1 The LORD’s word came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD: because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God— 3 behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you; 4 by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures; 5 by your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches— 6 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: because you have set your heart as the heart of God, 7 therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. 8 They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas. 9 Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? But you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you. 10 You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD. 11 Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord GOD: you seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your traffic they filled your insides with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought out a fire from the middle of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you. 19 All those who know you amongst the peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you shall exist no more. 20 The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 21 Son of man, set your face towards Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22 and say, thus says the Lord GOD: behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified amongst you; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgements in her, and shall be sanctified in her. 23 For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall within her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 24 There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that scorned them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 25 Thus says the Lord GOD: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples amongst whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgements on all those who do them despite all around them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, 1706
Verses 1-19
Ethbaal, or Ithobal, was the prince or king of Tyre; and being lifted up with excessive pride, he claimed Divine honours. Pride is peculiarly the sin of our fallen nature. Nor can any wisdom, except that which the Lord gives, lead to happiness in this world or in that which is to come. The haughty prince of Tyre thought he was able to protect his people by his own power, and considered himself as equal to the inhabitants of heaven. If it were possible to dwell in the garden of Eden, or even to enter heaven, no solid happiness could be enjoyed without a humble, holy, and spiritual mind. Especially all spiritual pride is of the devil. Those who indulge therein must expect to perish.
Verses 20-26
The Zidonians were borderers upon the land of Israel, and they might have learned to glorify the Lord; but, instead of that, they seduced Israel to the worship of their idols. War and pestilence are God’s messengers; but he will be glorified in the restoring his people to their former safety and prosperity. God will cure them of their sins, and ease them of their troubles. This promise will at length fully come to pass in the heavenly Canaan: when all the saints shall be gathered together, every thing that offends shall be removed, all griefs and fears for ever banished. Happy, then, is the church of God, and every living member of it, though poor, afflicted, and despised; for the Lord will display his truth, power, and mercy, in the salvation and happiness of his redeemed people.