Worthy.Bible » DARBY » Ezekiel » Chapter 26 » Verse 16

Ezekiel 26:16 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

16 And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble [every] moment, and be astonied because of thee.

Cross Reference

Ezekiel 32:10 DARBY

And I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid at thee, when I brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, each one for his life, in the day of thy fall.

Jonah 3:6 DARBY

And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Hosea 11:10 DARBY

They shall walk after Jehovah; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the children shall hasten from the west:

Job 8:22 DARBY

They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked be no more.

1 Peter 5:5 DARBY

Likewise [ye] younger, be subject to [the] elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against [the] proud, but to [the] humble gives grace.

Isaiah 3:26 DARBY

and her gates shall lament and mourn; and, stripped, she shall sit upon the ground.

Psalms 35:26 DARBY

Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine adversity; let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.

Ezekiel 7:8 DARBY

Now will I soon pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger against thee; and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

Revelation 18:11-19 DARBY

And the merchants of the earth weep and grieve over her, because no one buys their lading any more; lading of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearl, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet dye, and all thyine wood, and every article in ivory, and every article in most precious wood, and in brass, and in iron, and in marble, and cinnamon, and amomum, and incense, and unguent, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and of horses, and of chariots, and of bodies, and souls of men. And the ripe fruits which were the lust of thy soul have departed from thee, and all fair and splendid things have perished from thee, and they shall not find them any more at all. The merchants of these things, who had been enriched through her, shall stand afar off through fear of her torment, weeping and grieving, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, which [was] clothed with fine linen and purple and scarlet, and had ornaments of gold and precious stones and pearls! for in one hour so great riches has been made desolate. And every steersman, and every one who sailed to any place, and sailors, and all who exercise their calling on the sea, stood afar off, and cried, seeing the smoke of her burning, saying, What [city] is like to the great city? and cast dust upon their heads, and cried, weeping and grieving, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all that had ships in the sea were enriched through her costliness! for in one hour she has been made desolate.

Daniel 5:6 DARBY

Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

Ezekiel 32:21-32 DARBY

The strong among the mighty, with them that helped him, shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol: they are gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. There is Asshur and all his assemblage, his graves round about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword; their graves are set in the sides of the pit, and his assemblage is round about his grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, -- who caused terror in the land of the living. There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised unto the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit. They have set him a bed in the midst of the slain, with all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though their terror was caused in the land of the living; and they have borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain. There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude, their graves round about them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they lie not with the mighty, [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war; and whose swords are laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword. There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with them that are slain by the sword: they lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit. There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, that are gone down with the slain -- ashamed of the terror which they caused through their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their confusion with them that go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 27:29-36 DARBY

And all that handle the oar, the mariners, all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand upon the land, and shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly; and they shall cast up dust upon their heads; they shall wallow themselves in ashes. And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird themselves with sackcloth; and they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning. And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, [saying,] Who is like Tyre, like her that is destroyed in the midst of the sea? When thy wares went forth over the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the abundance of thy substance and of thy merchandise. In the time [when] thou art broken by the seas, in the depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thine assemblage in the midst of thee have fallen. All the inhabitants of the isles are amazed at thee, and their kings are horribly afraid, [their] countenance is troubled. The merchants among the peoples hiss at thee; thou art become a terror, and thou shalt never be any more.

Exodus 15:15 DARBY

Then the princes of Edom were amazed; The mighty men of Moab, trembling hath seized them; All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

Lamentations 2:10 DARBY

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; they have cast dust upon their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their head to the ground.

Isaiah 52:2 DARBY

Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, captive daughter of Zion.

Isaiah 47:1 DARBY

Come down and sit in the dust, virgin-daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground, -- [there is] no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Isaiah 23:1-8 DARBY

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish! for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, none entering in. From the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle! The merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished thee. And on great waters, the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the market of the nations. Be thou ashamed, Sidon, for the sea hath spoken, the strength of the sea, saying, I have not travailed nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men [nor] brought up virgins. -- When the report came into Egypt, they were sorely pained at the news of Tyre. Pass over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast! Is this your joyous [city], whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. Who hath purposed this against Tyre, the distributor of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose dealers were the honourable of the earth?

Isaiah 14:9-13 DARBY

Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet [thee] at thy coming, stirring up the dead for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; making to rise from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All of them shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become powerless as we; art thou become like unto us! -- Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, the noise of thy lyres: the maggot is spread under thee, and worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations! And thou that didst say in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of ùGod, and I will sit upon the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north;

Psalms 132:18 DARBY

His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

Psalms 109:29 DARBY

Let mine adversaries be clothed with confusion, and let them cover themselves with their shame as with a mantle.

Psalms 109:18 DARBY

And he clothed himself with cursing like his vestment; so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones;

Job 2:12-13 DARBY

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. And they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward the heavens. And they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights; and none spoke a word to him; for they saw that [his] anguish was very great.

