A message for the rulers of Tyre
28
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 📚“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God:“Because your heart is lifted up
with pride you have said,
‘I am a god;
I sit on the seat of gods 📖
in the midst of the seas.’
But you are a man,
and not a god, though you set your
heart like the heart of a god.
3 📚See, you are wiser than Daniel 📖!
There is no secret they can hide
from you!
4 📚With your wisdom and with your
understanding you have gotten
riches for yourself,
and amassed gold and silver
in your treasuries.
5 📚By your great wisdom and
by your trade you have increased
your riches,
and your heart is lifted up 📖 because
of your riches.
28:3-5 The king of Tyre thought he was very wise indeed. And in a worldly sense he was, and this was proved by his accomplishments. But in a spiritual sense he did not have even the beginning of wisdom (Job 28:28; Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7). No mere man who is spiritually wise will ever say “I am a god”, or “I am God”. True wisdom shudders at the very thought of such statements.⚜
6 📚“Therefore thus says the Lord God:
Because you have set your heart
like the heart of a god,
7 📚see that I am going to bring
strangers against you,
the most terrible of the nations,
and they will draw their swords
against the beauty of your wisdom,
and they will defile your splendour.
8 📚They will bring you down
to the pit,
and you will die the death of
those who are slain in the midst
of the seas.
9 📚Will you still say in front of the one
who is killing you, ‘I am a god?’
But you will be a man,
and not a god, in the hands
of the one killing you.
10 📚You will die the death
of the uncircumcised at the hands
of strangers; for I have spoken it,
28:6-10 When we see pride in anyone in the Bible we can know that disaster will follow (Prov 3:34; 11:2; 16:18; Isa 2:11-18).⚜
A lament for the king of Tyre
says the Lord God”.
11 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 📚“Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God:
“You had the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
28:12 Could this possibly be said of any earthly king?⚜
13 📚You were in Eden 📖,
the garden of God.
Every precious stone was
your covering, the sardius,
topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx,
and jasper, sapphire, emerald,
and carbuncle, and gold.
The workmanship of your tambourines
and flutes was prepared for you
on the day you were created.
14 📚You were the anointed
covering cherub 📖 📖;
and I placed you as such.
You were on the holy mountain of God.
You walked up and down among
the stones of fire.
15 📚You were perfect 📖
in your ways from the day
you were created,
until wickedness was found in you 📖.
16 📚Because of the abundance
of your commerce inside you became
filled with violence, and you sinned.
Therefore I threw you out of the mountain
of God as a profane thing,
and I made you disappear,
O covering cherub, from among the stones
of fire.
17 📚Your heart was lifted up because
of your beauty.
You corrupted your wisdom because
of your splendour.
I hurled you to the ground,
I placed you before kings,
so that they could see you.
18 📚You have defiled your sanctuaries
by the abundance of your evil deeds,
by the evil of your trade,
therefore I brought a fire out from
the midst of you.
It consumed you, and I reduced you
to ashes on the earth in the sight
of all those who saw you.
19 📚All those among the peoples
who knew you are astonished at you.
You have become an object of terror,
and will be no more forever”.
28:11-19 This is a strange and difficult portion of Scripture. In some respects it is similar to Isa 14:12-15. The following interpretations have been made by scholars.
(a) God is speaking ironically. The king of Tyre said he was a god (v 2). God now speaks to him as if it were so, and then goes on to show how great would be his fall and the fall of his city with him.
(b) The passage has as its foundation a mythological account of the story of the garden of Eden which was known in Tyre. The language is highly metaphorical and is meant only to depict the splendor and wealth and power of Tyre and its king.
(c) The passage is to be taken more literally and points to a king of Tyre in the unseen realm – probably Satan himself. Behind the proud rulers of earth’s cities and lands stand invisible spirit beings who are the rulers of the fallen world (compare Dan 10:13 where a fallen spirit being is called the prince of Persia, and Eph 6:12).
(d) There is a double application – one to the human king of Tyre or to his city, and one to the spirit being behind him. Some of the language refers to the one, and some to the other.
This last interpretation seems the best way to understand these verses. Some of the language here, if taken at all in its natural literal meaning, cannot possibly fit the human ruler of the city of Tyre, and seem plainly to indicate a spirit being behind him. Other expressions can hardly fit either Satan or the human ruler of Tyre, but fit the city of Tyre.⚜
28:18-19 These verses seem to be speaking of the city of Tyre.⚜
Sidon
20 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 21 📚“Son of man, set your face against Sidon 📖, and prophesy against it, 22 📚and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“See, I am against you,
O Sidon, and I will be glorified 📖
in your midst.
And they will know that I am
the LORD, when I execute
judgments on her,
and am revealed as holy through her.
23 📚For I will send the plague into her,
and blood into her streets.
And the wounded will be judged
in her midst by the sword against her
on every side;
and they will know that
I am the LORD.
24 📚“And among all those who are
around the house of Israel,
who scorn them, there will no longer
be for them a pricking briar
or any painful thorn;
and they will know that
I am the Lord God.
25 📚“Thus says the Lord God: When I gather 📖 the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am revealed as holy through them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 📚And they will live safely in it, and will build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will live securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who are around them who scorn them; and they will know that I am the LORD their God”.