Ezekiel 28:23

28:20-26. 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.

And I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets,.... The plague and the sword, which are two of God's sore judgments, and often go together; the pestilence slays them that are within, and the sword those the enemy meets with in the streets: and the wounded shall be judged; that is, punished; or "shall fall" (w), die and perish: in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; this was literally fulfilled in Zidon, either by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army, which besieged it on every side; or by Artaxerxes Ochus the Persian, who took it, and destroyed it; and will have its accomplishment on the antichristian states, eastern and western, when the vials shall be poured out upon them, Revelation 16:1, and they shall know that I am the Lord God; who am able to foretell things to come, and to accomplish them. (w) Sept.; "corruent", Pagninus, Vatablus; "cadet", Montanus; so Kimchi and Ben Melech; and which is approved of by Gussetius.

23 . wounded … be judged ] Rather: shall fall , or, fall thick, if the word be read as an intensive. The judgments on Zidon shall bring home to her that there is a great God and that He has sent them. This God is Jehovah God of Israel, God alone. The prophet speaks from his own belief.

I will send; the pestilence is one of God’s arrows, and he sends it wheresoever it walks; it is one of his sore judgments, and wasteth where it cometh. Pestilence; the most dreadful of diseases, because most deadly, swift, and comes so immediately from the wrath of God offended with men; this pestilence attends on war, and seldom faileth to make havoc in besieged towns or cities. Blood; bloody war by an enemy, that shall bring the war to the gates, nay, into the streets of Zidon. Be judged; fall, be cast down, punished, in the midst of the city. By the sword; by her enemy’s sword prevailing and conquering. On every side; a description either of the siege that Zidon should suffer by, or pointing out the multitude of her enemies on every side agreeing against her.

Prophecy Against Sidon and Promise for Israel The threatening word against Sidon is very brief, and couched in general terms, because as a matter of fact the prophecy against Tyre involved the announcement of the fall of Sidon, which was dependent upon it; and, as we have already observed, Sidon received a special word of God simply for the purpose of making up the number of the heathen nations mentioned to the significant number seven. The word of God against Sidon brings to a close the cycle of predictions of judgment directed against those heathen nations which had given expression to malicious pleasure at the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah. There is therefore appended a promise for Israel (Ezekiel 28:25, Ezekiel 28:26), which is really closely connected with the threatening words directed against the heathen nations, and for which the way is prepared by Ezekiel 28:24. The correspondence of נקדּשׁתּי בהּ (I shall be sanctified in her) in Ezekiel 28:22 to נקדּשׁתּי בם (I shall be sanctified in them) in Ezekiel 28:25, serves to place the future fate of Israel in antithesis not merely to the future fate of Sidon, but, as Ezekiel 28:24 and Ezekiel 28:26 clearly show, to that of all the heathen nations against which the previous threats have been directed. Ezekiel 28:20-24 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 28:21. Son of man, direct thy face towards Sidon, and prophesy against it, Ezekiel 28:22.

And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will be against thee, O Sidon, and will glorify myself in the midst of thee; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I execute judgments upon it, and sanctify myself upon it. Ezekiel 28:23. I will send pestilence into it, and blood into its streets; slain will fall in the midst of it by the sword, which cometh upon it from every side; and they shall learn that I am Jehovah. Ezekiel 28:24. And there shall be no more to the house of Israel a malignant thorn and smarting sting from all round about them, who despise them; but they shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. - Jehovah will glorify Himself as the Lord upon Sidon, as He did before upon Pharaoh (compare Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:16-17, to which the word נכבּדתּי in Ezekiel 28:22, an unusual expression for Ezekiel, evidently points). The glorification is effected by judgments, through which He proves Himself to be holy upon the enemies of His people. He executes the judgments through pestilence and blood (vid., Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 38:22), i.e., through disease and bloodshed occasioned by war, so that men fall, slain by the sword (cf. Ezekiel 6:7). Instead of נפל we have the intensive form נפלל, which is regarded by Ewald and Hitzig as a copyist's error, because it is only met with here. Through these judgments the Lord will liberate His people Israel from all round about, who increase its suffering by their contempt.