Exodus 33:4-5 DARBY

And when the people heard this evil word, they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments. Now Jehovah had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: in one moment I will come up into the midst of thee and will consume thee. And now put off thine ornaments from thee, and I will know what I will do unto thee.

Commentary on Ezekiel 26 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 26

Eze 26:1-21. The Judgment on Tyre through Nebuchadnezzar (TWENTY-SIXTH THROUGH Twenty-eighth Chapters).

In the twenty-sixth chapter, Ezekiel sets forth:—(1) Tyre's sin; (2) its doom; (3) the instruments executing it; (4) the effects produced on other nations by her downfall. In the twenty-seventh chapter, a lamentation over the fall of such earthly splendor. In the twenty-eighth chapter, an elegy addressed to the king, on the humiliation of his sacrilegious pride. Ezekiel, in his prophecies as to the heathen, exhibits the dark side only; because he views them simply in their hostility to the people of God, who shall outlive them all. Isaiah (Isa 23:1-18), on the other hand, at the close of judgments, holds out the prospect of blessing, when Tyre should turn to the Lord.

1. The specification of the date, which had been omitted in the case of the four preceding objects of judgment, marks the greater weight attached to the fall of Tyre.

eleventh year—namely, after the carrying away of Jehoiachin, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. The number of the month is, however, omitted, and the day only given. As the month of the taking of Jerusalem was regarded as one of particular note, namely, the fourth month, also the fifth, on which it was actually destroyed (Jer 52:6, 12, 13), Rabbi David reasonably supposes that Tyre uttered her taunt at the close of the fourth month, as her nearness to Jerusalem enabled her to hear of its fall very soon, and that Ezekiel met it with his threat against herself on "the first day" of the fifth month.

2. Tyre—(Jos 19:29; 2Sa 24:7), literally, meaning "the rock-city," Zor; 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 Shalmaneser 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 thirteen years (Eze 29:18; Isa 23:1-18). 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 (Ps 35:21, 25).

she … that was the gates—that is, 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. 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 corn (Eze 27:17; 1Ki 5:9; Ac 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 pre-eminently the world's representative in its ambition, selfishness, and pride, in defiance of the will of God (Isa 23:9).

she is turned unto me—that is, the mart of corn, wine, oil, balsam, &c., 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.

3, 4. nations … as the sea … waves—In striking contrast to the boasting of Tyre, God threatens to bring against her Babylon's army levied from "many nations," even as the Mediterranean waves that dashed against her rock-founded city on all sides.

scrape her dust … make her … top of … rock—or, "a bare rock" [Grotius]. The soil which the Tyrians had brought together upon the rock on which they built their city, I will scrape so clean away as to leave no dust, but only the bare rock as it was. An awful contrast to her expectation of filling herself with all the wealth of the East now that Jerusalem has fallen.

5. in the midst of the sea—plainly referring to New Tyre (Eze 27:32).

6. her daughters … in the field—The surrounding villages, dependent on her in the open country, shall share the fate of the mother city.

7. from the north—the original locality of the Chaldeans; also, the direction by which they entered Palestine, taking the route of Riblah and Hamath on the Orontes, in preference to that across the desert between Babylon and Judea.

king of kings—so called because of the many kings who owned allegiance to him (2Ki 18:28). God had delegated to him the universal earth-empire which is His (Da 2:47). The Son of God alone has the right and title inherently, and shall assume it when the world kings shall have been fully proved as abusers of the trust (1Ti 6:15; Re 17:12-14; 19:15, 16). Ezekiel's prophecy was not based on conjecture from the past, for Shalmaneser, with all the might of the Assyrian empire, had failed in his siege of Tyre. Yet Nebuchadnezzar was to succeed. Josephus tells us that Nebuchadnezzar began the siege in the seventh year of Ithobal's reign, king of Tyre.

9. engines of war—literally, "an apparatus for striking." "He shall apply the stroke of the battering-ram against thy walls." Havernick translates, "His enginery of destruction"; literally, the "destruction (not merely the stroke) of his enginery."

axes—literally, "swords."

10. dust—So thick shall be the "dust" stirred up by the immense numbers of "horses," that it shall "cover" the whole city as a cloud.

horses … chariots—As in Eze 26:3-5, New Tyre on the insular rock in the sea (compare Isa 23:2, 4, 6) is referred to; so here, in Eze 26:9-11, Old Tyre on the mainland. Both are included in the prophecies under one name.

wheels—Fairbairn thinks that here, and in Eze 23:24, as "the wheels" are distinct from the "chariots," some wheelwork for riding on, or for the operations of the siege, are meant.

11. thy strong garrisons—literally, "the statutes of thy strength"; so the forts which are "monuments of thy strength." Maurer understands, in stricter agreement with the literal meaning, "the statues" or "obelisks erected in honor of the idols, the tutelary gods of Tyre," as Melecarte, answering to the Grecian Hercules, whose temple stood in Old Tyre (compare Jer 43:13, Margin).

