A verse by verse commentary on Ezekiel 28 dealing with a prophecy against the king of Tyre.

1. EZEKIEL 28 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "The prophecy against the prince of Tyre. Throughout the east the majesty
and glory of a people were collected in the person of their monarch, who in some nations
was worshipped as a god. The prince is here the embodiment of the community. Their
glory is his glory, their pride his pride. The doom of Tyre could not be complete without
denunciation of the prince of Tyre. Idolatrous nations and idolatrous kings were, in the
eyes of the prophet, antagonists to the true God. In them was embodied the principle of
evil opposing itself to the divine government of the world. Hence, some of the fathers
saw upon the throne, not simply a hostile monarch, but “the Prince of this world,
spiritual wickedness (or wicked spirits) in high places.” Whenever evil in any way
domineers over good, there is a “prince of Tyrus,” against whom God utters His voice.
The “mystery of iniquity is ever working, and in that working we recognize the power of
Satan whom God condemns and will destroy.
CLARKE, "Eze_28:2
Thou hast said, I am a god - Compare Eze_29:3; Dan_4:30; Act_12:22; 2Th_2:4.
I sit in the seat of God - Words denoting the speaker’s pride; but the situation of
the island-city, full of beauty, in the midst of the blue water of the Mediterranean, gives
force to the expression. Compare the words describing the lot of Tyre as having been in
Eden Eze_28:13.
Thou art a man - Rather, thou art man.
1

2. GILL, "The word of the Lord came again unto me,.... With another prophecy; as
before against the city of Tyre, now against the king of Tyre:
HENRY 3-7, "We had done with Tyrus in the foregoing chapter, but now the prince
of Tyrus is to be singled out from the rest. Here is something to be said to him by
himself, a message to him from God, which the prophet must send him, whether he will
hear or whether he will forbear.
I. He must tell him of his pride. His people are proud (Eze_27:3) and so is he; and
they shall both be made to know that God resists the proud. Let us see, 1. What were the
expressions of his pride: His heart was lifted up, Eze_28:2. He had a great conceit of
himself, was puffed up with an opinion of his own sufficiency, and looked with disdain
upon all about him. Out of the abundance of the pride of his heart he said, I am a god;
he did not only say it in his heart, but had the impudence to speak it out. God has said of
princes, They are gods (Psa_82:6); but it does not become them to say so of themselves;
it is a high affront to him who is God alone, and will not give his glory to another. He
thought that the city of Tyre had as necessary a dependence upon him as the world has
upon the God that made it, and that he was himself independent as God and
unaccountable to any. He thought himself to have as much wisdom and strength as God
himself, and as incontestable an authority, and that his prerogatives were as absolute
and his word as much a law as the word of God. He challenged divine honours, and
expected to be praised and admired as a god, and doubted not to be deified, among other
heroes, after his death as a great benefactor to the world. Thus the king of Babylon said,
I will be like the Most High (Isa_14:14), not like the Most Holy. “I am the strong God,
and therefore will not be contradicted, because I cannot be controlled. I sit in the seat of
God; I sit as high as God, my throne equal with his. Divisum imperium cum Jove
Caesar habet - Caesar divides dominion with Jove. I sit as safely as God, as safely in the
heart of the seas, and as far out of the reach of danger, as he in the height of heaven.” He
thinks his guards of men of war about his throne as pompous and potent as the hosts of
angels that are about the throne of God. He is put in mind of his meanness and
mortality, and, since he needs to be told, he shall be told, that self-evident truth, Thou
art a man, and not God, a depending creature; thou art flesh, and not spirit, Isa_31:3.
Note, Men must be made to know that they are but men, Psa_9:20. The greatest wits,
the greatest potentates, the greatest saints, are men, and not gods. Jesus Christ was both
God and man. The king of Tyre, though he has such a mighty influence upon all about
him, and with the help of his riches bears a mighty sway, though he has tribute and
presents brought to his court with as much devotion as if they were sacrifices to his altar,
though he is flattered by his courtiers and made a god of by his poets, yet, after all, he is
but a man; he knows it; he fears it. But he sets his heart as the heart of God; “Thou hast
conceited thyself to be a god, hast compared thyself with God, thinking thyself as wise
and strong, and as fit to govern the world, as he.” It was the ruin of our first parents, and
ours in them, that they would be as gods, Gen_3:5. And still that corrupt nature which
inclines men to set up themselves as their own masters, to do what they will, and their
own carvers, to have what they will, their own end, to live to themselves, and their own
felicity, to enjoy themselves, sets their hearts as the heart of God, invades his
prerogatives, and catches at the flowers of his crown - a presumption that cannot go
unpunished.
2

3. JAMISON, "Eze_28:1-26. Prophetical dirge on the king of Tyre, as the culmination
and embodiment of the spirit of carnal pride and self-sufficiency of the whole state. The
fall of Zidon, the mother city. The restoration of Israel in contrast with Tyre and Zidon.
K&D 1-10, "Fall of the Prince of Tyre
Eze_28:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_28:2. Son of man, say
to the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy heart has lifted itself up,
and thou sayest, “I am a God, I sit upon a seat of Gods, in the heart of the seas,” when
thou art a man and not God, and cherishest a mind like a God's mind, Eze_28:3.
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; nothing secret is obscure to thee; Eze_28:4.
Through thy wisdom and thy understanding hast thou acquired might, and put gold
and silver in thy treasuries; Eze_28:5. Through the greatness of thy wisdom hast thou
increased thy might by thy trade, and thy heart has lifted itself up on account of thy
might, Eze_28:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou cherishest a
mind like a God's mind, Eze_28:7. Therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon thee,
violent men of the nations; they will draw their swords against the beauty of thy
wisdom, and pollute thy splendour. Eze_28:8. They will cast thee down into the pit,
that thou mayest die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas. Eze_28:9. Wilt thou
indeed say, I am a God, in the face of him that slayeth thee, when thou art a man and
not God in the hand of him that killeth thee? Eze_28:10. Thou wilt die the death of the
uncircumcised at the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken it, is the saying of the Lord
Jehovah. - This threat of judgment follows in general the same course as those
addressed to other nations (compare especially Ezekiel 25), namely, that the sin is
mentioned first (Eze_28:2-5), and then the punishment consequent upon the sin (Eze_
28:6-10). In Eze_28:12 ֶ‫ל‬ ֶ‫מ‬ is used instead of ‫יד‬ִ‫ָג‬‫נ‬, dux. In the use of the term ‫יד‬ִ‫ָג‬‫נ‬ to
designate the king, Kliefoth detects an indication of the peculiar position occupied by the
prince in the commercial state of Tyre, which had been reared upon municipal
foundations; inasmuch as he was not so much a monarch, comparable to the rulers of
Bayblon or to the Pharaohs, as the head of the great mercantile aristocracy. This is in
harmony with the use of the word ‫יד‬ִ‫ָג‬‫נ‬ for the prince of Israel, David for example, whom
God chose and anointed to be the nâgīd over His people; in other words, to be the leader
of the tribes, who also formed an independent commonwealth (vid., 1Sa_13:14; 2Sa_7:8,
etc.). The pride of the prince of Tyre is described in Eze_28:2 as consisting in the fact
that he regarded himself as a God, and his seat in the island of Tyre as a God's seat. He
calls his seat ‫ב‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ‫מ‬ , not “because his capital stood out from the sea, like the palace of
God from the ocean of heaven” (Psa_104:3), as Hitzig supposes; for, apart from any
other ground, this does not suit the subsequent description of his seat as God's
mountain (Eze_28:16), and God's holy mountain (Eze_28:14). The God's seat and God's
mountain are not the palace of the king of Tyre, but Tyre as a state, and that not because
of its firm position upon a rocky island, but as a holy island (ἁγία νῆσος, as Tyre is called
in Sanchun. ed. Orelli, p. 36), the founding of which has been glorified by myths (vid.,
Movers, Phoenizier, I pp. 637ff.). The words which Ezekiel puts into the mouth of the
king of Tyre may be explained, as Kliefoth has well expressed it, “from the notion lying at
the foundation of all natural religions, according to which every state, as the production
of its physical factors and bases personified as the native deities of house and state, is
3

4. regarded as a work and sanctuary of the gods.” In Tyre especially the national and
political development went hand in hand with the spread and propagation of its religion.
“The Tyrian state was the production and seat of its gods. He, the prince of Tyre,
presided over this divine creation and divine seat; therefore he, the prince, was himself a
god, a manifestation of the deity, having its work and home in the state of Tyre.” All
heathen rulers looked upon themselves in this light; so that the king of Babylon is
addressed in a similar manner in Isa_14:13-14. This self-deification is shown to be a
delusion in Eze_28:2; He who is only a man makes his heart like a God's heart, i.e.,
cherishes the same thought as the Gods. ‫ב‬ֵ‫,ל‬ the heart, as the seat of the thoughts and
imaginations, is named instead of the disposition.
This is carried out still further in Eze_28:3-5 by a description of the various sources
from which this imagination sprang. He cherishes a God's mind, because he attributes to
himself superhuman wisdom, through which he has created the greatness, and might,
and wealth of Tyre. The words, “behold, thou art wiser,” etc. (Eze_28:3), are not to be
taken as a question, “art thou indeed wiser?” as they have been by the lxx, Syriac, and
others; nor are they ironical, as Hävernick supposes; but they are to be taken literally,
namely, inasmuch as the prince of Tyre was serious in attributing to himself
supernatural and divine wisdom. Thou art, i.e., thou regardest thyself as being, wiser
than Daniel. No hidden thing is obscure to thee (‫ם‬ ַ‫מ‬ָ‫,ע‬ a later word akin to the Aramaean,
“to be obscure”). The comparison with Daniel refers to the fact that Daniel surpassed all
the magi and wise men of Babylon in wisdom through his ability to interpret dreams,
since God gave him an insight into the nature and development of the power of the
world, such as no human sagacity could have secured. The wisdom of the prince of Tyre,
on the other hand, consisted in the cleverness of the children of this world, which knows
how to get possession of all the good things of the earth. Through such wisdom as this
had the Tyrian prince acquired power and riches. ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫,ח‬ might, possessions in the broader
sense; not merely riches, but the whole of the might of the commercial state of Tyre,
which was founded upon riches and treasures got by trade. In Eze_28:5 ְ‫ת‬ָֽ‫לּ‬ֻ‫כ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ִ‫בּ‬ is in
apposition to ‫ֹב‬‫ר‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ָֽ‫מ‬ ְ‫כ‬ ָ‫,ה‬ and is introduced as explanatory. The fulness of its wisdom
showed itself in its commerce and the manner in which it conducted it, whereby Tyre
had become rich and powerful. It is not till we reach Eze_28:6 that we meet with the
apodosis answering to '‫ן‬ַ‫ַע‬‫י‬ ‫הּ‬ ַ‫ָב‬‫גּ‬ ‫וגו‬ in Eze_28:2, which has been pushed so far back by the
intervening parenthetical sentences in Eze_28:2-5. For this reason the sin of the prince
of Tyre in deifying himself is briefly reiterated in the clause '‫ן‬ַ‫ַע‬‫י‬ ְ‫תּ‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ‫וגו‬ (Eze_28:6,
compare Eze_28:2), after which the announcement of the punishment is introduced
with a repetition of ‫ן‬ֵ‫כ‬ָ‫ל‬ in Eze_28:7. Wild foes approaching with barbarous violence will
destroy all the king's resplendent glory, slay the king himself with the sword, and hurl
him down into the pit as a godless man. The enemies are called ‫י‬ֵ‫יצ‬ ִ‫ר‬ָ‫ע‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ‫,גּ‬ violent ones
of the peoples - that is to say, the wild hordes composing the Chaldean army (cf. Eze_
30:11; Eze_31:12). They drew the sword “against the beauty (‫י‬ ִ‫פ‬ְ‫,י‬ the construct state of
‫י‬ ִ‫ֳפ‬‫י‬) of thy wisdom,” i.e., the beauty produced by thy wisdom, and the beautiful Tyre
itself, with all that it contains (Eze_26:3-4). ‫ה‬ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫פ‬ִ‫,י‬ splendour; it is only here and in Eze_
28:17 that we meet with it as a noun. The king himself they hurl down into the pit, i.e.,
the grave, or the nether world. ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ‫ל‬ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫,ח‬ the death of a pierced one, substantially the
same as ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ֲר‬‫ע‬. The plural ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫מ‬ and ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ here and Jer_16:4 (mortes) is a pluralis
4

