Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 28

Verse 2

Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the 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:

Hast said — In thy heart.

In the seat of God — Safe and impregnable as heaven itself.

A man — Subject to casualties, sorrows, and distresses.

Set thine heart — Thou hast entertained thoughts, which become none but God.

Verse 3

Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:

Wiser — In thy own thoughts.

Daniel — Who was then famous for his wisdom.

Verse 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.

The beauty — Those beautiful things, in which thy wisdom appeared.

Verse 10

Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

The deaths — Temporal and eternal.

Of the uncircumcised — Of the wicked, an accursed death.

Verse 12

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Thou sealest up — Thou fanciest that fulness of wisdom, and perfection of beauty are in thee.

Verse 13

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

In Eden — In the midst of all delights.

The workmanship — Now the prophet notes their joys, musick, and songs, both to loud, and to softer musick, as the lute, and tabret in the day of their kings coronation, and all this on instruments of most exquisite make, and of their own artists work; in this they exceeded as in the other.

Created — King: in the day of thy coronation.

Verse 14

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Cherub — For thy wisdom, power, and excellency, like a cherub, or angel; for the sacredness of thy person, and office, as the anointed of God; for the exercise of thy power, as a shield, as a protector of the weak.

And I — I, whom thou forgetest have made thee so.

Thou wast — Thou wast advanced to kingly dignity, (which David calls a mountain, Psalms 30:7,) a sacred office, and of divine institution.

In the midst — Surrounded with stones, that sparkle like fire.

Verse 15

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Thou wast perfect — Is not this an irony?

Verse 16

By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

I will cast — Out thy kingly dignity.

Verse 17

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

Corrupted — Depraved, or lost thy wisdom.

Behold thee — That thou mayst be a spectacle, and warning to them.

Verse 18

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

I will bring thee — Thou shalt be burnt to ashes, and trampled under feet.

Verse 19

All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

All — All that have formerly known thy riches, power, allies, and wisdom.

Verse 22

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

Zidon — A city, north-west from Canaan, a king’s seat of old, and from which Tyre descended.

I will be glorified — When my judgments make my justice, power and truth appear, both you, and others shall confess my glory.

Sanctified — Owned as holy, reverenced as just, obeyed as sovereign.

Verse 23

For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And blood — Bloody war by an enemy, that shall bring the war to the gates, nay into the streets of Zidon.

Judged — Be punished in the midst of the city.

The sword — By the sword of her enemies.

Verse 24

And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

A pricking briar — By these two metaphors the prophet points out the troublesome neighbours of the Jews, such as Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, and Zidon. This never had a full accomplishment yet. But it will, for the scripture cannot be broken.

Verse 25

Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

Sanctified — I was dishonoured by the Jews in the sight of the heathen, and I will be honoured by the Jews in their sight.