Ezekiel 26:20

20 I will lead you down into the pit, to the everlasting people. I will install you in the world below, in the everlasting ruins, with those who go down to the pit. And so you will neither rule nor radiate splendor 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 wastelands tremble on the day of your fall. Your expulsion horrifies the islands of the sea.
19 The LORD God proclaims: When I turn you into ruins like uninhabitable cities, when the deep sea washes over you and the raging seas cover you,
20 I will lead you down into the pit, to the everlasting people. I will install you in the world below, in the everlasting ruins, with those who go down to the pit. And so you will neither rule nor radiate splendor in the land of the living.
21 I will terrify you, and you will disappear. You will be sought but never found again. This is what the LORD God says.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or the land of the lowest places
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