5. exaggerativus, a death so painful as to be equivalent to dying many times (see the
comm. on Isa_53:9). In Eze_28:9 Ezekiel uses the Piel ‫ל‬ֵ‫לּ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫מ‬ in the place of the Poel
‫ל‬ֵ‫ל‬ ‫ח‬ ְ‫,מ‬ as ‫לל‬ ַ‫ח‬ in the Piel occurs elsewhere only in the sense of profanare, and in Isa_
51:9 and Poel is used for piercing. But there is no necessity to alter the pointing in
consequence, as we also find the Pual used by Ezekiel in Eze_32:26 in the place of the
Poal of Isa_53:5. The death of the uncircumcised is such a death as godless men die - a
violent death. The king of Tyre, who looks upon himself as a god, shall perish by the
sword like a godless man. At the same time, the whole of this threat applies, not to the
one king, Ithobal, who was reigning at the time of the siege of Tyre by the Chaldeans, but
to the king as the founder and creator of the might of Tyre (Eze_28:3-5), i.e., to the
supporter of that royalty which was to perish along with Tyre itself. - It is to the king, as
the representative of the might and glory of Tyre, and not merely to the existing
possessor of the regal dignity, that the following lamentation over his fall refers.
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
PROPHECY AGAINST TYRE CONCLUDED;
AGAINST TYRE'S RULER;
AGAINST TYRE'S KING;
AGAINST SIDON;
AGAINST THE PRINCE OF TYRE (Ezekiel 28:1-10)
Ezekiel 28:1-5
"The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince
of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast
said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art man
5

6. and not God, though thou didst set thy heart as the heart of God; - behold thou art
wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that is hidden from thee; by thy wisdom and by
thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches; and hast gotten gold and silver
into thy treasures; by thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy
riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches."
"Say unto the prince of Tyre ..." (Ezekiel 28:2). This paragraph contrasts with the
paragraph beginning in 5:11, which is addressed to "the king of Tyre." Cooke noted
that the words "prince of Tyre" refer to the actual "ruler of Tyre," namely, Ithbaal
I; and from this the conclusion is mandatory that the "king of Tyre" is a different
person from Ithbaal. Those scholars are therefore in error who treat this whole
chapter as a prophecy against "the king of Tyre." Two different persons are most
surely addressed in this chapter.
"Eichrodt noted that these first ten verses directed against Ithbaal do not reveal
any personal details either about his character or his political activity that betray
any exceptional wickedness. The things mentioned are in such general terms that
any Tyrian king might have qualified as the target. Therefore, it is the kingship per
se that is being prosecuted and sentenced here in the person of Ithbaal its
representative."[1]
This horribly wicked self-deification of Tyre was directly related to the satanically
induced rebellion of mankind in the matter of the construction of the Tower of
Babel, where such humanistic self-deification began; and Tyre, being an
outstanding representative of the same thing, in all likelihood prompted the special
attention God gave to the disaster that happened to Satan in Ezekiel 28:11-19. The
great deduction being required from this is that, "If Satan himself failed to get away
with it, who are mortal men that they should follow his shameful example into
certain disaster."
"I am a god ..." (Ezekiel 28:2), This arrogant and conceited boast was repeated in
Ezekiel 28:6,9. It was the type of atheism which God was certain to punish. Herod
Agrippa I had himself installed as a god down at Caesarea; but an angel of God
executed him within the same hour (Acts 12).
6

7. God's reply to the conceited boast of godhead on the part of Tyre's ruler was simple
enough. "Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am god? but thou art
man, and not God; I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah." (Ezekiel 28:9-10). As
Thompson stated it, "God always has the last word!"[2]
"Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel ..." (Ezekiel 28:3). "This Daniel is not the
Biblical Daniel, but may have been the Daniel mentioned in the pagan literature of
Ugarit, who lived about 1400 B.C."[3] A comment like this is totally untrue, there
being no evidence whatever to sustain it. It resulted only from the evil prejudice of
radical scholars against the Book of Daniel, which was so vigorously endorsed and
approved by the Son of God Himself. The current crop of commentators who parrot
this old shibboleth of the radical critics are simply not doing any thinking at all for
themselves. As Thompson noted, "It is quite impossible to say dogmatically that the
Daniel here is the same as the Daniel in the Ugaritic Daniel."[4]
In the year 588 when Ezekiel wrote this, Daniel had already been hailed by no less
an authority than the king of Babylon as "the wisest man on earth."
Nebuchadnezzar actually fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, and stated
before the whole world that, "I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and
that no secret troubleth thee" (Daniel 2:46; 4:9). Daniel was, in fact the deputy king
of Babylon; he sat in the king's gate; he was the second ruler in the kingdom; and
all of this had already been known throughout the whole world of that period for
fourteen years at the time Ezekiel wrote.[5]
Notice that Ezekiel here used almost the same words of these passages in Daniel,
such as, "no secret is hidden from thee," almost identical with the words of
Nebuchadnezzar, "no secret troubleth thee." In the light of these stubborn facts,
what thoughtful person can possibly imagine that the name "Daniel" could possibly
have called to mind any person who ever lived upon the earth, other than the mighty
Daniel at the fight hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Of all the foolish canards the radicals
ever came up with, we shall nominate this one as one of the worst. (See my
commentary on Daniel, Vol. IV of our Major Prophets Series, regarding the
integrity and authenticity of the Book of Daniel.)
7

8. "Thy heart is lifted up ..." (Ezekiel 28:5). This was no light offense. "Man had here
gone beyond the limits set by God Himself for man's self-glorification."[6]
PETT, "Verse 1-2
‘The word of Yahweh came to me again saying, “Son of man, say to the prince
(nagid) of Tyre, thus says the Lord Yahweh.”
This new oracle comes with a deliberate contrast between ‘a prince’ in contrast with
a Sovereign Lord. The King of Tyre is to recognise that before the Lord Yahweh he
is but a ‘prince’, a warleader subject to an overall commander, as the early ‘princes’
of Israel were to Yahweh. It is a deliberate downgrading of the king because of the
king’s own upgrading of himself.
Verses 1-10
Oracle Against the Nagid of Tyre.
Here the King of Tyre is called ‘the Nagid of Tyre’. Nagid (prince) is a title
elsewhere restricted in the singular to princes and leaders of Israel. (Some see
Daniel 9:26 as an exception, but that might tell us something about their
interpretation of Daniel 9:26). Thus the use here would seem to be a sarcastic one,
comparing him to a Prince of Israel. But in contrast to princes of Israel he saw
himself as a god. Thus he is further condemned. The prince referred to was
probably Ithobal II.
Note how the charges against Tyre have built up. Firstly she gloated at the riches
she would receive now that Jerusalem was destroyed (Ezekiel 26:2). Then she
proclaimed herself ‘perfect in beauty’ (Ezekiel 27:3) and as almost invincible. Now
8

9. her king claims godlikeness. And Tyre shares in his god-like status. All that is said
about the king also applies to his people.
PULPIT, "From the city the prophet passes to its ruler, who concentrated in himself
whatever was most arrogant and boastful in the temper of his people. He is
described here as a" prince," in Ezekiel 28:12 as "king," and the combination of the
two words points probably to some peculiarity of the Tyrian constitution. "Prince"
it will be remembered, is constantly used by Ezekiel of Zedekiah (Ezekiel 7:27;
Ezekiel 12:20, el al.). The King of Tyro at the time was Ithobal or Ethbaal III.
(Josephus, 'Contra Apion,' Ezekiel 1:21), who had taken part with Pharaoh-Hophra
and Zedekiah in the league against Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel's description of what
one may call his self-apotheosis may probably have rested on a personal knowledge
of the man or of official documents.
2 “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is
what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘In the pride of your heart
you say, “I am a god;
I sit on the throne of a god
in the heart of the seas.”
But you are a mere mortal and not a god,
9

10. though you think you are as wise as a god.
BARNES, "Eze_28:2
Thou hast said, I am a god - Compare Eze_29:3; Dan_4:30; Act_12:22; 2Th_2:4.
I sit in the seat of God - Words denoting the speaker’s pride; but the situation of
the island-city, full of beauty, in the midst of the blue water of the Mediterranean, gives
force to the expression. Compare the words describing the lot of Tyre as having been in
Eden Eze_28:13.
Thou art a man - Rather, thou art man.
CLARKE, "Say unto the prince of Tyrus - But who was this prince of Tyrus?
Some think Hiram; some, Sin; some, the devil; others, Ithobaal, with whom the
chronology and circumstances best agree. Origen thought the guardian angel of the city
was intended.
I am a god - That is, I am absolute, independent, and accountable to none. He was a
man of great pride and arrogance.
GILL, "Ezekiel 28:2
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre,.... Whose name was Ethbaal, or
Ithobalus, as he is called in Josephus; for that this was Hiram that was in the days of
Solomon, and lived a thousand years, is a fable of the Jewish Rabbins, as Jerom relates:
this prince of Tyre is thought by some to be an emblem of the devil; but rather of
antichrist; and between them there is a great agreement, and it seems to have a
prophetic respect to him:
thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up: with pride, on account
of his wisdom and knowledge, wealth and riches, as later mentioned:
and thou hast said, I am a god; this he said in his heart, in the pride of it, and
perhaps expressed it with his lips, and required divine homage to be given him by his
subjects, as some insolent, proud, and haughty monarchs have done; in which he was a
lively type of antichrist, who shows himself, and behaves, as if he was God, taking upon
him what belongs to God; pardoning the sins of men; opening and shutting the gates of
heaven; binding men's consciences with laws of his own making, and dispensing with
the laws of God and man; and calling himself or suffering himself to be called God, and
to be worshipped as such; See Gill on 2Th_2:4,
10