12. lay thy stones … timber … in … midst of … water—referring to the insular New Tyre (Eze 26:3, 5; Eze 27:4, 25, 26). When its lofty buildings and towers fall, surrounded as it was with the sea which entered its double harbor and washed its ramparts, the "stones … timbers … and dust" appropriately are described as thrown down "in the midst of the water." Though Ezekiel attributes the capture of Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar (see on Eze 29:18), yet it does not follow that the final destruction of it described is attributed by him to the same monarch. The overthrow of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was the first link in the long chain of evil—the first deadly blow which prepared for, and was the earnest of, the final doom. The change in this verse from the individual conqueror "he," to the general "they," marks that what he did was not the whole, but only paved the way for others to complete the work begun by him. It was to be a progressive work until she was utterly destroyed. Thus the words here answer exactly to what Alexander did. With the "stones, timber," and rubbish of Old Tyre, he built a causeway in seven months to New Tyre on the island and so took it [Curtius, 4, 2], 322 B.C.

13. Instead of the joyousness of thy prosperity, a death-like silence shall reign (Isa 24:8; Jer 7:34).

14. He concludes in nearly the same words as he began (Eze 26:4, 5).

built no more—fulfilled as to the mainland Tyre, under Nebuchadnezzar. The insular Tyre recovered partly, after seventy years (Isa 23:17, 18), but again suffered under Alexander, then under Antigonus, then under the Saracens at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Now its harbors are choked with sand, precluding all hope of future restoration, "not one entire house is left, and only a few fishermen take shelter in the vaults" [Maundrell]. So accurately has God's word come to pass.

15-21. The impression which the overthrow of Tyre produced on other maritime nations and upon her own colonies, for example, Utica, Carthage, and Tartessus or Tarshish in Spain.

isles—maritime lands. Even mighty Carthage used to send a yearly offering to the temple of Hercules at Tyre: and the mother city gave high priests to her colonies. Hence the consternation at her fall felt in the widely scattered dependencies with which she was so closely connected by the ties of religion, as well as commercial intercourse.

shake—metaphorically: "be agitated" (Jer 49:21).

16. come down from their thrones … upon the ground—"the throne of the mourners" (Job 2:13; Jon 3:6).

princes of the sea—are the merchant rulers of Carthage and other colonies of Tyre, who had made themselves rich and powerful by trading on the sea (Isa 23:8).

clothe … with trembling—Hebrew, "tremblings." Compare Eze 7:27, "clothed with desolation"; Ps 132:18. In a public calamity the garment was changed for a mourning garb.

17. inhabited of seafaring men—that is, which was frequented by merchants of various sea-bordering lands [Grotius]. Fairbairn translates with Peschito, "Thou inhabitant of the seas" (the Hebrew literal meaning). Tyre rose as it were out of the seas as if she got thence her inhabitants, being peopled so closely down to the waters. So Venice was called "the bride of the sea."

strong in the sea—through her insular position.

cause their terror to be on all that haunt it—namely, the sea. The Hebrew is rather, "they put their terror upon all her (the city's) inhabitants," that is, they make the name of every Tyrian to be feared [Fairbairn].

18. thy departure—Isa 23:6, 12 predicts that the Tyrians, in consequence of the siege, should pass over the Mediterranean to the lands bordering on it ("Chittim," "Tarshish," &c.). So Ezekiel here. Accordingly Jerome says that he read in Assyrian histories that, "when the Tyrians saw no hope of escaping, they fled to Carthage or some islands of the Ionian and Ægean Seas" [Bishop Newton]. (See on Eze 29:18). Grotius explains "departure," that is, "in the day when hostages shall be carried away from thee to Babylon." The parallelism to "thy fall" makes me think "departure" must mean "thy end" in general, but with an included allusion to the "departure" of most of her people to her colonies at the fall of the city.

19. great waters—appropriate metaphor of the Babylonian hosts, which literally, by breaking down insular Tyre's ramparts, caused the sea to "cover" part of her.

20. the pit—Tyre's disappearance is compared to that of the dead placed in their sepulchres and no more seen among the living (compare Eze 32:18, 23; Isa 14:11, 15, 19).

I shall set glory in the land—In contrast to Tyre consigned to the "pit" of death, I shall set glory (that is, My presence symbolized by the Shekinah cloud, the antitype to which shall be Messiah, "the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father," Joh 1:14; Isa 4:2, 5; Zec 6:13) in Judah.

of the living—as opposed to Tyre consigned to the "pit" of death. Judea is to be the land of national and spiritual life, being restored after its captivity (Eze 47:9). Fairbairn loses the antithesis by applying the negative to both clauses, "and that thou be not set as a glory in the land of the living."

21. terror—an example of judgment calculated to terrify all evildoers.

thou shall be no more—Not that there was to be no more a Tyre, but she was no more to be the Tyre that once was: her glory and name were to be no more. As, to Old Tyre, the prophecy was literally fulfilled, not a vestige of it being left.