Profane - Cast off, and put into the hands of Heathens. The excellency of your strength - So it was while God's presence was there. The desire - As much your desire, as my wife was mine; most dear to you.
Ye shall do - When you are in captivity, where you may not use your own customs.
Pine away - You shall languish with secret sorrow, when you shall not dare to shew it openly.
Their strength - Their walls and fortifications. The joy - All their public and private joys and hopes shall be destroyed in the destruction of the kingdom, and their children.
To hear it - To give thee a narrative of all he had seen.
No more dumb - From this prophecy for eighteen months during the siege, he does not prophesy of Israel, but of other nations. Thou shalt be a sign - Until the event shall convince the Jews, thou shalt by sign, signify to them, what is coming.
Aha - When thou shouldest have pitied, thou didst proudly insult over my people.
The men of the east - The Arabians, associates of Nebuchadnezzar, who recompensed their service, with giving them this country when it was conquered, as it was five years after the desolation of Jerusalem.
Rabbah - The royal city, called since Philadelphia from the king of Egypt who built it. The Ammonites - The land they dwelt in.
Know - Thus God will bring those that were strangers to him into an acquaintance with him, and it will be a blessed effect of their calamities. How much better is it, to be poor and know God, than to be rich, and ignorant of him?
Seir - The seed of Esau, the Edomites. Seir was the mountain where they first planted themselves. Is like - Are no more a select people than others.
The side - That part of his country which was best fortified. Bethjeshimoth - An ancient city; it was a fortress toward the desert, which watched lest any should make an inroad on the country.
With the Ammonites - As I have given Ammon, so I will with them give Moab to the Chaldeans, who will give it to the Arabians.
Teman - A country in the southern coast of Edom. Dedan - Adjoining to Edom.
It - Israel.
The Cherethim - The bowmen, the strength of Philistia. The remnant - Who had escaped the sword of Samuel, David, Hezekiah, and of Psammetichus king of Egypt.
In the eleventh year - Of Jechoniah's captivity, the year wherein Jerusalem was taken. The month - That month which followed the taking of Jerusalem.
Because - Probably God revealed this to the prophet as soon as these insulting Tyrians spoke it. The gates - The great mart of nations, people from all parts. She is turned - The trading interest will turn to me.
Scrape - I will leave thee nothing; thou shalt be scraped, and swept, that not so much as dust shall remain in thee. Like - As bare as was the rock on which thy city is built.
Her daughters - The lesser cities. In the field - On the firm land.
Garrisons - Bastions, or forts, or triumphal arches.
Shall lay - It had been a quicker way, to have burnt all; but the greedy soldier might dream of treasures hid in walls, or under the timber, and therefore take the pains to pull all down, and throw it into the sea.
No more - Tho' there was a city of that name built, yet it was built on the continent; and in propriety of speech, was another city.
The isles - Isles which are places freest from danger of invasions, will shake with fear, when they learn that Tyre is fallen.
The princes - Who were lords of the islands of that sea. Come down - In token of condolence. Trembling - They shall be afraid of their own concerns, and astonished in the midst of their fears.
In the sea - At a great distance, and farther from land. Departure - Leaving thy ancient dwelling, to go into captivity.
The deep - Nebuchadnezzar's army. Great waters - Great afflictions.
Bring thee down - When I shall slay thee, and throw thee into the grave. With the people - Who are long since dead, and gone to eternity. The low parts - Another description of the grave, from the situation and solitude of it. Set glory - Then I will restore the beauty, strength, and wealth of Israel, and bring them back to Jerusalem. In the land - In the land of Judea, called, land of the living, because a land, where God will bless, and give life by his word, ordinances, and spirit: thus different shall Tyre's captivity and Jerusalem's be.
A terror - To all that hear of thee.
A lamentation - We ought to mourn for the miseries of other nations, as well as of our own, out of an affection for mankind in general; yea, tho' they have brought them upon themselves.
At the entry - Heb. Entrances. She was about four furlongs, or half an English mile from the continent, as it were in the very door of the sea.
They - The shipwrights. Shipboards - The planks and benches, or transoms for their ships. Fir - trees - Of the best and finest fir - trees. Lebanon - Whose cedars excelled others.
With box - From the isles, and parts about the Ionian, Aegean, and other seas of the Mediterranean, where box - tree is a native, and of great growth and firmness, fit to saw into boards for benches; they were conveyed to Tyre, where their artists inlaid these box boards with ivory, and made them beautiful seats in their ships.
The isles of Elishah - Probably the sea - coast of Aeolis in the lesser Asia, the inhabitants whereof were excellent in the skill of dying wool. Which covered - He speaks of the coverings they used in their ships or galleys: their tilts, as our boat - men call them.
Zidon - An ancient town and haven of Phoenicia, not far from Tyre. Arvad - Or Aradus, an island belonging to Phoenicia, twenty furlongs from the continent. Mariners - Rowers in thy galleys; the rich Tyrians would not employ their own in such servile works, they hired strangers. Wise men - Thy learned men: for navigation was the great study of the Tyrians.
The ancients - Old experienced workmen. Gebal - A town of Phoenicia near the sea. The wise men - Skilful in their trades. Were in thee - Who dwelt in Tyre for gain. All the ships - Ships from all parts of the sea, full of mariners, not only to manage the ships at sea, but to offer their service to the Tyrians for bringing in, or carrying out their wares.
Lud - Lydians, not those Cresus was king over, but those that dwelt in Egypt about the lake Maraeolis. Phut - Lybians, a people of Africa; these were their hired soldiers. Hanged the shield - In time of peace. They set forth - These stout, expert, well armed guards, were an honour to thee.
With - Mixed with other hired soldiers. The Gammadim - Probably men of Gammade, a town of Phoenicia.
Javan - The Grecians, particularly the Ionians. Tubal - The Asiatic Iberians, and the Albanians toward the Caspian sea. Meshech - The Cappadocians. They traded - Brought men to sell for slaves.
Of the house - Of the country. Togarmah - Armenia the lesser, Phrygia, Galatia, or Cappadocia. Horsemen - It is likely they might sell grooms, as best able to manage, and keep those horses.
Isles - In the Indian seas, and in the Red - sea traded with thee. Horns - Elk's horns, or wild goats. Ebony - Is a very solid, heavy, shining, black wood, fit for many choice works.
The multitude - The abundance of the Tyrian manufactures.
Minnith - The name of an excellent wheat country. Pannag - Some obscure place, which now is forgotten.
Javan - In the isle of Meroe, in Egypt.
Dedan - The posterity of Abraham by Keturah, who dwelt in Arabia, and were sheep - masters. Clothes - With which they lined their chariots.