Ezekiel 28:17

28:1-19 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.

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty,.... Riches, wealth, power, and authority; see Ezekiel 28:5 , as the pope of Rome is, because of his dignity, the pomp and splendour of the Roman church, and the gaudy appearance it makes: thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; outward lustre and glory, which dazzled his eyes so that he could not see things in a true light; but neglecting the word of God, and setting up his own infallibility, corrupted his doctrine and worship, and became foolish, stupid, and sottish: I will cast thee to the ground; from the throne and pinnacle of honour, to the lowest state and condition: and I will lay thee before kings: prostrate at the feet of them, who heretofore has set his feet on the necks of them; or he shall fall before them, and be destroyed by them, when they shall hate the whore, and make her desolate, and burn her flesh with fire, Revelation 17:16, that they may behold thee; with contempt and disdain, and as an instance and example of divine vengeance.

Verse 17. - Thine heart was lifted up , etc. In yet another point Ezekiel sees the fall of Adam reproduced in that of the Tyrian king. He had forfeited his beauty and his wisdom through the pride which sought for a yet greater glory by a false and counterfeit wisdom ( Genesis 3:6 ). I will cast thee , etc. The words are better taken, as in the Revised Version, in the past tense, I have cast thee ... I have laid thee before kings . Pride was to have its fall, as in Isaiah 23:9 . The very sanctuaries, the temples which made Tyre the "holy island," were defiled by the iniquities through which the wealth that adorned them had been gained. The "fire," instead of being a rampart of protection, should burst forth as from the center of the sanctuary to destroy him. Is there an implied allusion to the fiery judgment that fell on Nadab and Abihu ( Leviticus 10:2 ) and on Korah and his company ( Numbers 16:35 )? The doom of Sic transit gloria mundi was already passed on her. Ezekiel 28:17

17 . The prince’s sin was self-exaltation because of his beauty and wisdom. The prince is but the representative of the city and its inhabitants; the beauty of the one ( Ezekiel 27:3 ) and the wisdom of the other ( Ezekiel 27:8-9 ) are attributed to him. The prophet’s own deep humility before Jehovah makes him recoil from the self-exaltation of men elsewhere. corrupted thy wisdom ] i.e. lost thy wisdom over, or amidst, thy splendour. The tenses “I will cast” &c. are all perfects, the threat taking the form of an accomplished judgment. that they may behold thee ] i.e. as a spectacle to feast their eyes upon.

Thine heart was lifted up: see Ezekiel 28:2,5 . Thy beauty: see Ezekiel 28:12 . Converted thy wisdom; depraved or lost thy wisdom, by reflecting and gazing on thy own glory, state, wealth, and magnificence, and hast forgotten thou art a man; thou exaltest thyself above man, above thy neighbour kings. I will cast thee to the ground; I will bring down thy pride, dethrone thee, and make thee sit in the dust; sully and darken all thy brightness. Lay thee before kings; or, set thee before men of thy quality, who are, as thou, apt to forget men, themselves, and God, as he who, though he said not, I am God, yet, atheist-like, asked, Who is God, that I should obey him? That they may behold thee; or, that thou mayst be a spectacle, an example and warning to them; or, that they see thee in chains, or an abused captive, and despise thee.

Lamentation over the King of Tyre Ezekiel 28:11. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 28:12. Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Thou seal of a well-measured building, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Ezekiel 28:13. In Eden, the garden of God, was thou; all kinds of precious stones were thy covering, cornelian, topaz, and diamond, chrysolite, beryl, and jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald, and gold: the service of thy timbrels and of thy women was with thee; on the day that thou wast created, they were prepared. Ezekiel 28:14. Thou wast a cherub of anointing, which covered, and I made thee for it; thou wast on a holy mountain of God; thou didst walk in the midst of fiery stones. Ezekiel 28:15. Thou wast innocent in thy ways from the day on which thou wast created, until iniquity was found in thee. Ezekiel 28:16. On account of the multitude of thy commerce, thine inside was filled with wrong, and thou didst sin: I will therefore profane thee away from the mountain of God; and destroy thee, O covering cherub, away from the fiery stones! Ezekiel 28:17. Thy heart has lifted itself up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom together with thy splendour: I cast thee to the ground, I give thee up for a spectacle before kings. Ezekiel 28:18.

Through the multitude of thy sins in thine unrighteous trade thou hast profaned thy holy places; I therefore cause fire to proceed from the midst of thee, which shall devour thee, and make thee into ashes upon the earth before the eyes of all who see thee. Ezekiel 28:19. All who know thee among the peoples are amazed at thee: thou hast become a terror, and art gone for ever. - The lamentation over the fall of the king of Tyre commences with a picture of the super-terrestrial glory of his position, so as to correspond to his self-deification as depicted in the foregoing word of God. In Ezekiel 28:12 he is addressed as חתם תּכנית. This does not mean, "artistically wrought signet-ring;" for חתם does not stand for חתם , but is a participle of חתם , to seal. There is all the more reason for adhering firmly to this meaning, that the following predicate, מלא חכמה, is altogether inapplicable to a signet-ring, though Hitzig once more scents a corruption of the text in consequence. תּכנית, from תּכן, to weigh, or measure off, does not mean perfection (Ewald), beauty (Ges.), faon (Hitzig), or symmetry (Hvernick); but just as in Ezekiel 43:10, the only other passage in which it occurs, it denotes the measured and well-arranged building of the temple, so here it signifies a well-measured and artistically arranged building, namely, the Tyrian state in its artistic combination of well-measured institutions (Kliefoth).