11. I sit in the seat of God; in a place as delightful, safe and happy, as heaven itself, where
the throne of God is; so antichrist is said to sit in the temple of God, in the house and
church of God; where he assumes a power that does not belong to him, calling himself
God's vicegerent, and Christ's vicar; see 2Th_2:4, and the Arabic version here renders it
"in the house of God": it follows,
in the midst of the seas; surrounded with them as Tyre was, and lord of them as its
king was; sending his ships into all parts, and to whom all brought their wares; thus the
whore of Rome is said to sit upon many waters, Rev_17:2,
yet thou art a man, and not God; a frail, weak, mortal man, and not the mighty God,
as his later destruction shows; and as the popes of Rome appear to be, by their dying as
other men; and as antichrist will plainly be seen to be when he shall be destroyed with
the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming:
though thou set thine heart as the heart of God; as if it was as full of wisdom and
knowledge as his; and thinkest as well of thyself, that thou art a sovereign as he, and to
be feared, obeyed, and submitted to by all.
JAMISON, "Because, etc. — repeated resumptively in Eze_28:6. The apodosis
begins at Eze_28:7. “The prince of Tyrus” at the time was Ithobal, or Ithbaal II; the
name implying his close connection with Baal, the Phoenician supreme god, whose
representative he was.
I am a god, I sit in ... seat of God ... the seas — As God sits enthroned in His
heavenly citadel exempt from all injury, so I sit secure in my impregnable stronghold
amidst the stormiest elements, able to control them at will, and make them subserve my
interests. The language, though primarily here applied to the king of Tyre, as similar
language is to the king of Babylon (Isa_14:13, Isa_14:14), yet has an ulterior and fuller
accomplishment in Satan and his embodiment in Antichrist (Dan_7:25; Dan_11:36,
Dan_11:37; 2Th_2:4; Rev_13:6). This feeling of superhuman elevation in the king of
Tyre was fostered by the fact that the island on which Tyre stood was called “the holy
island” [Sanconiathon], being sacred to Hercules, so much so that the colonies looked up
to Tyre as the mother city of their religion, as well as of their political existence. The
Hebrew for “God” is El, that is, “the Mighty One.”
yet, etc. — keen irony.
set thine heart as ... heart of God — Thou thinkest of thyself as if thou wert God.
COKE, "Ezekiel 28:2. I am a god— These words are an insolent boast of self-
sufficiency; as if he had said, "I neither fear any prince, nor stand in need of any
assistance; I am seated in a place of impregnable strength; the seas surround me; I
am freed from the assaults of an enemy." See Isaiah 23:9 and Lowth.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the
11

12. Lord GOD Because thine heart [is] lifted up, and thou hast said, I [am] a God, I sit
[in] the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou [art] a man, and not God,
though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Ver. 2. Say unto the prince of Tyrus.] Princes must be told their own, as well as
others. It was partly by flattery that this prince was so high flown. His glory, wealth,
and wit also had so blown him up that he forgot himself to be a man. Tabaal,
Josephus, out of Berosus, calleth him; Diodorus Siculus, Ithobaal; others, Ethbaal.
A most proud and presumptuous person he was, and a type of the devil, who is the
"king of all the children of pride." [Job 41:34] Here he holdeth himself to be wiser
than Daniel; [Ezekiel 28:3] yea, to be the sum and perfection of all wisdom; [Ezekiel
28:12] to excel the high priest in all his ornaments, os humerosque Deo similis
[Ezekiel 28:13] yea, to be above Adam (ib.); above the cherubims; [Ezekiel 28:14]
lastly, to be God himself, and to sit in his seat. [Ezekiel 28:2] O Lucifer outdeviled!
And yet as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so by nature there are many
Ethbaals in the best of us; for "as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart
of a man to a man." [Proverbs 27:19] Julius Caesar allowed altars and temples to be
dedicated unto him, as to a god; and what wonder, whereas his flatterers told him
that the freckles in his face were like the stars in the firmament? (a) Valladerius told
Pope Paul V, and he believed it, that he was a god, that he lived familiarly with the
Godhead, that he heard predestination itself whispering to him, that he had a place
to sit in council with the Divine Trinity, &c. Prodigious blasphemy! Is not this that
"man of sin," that Merum scelus, pure wickedness spoken of by Paul in 2
Thessalonians 2:4? See more of this there. Was it not he that made Dandalus, the
Venetian ambassador, roll under his table, and, as a dog, eat crusts there? and that
suffered the Sicilian ambassadors to use these words unto him, Domine Deus papa,
miserere nostrum; O Lord God the Pope, have mercy upon us. And again, O Lamb
of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.
In the midst of the seas.] Where none can come at me. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar could,
and did, though after thirteen years’ siege, as Josephus writeth. A hard tug and hot
service he had of it; but yet he did the deed, as did afterwards also Alexander the
Great, who never held anything unseizable.
POOLE, "Verse 2
12

13. Unto; of.
The princes; king, whose name was either Ethbaal, or Ithobaal.
Thine heart is lifted up; thou art waxen proud, and aspirest above all reason, and
boastest extravagantly in thyself, state policy, and power.
Hast said; thought, imagined, or flattered thyself.
A god; or the mighty and strong one, for so the Hebrew is, and perhaps were better
so rendered; he gloried in his strength, as if he were a god. The like you have Isaiah
14:14.
In the seat of God: as a magistrate he did bear the name and authority of God; but
he thought not of this; he dreams of the stateliness, strength, convenience, safety,
and inaccessibleness of his seat, as if he were safe and impregnable as heaven itself.
A man, subject to all the casualties, sorrows, and distresses of man’s state and life,
thou art Adam, of earth, not El, nor like unto the Mighty One in heaven.
Thou set thine heart as the heart of God; thou hast entertained thoughts which
become none but God, thou hast projected things which none but God can effect,
thou hast promised thyself perpetual peace, safety, riches, and happiness in thyself,
and from thyself.
PETT, "Verse 2
13

14. “Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god (or ‘I am El’), I sit
in the seat of the gods (or ‘of God’), in the midst of the seas’. Yet you are a man and
not a god (or ‘not El’), although you set your heart as the heart of the gods.”
There has been much debate about what this king actually claimed for himself.
Usually Mediterranean kings, in contrast with Egyptian pharaohs, did not see
themselves as fully divine, but rather as chosen servants of the gods. However, there
were exceptions, and taking it at face value this was one. Certainly he was guilty of
overweening pride. But this king also appears to have seen himself as a god, or at
least as a godlike figure (there were various levels of gods), and Tyre as the seat of
the gods. And this view would have been expected of his people. This in itself
brought Tyre under condemnation. They had usurped the throne of God.
But he is warned that he is in fact only a man. He is not a god (compare Isaiah 31:3),
even though he has set his heart on god-like status..
El was the father figure among the gods, but the word also simply meant ‘a god’, or
sometimes God, especially in poetry. The plural ‘elohim’ could mean ‘gods’, or when
applied to Yahweh ‘God’ (the plural showing intensity), or even ‘heavenly beings’.
PULPIT, "I am a God. We are reminded of Isaiah's words (Isaiah 14:13, Isaiah
14:14) as to the King of Babylon. Did Ezekiel emphasize and amplify the boasts of
Ethbaal, with a side-glance at the Chaldean king, who also was lifted up in the pride
of his heart (Daniel 4:30)? For like examples, see the boast of Hophra, in Ezekiel
29:3; and the praise given to Herod Agrippa by the Tyrians (Acts 12:21). It is
noticeable that St. Paul's description of the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
presents the same picture in nearly the same words. I sit in the seat of God, etc. Tyro
was known as the Holy Island. The city was thought of as rising from its waters like
the rock-throne of God. Though thou set thy heart. The words remind us of the
temptation in Genesis 3:5. To forget the limitations of human ignorance and
weakness, to claim an authority and demand a homage which belong to God, was
the sin of the Prince of Tyre, as it had been that of Sennacherib, as it was of
Nebuchadnezzar, as it has been since of the emperors of Rome, and of other rulers.
14

15. 3
Are you wiser than Daniel[a]?
Is no secret hidden from you?
BARNES, "Eze_28:3
Thou art wiser than Daniel - The passage is one of strong irony. Compare Eze_
14:14; Dan_6:3.
CLARKE, "Thou art wiser than Daniel - Daniel was at this time living, and was
reputable for his great wisdom. This is said ironically. See Eze_14:14; Eze_26:1.
GILL, "Behold; thou art wiser than Daniel,.... That is, in his own opinion; or it is
ironically said. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it by way of
interrogation, "art thou not wiser than Daniel?" who was now at the court of Babylon,
and was famous throughout all Chaldea for his knowledge in politics, his wisdom and
prudence in government, as well as his skill in interpreting dreams. The Jews have a
saying, that
"if all the wise men of the nations were in one scale, and Daniel in the other, he would
weigh them all down.''
And perhaps the fame of him had reached the king of Tyre, and yet he thought himself
wiser than he; see Zec_9:2, antichrist thinks himself wiser than Daniel, or any of the
prophets and apostles; he is wise above that which is written, and takes upon him the
sole interpretation of the Scriptures, and to fix the sense of them:
there is no secret that they can hide from thee; as he fancied; he had sagacity to
penetrate into the councils of neighbouring princes, and discover all plots and intrigues
against him; he understood all the "arcana" and secrets of government, and could
counterwork the designs of his enemies. Antichrist pretends to know all mysteries, and
15

16. solve all difficulties, and pass an infallible judgment on things; as if he was of the privy
council of heaven, and nothing was transacted there but he was acquainted with it, and
had full knowledge of the mind of God in all things.
JAMISON, "Ezekiel ironically alludes to Ithbaal’s overweening opinion of the
wisdom of himself and the Tyrians, as though superior to that of Daniel, whose fame had
reached even Tyre as eclipsing the Chaldean sages. “Thou art wiser,” namely, in thine
own opinion (Zec_9:2).
no secret — namely, forgetting riches (Eze_28:4).
that they can hide — that is, that can be hidden.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:3 Behold, thou [art] wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that
they can hide from thee:
Ver. 3. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel.] That oracular man, who was πανσοφος,
as one saith of Homer, και παντα ανθρωπεια επισταμενος, the most wise and
knowing man alive. His name was now up at Babylon; and Ezekiel, his
contemporary, commendeth him; so doth the Baptist, Christ; and Peter, Paul.
[Ephesians 3:15] Though there had been a breach between them, [Galatians 2:14]
there was no envy. But such another braggart as this in the text was Richardus de
Sancto Victore, a monk of Paris, who said that himself was a better divine than any
prophet or apostle of them all. (a) But how much better, saith Gregory, (b) is
humble ignorance than proud knowledge!
POOLE, " Thou art wiser, in thy own thoughts of thyself, than Daniel, who was
then famous for his wisdom, which was imparted to him from Heaven, Ezekiel 14:20
Daniel 1:20 2:20,48.
That they can hide from thee; that any sort of men can conceal, that thine
adversaries shall contrive against thee to thy danger or hurt: all this ironically said.
pett, "Verse 3
16

