that which covered thee--thy awning.

8. Arvad--a small island and city near Phoenicia, now Ruad: its inhabitants are still noted for seafaring habits.
thy wise men, O Tyrus . . . thy pilots--While the men of Arvad, once thy equals ( Genesis 10:18 ), and the Sidonians, once thy superiors, were employed by thee in subordinate positions as "mariners," thou madest thine own skilled men alone to be commanders and pilots. Implying the political and mercantile superiority of Tyre.

9. Gebal--a Phoenician city and region between Beirut and Tripoils, famed for skilled workmen ( 1 Kings 5:18 , Margin; Psalms 83:7 ).
calkers--stoppers of chinks in a vessel: carrying on the metaphor as to Tyre.
occupy thy merchandise--that is, to exchange merchandise with thee.

10. Persia . . . Phut--warriors from the extreme east and west.
Lud--the Lydians of Asia Minor, near the Meander, famed for archery ( Isaiah 66:19 ); rather than those of Ethiopia, as the Lydians of Asia Minor form a kind of intermediate step between Persia and Phut (the Libyans about Cyrene, shielded warriors, Jeremiah 46:9 , descended from Phut, son of Ham).
hanged . . . shield . . . comeliness--Warriors hanged their accoutrements on the walls for ornament. Divested of the metaphor, it means that it was an honor to thee to have so many nations supplying thee with hired soldiers.

11. Gammadims--rather, as the Tyrians were Syro-Phoenicians, from a Syriac root, meaning daring, "men of daring" [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. It is not likely the keeping of watch "in the towers" would have been entrusted to foreigners. Others take it from a Hebrew root, "a dagger," or short sword ( Judges 3:16 ), short-swordsmen."