Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 28

Verses 1-10

The uncircumcised - The pagan idolaters as opposed to the covenant-people.

Verses 11-19

The “perfection” was false, unsuspected until the “iniquity” which lay beneath was found out.

Verse 21

Prophecy against Zidon. Zidon (mod. Saida) was more ancient than Tyre and was the original metropolis of Phoenicia Genesis 10:19, but in the times of Phoenician greatness it ever played a subordinate part. Only once Judges 10:12 do we find the “Zidonians” in conflict with Israel. The evil which they did was the seducing them to idolatry (compare Ezekiel 28:24), as in the case of Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians 1 Kings 16:31. The capture of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar increased the importance of Zidon, which was a wealthy and flourishing town when Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed it. It has rallied from time to time, but has never attained to any great consequence, though not in such complete ruin as Tyre.

Verse 22

Be glorified ... be sanctified - Or, “get Me glory ... have shown Myself holy” (and in Ezekiel 28:25).

Verses 25-26

The contrast of the future of Israel with that of the surrounding nations. This prophecy reaches far beyond a mere temporal restoration. It points to times of more permanent security, when from all nations and kingdoms the Church of Christ, the Israel of God, shall be gathered in, when the power of the world shall be forever broken, and the kingdom of Christ shall be established forever.

This transition from the enemies to the people of God closes the portion of the prophecies against the nations in the immediate vicinity of the Israelites, before passing to the more distant Egypt.