17. “Behold, you are wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from you.”
Again we are confronted by the question as to who is meant by Dani’el (compare on
Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 14:20). It is quite possible that Ezekiel is comparing him with
that great contemporary figure Daniel (Daniyye’l, an alternative form. Compare
Do’eg (1 Samuel 21:7; 1 Samuel 22:9) spelled Doyeg in 1 Samuel 22:18; 1 Samuel
22:22) who had risen so high in the court of the king of Babylon and had become a
folk-hero to his people. He was renowned for his wisdom (Daniel 1:17; Daniel 1:20)
and vision (Daniel 2:19) and as the one to whom the secrets of God were revealed
(Daniel 2:22; Daniel 2:28; Daniel 2:30; Daniel 2:47). As the message of the prophecy
was for Israel and not for Tyre, who would probably never receive it, the fact that
Tyre might not have known much about Daniel is irrelevant, although Daniel was
by now such a powerful figure (Daniel 2:48) that he had probably already become a
legend in his own time, even in Tyre.
Alternately there may be in mind some patriarchal figure like the Dan’el described
at Ugarit, the Dispenser of fertility, who was seen as upright and as judging the
cause of the widow and the fatherless. That Dan’el would certainly be known to the
Tyrians.
Either way the point is that he claimed to have supernatural knowledge, to a
knowledge of all secrets greater than Daniel’s, and that Ezekiel is deriding him for
it, while agreeing that he has a certain kind of wisdom. There is wry sarcasm here,
for had he been a knower of all secrets he would have known the secret of his own
downfall.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 28:3
Thou art wiser than Daniel, etc. There is, of course, a marked irony in the words.
Daniel was for Ezekiel—and there seems something singularly humble and pathetic
in the prophet's reverence for his contemporary—the ideal at once of righteousness
(Ezekiel 14:14) and of wisdom. He was a revealer of the secrets of the future, and
read the hearts of men. His fame was spread far and wide through the Chaldean
17

18. empire. And this was the man with whom the King of Tyro compared himself with a
self-satisfied sense of superiority, and he found the proof of his higher wisdom in his
wealth. Here, again, I venture to trace a side-thrust at Nebuchadnezzar and his
tendencies in the same direction," Is not this great Babylon, which I have builded?"
4
By your wisdom and understanding
you have gained wealth for yourself
and amassed gold and silver
in your treasuries.
GILL, "With thy wisdom and with thy understanding thou hast gotten thee
riches,.... Through skill in navigation and trade, for which the Tyrians and their princes
were famous, they acquired great wealth: so antichrist, by carnal policy, and hellish
subtlety, has amassed vast treasures together; the sale of pardons and indulgences has
brought immense riches into the pope's coffers:
and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures; in great quantities; see Rev_
18:3.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast
gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
Ver. 4. With thy wisdom thou hast gotten thee riches.] Which yet is not every wise
man’s happiness. Aelian (a) observeth that the wisest and best of the Grecians were
18

19. very poor, as Socrates, Aristides, Phocion, Ephialtes, Epaminondas, Pelopidas,
Lamachus, and others. Fortuna fere favet fatuis: nescio quomodo, bonae mentis
soror, est paupertas, saith he in Petronius. (b) Piety goeth oft yoked with poverty.
POOLE, " With thy wisdom; by thy policy in government, and by thy skill in
trading, for he speaks of that kind of prudence to which these names are given.
Gotten, or
made, so the word. Riches; power and might, so the Hebrew, as well as wealth and
riches, and so the Gallic version reads
puissance; the princes of Tyre had been prudent, and so increased their power and
interest.
Into thy treasures; into both his own private purse, and into the public treasuries
too.
PETT, "Verse 4-5
“By your wisdom and by your understanding you have obtained for yourself riches,
and you have obtained gold and silver into your treasuries. By your great wisdom
and by your trading you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up
because of your riches.”
The wisdom the king and his subjects had was the wisdom as to how to make
themselves rich through trading. He knew how to accumulate the riches that would
destroy him by making him too presumptious, and he had put all his efforts into it.
The world stood back and admired, for the world admires nothing more than the
19

20. ability to become rich, but he and they would be much wiser if they considered their
end (Psalms 73:17).
5
By your great skill in trading
you have increased your wealth,
and because of your wealth
your heart has grown proud.
CLARKE, "By thy great wisdom - He attributed every thing to himself; he did not
acknowledge a Divine providence. As he got all by himself, so he believed he could keep
all by himself, and had no need of any foreign help.
GILL, "By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic,.... Or, "by thy great wisdom in thy
traffic" (i); through great skill in trade and commerce:
hast thou increased thy riches; to a very great degree, a prodigious bulk; so
antichrist has done, especially through trafficking with the souls of men, which is one
part of his merchandise, as it was of Tyre, Rev_18:13,
and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches; which are apt to puff up and
make men highminded, and swell them with a vain opinion of themselves, and to make
haughty, insolent, and scornful, in their behaviour to others; thus elated with worldly
grandeur and riches, the whore of Rome is represented as proud, vain, and haughty,
Rev_18:7.
20

21. TRAPP, "Verse 5
Ezekiel 28:5 By thy great wisdom [and] by thy traffick hast thou increased thy
riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
Ver. 5. Thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.] Like as the higher the flood
riseth, the higher also doth the boat that floateth thereon. A small blast will blow up
a bubble, so will a few paltry pounds puff up a carnal heart.
By thy great wisdom.] Here God did nothing. And such, for all the world, saith
Oecolampadius, are our freewill men, with their ego feci, this I did. Such feci’s I did
it’s are no better than faeces, dregs saith Luther; that is, dregs and dross.
POOLE, " Thy great wisdom: here the eminent degree of this prince’s wisdom is
owned.
And by thy traffic: and might as well be spared, for as it is not in the Hebrew, so it
rather obscures than clears the text; let it be read, By thy great wisdom in thy
traffic, and it is very plain, and so the French reads it increased; made great or
enlarged.
Thy riches; thy power, as Ezekiel 28:4.
Is lifted up; exalts itself, carrieth it loftily and proudly above thy neighbours, which
is not good; above thyself, which is worse; and above God too, which is worst of all,
as Ezekiel 28:2.
21

22. Thy riches; thy puissance at home and abroad, by nature and art.
6 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord
says:
“‘Because you think you are wise,
as wise as a god,
GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Now follows the punishment
threatened, because of all this pride, haughtiness, and blasphemy:
because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; seeking thine own glory;
setting up thyself above all others; assuming that to thyself which belongs to God; and
making thyself equal to him, or showing thyself as if thou wast God; See Gill on Eze_
28:2.
COFFMAN, ""Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast set thy
heart as the heart of God, therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon thee, the
terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy
wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit;
and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain, in the heart of the seas. Wilt thou
yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am god? but thou art man, and not God, in
the hand of him that woundeth thee. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised
by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah."
THE PUNISHMENT ASSIGNED
22

23. Here we have the verdict awaiting Ithbaal the ruler of Tyre and his wicked city. He
would die a shameful and disgraceful death, "the death of the uncircumcised."
"God here mocked his claim of being `a god,'"[7] pointing out that he certainly
would not claim any such thing in the hands of those who would slay him. "The
strangers" referred to were the hosts of the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.
"Thou shalt die the death ..." (Ezekiel 28:8). The words here are literally "die the
deaths," as reflected in some of the older versions. "The plural was for emphasis,
meaning "a death so painful as to be the equivalent of dying many times."[8]
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Because thou hast set
thine heart as the heart of God;
Ver. 6. Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God.] Thou thinkest thy
wisdom to be divine, and thyself the only one. The Tyrians were famous for their
great wisdom, [Zechariah 9:2] and they are said to be the inventors of many arts;
yet should they not have overly weaned themselves in this sort; which because they
did, let them hear their doom.
POOLE, " Hast set thine heart: see Ezekiel 28:2.
As the heart of God, who doth, as justly he may, design himself, his own glory, in all
he designeth and worketh, and take the glory to himself; thou hast done so too,
designed thy own greatness, and gloried in it.
PETT, "Verses 6-8
‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because you have set your heart as the
heart of the gods, therefore behold I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the
23

24. nations, and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and
they will mar your brightness. They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die
the deaths of those who are slain in the heart of the seas.”
His whole attitude towards Yahweh and towards his own exalted status, and that of
his city, was such that he had brought on himself his own punishment. He had set
his heart to be one among the gods, so he and his people would be destroyed bymen,
by ‘strangers’, by the most terrible of the nations (Babylon - Ezekiel 30:11; Ezekiel
31:12; Ezekiel 32:12). He had claimed to be perfect in beauty, a beauty revealed in
wisdom, as one who shone before the world, so this beauty will be destroyed by the
swords of men, and this brightness defiled by men, and he will go down into the
grave where all men go. He will die as so many of his seamen have died before him,
swallowed up by the sea, which in his case is represented by the enemy hosts.
(Although many would no doubt be tossed into the harbour and literally be
swallowed up by the sea). Such will be his ‘god-like’ end.
7
I am going to bring foreigners against you,
the most ruthless of nations;
they will draw their swords against your beauty
and wisdom
and pierce your shining splendor.
24

25. CLARKE, "I will bring strangers upon thee - The Chaldeans.
GILL, "Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee,.... The Chaldean
army, who not only lived at a distance from Tyre, but were unknown to them, not trading
with them; nor are they mentioned among the merchants of Tyre: these, in the mystical
sense, may design the angels that shall pour out the vials on the antichristian states, the
kings of Protestant nations:
the terrible of the nations; as the Babylonians were, very formidable to the world,
having conquered many countries, and their armies consisting of men of all nations,
mighty, courageous, and expert in war; and alike formidable will the Protestant princes
be to the antichristian powers, when they shall with their united strength attack them:
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom; their
beautiful city and spacious buildings, the palaces of their king and nobles, their walls
and towers erected with so much art and skill; or their forces, the men of war within
their city, which made their beauty complete, so well skilled in military affairs, Eze_
27:10, or their ships, and the merchandise of them, and the curious things brought in
them: even everything that was rich and valuable, the effect of their art and wisdom: all
which may be applied to the city of Rome, when it will be taken, ransacked, and burnt,
Rev_18:8,
and they shall defile thy brightness; profane thy crown, cast down thy throne,
destroy thy kingdom, and all that is great and glorious in thee; thus the whore of Rome
shall be made bare and desolate, Rev_17:16. The Targum renders it,
"the brightness of thy terror;''
which shall no more strike the nations, or affect them.
HENRY 7-8, "2. The extremity of the destruction: They shall draw their swords
against the beauty of thy wisdom (Eze_28:7), against all those things which thou
gloriest in as thy beauty and the production of thy wisdom. Note, It is just with God that
our enemies should make that their prey which we have made our pride. The king of
Tyre's palace, his treasury, his city, his navy, his army, these he glories in as his
brightness, these, he thinks, made him illustrious and glorious as a god on earth. But all
these the victorious enemy shall defile, shall deface, shall deform. He thought them
sacred, things that none durst touch; but the conquerors shall seize them as common
things, and spoil the brightness of them. But, whatever becomes of what he has, surely
his person is sacred. No (Eze_28:8): They shall bring thee down to the pit, to the grave;
thou shalt die the death. And, (1.) It shall not be an honourable death, but an
25

