Ezekiel 26

1 On February 3, during the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD :

2 “Son of man, Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir! Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy!’

3 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am your enemy, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the waves of the sea crashing against your shoreline.

4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. I will scrape away its soil and make it a bare rock!

5 It will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their nets, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign LORD . Tyre will become the prey of many nations,

6 and its mainland villages will be destroyed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD .

7 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: From the north I will bring King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against Tyre. He is king of kings and brings his horses, chariots, charioteers, and great army.

8 First he will destroy your mainland villages. Then he will attack you by building a siege wall, constructing a ramp, and raising a roof of shields against you.

9 He will pound your walls with battering rams and demolish your towers with sledgehammers.

10 The hooves of his horses will choke the city with dust, and the noise of the charioteers and chariot wheels will shake your walls as they storm through your broken gates.

11 His horsemen will trample through every street in the city. They will butcher your people, and your strong pillars will topple.

12 “They will plunder all your riches and merchandise and break down your walls. They will destroy your lovely homes and dump your stones and timbers and even your dust into the sea.

13 I will stop the music of your songs. No more will the sound of harps be heard among your people.

14 I will make your island a bare rock, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the LORD, have spoken. Yes, the Sovereign LORD has spoken!

15 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Tyre: The whole coastline will tremble at the sound of your fall, as the screams of the wounded echo in the continuing slaughter.

16 All the seaport rulers will step down from their thrones and take off their royal robes and beautiful clothing. They will sit on the ground trembling with horror at your destruction.

17 Then they will wail for you, singing this funeral song: “O famous island city, once ruler of the sea, how you have been destroyed! Your people, with their naval power, once spread fear around the world.

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!”

Ezekiel 26 Commentary

Chapter 26

A prophecy against Tyre.

Verses 1-14 To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely to get by it; or with their fall, when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that easily besets us, yet is not thought so bad as really it is. But it comes from a selfish, covetous principle, and from that love of the world as our happiness, which the love of God expressly forbids. He often blasts the projects of those who would raise themselves on the ruin of others. The maxims most current in the trading world, are directly opposed to the law of God. But he will show himself against the money-loving, selfish traders, whose hearts, like those of Tyre, are hardened by the love of riches. Men have little cause to glory in things which stir up the envy and rapacity of others, and which are continually shifting from one to another; and in getting, keeping, and spending which, men provoke that God whose wrath turns joyous cities into ruinous heaps.

Verses 15-21 See how high, how great Tyre had been. See how low Tyre is made. The fall of others should awaken us out of security. Every discovery of the fulfilment of a Scripture prophecy, is like a miracle to confirm our faith. All that is earthly is vanity and vexation. Those who now have the most established prosperity, will soon be out of sight and forgotten.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar year. Since an element is missing in the date formula here, scholars have reconstructed this probable reading: In the eleventh [month of the twelfth] year, on the first day of the month. This reading would put this message on February 3, 585 ; also see note on 1:1 .
• [b]. Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 26

This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of Tyre. The time of the prophecy, Eze 26:1, the cause of the destruction of it, rejoicing at the ruin of Jerusalem, Eze 26:2, the instruments of it, many nations, particularly the king of Babylon, Eze 26:3-7, the manner in which it shall be done, Eze 26:8-14, the lamentation of other isles, and the princes of them, on account of it, Eze 26:15-18, the utter destruction of it, so as never to be found any more, Eze 26:19-21.