IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ 3therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 5Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. She will become plunder for the nations, 6and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
7“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. 8He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. 9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. 10His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the war horses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through. 11The hoofs of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. 13I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. 14I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.
15“This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Tyre: Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place in you? 16Then all the princes of the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled at you. 17Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you:
“ ‘How you are destroyed, O city of renown,
peopled by men of the sea!
You were a power on the seas,
you and your citizens;
you put your terror
on all who lived there.
18Now the coastlands tremble
on the day of your fall;
the islands in the sea
are terrified at your collapse.’
19“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, 20then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. 21I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
27:1The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, take up a lament concerning Tyre. 3Say to Tyre, situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“ ‘You say, O Tyre,
“I am perfect in beauty.”
4Your domain was on the high seas;
your builders brought your beauty to perfection.
5They made all your timbers
of pine trees from Senir;
they took a cedar from Lebanon
to make a mast for you.
6Of oaks from Bashan
they made your oars;
of cypress wood from the coasts of Cyprus
they made your deck, inlaid with ivory.
7Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail
and served as your banner;
your awnings were of blue and purple
from the coasts of Elishah.
8Men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen;
your skilled men, O Tyre, were aboard as your seamen.
9Veteran craftsmen of Gebal were on board
as shipwrights to caulk your seams.
All the ships of the sea and their sailors
came alongside to trade for your wares.
10“ ‘Men of Persia, Lydia and Put
served as soldiers in your army.
They hung their shields and helmets on your walls,
bringing you splendor.
11Men of Arvad and Helech
manned your walls on every side;
men of Gammad
were in your towers.
They hung their shields around your walls;
they brought your beauty to perfection.
12“ ‘Tarshish did business with you because of your great wealth of goods; they exchanged silver, iron, tin and lead for your merchandise.
13“ ‘Greece, Tubal and Meshech traded with you; they exchanged slaves and articles of bronze for your wares.
14“ ‘Men of Beth Togarmah exchanged work horses, war horses and mules for your merchandise.
15“ ‘The men of Rhodes traded with you, and many coastlands were your customers; they paid you with ivory tusks and ebony.
16“ ‘Aram did business with you because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple fabric, embroidered work, fine linen, coral and rubies for your merchandise.
17“ ‘Judah and Israel traded with you; they exchanged wheat from Minnith and confections, honey, oil and balm for your wares.
18“ ‘Damascus, because of your many products and great wealth of goods, did business with you in wine from Helbon and wool from Zahar.
19“ ‘Danites and Greeks from Uzal bought your merchandise; they exchanged wrought iron, cassia and calamus for your wares.
20“ ‘Dedan traded in saddle blankets with you.
21“ ‘Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your customers; they did business with you in lambs, rams and goats.
22“ ‘The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; for your merchandise they exchanged the finest of all kinds of spices and precious stones, and gold.
23“ ‘Haran, Canneh and Eden and merchants of Sheba, Asshur and Kilmad traded with you. 24In your marketplace they traded with you beautiful garments, blue fabric, embroidered work and multicolored rugs with cords twisted and tightly knotted.
25“ ‘The ships of Tarshish serve
as carriers for your wares.
You are filled with heavy cargo
in the heart of the sea.
26Your oarsmen take you
out to the high seas.
But the east wind will break you to pieces
in the heart of the sea.
27Your wealth, merchandise and wares,
your mariners, seamen and shipwrights,
your merchants and all your soldiers,
and everyone else on board
will sink into the heart of the sea
on the day of your shipwreck.
28The shorelands will quake
when your seamen cry out.
29All who handle the oars
will abandon their ships;
the mariners and all the seamen
will stand on the shore.
30They will raise their voice
and cry bitterly over you;
they will sprinkle dust on their heads
and roll in ashes.
31They will shave their heads because of you
and will put on sackcloth.
They will weep over you with anguish of soul
and with bitter mourning.
32As they wail and mourn over you,
they will take up a lament concerning you:
“Who was ever silenced like Tyre,
surrounded by the sea?”
33When your merchandise went out on the seas,
you satisfied many nations;
with your great wealth and your wares
you enriched the kings of the earth.
34Now you are shattered by the sea
in the depths of the waters;
your wares and all your company
have gone down with you.
