The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 101

Ver. 17.-Thlne heart was lifted up, eto. siege. Ithobal was "king" during the In yet another point Ezekiel sees the fall of thirteen yenrs, but afterwards "judges" Adam reproduced in that of the Tyrian were appointed, and these rnled for periods king. He had forfeited his beauty and his wisdom through the pride which of two, or three, or ten months. All this sought for a yet greoter glory by o. false indicates a period of confusion e.nd anarchy, and counterfeit wisdom (Gen. iii. 6). I the consequence of some great catastrophe. will cast thee, etc. The words are better As a whole, too, we have to remember that taken, as in the Revised Version, in the it was with Tyre, as with Babylon and with past tense, I have cast thee ... I.have laid thee before kings. Pride wo.s to have its fall, other nations. The prophecies against them as in lea. xxiii. 9. The very sanctuaries, had " ~pringing and genninant accomplish- the temples which mu.do Tyre the " holy ments." What the prophet saw in vision, as island," were defiled by the iniquities wrought out in a moment of time, was throngh which the wealth tho.t e.clorned actually the outcome of the slow decay of them had been gained. The " fire," instead centuries, and of catastrophes separated of being a rampart of protection, should burst forth as from the centre of the from each other by long intervals of a sonctuary to destroy him. Is there an dwindling history. The main facts of that implied allusion to the fiery judgment that history may be briefly stoted. There was, fell on Nadab and Abibu (Lev. x. 2) end on RB implied in Isa. xxiii. .17, a revival of Korah and his company (Numb. xvi. 35)? commerce under the Persian monarchy, and The doom of Sic transit gloria mundi woe already passed on her. of this we have traces in Neh. xiii. 16. Ver, 19.-Thou shalt be o. terror, etc. Two hundred and fifty years after Nebu- 'l'he knell of doom, as heard in oh. xxvii. 36, chadnezzar, Tyre was • still so strongly rings out again. The same judgment falls fortified that Alexander the Great did not alike on the city and on its king. take it till after a seven years' siege (Diod. The question when and in what manner Sic., xvii. 20; Arrinn., ii. 17: Q. Curtius, iv. the prediction received its fulfilment has 2-4). It rose again into wealth anu power been much discussed. Josephus (' Ant.,' x. under the Seleucidm, ond the Romans mode 11. 1; • Contra Apion,' i. 19) sto.tes tho.t it the capital of their province of Phrenicia. Nebuchadnezzar besieged the island Tyre It appears as a flourishing town in Matt. xv. and Ithobal (Ethbaal III.) for thirteen yearo: 21 ; Acts xii. 20 ; xxi. 37, o.nd is desciibed that, on his father's death, leaving his by Stro.bo (xvi. 2, 23) as having two harbours Phamician and other captives to be brought and lofty houses. From A.D. 636 to 1125 it by slower eto.ges, he himself hastened to was in the ho.nds of the Saracens. Sulo.din Babylon, nnd that afterwo.rds be conquered attacked it without success in A.D. 1189. tho whole of Syria and Phconicia; but he In A.D. 1291, after Acre had hccn taken by does not say, with all the Tyrio.n records storm by El-Ashraf, Sultan of Egypt, Tyro before him, tho.t the city wo.e o.ctuo.lly passed into his hands without a struggle. roptured by him. It has been inferred, When it ago.in posscd into the power of the indeed, from oh. xxix. 18, that Nebuchad- Saracens, its fortificnt.ions were demolished, nezzar's siege of Tyre ended in, at least, and from that time it sank gradunlly into partio.l failure, that ho o.nd his army had no it~ present obscurity. The present Sur is a "woges " for their work, i.e. that the spoil small town of no.rrow, crooked, ond dirty of the city woe meagre and disappointing. streets, and the ruins of the old Phmnicion Possibly the merchant-princes of the city city cover the suburbs to the extent of ho.If had contrived to carry oft' po.rt of their a league round, The harbour is choked up treasures in their ships. On the other hnnd, with sand, nnd with remains of the old it may be noted (1) thnt the national palucea and walls nnd temples, and is historians of the ancient world (perhaps not available for small boats only. The sea has of that only) willingly minimized the swallowed up its grandeur. The soil on disasters of their country; nnd (2) that the which the traveller stands is n mass of Phmnicio.n fragment quoted by Josephus deln-is, in which marble, porphyry, and (' Contra Apion,' i. 21) simply for &yn- granite mingle with coarser stones. So it c:hronistio purposes, shows a signiflcnnt has come to pass that it is little more than change of government following on the '' a place for the spreading of nots " and  104 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [c:JJ:t. xxvm. 1-20