26. ignominious one. He shall be so vilified in his death that he may despair of being deified
after his death. He shall die the deaths of those that are slain in the midst of the seas,
that have no honour done them at their death, but their dead bodies are immediately
thrown overboard, without any ceremony or mark of distinction, to be a feast for the
fish. Tyre is likely to be destroyed in the midst of the sea (Eze_27:32) and the prince of
Tyre shall fare no better than the people. (2.) It shall not be a happy death, but a
miserable one. He shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised (Eze_28:10), of those that
are strangers to God and not in covenant with him, and therefore die under his wrath
and curse. It is deaths, a double death, temporal and eternal, the death both of body and
soul. He shall die the second death; that is dying miserably indeed. The sentence of
death here passed upon the king of Tyre is ratified by a divine authority: I have spoken
it, saith the Lord God. And what he has said he will do. None can gainsay it, nor will he
unsay it.
JAMISON, "therefore — apodosis.
strangers ... terrible of the nations — the Chaldean foreigners noted for their
ferocity (Eze_30:11; Eze_31:12).
against the beauty of thy wisdom — that is, against thy beautiful possessions
acquired by thy wisdom on which thou pridest thyself (Eze_28:3-5).
defile thy brightness — obscure the brightness of thy kingdom.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the
terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy
wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
Ver. 7. Behold, therefore I will briny strangers upon thee.] Who shall not at all
regard thy great wisdom, but grasp after thy wealth, and suck thy blood for it.
Neither will they favour thee the more because thou art a king, but slay thee the
rather, and say, Hunc ipsum quaerimus, This we seek ourselves, This is the right
bird, as that soldier said who slew the most valiant King of Sweden at the battle of
Lutzen.
POOLE, " Will bring; cause to come.
Strangers; a foreign people, called strangers for their multitude, and to intimate
how little regard they would have to the Tyrian glory; these strangers were the
Babylonian forces. The terrible of the nations; a fierce, violent, and cruel nation,
26

27. Habakkuk 1:7,8.
The beauty of thy wisdom; those beautiful things, in which thy wisdom appeared;
either thy noble, regular, and strong buildings, or thy beautiful well-stored arsenal
and army, or the unparalleled rarities, which all but rudest soldiers would esteem,
and spare these monuments of thy wisdom. Defile; pour contempt and stain.
Thy brightness; thy royal dignity, depose thee from thy throne, and kill thy
authority and thy person.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 28:7
I will bring strangers, etc. These are, of course, the hosts of many nations that made
up the Chaldean army (comp. the parallel of Ezekiel 30:11 and Ezekiel 31:12). The
beauty of thy wisdom is that of the city on which the prince looked as having been
produced by his policy.
8
They will bring you down to the pit,
and you will die a violent death
in the heart of the seas.
GILL, "They shall bring thee down to the pit,.... Or, "to corruption" (k); to the
grave, the pit of corruption and destruction; so antichrist shall go into perdition, into the
27

28. bottomless pit from whence he came, Rev_17:8,
and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas;
that die in a sea fight, whose carcasses are thrown overboard, and devoured by fishes.
JAMISON, "the pit — that is, the bottom of the sea; the image being that of one
conquered in a sea-fight.
the deaths — plural, as various kinds of deaths are meant (Jer_16:4).
of them ... slain — literally, “pierced through.” Such deaths as those pierced with
many wounds die.
COKE, "Ezekiel 28:8. Thou shalt die, &c.— "Thou shalt die the deaths of those who
perished in the flood:" deaths, in the plural, as intimating a still farther punishment
even after death; such as that impious race experienced, and such as this haughty
prince had well deserved by his mad pride and blasphemous impiety. And therefore
with the same emphasis the prophet says, Ezekiel 28:10. Thou shalt die the deaths,
the double death, of the uncircumcised;—that is, of unbelievers and enemies to God.
This is not the only place in this prophesy where the destruction by the deluge is
alluded to: for this, and the fall of angels, being two of the greatest events that ever
happened, and the most remarkable of God's judgments; it is very natural for the
prophets to recur to them, when they would raise their style in the description of the
fall of empires and of tyrants. Thus we find a very beautiful allusion to both those
great events in this same prediction of our prophet, of the downfal of Tyre and its
haughty prince in the 26th and following chapter. As the style of this prophet is
wonderfully adapted to the subject of which he treats, he compares the destruction
of this famous maritime city to a vessel shipwrecked in the sea, and so sends them to
the people of old time, as he calls them, chap. Ezekiel 26:20. (where it should
certainly be so rendered) who were swallowed up in the universal deluge. Their
prince he compares to the prince of the rebel angels, whose pride had given him
such a dreadful fall. See chap. Ezekiel 26:18-20, Ezekiel 27:26. See Peters on Job, p.
373 and the note on Ezekiel 28:14. Instead of, Them that are slain, Houbigant reads,
Them who are wounded.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the
deaths of [them that are] slain in the midst of the seas.
28

29. Ver. 8. They shall bring thee down to the pit.] There shall lie the greatness of the
god of Tyre.
And thou shalt die the death.] Death will make no difference between a prince and a
peasant, a lord and a lowly. The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre.
POOLE, " These strangers shall slay thee, which is a blemish to the honour of a
king thus to be brought to the pit.
The pit; a usual periphrasis of death and the grave.
The deaths; in the plural, because of the many terrors, dangers, and wounds such
meet with, the successive deaths, slain, drowned, eat of fish, cast upon shore, and
become meat to sea fowl.
In the midst of the seas; if literally understood, thou shalt die as other common
mariners, and be cast overboard; if figuratively, seas for great distresses, then
amidst multitude of deep distresses thou shalt meet with more than one death, be
often dying.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 28:8, Ezekiel 28:9
The effect of the Chaldean invasion was to bring the king down to the nether world
of the dead. In the use of the plural "deaths" we have a parallel to the "plurima
morris imago" of Virgil ('AEneid,' 2.369). And this death was not to be like that of a
hero-warrior, but as that of those who are slain in the midst of the seas, who fall, i.e;
in a naval battle, and are cast into the waters. Would he then repeat his boast, I am
God?
29

30. 9
Will you then say, “I am a god,”
in the presence of those who kill you?
You will be but a mortal, not a god,
in the hands of those who slay you.
CLARKE, "Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee - Wilt thou
continue thy pride and arrogance when the sword is sheathed in thee, and still imagine
that thou art self-sufficient and independent?
GILL, "Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God?.... When thou
art in the enemies' hands, and just going to be put to death, wilt thou then confidently
assert thy deity, and to his face tell him that thou art God? surely thy courage and thy
confidence, thy blasphemy and impiety, will leave thee then; a bitter sarcasm this! and
so the pope of Rome, the antichristian beast, when taken, and just going to be cast into
the lake of fire along with the false prophet, will not have the impudence to style himself
God, or to call himself Christ's vicar on earth:
but thou shalt be a man, and no god, in the hand of him that slayeth thee;
that is, thou shalt appear to be a poor, weak, frail, mortal, trembling, dying man, when
got into the hand of the enemy, and he is just going to put an end to thy life; where will
be then thy boasted deity?
HENRY, "The effectual disproof that this will be of all his pretensions to deity (Eze_
28:9): “When the conqueror sets his sword to thy breast, and thou seest no way of
escape, wilt thou then say, I am God? Wilt thou then have such a conceit of thyself as
thou now hast? No; thy being overpowered by death, and by the fear of it, will force thee
to own that thou art not a god, but a weak, timorous, trembling, dying man. In the hand
of him that slays thee (in the hand of God, and of the instruments that he employed)
thou shalt be a man, and not God, utterly unable to resist, and help thyself.” I have said,
30

31. You are gods; but you shall die like men, Psa_82:6, Psa_82:7. Note, Those who pretend
to be rivals with God shall be forced one way or other to let fall their claims. Death at
furthest, when we come into his hand, will make us know that we are men.
JAMISON, "yet say — that is, still say; referring to Eze_28:2.
but, etc. — But thy blasphemous boastings shall be falsified, and thou shalt be shown
to be but man, and not God, in the hand (at the mercy) of Him.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I [am] God?
but thou [shalt be] a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
Ver. 9. Wilt thou say before him that slayeth thee, I am God?] That will prove a
poor plea, and thou wilt soon be confuted, as afterwards great Alexander confuted
his flatterers, when, being wounded in fight, he showed them his blood.
POOLE, " A cutting taunt, or sarcasm: What will become of thy godship then? Wilt
thou then dream of immortality and almighty power, when thine enemy is cutting
thy throat?
Thou shalt be a man; appear thou to thyself and others to be a mortal, weak,
conquered man, who dieth a sacrifice to the conqueror’s pride and cruelty.
NISBET, "THE DOOM OF PRIDE
‘A man, and no God.’
Ezekiel 28:9
I. At the time of this prophecy Ethbaal was King of Tyre—the representative of the
Phœnician Sun-Deity, whose name he bore. Like Herod, he was tempted, in the
pride of his heart, to claim the honour which belongs to God alone. He sat on the
throne of God, in the midst of the seas. No precious stone from the bed of ocean or
the mines of earth was withheld from him. As the cherubim covered the ark with
outspread wings, so did he cover the interests of Tyre. He seemed to stand as the
beau-ideal of humanity, on the very sapphire pavement described in Exodus
31