35All who live in the coastlands
are appalled at you;
their kings shudder with horror
and their faces are distorted with fear.
36The merchants among the nations hiss at you;
you have come to a horrible end
and will be no more.’ ”
Original Meaning
IN CONTRAST TO the short oracles against the nations in Ezekiel 25, the oracle against Tyre covers almost three chapters (26:1–28:19). The remainder of chapter 28 is taken up by a brief oracle against Tyre’s companion town Sidon (28:20–23) and then an oracle of encouragement to Israel (28:24–26), which draws together the oracles to Israel’s immediate neighbors. Rather than study such a large section in one piece, we will break it into two parts (chs. 26–27 and ch. 28), but because of the style of composition of the oracle we should remember that the three chapters form a single unit. In that way, we will be reminded to see the scope of the whole as well as the significance of the individual parts.
The oracle against Tyre is composed of three distinct but essentially parallel literary panels, each of which ends with the same concluding phrase about Tyre’s going down to the realm of the dead: It will come “to a horrible end” (ballahôt) and “will be no more” (ʾênēk ʿad-ʿôlām; see 26:21; 27:36; 28:19). The purpose of this panel construction is not to present three separate and different oracles but to invite the reader to place the three oracles side by side and see essentially the same message presented in three different ways.
The First Panel (26:2–21)
THE FIRST PANEL is a straightforward prophecy against the city of Tyre. It is introduced by a date, the first day of an unnamed month in the eleventh year (v. 1).1 This places the oracle close to the fall of Jerusalem, which occurred in the middle of the eleventh year (cf. 40:1). The charge against Tyre is similar to that raised against Judah’s other neighbors: She rejoiced when Jerusalem fell, seeing in that event the opportunity for personal gain: “The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me” (26:2). A potential rival for her trading empire has been eliminated, opening up new avenues to prosperity.2
Ezekiel is quick to point out the flaw in Tyre’s thinking. The God who brought judgment on Jerusalem is also against Tyre and will judge her in an almost exactly corresponding manner (26:3). Does Tyre hope to become the new meeting place for the nations? The Lord will bring many nations against her (26:3). Did Tyre rejoice to see Jerusalem’s doors shattered? Her walls will be destroyed and her towers torn down (26:4). Did Tyre expect to prosper? She will become plunder for the nations (26:5). Point by point, Tyre’s positive expectations are turned on their heads.
The assault of the nations on Tyre is described as being like the waves of a stormy sea (26:3), which is a peculiarly apt image for the city of Tyre. It was originally built on a coastal island about a mile long and half a mile wide, whose strength came from its position surrounded by water. These metaphorical possibilities of Tyre’s geographical situation will be utilized to the full in the second panel, where she is described as a great ship.
The second part of the first oracle against Tyre adds specificity to the picture. The general expression “many nations” (26:3) resolves into the specific figure of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (26:7). The assault and destruction of Tyre is described in great, if rather stereotypical, detail (26:8–12).3 But the end result is exactly the same: Tyre will be reduced to a bare rock, the haunt of local fishermen rather than of long-distance trading vessels (26:5, 14). Her former glory will never be regained (26:14).
The terrible fall of Tyre will have an impact on her maritime trading partners, the “coastlands” or “islands” (26:15). They will tremble and adopt the customs of mourning, with their rulers coming down from their thrones and setting aside their fine robes (26:16), taking up a lament for the fallen city. It will be as if the island city has sunk into the heart of the chaotic “ocean depths” (tehôm, 26:19), its inhabitants condemned to “the pit” (bôr, 26:20), never to return again. These are terms with mythical overtones, though as elsewhere in Scripture the mythical symbols have been completely subjugated in a universe under God’s control. The “deep” was an element of the primeval chaos that God transformed into cosmos in Genesis 1, while “the pit” was the shadowy underworld of the dead, the nightmare end of those abandoned by God (see Ps. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4; 143:7). Though people seek for Tyre, she will have utterly vanished, sunk by God’s torpedoes, never again to be found (Ezek. 26:21).
