13. Instead of the joyousness of thy prosperity, a death-like silence shall reign ([Is 24:8]; [Jr 7:34]).
14. He concludes in nearly the same words as he began ([Eze 26:4], ).
built no more--fulfilled as to the mainland Tyre, under Nebuchadnezzar. The insular Tyre recovered partly, after seventy years ([Is 23:17], ), but again suffered under Alexander, then under Antigonus, then under the Saracens at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Now its harbors are choked with sand, precluding all hope of future restoration, "not one entire house is left, and only a few fishermen take shelter in the vaults" [Maundrell]. So accurately has God's word come to pass.
15-21. The impression which the overthrow of Tyre produced on other maritime nations and upon her own colonies, for example, Utica, Carthage, and Tartessus or Tarshish in Spain.
isles--maritime lands. Even mighty Carthage used to send a yearly offering to the temple of Hercules at Tyre: and the mother city gave high priests to her colonies. Hence the consternation at her fall felt in the widely scattered dependencies with which she was so closely connected by the ties of religion, as well as commercial intercourse.
shake--metaphorically: "be agitated" ([Jr 49:21]).
Chapter 27
Eze 27:1-36. Tyre's Former Greatness, Suggesting a Lamentation over Her Sad Downfall
2. lamentation--a funeral dirge, eulogizing her great attributes, to make the contrast the greater between her former and her latter state.
3. situate at the entry of the sea--literally, plural, "entrances," that is, ports or havens; referring to the double port of Tyre, at which vessels entered round the north and south ends of the island, so that ships could find a ready entrance from whatever point the wind might blow (compare [Eze 28:2]).
merchant of ... people for many isles--that is, a mercantile emporium of the peoples of many seacoasts, both from the east and from the west ([Is 23:3]), "a mart of nations."
of perfect beauty--([Eze 28:12]).
4. Tyre, in consonance with her seagirt position, separated by a strait of half a mile from the mainland, is described as a ship built of the best material, and manned with the best mariners and skilful pilots, but at last wrecked in tempestuous seas ([Eze 27:26]).
5. Senir--the Amorite name of Hermon, or the southern height of Anti-libanus ([De 3:9]); the Sidonian name was Sirion. "All thy ... boards"; dual in Hebrew, "double-boards," namely, placed in a double order on the two sides of which the ship consisted [Vatablus]. Or, referring to the two sides or the two ends, the prow and the stern, which every ship has [Munster].
cedars--most suited for "masts," from their height and durability.
6. Bashan--celebrated for its oaks, as Lebanon was for its cedars.
the company of ... Ashurites--the most skilful workmen summoned from Assyria. Rather, as the Hebrew orthography requires, "They have made thy (rowing) benches of ivory inlaid in the daughter of cedars" [Maurer], or, the best boxwood. Fairbairn, with Bochart, reads the Hebrew two words as one: "Thy plankwork (deck: instead of 'benches,' as the Hebrew is singular) they made ivory with boxes." English Version, with Maurer's correction, is simpler.
Chittim--Cyprus and Macedonia, from which, Pliny tells us, the best boxwood came [Grotius].
7. broidered ... sail--The ancients embroidered their sails often at great expense, especially the Egyptians, whose linen, still preserved in mummies, is of the finest texture.
Elishah--Greece; so called from Elis, a large and ancient division of Peloponnesus. Pausanias says that the best of linen was produced in it, and in no other part of Greece; called by Homer, Alisium.
that which covered thee--thy awning.
8. Arvad--a small island and city near Phoenicia, now Ruad: its inhabitants are still noted for seafaring habits.
thy wise men, O Tyrus ... thy pilots--While the men of Arvad, once thy equals ([Ge 10:18]), and the Sidonians, once thy superiors, were employed by thee in subordinate positions as "mariners," thou madest thine own skilled men alone to be commanders and pilots. Implying the political and mercantile superiority of Tyre.
9. Gebal--a Phoenician city and region between Beirut and Tripolis, famed for skilled workmen ([1Ki 5:18], Margin; [Psa 83:7]).
calkers--stoppers of chinks in a vessel: carrying on the metaphor as to Tyre.
occupy thy merchandise--that is, to exchange merchandise with thee.
10. Persia ... Phut--warriors from the extreme east and west.
Lud--the Lydians of Asia Minor, near the Meander, famed for archery ([Is 66:19]); rather than those of Ethiopia, as the Lydians of Asia Minor form a kind of intermediate step between Persia and Phut (the Libyans about Cyrene, shielded warriors, [Jr 46:9], descended from Phut, son of Ham).
hanged ... shield ... comeliness--Warriors hanged their accoutrements on the walls for ornament. Divested of the metaphor, it means that it was an honor to thee to have so many nations supplying thee with hired soldiers.
11. Gammadims--rather, as the Tyrians were Syro-Phoenicians, from a Syriac root, meaning daring, "men of daring" [Ludovicus De Dieu]. It is not likely the keeping of watch "in the towers" would have been entrusted to foreigners. Others take it from a Hebrew root, "a dagger," or short sword ([Jud 3:16]), "short-swordsmen."
12. Tarshish--Tartessus in Spain, a country famed for various metals, which were exported to Tyre. Much of the "tin" probably was conveyed by the Phoenicians from Cornwall to Tarshish.
traded in thy fairs--"did barter with thee" [Fairbairn]; from a root, "to leave," something left in barter for something else.
13. Javan--the Ionians or Greeks: for the Ionians of Asia Minor were the first Greeks with whom the Asiatics came in contact.
Tubal ... Meshech--the Tibareni and Moschi, in the mountain region between the Black and Caspian Seas.
persons of men--that is, as slaves. So the Turkish harems are supplied with female slaves from Circassia and Georgia.
vessels--all kinds of articles. Superior weapons are still manufactured in the Caucasus region.
14. Togarmah--Armenia: descended from Gomer ([Ge 10:3]). Their mountainous region south of the Caucasus was celebrated for horses.
horsemen--rather, "riding-horses," as distinct from "horses" for chariots [Fairbairn].
15. Dedan--near the Persian Sea: thus an avenue to the commerce of India. Not the Dedan in Arabia ([Eze 27:20]), as the names in the context here prove, but the Dedan sprung from Cush [Bochart], ([Ge 10:7]).
merchandise of thine hand--that is, were dependent on thee for trade [Fairbairn]; came to buy the produce of thy hands [Grotius].
a present--literally, "a reward in return"; a price paid for merchandise.
horns of ivory--Ivory is so termed from its resemblance to horns. The Hebrew word for "ivory" means "tooth"; so that they cannot have mistaken ivory as if coming from the horns of certain animals, instead of from the tusks of the elephant.
16. "Syria was thy mart for the multitude," &c. For "Syria" the Septuagint reads "Edom." But the Syrians were famed as merchants.
occupied--old English for "traded"; so in [Lu 19:13].
agate--Others translate, "ruby," "chalcedony," or "pearls."