32. (Ezekiel 24:10; Ezekiel 24:17). But his beauty, of which he was so conscious, caused
his heart to be lifted up to his ruin, and the brightness of his glory dazzled his eyes,
so that God cast him to the ground as a warning of the terrible consequences of
pride.
II. We are strongly reminded, in this marvellous description, of Adam, standing in
his native innocence and beauty in Eden; and especially of Satan, before his fall.—
Behind the figure of the King of Tyre rises that of the prince or god of this world,
when as yet he was the unfallen son of the morning. The creature may be placed in
the most favourable circumstances that can be imagined—as, for instance, in Eden,
the garden of God, or even in heaven itself—but he cannot remain there if his heart
becomes its own centre, or lifted up with pride. We cannot stand for a moment
unless we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. The records of the world are full of those
who thought they could stand, but who fell, because they had not made God their
strength. But the Israel of God shall dwell safely, and shall know the Lord. O
blessed day, when we shall rest for ever with God, knowing Him even as we are
known!
Illustration
‘It is a historical parable. The kings of Tyre are first personified as one individual,
an ideal man—one complete in all material excellence, perfect manhood. And then
this ideal man, the representative of whatever there was of greatness and glory in
Tyre, and in whom the Tyrian spirit of self-elation and pride appear in full
efflorescence, is ironically viewed by the prophet as the type of humanity in its
highest states of existence upon earth. All that is best and noblest in the history of
the past he sees in imagination meeting in this new beau-ideal of humanity. It was he
who in primeval time trod the hallowed walks of paradise, and used at will its
manifold treasures, and regaled himself with its corporeal delights. It was he who
afterwards appeared in the form of a cherub—ideal compound of the highest forms
of animal existence—type of humanity in its predestined state of ultimate
completeness and, glory; and as such, had a place assigned him among the
consecrated symbols of God’s sanctuary in the holy mount, and the immediate
presence of the Most High. Thou thinkest, thou ideal man, thou quintessence of
human greatness and pride—thou thinkest that manhood’s divinest qualities, and
most honourable conditions of being, belong peculiarly to thyself, since thou dost
32

33. nobly peer above all, and standest alone in thy glory. Let it be so. But thou art still a
man, and, like humanity itself in its most favoured conditions, thou hast not been
perfect before God: thou hast yielded thyself a servant to corruption, therefore thou
must be cast down from thine excellency, thou must lose thy cherubic nearness to
God, etc.… So that the cry which the prophet would utter through this parabolical
history in the ears of all is, that man in his best estate—with everything that art or
nature can bring to his aid—is still corruption and vanity. The flesh can win for
itself nothing that is really and permanently good; and the more that it can
surround itself with the comforts and luxuries of life, the more only does it pamper
the godless pride of nature, and draw down upon itself calamity and destruction.’
PETT, "Verse 9-10
“Will you yet say before him who slays you, ‘I am a god’. But you are a man and not
a god in the hands of him who wounds you. You will die the deaths of the
uncircumcised by the hand of strangers. For I have spoken it says the Lord
Yahweh.”
His protestation to be a god will not help him when he meets his slayers. To them his
exalted claims will mean nothing. To them he will be but a man who bleeds. And he
will die an ignominious death at their hand, the hand of strangers. To an Israelite to
die uncircumcised was to die in shame, it was the worst of all deaths for it indicated
that men died outside the covenant.
10
You will die the death of the uncircumcised
at the hands of foreigners.
33

34. I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
CLARKE, "The deaths of the uncircumcised - Two deaths, temporal and
eternal. Ithobaal was taken and killed by Nebuchadnezzar.
GILL, "Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised,.... Or the death of the
wicked, as the Targum; the first and second death, temporal and eternal: the former
by the hand of strangers, the Chaldeans, in various shapes; and the latter will follow
upon it: it may denote the various kinds of death which the inhabitants of Rome will die
when destroyed, some by famine, some by pestilence, and others by fire; when these
plagues shall come upon her in one day, Rev_18:8.
for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and therefore it shall surely come to pass;
strong is the Lord that will judge, condemn, and destroy mystical Babylon, or Tyre.
JAMISON, "deaths of ... uncircumcised — that is, such a death as the
uncircumcised or godless heathen deserve; and perhaps, also, such as the uncircumcised
inflict, a great ignominy in the eyes of a Jew (1Sa_31:4); a fit retribution on him who had
scoffed at the circumcised Jews.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 28:10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand
of strangers: for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord GOD.
Ver. 10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised.] Not only a temporal, but an
eternal death, as they must needs do that are out of the covenant of grace, whereof
circumcision was the seal. This is the sad catastrophe of such as dream of a deity. Of
which number were Caligula, Herod, Heliogabalus, Dioclesian, and other monsters,
uncircumcised vice gods, as we may, in the worst sense, best term them.
34

35. POOLE, " The deaths: Ezekiel 28:8. A twofold death, temporal and eternal.
Of the uncircumcised; of the wicked, or an accursed death: the Jews do express a
vile and miserable death thus. Or, the uncircumcised, i.e. heathens, cruel and
merciless men, shall slay thee; and this suits with what follows in the verse, and this
was ignominious with the Jews, 1 Samuel 31:4.
I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; O thou proud, self-admiring prince! slight not
what is threatened, for God, the God of truth, hath spoken it.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 28:10
The climax comes in the strongest language of Hebrew scorn. As the uncircumcised
were to the Israelite (1 Samuel 17:36; 1 Samuel 31:4), so should the King of Tyro,
unhonored, unwept, with no outward marks of reverence, be among the great cues
of the past who dwell in Hades. Ezekiel returns to the phrase in Ezekiel 31:18;
Ezekiel 32:24. The words receive a special force from the fact that the Phoenicians
practiced circumcision before their intercourse with the Greeks (Herod; 2.104).
11 The word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "The dirge of the prince of Tyre, answering to the dirge of the state. The
passage is ironical; its main purpose is to depict all the glory, real or assumed, of “the
prince of Tyrus,” in order to show how deplorable should be his ruin.
GILL, "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,.... After the prophecy
concerning the ruin of the prince of Tyre, the word of the Lord came to the prophet,
ordering him to take up a lamentation on the king of Tyre:
35

36. HENRY, "As after the prediction of the ruin of Tyre (ch. 26) followed a pathetic
lamentation for it (ch. 27), so after the ruin of the king of Tyre is foretold it is bewailed.
I. This is commonly understood of the prince who then reigned over Tyre, spoken to,
Eze_28:2. His name was Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, as Diodorus Siculus calls him that was
king of Tyre when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. He was, it seems, upon all external
accounts an accomplished man, very great and famous; but his iniquity was his ruin.
Many expositors have suggested that besides the literal sense of this lamentation there is
an allegory in it, and that it is an allusion to the fall of the angels that sinned, who undid
themselves by their pride. And (as is usual in texts that have a mystical meaning) some
passages here refer primarily to the king of Tyre, as that of his merchandises, others to
the angels, as that of being in the holy mountain of God. But, if there be any thing
mystical in it (as perhaps there may), I shall rather refer it to the fall of Adam, which
seems to be glanced at, Eze_28:13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God, and that
in the day thou wast created.
II. Some think that by the king of Tyre is meant the whole royal family, this including
also the foregoing kings, and looking as far back as Hiram, king of Tyre. The then
governor is called prince (Eze_28:2); but he that is here lamented is called king. The
court of Tyre with its kings had for many ages been famous; but sin ruins it. Now we may
observe two things here: -
K&D 11-19, "Lamentation over the King of Tyre
Eze_28:11. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_28:12. Son of man,
raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,
Thou seal of a well-measured building, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Eze_
28:13. In Eden, the garden of God, was thou; all kinds of precious stones were thy
covering, cornelian, topaz, and diamond, chrysolite, beryl, and jasper, sapphire,
carbuncle, and emerald, and gold: the service of thy timbrels and of thy women was
with thee; on the day that thou wast created, they were prepared. Eze_28:14. Thou
wast a cherub of anointing, which covered, and I made thee for it; thou wast on a holy
mountain of God; thou didst walk in the midst of fiery stones. Eze_28:15. Thou wast
innocent in thy ways from the day on which thou wast created, until iniquity was
found in thee. Eze_28:16. On account of the multitude of thy commerce, thine inside
was filled with wrong, and thou didst sin: I will therefore profane thee away from the
mountain of God; and destroy thee, O covering cherub, away from the fiery stones!
Eze_28:17. Thy heart has lifted itself up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy
wisdom together with thy splendour: I cast thee to the ground, I give thee up for a
spectacle before kings. Eze_28:18. Through the multitude of thy sins in thine
unrighteous trade thou hast profaned thy holy places; I therefore cause fire to proceed
from the midst of thee, which shall devour thee, and make thee into ashes upon the
earth before the eyes of all who see thee. Eze_28:19. All who know thee among the
peoples are amazed at thee: thou hast become a terror, and art gone for ever. - The
lamentation over the fall of the king of Tyre commences with a picture of the super-
terrestrial glory of his position, so as to correspond to his self-deification as depicted in
36

37. the foregoing word of God. In Eze_28:12 he is addressed as ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ת‬ֹ‫ח‬ ‫ית‬ִ‫נ‬ ְ‫כ‬ ָ‫.תּ‬ This does not
mean, “artistically wrought signet-ring;” for ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ת‬ֹ‫ח‬ does not stand for ‫ם‬ ָ‫ת‬ֹ‫ח‬ , but is a
participle of ‫ם‬ ַ‫ת‬ ָ‫ח‬ , to seal. There is all the more reason for adhering firmly to this
meaning, that the following predicate, ‫א‬ֵ‫ל‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ְ‫כ‬ ָ‫,ח‬ is altogether inapplicable to a signet-
ring, though Hitzig once more scents a corruption of the text in consequence. ‫ית‬ִ‫נ‬ ְ‫כ‬ ָ‫,תּ‬
from ‫ן‬ַ‫כ‬ ָ‫,תּ‬ to weigh, or measure off, does not mean perfection (Ewald), beauty (Ges.),
façon (Hitzig), or symmetry (Hävernick); but just as in Eze_43:10, the only other
passage in which it occurs, it denotes the measured and well-arranged building of the
temple, so here it signifies a well-measured and artistically arranged building, namely,
the Tyrian state in its artistic combination of well-measured institutions (Kliefoth). This
building is sealed by the prince, inasmuch as he imparts to the state firmness, stability,
and long duration, when he possesses the qualities requisite for a ruler. These are
mentioned afterwards, namely, “full of wisdom, perfect in beauty.” If the prince answers
to his position, the wisdom and beauty manifest in the institutions of the state are
simply the impress received from the wisdom and beauty of his own mind. The prince of
Tyre possessed such a mind, and therefore regarded himself as a God (Eze_28:2). His
place of abode, which is described in Eze_28:13 and Eze_28:14, corresponded to his
position. Ezekiel here compares the situation of the prince of Tyre with that of the first
man in Paradise; and then, in Eze_28:15 and Eze_28:16, draws a comparison between
his fall and the fall of Adam. As the first man was placed in the garden of God, in Eden,
so also was the prince of Tyre placed in the midst of paradisaical glory. ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ד‬ֵ‫ע‬ is shown, by
the apposition ‫ַן‬‫גּ‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ה‬ ֱ‫א‬, to be used as the proper name of Paradise; and this view is not
to be upset by the captious objection of Hitzig, that Eden was not the Garden of God, but
that this was situated in Eden (Gen_2:8). The fact that Ezekiel calls Paradise ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ד‬ֵ‫ַן־ע‬‫גּ‬ in
Eze_36:35, proves nothing more than that the terms Eden and Garden of God do not
cover precisely the same ground, inasmuch as the garden of God only occupied one
portion of Eden. But notwithstanding this difference, Ezekiel could use the two
expressions as synonymous, just as well as Isaiah (Isa_51:3). And even if any one should
persist in pressing the difference, it would not follow that ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ד‬ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫בּ‬ was corrupt in this
passage, as Hitzig fancies, but simply that ‫גן‬ defined the idea of ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ד‬ֵ‫ע‬ more precisely - in
other words, restricted it to the garden of Paradise.
There is, however, another point to be observed in connection with this expression,
namely, that the epithet ‫גן‬ ‫אלהים‬ is used here and in Eze_31:8-9; whereas, in other
places, Paradise is called ‫גן‬ ‫יהוה‬ (vid., Isa_51:3; Gen_13:10). Ezekiel has chosen Elohim
instead of Jehovah, because Paradise is brought into comparison, not on account of the
historical significance which it bears to the human race in relation to the plan of
salvation, but simply as the most glorious land in all the earthly creation. the prince of
Tyre, placed in the pleasant land, was also adorned with the greatest earthly glory. Costly
jewels were his coverings, that is to say, they formed the ornaments of his attire. This
feature in the pictorial description is taken from the splendour with which Oriental
rulers are accustomed to appear, namely, in robes covered with precious stones, pearls,
and gold. ‫ה‬ָ‫כּ‬ ֻ‫ס‬ ְ‫,מ‬ as a noun ἁπ. λεγ.., signifies a covering. In the enumeration of the
precious stones, there is no reference to the breastplate of the high priest. For, in the
first place, the order of the stones is a different one here; secondly, there are only nine
stones named instead of twelve; and lastly, there would be no intelligible sense in such a
37