The Second Panel (27:1–36)
THE SECOND PANEL (27:1–36) proclaims essentially the same message as the first, but in the form of a lament. The lament genre typically contrasts past glory with present loss, and Ezekiel exploits this format to the full. He describes in great detail the glory of Tyre under the metaphor of a majestic ship. She was a legend in her own mind, beautiful to the point of perfection (27:3), created out of the best resources of the surrounding nations. She was fitted out with prime timbers for her construction, fine cloth for her sails and awnings (27:5–7). Her crew had been recruited from the best manpower available: skilled seamen to form her crew, experienced craftsmen to make necessary repairs, and highly trained soldiers to act as her company of marines (27:8–11b), bringing her beauty to perfection (27:11c). Could there ever have been a more perfect ship?
Nor was her beauty merely cosmetic. The merchant ship Tyre is depicted as a highly efficient business machine, trading in all kinds of costly goods. The seemingly interminable list of her trading partners, whether borrowed from an extant source or modeled after that form, makes clear the astonishing array of her wares. The cargo list seems to be organized by geographic areas, starting with Mediterranean locations and those in Asia Minor (27:12–15) and moving on through Palestinian regions from south to north (27:16–17) to Syria (27:18–19), Arabia (27:20–22), and finally Mesopotamia (27:23–24).4 By covering all points of the compass and virtually every imaginable precious commodity, the picture is established of Tyre as the commercial crossroads of the world, the Hong Kong of the ancient Near East.
But the paean of praise for her beauty and commercial importance only heightens the tragedy of her downfall. Like the Titanic, she fell victim to her own self-propaganda. Her apparent invincibility contains the seeds of her own downfall. She is “filled with heavy cargo in the heart of the sea” (27:25), a description that fits the city Tyre literally as well as the ship Tyre metaphorically. But when the stormy wind blows, the sea that provides the source of the mariner’s wealth can easily become an enemy. An east wind (from Babylon) will start to blow, and the mighty vessel will founder with the loss of all hands (27:26–27). The rapidity with which her demise can be described contrasts starkly with the lengthy description of her beauty. Her beauty and security count for nothing when the storm strikes.
As in the first panel, once again those who watch from the sidelines tremble, and a lament is raised for the doomed city. This time those who adopt the customary forms of mourning—weeping, wailing, sackcloth, dust and ashes, shaving their heads—are the sailors and seafaring people in company with the kings of the coastlands and the merchants (27:28–36). Tyre’s joy over the destruction of “the gate to the nations” (26:2) is seen to be thoroughly misplaced, for the one who judged Jerusalem will also judge Tyre, the marketplace of the “nations” (27:33, 36). The end result for Tyre is the same as the first panel: Tyre will “come to a horrible end and will be no more” (27:36).
Bridging Contexts
THE GOAL OF TYRE. This oracle against Tyre is distinctively different from the other oracles against the foreign nations. The remainder of the nations immediately surrounding Israel (Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, and—after Tyre—Sidon) set themselves up in opposition to God’s people. Tyre, however, thought to substitute herself for God’s city, Jerusalem, and take her place. She thought that the downfall of the chosen city was her opportunity to become the center of the universe, “the gate to the nations” (26:2). It was a role for which she seemed admirably naturally gifted, as the oracle and lament make clear. She possessed not only a strategic location but also great beauty and wealth. She was the Hong Kong of the ancient world, a bustling trading city at the crossroads of east and west.
Indeed, in terms of natural advantages, Tyre was far more suited to the description “the gate to the nations” (26:2) than was Jerusalem. Jerusalem may have been poetically described by the psalmist as being “beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth” (Ps. 48:2). However, we should not assume that this is an “objective” description that could equally well have been found on the pages of an ancient Architectural Digest as on the pages of Scripture. Jerusalem’s beauty was spiritually discerned, based on her election as “the city of our God” (Ps. 48:1). So too was her security, which rested not on the supposed impregnability of being an island, dwelling in the midst of the seas, but rather on the presence of God within her (Ps. 48:3). The result of that indwelling presence is described by the psalmist in an image that matches exactly that of Ezekiel 27: When the kings of the earth gathered against Jerusalem, “you destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind” (Ps. 48:7).
But the psalmist’s confidence must have seemed to the exiles to have been ill-founded. Jerusalem had not survived the assault of the nations, but on the contrary had herself been shattered. Ezekiel had been called to give the reasons for this in the first part of his prophecy: Jerusalem lay under God’s judgment for her sins and as a result had been abandoned by his presence. God was no longer within her, which explained her destruction. But in the nature of the case, with the destruction of God’s own city, the attractions of her rivals must have increased. It is one thing to proclaim that God is greater than mammon to people who are comfortably off; it is another to proclaim that to a people who feel themselves to have been abandoned by their God.
