Ezekiel 26:20

20 I will send you to the pit to join those who descended there long ago. Your city will lie in ruins, buried beneath the earth, like those in the pit who have entered the world of the dead. You will have no place of respect here in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 26:20 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 26:20

When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the
pit
The grave, and make thee like to them: with the people of old time;
either the people of the old world, or, however, who have been dead long ago: and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth;
where the dead are laid: in places desolate of old:
long ago unfrequented by men; as such places be as are for the burial of the dead: with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited;
all the inhabitants being free among the dead; a heap of words made use of to express the same thing, for the confirmation of it; namely, that the condition of Tyre should be like that of dead men, who have been of old dead, and are remembered no more. Jarchi interprets the "pit", of hell; as if this respected their everlasting perdition, as well as temporal ruin; it may be applied to the beast which goeth into perdition, ( Revelation 17:8 ) : and I shall set glory in the land of the living;
in the land of Israel; so the Targum; and it is interpreted by the Jewish expositors and others the same way; and which may be called "the land of the living"; because the living God was worshipped in it; living men in a spiritual sense dwelt there, who offered up living sacrifices unto God, and who had the promise and pledge of eternal life; and which was the "glory" of all lands, as it is sometimes called, where the same word is used as here, ( Ezekiel 20:6 ) , which had its accomplishment in some respects at the Jews' return from Babylon; but, as Tyre here is a type of antichrist, it may be observed, that, at the time of his fall and destruction, God will put a glory upon his church and people, upon which there shall be a defence; see ( Isaiah 4:5 ) ( 60:1 ) . This is interpreted by the Talmudists F16 of the resurrection of the dead, when they that die in the land of Israel shall live.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Vid. Kimchi in loc. & T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 111. 1.

Ezekiel 26:20 In-Context

18 Now the coastlands tremble at your fall. The islands are dismayed as you disappear.
19 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will make Tyre an uninhabited ruin, like many others. I will bury you beneath the terrible waves of enemy attack. Great seas will swallow you.
20 I will send you to the pit to join those who descended there long ago. Your city will lie in ruins, buried beneath the earth, like those in the pit who have entered the world of the dead. You will have no place of respect here in the land of the living.
21 I will bring you to a terrible end, and you will exist no more. You will be looked for, but you will never again be found. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”
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