38. reference, so far as we can perceive. Both precious stones and gold are included in the
glories of Eden (vid., Gen_2:11-12). For the names of the several stones, see the
commentary on Exo_28:17-20. The words '‫ת‬ ֶ‫אכ‬ֶ‫ל‬ ְ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ֶ‫פּ‬ ֻ‫תּ‬ å‫'גו‬ s - which even the early
translators have entirely misunderstood, and which the commentators down to Hitzig
and Ewald have made marvellous attempts to explain - present no peculiar difficulty,
apart from the plural ‫,נקבי‬ which is only met with here. As the meaning timbrels,
tambourins (aduffa), is well established for ‫ים‬ ִ‫פּ‬ ֻ‫,תּ‬ and in 1Sa_10:5 and Isa_5:12 flutes
are mentioned along with the timbrels, it has been supposed by some that ‫ים‬ ִ‫ב‬ ָ‫ק‬ְ‫נ‬ must
signify flutes here. But there is nothing to support such a rendering either in the Hebrew
or in the other Semitic dialects. On the other hand, the meaning pala gemmarum
(Vulgate), or ring-casket, has been quite arbitrarily forced upon the word by Jerome,
Rosenmüller, Gesenius, and many others. We agree with Hävernick in regarding ‫ים‬ ִ‫ב‬ ָ‫ק‬ְ‫נ‬
as a plural of ‫ה‬ ָ‫ב‬ ֵ‫ק‬ְ‫נ‬ (foeminae), formed, like a masculine, after the analogy of ‫ים‬ ִ‫ָשׁ‬‫נ‬,
‫ים‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ְ‫ג‬ַ‫לּ‬ ִ‫,פּ‬ etc., and account for the choice of this expression from the allusion to the
history of the creation (Gen_1:27). The service (‫ת‬ ֶ‫אכ‬ֶ‫ל‬ ְ‫,מ‬ performance, as in Gen_39:11,
etc.) of the women is the leading of the circular dances by the odalisks who beat the
timbrels: “the harem-pomp of Oriental kings.” This was made ready for the king on the
day of his creation, i.e., not his birthday, but the day on which he became king, or
commenced his reign, when the harem of his predecessor came into his possession with
all its accompaniments. Ezekiel calls this the day of his creation, with special reference to
the fact that it was God who appointed him king, and with an allusion to the parallel,
underlying the whole description, between the position of the prince of Tyre and that of
Adam in Paradise.
(Note: In explanation of the fact alluded to, Hävernick has very appropriately
called attention to a passage of Athen. (xii. 8, p. 531), in which the following
statement occurs with reference to Strato, the Sidonian king: “Strato, with flute-girls,
and female harpers and players on the cithara, made preparations for the festivities,
and sent for a large number of hetaerae from the Peloponnesus, and many signing-
girls from Ionia, and young hetaerae from the whole of Greece, both singers and
dancers.” See also other passages in Brissonius, de regio Pers. princ. pp. 142-3.)
The next verse (Eze_28:14) is a more difficult one. ְ‫תּ‬ ַ‫א‬ is an abbreviation of ָ‫תּ‬ ַ‫,א‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫תּ‬ ַ‫,א‬ as
in Num_11:15; Deu_5:24 (see Ewald, §184a). The hap. leg. ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫מ‬ has been explained in
very different ways, but mostly according to the Vulgate rendering, tu Cherub extentus et
protegens, as signifying spreading out or extension, in the sense of “with outspread
wings” (Gesenius and many others.). But ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫מ‬ does not mean either to spread out or to
extend. The general meaning of the word is simply to anoint; and judging from ‫ח‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫מ‬
and ‫ה‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫,מ‬ portio, Lev_7:35 and Num_18:8, also to measure off, from which the idea of
extension cannot possibly be derived. Consequently the meaning “anointing” is the only
one that can be established with certainty in the case of the word ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫.מ‬ So far as the
form is concerned, ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫מ‬ might be in the construct state; but the connection with
ֵ‫כ‬ ‫סּ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ anointing, or anointed one, of the covering one, does not yield any admissible
sense.
A comparison with Eze_28:16, where ‫רוּב‬ ְ‫כּ‬ ֵ‫כ‬ ‫סּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ occurs again, will show that the
38

39. ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ which stands between these two words in the verse before us, must contain a
more precise definition of ‫רוּב‬ ְ‫,כּ‬ and therefore is to be connected with ‫רוּב‬ ְ‫כּ‬ in the
construct state: cherub of anointing, i.e., anointed cherub. This is the rendering adopted
by Kliefoth, the only commentator who has given the true explanation of the verse.
‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫מ‬ is the older form, which has only been retained in a few words, such as ‫ס‬ ַ‫מ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ִ‫מ‬ in
Isa_10:6, together with the tone-lengthened a (vid., Ewald, §160a). The prince of Tyre is
called an anointed cherub, as Ephraem Syrus has observed, because he was a king even
though he had not been anointed. ֵ‫כ‬ ‫סּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ is not an abstract noun, either here or in Nah_
2:6, but a participle; and this predicate points back to Exo_25:20, “the cherubim
covered (‫ים‬ ִ‫כ‬ ְ‫כ‬ ‫)ס‬ the capporeth with their wings,” and is to be explained accordingly.
Consequently the king of Tyre is called a cherub, because, as an anointed king, he
covered or overshadowed a sanctuary, like the cherubim upon the ark of the covenant.
What this sanctuary was is evident from the remarks already made at Eze_28:2
concerning the divine seat of the king. If the “seat of God,” upon which the king of Tyre
sat, is to be understood as signifying the state of Tyre, then the sanctuary which he
covered or overshadowed as a cherub will also be the Tyrian state, with its holy places
and sacred things. In the next clause, ‫יּ‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ַ‫ת‬ ְ‫וּנ‬ is to be taken by itself according to the
accents, “and I have made thee (so),” and not to be connected with ‫ר‬ ַ‫ה‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫.קֹד‬ We are
precluded from adopting the combination which some propose - viz. “I set thee upon a
holy mountain; thou wast a God” - by the incongruity of first of all describing the prince
of Tyre as a cherub, and then immediately afterwards as a God, inasmuch as, according
to the Biblical view, the cherub, as an angelic being, is simply a creature and not a God;
and the fanciful delusion of the prince of Tyre, that he was an El (Eze_28:2), could not
furnish the least ground for his being addressed as Elohim by Ezekiel. And still more are
we precluded from taking the words in this manner by the declaration contained in Eze_
28:16, that Jehovah will cast him out “from the mountain of Elohim,” from which we
may see that in the present verse also Elohim belongs to har, and that in Eze_28:16,
where the mountain of God is mentioned again, the predicate ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ֹד‬‫ק‬ is simply omitted for
the sake of brevity, just as ‫ח‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫מ‬ is afterwards omitted on the repetition of ‫רוּב‬ ְ‫כּ‬ ֵ‫כ‬ ‫סּ‬ ַ‫.ה‬
The missing but actual object to ‫י‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ַ‫ת‬ ְ‫נ‬ can easily be supplied from the preceding
clause, - namely, this, i.e., an overshadowing cherub, had God made him, by placing him
as king in paradisaical glory. The words, “thou wast upon a holy mountain of God,” are
not to be interpreted in the sense suggested by Isa_14:13, namely, that Ezekiel was
thinking of the mountain of the gods (Alborj) met with in Asiatic mythology, because it
was there that the cherub had its home, as Hitzig and others suppose; for the Biblical
idea of the cherub is entirely different from the heathen notion of the griffin keeping
guard over gold. It is true that God placed the cherub as guardian of Paradise, but
Paradise was not a mountain of God, nor even a mountainous land. The idea of a holy
mountain of God, as being the seat of the king of Tyre, was founded partly upon the
natural situation of Tyre itself, built as it was upon one or two rocky islands of the
Mediterranean, and partly upon the heathen notion of the sacredness of this island as
the seat of the Deity, to which the Tyrians attributed the grandeur of their state. To this
we may probably add a reference to Mount Zion, upon which was the sanctuary, where
the cherub covered the seat of the presence of God. For although the comparison of the
prince of Tyre to a cherub was primarily suggested by the description of his abode as
Paradise, the epithet ֵ‫כ‬ ‫סּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ shows that the place of the cherub in the sanctuary was also
39