The symbolism of the sea. It is to such people that the prophet addresses his oracle against Tyre. To those tempted to be seduced by Tyre’s prosperity, he proclaims Tyre’s ultimate doom. The city whose strength comes from her location in the heart of the seas will be drowned in the heart of the seas. This is an image far more potent for the ancient reader than for the modern. The sea may impress us with its power when whipped up into a storm, but for the ancient reader it possessed a mythological status as the personification of the forces of chaos that continually opposed the forces of order and threatened to overwhelm them.
In ancient creation narratives, the Sea (Yam) was one of the principal opponents of the gods, who had to be overcome before the world could be established. The Deep (tehôm) appears similarly in Genesis 1, albeit in demythologized form, as the precreation state of void and wilderness that God transforms into a place of order and beauty and life (Gen. 1:2; cf. Ezek. 26:19). In the Psalms, the seas frequently represent the forces of chaos that are ranged against God, though the psalmist affirms that God is mightier than the seas (e.g., Ps. 93:3–4). In the new heavens and new earth there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1), for all chaos will be finally and permanently overcome.
Therefore, Tyre’s fate of foundering like a ship in a great storm, going down with all hands, perhaps carries more affective weight for its original readers than it does for us. The sea was a more emotive image for them than it is for us. Yet even to us, the oracle underlines once more that even the most destructive, out-of-control forces in the world operate under the direct control of God. He is the One who brings many nations against Tyre, “like the sea casting up its waves” (Ezek. 26:3), and natural defenses and strength will avail nothing against God’s judgment. The seductive power of wealth is thus defused by showing its ultimate insecurity and final end. Like those who traveled first class on the Titanic, with all its unparalleled grandeur, those who place their trust in this world are traveling on a comfortable one-way trip to nowhere. As John Newton put it in one of his greatest hymns:
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
all his boasted pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasure,
none but Zion’s children know.”
Contemporary Significance
SEDUCED BY SATAN. We mentioned in the comments on chapter 25 that Satan has three basic strategies for undermining the faith of God’s people: persecution, seduction, and deception. All three are addressed in Ezekiel’s oracles against the foreign nations. Several of Israel’s neighbors have acted in a hostile manner towards her, persecuting her in her hour of difficulty, as we saw in chapter 25. But in the form of Tyre, we see especially the second strategy: seduction. The greater space devoted by Ezekiel to addressing this strategy perhaps demonstrates its relative significance as a temptation to his audience.
We would do well similarly to ponder the particular combination of strategies that Satan favors against us and those around us. For those who live in affluent Western culture, seduction is certainly a prominent element in his armory. We should therefore take particular note of the fact that in Revelation 2–3, the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor, the two churches about which Jesus is purely positive are those experiencing persecution. Those about which Jesus is purely negative, by contrast, all face the assault of Satan in the form of seduction. All too often, while persecution purifies, seduction sedates.
The heart of seduction lies in the promise of prosperity and wealth. In the temptations of Jesus, Satan offered him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” if Jesus would simply bow down to him (Matt. 4:8). So too he comes to contemporary people and offers comfort, peace, and security through material prosperity: Get a good job with a good salary and fringe benefits and you’ll be set up for life. This is the philosophy adopted by many around us. As the bumper sticker puts it: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Never mind about questions of right or wrong, of ultimate significance or values; do whatever it takes to feel good and to win. That is seduction.
God’s answer to Satan’s seduction. The answer to seduction is not to offer people a different way to feel better and win more, as some imitation versions of Christianity proclaim. The health and wealth gospel declares that faith is the key to unlocking your full potential, so that you can have whatever you want here and now. All you have to do is “name it and claim it.” In a materialistic society such an approach will always find followers, but it is merely another brand of seduction.
