United Commentaries

Ezek.25.1-32.32

This section contains a series of oracles against surrounding nations. There are six shorter oracles against Judah’s immediate neighbors, in clockwise geographical order, followed by a climactic seventh oracle against Egypt (chs 30–32). Through their experience of God’s judgment, the nations would recognize God’s sovereignty over all things. The nations might be used to bring about God’s judgment of his people, but that would not exempt them from judgment.

One of the key purposes of these oracles against the nations was to affirm that the negative side of God’s covenant with Abraham (“I will . . . curse those who treat you with contempt,” Gen 12:3) was in force. No one can assault God’s people and escape unscathed, even when God’s people are themselves under his judgment.

Ezek.26.1-28.19

The message against Tyre, Israel’s northwestern neighbor, is much more substantial than the short oracles preceding it. It takes the form of three nearly parallel panels (26:2-21; 27:1-36; and 28:1-19), each presenting a variation on the same message—that Tyre would come to a horrible end and exist no more (27:36).

Ezek.27.1-36

The second panel of the prophet’s address to Tyre (see study note on 26:1–28:19) is a funeral song that contrasts past glory with present loss. It is connected with the previous chapter by being addressed to Tyre, by its imagery of a gateway and a trading center (see 26:1-2), and by the common conclusion you have come to a horrible end and will exist no more (cp. 26:21).

Ezek.27.4-7

Tyre’s past greatness is described in great detail under the metaphor of a mighty sailing ship created out of the very best resources from the surrounding nations.

Ezek.27.7

Elishah refers to part of Cyprus.

Ezek.27.8-11

The ship of Tyre was manned by a crew gathered from the most famously skilled men in the world.

The locations described in this account cover most of the known world at the time. Tyre’s influence was vast.

Ezek.27.8-9

Sidon, Arvad, and Gebal were Mediterranean coastal towns.

Ezek.27.10

Persia, Lydia, and Libya: Persia was far to the east over land, while Lydia was northwest in what is now Turkey. Libya was southwest on the shore of the Mediterranean.

Ezek.27.11

Helech is Cilicia, the area around Tarsus on the northeast shore of the Mediterranean.

The location of Gammad is less certain, but it may have been in northern Syria.

Ezek.27.12-25

This vast system of transport was all at the service of Tyre’s insatiable appetite for trade. The list of Tyre’s trading partners goes on and on; Tyre was the source of a wide variety of commodities from slaves to horses, saddle blankets to silver, dyes to figs (cp. Rev 18:11-13). The cargo list for the ship is organized according to the different geographic regions with which she conducted trade, covering all points of the compass and including every trading center, major and minor. Virtually every precious object that could be bought or sold found a place somewhere on the list of Tyre’s goods.

Ezek.27.12

Tarshish was in the distant west, possibly in Spain.

Ezek.27.13-14

Tubal, Meshech, and neighboring Beth-togarmah were regions in Anatolia (modern Turkey).

Ezek.27.15

Dedan was a central Arabian oasis (see also 27:20), but it might also refer to a coastal region north of Tyre.

Ezek.27.17

Minnith, located in Transjordan (the area east of the Jordan River), was a well-known source of wheat.

Ezek.27.18

Helbon was a town ten miles north of Damascus. Zahar may have been nearby, although its exact location is unknown.

Ezek.27.19

Greeks from Uzal: Uzal may have been a town in the foothills of Anatolia.

Cassia and calamus were expensive perfumes.

Ezek.27.20-21

Kedar was a region of Arabia named for a son of Ishmael (Gen 25:13).

Ezek.27.22

Sheba was a kingdom in southwest Arabia. The location of Raamah is uncertain, but it was always associated with Sheba.

Ezek.27.23

Haran, Canneh, Eden, and Asshur were all located in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Kilmad is otherwise unattested in ancient sources and may be a scribal error for “all Media” (the region northeast of Mesopotamia).

Ezek.27.26

Though apparently unsinkable, this rich and heavily laden merchant ship was no match for the mighty eastern gale, the army of Babylon.

Ezek.27.36

Tyre’s former occupants and her former trading partners join the lament for her lost way of life. This panel, like the previous one, ends with the statement that Tyre has come to a horrible end and will exist no more (cp. 26:21).