40. present to the prophet's mind. At the same time, we must not understand by ‫ר‬ ַ‫ה‬ Mount
Zion itself. The last clause, “thou didst walk in the midst of (among) fiery stones,” is very
difficult to explain. It is admitted by nearly all the more recent commentators, that
“stones of fire” cannot be taken as equivalent to “every precious stone” (Eze_28:13),
both because the precious stones could hardly be called stones of fire on account of their
brilliant splendour, and also being covered with precious stones is not walking in the
midst of them. Nor can we explain the words, as Hävernick has done, from the account
given by Herodotus (II 44) of the two emerald pillars in the temple of Hercules at Tyre,
which shone resplendently by night; for pillars shining by night are not stones of fire,
and the king of Tyre did not walk in the temple between these pillars. The explanation
given by Hofmann and Kliefoth appears to be the correct one, namely, that the stones of
fire are to be regarded as a wall of fire (Zec_2:9), which rendered the cherubic king of
Tyre unapproachable upon his holy mountain.
In Eze_28:15, the comparison of the prince of Tyre to Adam in Paradise is brought out
still more prominently. As Adam was created sinless, so was the prince of Tyre innocent
in his conduct in the day of his creation, but only until perverseness was found in him.
As Adam forfeited and lost the happiness conferred upon him through his fall, so did the
king of Tyre forfeit his glorious position through unrighteousness and sin, and cause
God to cast him from his eminence down to the ground. He fell into perverseness in
consequence of the abundance of his trade (Eze_28:16). Because his trade lifted him up
to wealth and power, his heart was filled with iniquity. ‫לוּ‬ ָ‫מ‬ for ‫אוּ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ָ‫,מ‬ like ‫ל‬ ְ‫מ‬ for ‫א‬ ‫ל‬ ְ‫מ‬ in
Eze_41:8, and ‫ָשׂוּ‬‫נ‬ for ‫ָשׂאוּ‬‫נ‬ in Eze_39:26. ְ‫כ‬ ‫תּ‬ is not the subject, but the object to ‫לוּ‬ ָ‫;מ‬
and the plural ‫לוּ‬ ָ‫,מ‬ with an indefinite subject, “they filled,” is chosen in the place of the
passive construction, because in the Hebrew, as in the Aramaean, active combinations
are preferred to passive whenever it is possible to adopt them (vid., Ewald, §294b and
128b). ‫א‬ֵ‫ל‬ ָ‫מ‬ is used by Ezekiel in the transitive sense “to fill” (Eze_8:17 and Eze_30:11).
ֶ‫ו‬ ָ‫,תּ‬ the midst, is used for the interior in a physical sense, and not in a spiritual one; and
the expression is chosen with an evident allusion to the history of the fall. As Adam
sinned by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree, so did the king of Tyre sin by filling
himself with wickedness in connection with trade (Hävernick and Kliefoth). God would
therefore put him away from the mountain of God, and destroy him. ‫ל‬ֵ‫לּ‬ ִ‫ח‬ with ‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ is a
pregnant expression: to desecrate away from, i.e., to divest of his glory and thrust away
from. ְ‫ד‬ ֶ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ָא‬‫ו‬ is a contracted form for ְ‫ד‬ ֶ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ֲא‬‫א‬ָ‫ו‬ (vid., Ewald, §232h and §72c). - Eze_28:17
and Eze_28:18 contain a comprehensive description of the guilt of the prince of Tyre,
and the approaching judgment is still further depicted. ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ cannot mean, “on account of
thy splendour,” for this yields no appropriate thought, inasmuch as it was not the
splendour itself which occasioned his overthrow, but the pride which corrupted the
wisdom requisite to exalt the might of Tyre, - in other words, tempted the prince to
commit iniquity in order to preserve and increase his glory. We therefore follow the lxx,
Syr., Ros., and others, in taking ‫על‬ in the sense of una cum, together with. ‫ָה‬‫ו‬ֲ‫א‬ ַ‫ר‬ is an
infinitive form, like ‫ה‬ ָ‫הֲב‬ ַ‫א‬ for ‫ת‬ ‫א‬ ְ‫,ר‬ though Ewald (§238e) regards it as so extraordinary
that he proposes to alter the text. ‫ה‬ ָ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ with ‫ב‬ is used for looking upon a person with
malicious pleasure. ‫ֶל‬‫ו‬ֶ‫ע‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ְ‫ת‬ָ‫לּ‬ֻ‫כ‬ ָ‫ר‬ shows in what the guilt (‫ון‬ָֹ‫)ע‬ consisted (‫ֶל‬‫ו‬ֶ‫ע‬ is the
construct state of ‫ֶל‬‫ו‬ָ‫.)ע‬ The sanctuaries (miqdâshim) which the king of Tyre desecrated by
the unrighteousness of his commerce, are not the city or the state of Tyre, but the
40

41. temples which made Tyre a holy island. These the king desecrated by bringing about
their destruction through his own sin. Several of the codices and editions read ֶ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫דּ‬ ְ‫ק‬ ִ‫מ‬ in
the singular, and this is the reading adopted by the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate
versions. If this were the true reading, the sanctuary referred to would be the holy
mountain of God (Eze_28:14 and Eze_28:16). But the reading itself apparently owes its
origin simply to this interpretation of the words. In the clause, “I cause fire to issue from
the midst of thee,” ְ‫כ‬ ‫תּ‬ ִ‫מ‬ is to be understood in the same sense as ְ‫כ‬ ‫תּ‬ in Eze_28:16.
The iniquity which the king has taken into himself becomes a fire issuing from him, by
which he is consumed and burned to ashes. All who know him among the peoples will be
astonished at his terrible fall (Eze_28:19, compare Eze_27:36).
If we proceed, in conclusion, to inquire into the fulfilment of these prophecies
concerning Tyre and its king, we find the opinions of modern commentators divided.
Some, for example Hengstenberg, Hävernick, Drechsler (on Isa 23), and others,
assuming that, after a thirteen years' siege, Nebuchadnezzar conquered the strong Island
Tyre, and destroyed it; while others - viz. Gesenius, Winer, Hitzig, etc. - deny the
conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, or at any rate call it in question; and many of the earlier
commentators suppose the prophecy to refer to Old Tyre, which stood upon the
mainland. For the history of this dispute, see Hengstenberg, De rebus Tyriorum
comment. (Berol. 1832); Hävernick, On Ezekiel, pp. 420ff.; and Movers, Phoenizier, II 1,
pp. 427ff. - The denial of the conquest of Insular Tyre by the king of Babylon rests partly
on the silence which ancient historians, who mention the siege itself, have maintained as
to its result; and partly on the statement contained in Eze_29:17-20. - All that Josephus
(Antt. x. 11. 1) is able to quote from the ancient historians on this point is the following: -
In the first place, he states, on the authority of the third book of the Chaldean history of
Berosus, that when the father of Nebuchadnezzar, on account of his own age and
consequent infirmity, had transferred to his son the conduct of the war against the
rebellious satrap in Egypt, Coelesyria, and Phoenicia, Nebuchadnezzar defeated him,
and brought the whole country once more under his sway. But as the tidings reached
him of the death of his father just at the same time, after arranging affairs in Egypt, and
giving orders to some of his friends to lead into Babylon the captives taken from among
the Judaeans, the Phoenicians, the Syrians, and the Egyptians, together with the heavy
armed portion of the army, he himself hastened through the desert to Babylon, with a
small number of attendants, to assume that government of the empire. Secondly, he
states, on the authority of the Indian and Phoenician histories of Philostratus, that when
Ithobal was on the throne, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years. The
accounts taken from Berosus are repeated by Josephus in his c. Apion (i. §19), where he
also adds (§20), in confirmation of their credibility, that there were writings found in the
archives of the Phoenicians which tallied with the statement made by Berosus
concerning the king of Chaldea (Nebuchadnezzar), viz., “that he conquered all Syria and
Phoenicia;” and that Philostratus also agrees with this, since he mentions the siege of
Tyre in his histories (μεμνημένος τῆς Τύρου πολιορκίας). In addition to this, for
synchronistic purposes, Josephus (c. Ap. i. 21) also communicates a fragment from the
Phoenician history, containing not only the account of the thirteen years' siege of Tyre by
Nebuchadnezzar in the reign of Ithobal, but also a list of the kings of Tyre who followed
Ithobal, down to the time of Cyrus of Persia.
(Note: The passage reads as follows: “In the reign of Ithobal the king,
Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years. After him judges were appointed.
Ecnibalus, the son of Baslachus, judged for two months; Chelbes, the son of
41

42. Abdaeus, for ten months; Abbarus, the high priest, for three months; Myttonus and
Gerastartus, the sons of Abdelemus, for six years; after whom Balatorus reigned for
one year. When he died, they sent for and fetched Merbalus from Babylon, and he
reigned four years. At his death they sent for his brother Eiramus, who reigned
twenty years. During his reign, Cyrus ruled over the Persians.”)
The siege of Tyre is therefore mentioned three times by Josephus, on the authority of
Phoenician histories; but he never says anything of the conquest and destruction of that
city by Nebuchadnezzar. From this circumstance the conclusion has been drawn, that
this was all he found there. For if, it is said, the siege had terminated with the conquest
of the city, this glorious result of the thirteen years' exertions could hardly have been
passed over in silence, inasmuch as in Antt. x. 11. 1 the testimony of foreign historians is
quoted to the effect that Nebuchadnezzar was “an active man, and more fortunate than
the kings that were before him.” But the argument is more plausible than conclusive. If
we bear in mind that Berosus simply relates the account of a subjugation and
devastation of the whole of Phoenicia, without even mentioning the siege of Tyre, and
that it is only in Phoenician writings therefore that the latter is referred to, we cannot by
any means conclude, from their silence as to the result or termination of the siege, that it
ended gloriously for the Tyrians and with humiliation to Nebuchadnezzar, or that he was
obliged to relinquish the attempt without success after the strenuous exertions of
thirteen years. On the contrary, considering how all the historians of antiquity show the
same anxiety, if not to pass over in silence, such events as were unfavourable to their
country, at all events to put them in as favourable to their country, at all events to put
them in as favourable a light as possible, the fact that the Tyrian historians observe the
deepest silence as to the result of the thirteen years' siege of Tyre would rather force us
to the conclusion that it was very humiliating to Tyre. And this could only be the case if
Nebuchadnezzar really conquered Tyre at the end of thirteen years. If he had been
obliged to relinquish the siege because he found himself unable to conquer so strong a
city, the Tyrian historians would most assuredly have related this termination of the
thirteen years' strenuous exertions of the great and mighty king of Babylon.
The silence of the Tyrian historians concerning the conquest of Tyre is no proof,
therefore, that it did not really take place. But Eze_29:17-20 has also been quoted as
containing positive evidence of the failure of the thirteen years' siege; in other words, of
the fact that the city was not taken. We read in this passage, that Nebuchadnezzar
caused his army to perform hard service against Tyre, and that neither he nor his army
received any recompense for it. Jehovah would therefore give him Egypt to spoil and
plunder as wages for this work of theirs in the service of Jehovah. Gesenius and Hitzig
(on Isa 23) infer from this, that Nebuchadnezzar obtained no recompense for the severe
labour of the siege, because he did not succeed in entering the city. But Movers (l.c. p.
448) has already urged in reply to this, that “the passage before us does not imply that
the city was not conquered any more than it does the opposite, but simply lays stress
upon the fact that it was not plundered. For nothing can be clearer in this connection
than that what we are to understand by the wages, which Nebuchadnezzar did not
receive, notwithstanding the exertions connected with his many years' siege, is simply
the treasures of Tyre;” though Movers is of opinion that the passage contains an
intimation that the siege was brought to an end with a certain compromise which
satisfied the Tyrians, and infers, from the fact of stress being laid exclusively upon the
neglected plundering, that the termination was of such a kind that plundering might
easily have taken place, and therefore that Tyre was either actually conquered, but
treated mildly from wise considerations, or else submitted to the Chaldeans upon certain
42