CHAPTER 27

(588 B.C.)

THE LAMENTATION OVER TYRUS; HER SPLENDOR AND WEALTH

¹The Word of the LORD came again unto me, saying (the reason the Holy Spirit gives such detail concerning Tyrus is because this city is a symbol of Satans efforts to build an earthly kingdom and, thereby, meet the needs of man without God. As such, Tyre serves in the Old Testament as a symbol of the worlds corrupt system, as a rebuilt Babylon will serve in the New Testament. As the Lord destroyed the former, He likewise will destroy the latter!),

²Now, you son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus (the lamentation for Tyrus is given by the Holy Spirit because this city and its commerce was helped greatly by Satan, and was, thereby, used as a spiritual projection of his gospel of deception);

³And say unto Tyrus, O you who are situate at the entry of the sea, which are a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus says the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, you have said, I am of perfect beauty. (O Tyrus, you have said, I am of perfect beauty, refers to the pride of that city, which Chapter 28 will address more thoroughly. In fact, the same phrase is used of Satan [28:12].)

⁴Your borders are in the midst of the seas, your builders have perfected your beauty. (The phrase, Your builders have perfected your beauty, refers to the merchants of this great commercial activity, in effect, being helped by Satan regarding the prosperity of the city.)

⁵They have made all your ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for you. (Many years before, these cedars had been used to build the Temple, the dwellingplace of Jehovah under the old economy of God.)

⁶Of the oaks of Bashan have they made your oars; the company of the Ashurites have made your benches of ivory, brought out of the Isles of Chittim. (The use of ivory in ship- or house-building seems to have been one of the arts for which Tyre was famous.)

⁷Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which you spread forth to be your sail; blue and purple from the Isles of Elishah was that which covered you. (This refers to some of the fine, broidered sails that graced some of the ships of Tyre, relative to the common sails of most ships.)

⁸The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were your mariners: your wise men, O Tyrus, who were in you, were your pilots. (The intent of this Verse is to proclaim the fact that the common sailors came from Zidon and Arvad, while Tyre furnished the officers. Thus, Tyre is held as a cut above the others, even as Satan intended! [Zidon, sometimes spelled Sidon, was about 30 miles north of Tyre.])

⁹The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in you your calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to occupy your merchandise. (This refers to the constant business activity of the merchant ships in continuing, and without fail, to increase the riches of Tyre.)

TYRUS MILITARY MIGHT

¹⁰They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in your army, your men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in you; they set forth your comeliness. (The phrase, They set forth your comeliness, means they guarded the riches.)

¹¹The men of Arvad with your army were upon your walls round about, and the Gammadims were in your towers: they hanged their shields upon your walls round about; they have made your beauty perfect. (This Scripture proclaims the military might of Tyre; consequently, she was so strong that had not the Lord helped Nebuchadnezzar, he would never have been able to take the city.)

THE MERCHANTS OF TYRUS

¹²Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in your fairs. (The phrase, Tarshish was your merchant, refers to Spain, where Jonah had attempted to go [Jonah 1:3].)

¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in your market. (They traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in your market, referred to the buying and selling of slaves, as well as merchandise.)

¹⁴They of the House of Togarmah traded in your fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. (Togarmah was Armenia. The area was famous for its horses and horsemen and mules.)

¹⁵The men of Dedan were your merchants; many isles were the merchandise of your hand: they brought you for a present horns of ivory and ebony. (Ebony is a rock-hard heavy wood, yielded by various old world tropical dicotyledonous trees. It was very valuable and used to make fine furniture, etc.)

¹⁶Syria was your merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of your making: they occupied in your fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate. (As is obvious in these Passages, Tyre was the trading point of the world. Therefore, her wealth must have been extensive, to say the least!)

¹⁷Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your merchants: they traded in your market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. (When Judah and the Land of Israel are mentioned, even though the Holy Spirit does not highlight their mention, still, there is a quickening of the Spirit.)

¹⁸Damascus was your merchant in the multitude of the wares of your making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

¹⁹Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in your fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in your market. (The Dan spoken of here is not the Tribe of Dan, but instead a place in Arabia known for its steel used for sword-blades, for which Yemen was famous, hence, bright iron.)

²⁰Dedan was your merchant in precious clothes for chariots. (This probably referred to a type of colorful carpet used as saddlecloths. As well, the material was used to ritually decorate expensive chariots.)

²¹Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with you in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they your merchants. (Dedan and Kedar both were in Arabia.)

²²The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were your merchants: they occupied in your fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. (It is readily observable that every single thing in the world of that day was traded, with Tyre being the center of all such activity.)

²³Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were your merchants. (Haran was the same city where Abraham lived for a while before going on into the Land of Canaan. It was about 300 miles north of Damascus.)

²⁴These were your merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chest of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among your merchandise.

²⁵The ships of Tarshish did sing of you in your market: and you were replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. (Tarshish was in Spain, showing the distance to which the trade extended. And made very glorious in the midst of the seas, refers to vessels from all over the world of that day, signifying the port of Tyre as their destination.)

THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF TYRUS

²⁶Your rowers have brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the midst of the seas. (Beginning with this Verse and through the remainder of the Chapter, all the glory and glamour of Tyre is predicted to be brought to ruin, and meant to serve as a symbol of Satan and his kingdom of darkness ultimately being brought to destruction.)

²⁷Your riches and your fairs, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your calkers, and the occupiers of your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you, and in all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of your ruin. (As stated, as the Lord destroyed the Tyrus of the Old World, He will also destroy the Tyrus of the New World [Babylon], both symbols of the efforts of Satan to rebuild the Garden of Eden without the benefit of the Tree of Life, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Rev., Chpt. 18, corresponds with Verses 27 through 36 of this 27th Chapter of Ezekiel.)

²⁸The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of your pilots. (The fall of Tyre, which came about 15 years later, and which the city thought impossible, would result in a shaking of all the sister cities and countries which depended on her.)

²⁹And all who handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land (as stated, this has a similarity to the coming destruction of Babylon, which is yet future [Rev. 18:18-19]);

³⁰And shall cause their voice to be heard against you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

³¹And they shall make themselves utterly bald for you, and gird themselves with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. (Riches were their god, and now that the riches are lost, they have nothing! Such are all who place their confidence in anything other than the Lord. Not only do they lose their souls, but they also lose the very thing for which they sold their souls for!)

³²And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?

³³When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many people; you did enrich the kings of the Earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise. (Considering the riches of Tyre, why did Nebuchadnezzar desire to destroy her? Whatever his personal reasons were, the overriding factor was that the Lord had chosen him as an instrument for the destruction of this city. Likewise, many nations of the world cannot presently understand why the leaders of the former Soviet Union, which outwardly looked so monolithic, allowed it to destruct before the eyes of the world! But yet, it was done because God commanded that it be done.)

³⁴In the time when you shall be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters your merchandise and all your company in the midst of you shall fall. (As stated, because the Lord deemed it so!)

³⁵All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at you, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance. (The entire Verse indicates that world leaders were shaken as a result of Tyres destruction.)

³⁶The merchants among the people shall hiss at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall be any more. (With her destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and again about 150 years later by Alexander the Great, the greatness and glory of Tyre died, never to rise again. This is the Old Testament portrayal of that which will happen in a coming day, when rebuilt Babylon will likewise be destroyed, signifying the end of a system that has brought only death, destruction, and darkness. To be sure, as Tyre was destroyed, likewise Babylon and all of its system also will be destroyed. This will happen immediately before the Second Coming [Rev., Chpts. 17-18].)