The true answer to seduction is to open people’s eyes to the shallowness of the “beauty” on offer. The Great Prostitute of Revelation 17–18, “Babylon,” is modeled in many respects after Ezekiel’s description of Tyre. She sits on many waters (17:1), she is the ultimate trading nation (18:12–13), and when she falls the kings of the earth and the sailors mourn (18:9, 17). “Babylon” here is a cipher for Rome, and her trump card is wealth and luxury, in short, materialism. She is the front cover of Cosmopolitan and Vogue rolled into one. However beautiful and powerful Rome may appear, however, the book of Revelation reveals the truth that her beauty is only skin deep and her power is merely temporary. Judgment is coming, which will uncover the true nature of all things and put them into proper perspective.
Today the Great Prostitute lives not in Tyre or Rome, but in Hollywood and along Madison Avenue; her seductive voice speaks not in Latin but with an American accent, drawing the world away from God and towards materialistic excesses. Her power is seen in the fact that the good news of Coca Cola is more widely proclaimed than the good news of Jesus Christ. Consumerism is making disciples in all nations through its seductive charms.
At the heart of seduction, however, is a lie: that what you see is what you get. And Satan, the eternal liar, is skilled at making us see things from their most attractive perspective. Like an artful angler, he hides the hook and shows us only the juicy worm. Not until too late does the fish discover the steel within. So also Satan attempts to seduce us by showing us beautiful things that compete for our attention, hiding the bitter fruit they bear. He offers the pleasures of adultery, hiding the pain of broken relationships that follow. He persuades us that our children can do just as well in day care, while to succeed in our careers requires us to put in long hours at the office or shop. He persuades us that we really “need” a bigger house, a newer car, and more clothes. He counsels us that we should buy now and pay later. Satan’s tackle box is well equipped with lures, but the truth in each of these cases is that we will indeed pay later for what we buy now.
How does God wean our hearts from the seductiveness of this world? (1) One way is through what the Puritans would call the “strokes” and “crosses” of life, the ways in which God causes things not to go as we had hoped. Like a good father, God does not allow us to run wild, but graciously disciplines us, sometimes by opening our eyes to see the hook before we bite and sometimes by using the pain of the hook to bring us to our senses. Thomas Boston described the power of a “cross providence” to bring powerful conviction of sin in these terms:
As when one walking heedlessly is suddenly taken ill of a lameness: his going halting the rest of the way convinces him of having made a wrong step; and every new painful step brings it afresh to his mind. So God makes a crook in one’s lot, to convince him of some false step he has made or course he has taken.5
These are never the pleasant experiences of our spiritual walk, but as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, such discipline “produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).
(2) The other way for us to learn to resist the attractiveness of Satan’s seduction is to learn to fix our eyes on the truth, on Jesus. If Jerusalem’s beauty was spiritually discerned even during its prosperous days, then it was not surprising that many would be seduced away by the apparent beauty of its rival during her humiliation at the time of the Exile. So also there are many today who are unable to discern the beauty of Christ crucified. Their eyes are blinded to the truth. The world still seems to offer far more attractive alternatives than the Son of Man.
But for all her attractiveness, the seductiveness of the Great Prostitute does not deliver long-term satisfaction. For the prostitute and her partners, sex is not an expression of a deep relationship, it is itself the relationship. When the sex is over, so is the relationship.6 So it is also with the seductive attraction of false worship. The false worshiper bows down to his or her idols—be they sex, power, family, or whatever—and says, “So long as you bless me and give me tangible rewards, I will give you worship in return.” It is a fundamentally commercial deal. When idolatry ceases to “work for you,” however, you go out in search of a new idolatry, a more attractive prostitute, who will give you the high you seek. But the true worshiper says with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). Such worship flows naturally and inevitably from a deep relationship and is not based on calculations of what the worshiper gets in return.
Faithfulness. The irony is that faithfulness is a better deal in the long run than idolatry. Adultery does not pay; the future belongs not to the Great Prostitute but to the Bride of the Lamb. She is the One who will come down from heaven adorned for her marriage to the Lamb. In heaven, the true beauty and splendor of Christ will finally be clear to all, but will be enjoyed only by those whose eyes have been opened by God to the beauty of Christ in his humiliation. They have come to know the grace of God demonstrated to us in this: that he who was rich became poor for us, that we might share his riches; that he who was glorious was humiliated for us, that we might share his glory; that he who was all-powerful became weak, that in him we might become strong. Those who are truly feasting their eyes on the beauty of the true Lamb of God, the Lamb that was slain, will not be so easily seduced by the tawdry imitations Satan offers.