1.
The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2.
Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
THE DIRGE OF TYRE
‘A lamentation for Cyrus.’
Ezekiel 27:2
I. This is a funeral dirge over Tyre.—She is compared to a vast ship, for the construction and manning of which all nations are laid under contribution. Her snow-white sails, her gay pennons, her skilled pilots, her renowned warriors, her widespread traffic, seem to guarantee a prosperous voyage; but her rowers bring her into very great waters, and she is broken in the heart of the seas. Tyre, with all her worldly advantages, and the spiritual ones which accrued from her close proximity to Israel, had not sought God’s favour; oppression and injustice were in her midst; therefore her apparent sources of wealth and stability failed to arrest her decay, and she fell into the midst of the seas in the day of her ruin ( Ezekiel 27:27).
It was strikingly said of Napoleon Bonaparte: ‘He did all that in him lay to live and thrive without moral principle.’ But the eternal law baulked and ruined him; and the result in a million of experiments will be the same. Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail. Let our great mercantile nation, the Tyre of modern times, beware. She must rest her security, not on her navies or material resources, not even on the bravery or industry of her sons, but on the favour of God and the righteousness which alone exalteth a nation.
II. How often it happens that individual souls pass through experiences like those described here.—They start in life richly dowered with every advantage that rank, wealth, and education can confer, but their career is one of bitter disappointment; their companions or their own passions, their love of pleasure and the absence of self-control, bring them into great waters, where they become irretrievably broken. Only One can arrest that fate—He Who slept through the night-storm till the disciples awoke Him: He arose and rebuked the fury of the elements, and upbraided them for their lack of faith.
Illustration
‘As their enemies behold the children of God, they are apt to suppose that there is no difference between them and others. They cannot see the Divine environment within which they live, and they suppose that they can easily work their will. They say, Behold these people are like other people; we have but to stretch out our hand, and can spoil them as a boy the nests of spring. Then they discover that they have another to reckon with, and that God will arise to plead the cause of His people and to execute judgment upon their oppressors. Not in vain did He say to Abraham, and through him to all that believe: “I will bless him that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” ’
3.
And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.
4.
Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
5.
They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
6.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
7.
Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
8.
The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
9.
The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
10.
They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
11.
The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
12.
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
13.
Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
14.
They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
15.
The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
16.
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
17.
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
18.
Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
19.
Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
20.
Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
21.
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
22.
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
23.
Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
24.
These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
25.
The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
26.
Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.
27.
Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
28.
The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
29.
And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;
30.
And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31.
And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
32.
And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
33.
When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
34.
In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall.
35.
All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
36.
The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.