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Ezekiel Chapter
Twenty-seven
Ezekiel 27
Chapter Contents
The merchandise of Tyre. (1-25) Its fall and ruin.
(26-36)
Commentary on Ezekiel 27:1-25
(Read Ezekiel 27:1-25)
Those who live at ease are to be lamented, if they are
not prepared for trouble. Let none reckon themselves beautified, any further
than they are sanctified. The account of the trade of Tyre intimates, that
God's eye is upon men when employed in worldly business. Not only when at
church, praying and hearing, but when in markets and fairs, buying and selling.
In all our dealings we should keep a conscience void of offence. God, as the
common Father of mankind, makes one country abound in one commodity, and
another in another, serviceable to the necessity or to the comfort and ornament
of human life. See what a blessing trade and merchandise are to mankind, when
followed in the fear of God. Besides necessaries, an abundance of things are
made valuable only by custom; yet God allows us to use them. But when riches
increase, men are apt to set their hearts upon them, and forget the Lord, who
gives power to get wealth.
Commentary on Ezekiel 27:26-36
(Read Ezekiel 27:26-36)
The most mighty and magnificent kingdoms and states,
sooner or later, come down. Those who make creatures their confidence, and rest
their hopes upon them, will fall with them: happy are those who have the God of
Jacob for their Help, and whose hope is in the Lord their God, who lives for
ever. Those who engage in trade should learn to conduct their business
according to God's word. Those who possess wealth should remember they are the
Lord's stewards, and should use his goods in doing good to all. Let us seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 27
Verse 2
[2] Now,
thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;
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.
Verse 3
[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.
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.
Verse 5
[5] They
have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars
from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
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.
Verse 6
[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.
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.
Verse 7
[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.
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.
Verse 8
[8] The
inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that
were in thee, were thy pilots.
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.
Verse 9
[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.
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.
Verse 10
[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.
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.
Verse 11
[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.
With —
Mixed with other hired soldiers.
The Gammadim —
Probably men of Gammade, a town of Phoenicia.
Verse 13
[13]
Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of
men and vessels of brass in thy market.
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.
Verse 14
[14] They
of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
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.
Verse 15
[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.
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.
Verse 16
[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.
The multitude —
The abundance of the Tyrian manufactures.
Verse 17
[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.
Minnith —
The name of an excellent wheat country.
Pannag —
Some obscure place, which now is forgotten.
Verse 19
[19] Dan
also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and
calamus, were in thy market.
Javan — In
the isle of Meroe, in Egypt.
Verse 20
[20]
Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
Dedan —
The posterity of Abraham by Keturah, who dwelt in Arabia, and were
sheep-masters.
Clothes —
With which they lined their chariots.
Verse 22
[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.
Sheba — A
country in Arabia Felix.
Raamah —
Another people of the same Arabia.
Verse 23
[23]
Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were
thy merchants.
Haran — In
Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt.
Canneh —
This is supposed to be the same with Calneh, Genesis 10:10, afterwards Ctesiphon, a pleasant
city on Tigris.
Ashur —
Assyria.
Chilmad — A
country between Assyria and Parthia.
Verse 25
[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.
The ships —
The ships from all parts of the sea.
Did sing —
Had their songs to commend thy state.
Verse 26
[26] Thy
rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in
the midst of the seas.
Thy rowers —
Thy governors and counsellors.
Great waters —
Dangers and difficulties.
The east wind —
The king of Babylon with his army.
Hath broken — As
surely will, as if he had already done it.
In the midst —
Where thou thoughtest thyself impregnable.
Verse 27
[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.
All thy company —
All that are men fit for war, in the multitudes of people that are in thee.
Shall fall —
These all shall fall together.
Verse 28
[28] The
suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
The suburbs —
The suburbs, which are nearest the sea, shall first hear the out-cries of
pilots, and mariners.
Verse 29
[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;
Shall come down — ln
the allegory of a miserable shipwreck, the prophet sets forth the fall of Tyre;
and in this verse he represents them all shifting out of the sinking ship, in
great confusion.
Verse 30
[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:
Wallow themselves in ashes — As men use to do in their greatest mournings.
Verse 32
[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?
In the sea —
Alas! what was once her safeguard, is now her grave.
Verse 33
[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.
Went forth —
Were landed.
Thou filledst —
There was enough to supply to the full.
Verse 34
[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.
By the seas —
The Babylonians, that like seas shall swell, roar, and break in upon thee.
Verse 35
[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.
Troubled —
They shall not be able to conceal the discomposure of their mind, but will shew
it in their countenance.
Verse 36
[36] The
merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and
never shalt be any more.
Shall hiss —
Will mock at thy fall.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
27 Chapter 27
Verses 1-36
Take up a lamentation for Tyrus.
A proud city
The men of the world are wise, choosing the fittest places
for their own advantage and interest. Let us learn so much of the men of the
world, to be wise for our spiritual interest, and seat ourselves near the
waters of the sanctuary, that so, trading with God and Christ, we may abound
with spiritual treasure.
2. Outward excellences lift up men’s hearts, beget vain confidences,
and cause them to boast. This is the great wickedness of cities enriched by
God, that they forget Him, and glory in external excellences.
3. No situation, strength, or outward advantage can secure proud
cities.
4. Artists will put forth themselves to the utmost to show their
skill. “Thy builders have perfected thy beauty”; they concealed not their art;
what skill soever they had in architecture, they strove to manifest the same. (W.
Greenhill, M. A.)
The sin of Tyre
To Ezekiel, as to the prophets generally, Tyre is the
representative of commercial greatness, and the truth which he here seeks to
illustrate is that the abnormal development of the mercantile spirit had in her
case destroyed the capacity of faith in that which is truly Divine. The real
god of Tyre was not Baal nor Melkarth, but the king, or any other object that
might serve as a symbol of her civic greatness. Her religion was one that
embodied itself in no outward ritual; it was the enthusiasm which was kindled
in the heart of every citizen of Tyre by the magnificence of the imperial city
to which he belonged. The state of mind which Ezekiel regards as characteristic
of Tyre was perhaps the inevitable outcome of a high civilisation informed by
no loftier religious conceptions than those common to heathenism. It is the
idea which afterwards found expression in the deification of the Roman
emperors--the idea that the state is the only power higher than the individual
to which he can look for the furtherance of his material and spiritual
interests, the only: power, therefore, which rightly claims his homage and his
reverence. None the less, it is a state of mind which is destructive of all
that is essential to living religion; and Tyre in her proud self-sufficiency
was perhaps further from a true knowledge of God than the barbarous tribes who
in all sincerity worshipped the rude idols which represented the invisible
power that ruled their destinies. And in exposing the irreligious spirit which
lay at the heart of the Tyrian civilisation the prophet lays his finger on the
spiritual danger which attends the successful pursuit of the finite interests
of human life. The thought of God, the sense of an immediate relation of the
spirit of man to the Eternal and the Infinite, are easily displaced from men’s
minds by undue admiration for the achievements of a culture based on material
progress, and supplying every need of human nature except the very deepest, the
need of God. The commercial spirit is indeed but one of the forms in which men
devote themselves to the service of this present world; but in any community
where it reigns supreme we may confidently look for the same signs of religious
decay which Ezekiel detected in Tyre in his own day. At all events, his message
is not superfluous in an age and country where energies are well-nigh exhausted
in the accumulation of the means of living, and whose social problems all run
up into the great question of the distribution of wealth. (John Skinner, M. A.)
The fate of Tyre
Why was Tyrus rebuked and stripped and humbled? Because it came to
pass in the case of Tyrus, as it comes to pass in our case, that too much
prosperity begets a spirit of sneering. And God will not have any sneering in
His school. How did Tyrus sneer? She sneered religiously, which is the worst
kind of sneering. “Because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha.” That
“Aha” cost Tyrus her life. He who sneers at Jerusalem challenges God; he who
mocks the humble poor defies high Heaven. Tyrus versus Jerusalem,--the
case so limited, Jerusalem might go down; but so long as Jerusalem stands for
godliness, the true worship, the right conception of things, he who offends
Jerusalem has to fight Omnipotence. Can Tyrus fail? When Tyrus fails all the
islands of the sea know of it: “Then all the princes of the sea shall come
down,” etc. Behold them all!--princes of Polynesia coming down from their
thrones, stripping themselves, themselves folding up the garments and putting
them away, and then replacing the garments embroidered and golden with garments
of trembling. Why? Because famed Tyrus has fallen. Howl, fir tree; for the
cedar is fallen. We should learn from ruins. O vain man, poor boaster, you
shall beg tomorrow! You that steep your arms to the elbows in gold shall write
a begging letter ere the year closes. Riches make to themselves wings and fly
away, and the great Babylon which you have builded is but a bubble in the air.
Lay not up for yourselves riches where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal: have riches in heaven; have riches in the word
of God. See the uselessness of what is called environment. Tyrus had
environment enough; her shipboards, trees of cedar; her masts made of the
cedars of Lebanon; her oars of the oaks of Bashan; fine linen with broidered
work from Egypt, blue and purple from the isles of Elishah; treasure upon
treasure. So much for environment! We think if we had more pictures on the
walls we should pray more; if we had a larger garden behind the house we should
be more spiritually minded. It is not so. A man’s heaven is in his heart; a
man’s hell is within. Moreover, what is environment? Who are we that we should
define environment and say, Under such and such circumstances such and such moral
issues would take place? Never! unless there be something more. Only the Spirit
can make man right, and only Christ, according to the faith, to the
Christianity which I solemnly accept, can get at the spirit with renewing and
sanctifying energy. All other teachers are reformers. Christ is a Saviour. When
Christ gets into a man’s heart, all the rest follows--all the cleanliness comes
the same day, and on the morrow comes music, and on the third day comes the
dawn of heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The position of Tyre on land and sea
Part of the city was on an island, and part on the mainland.
Alexander, the conqueror, was much embarrassed when he found so much of the
city was on an island, for he had no ships. But his military genius was not to
be balked. Having marched his army to the beach, he ordered them to tear up the
city on the mainland and throw it into the water, and build a causeway two
hundred feet wide to the island. So they took that part of the city which was
on the mainland, and with it built a causeway of timber and brick and stone, on
which his army marched to the capture of that part of the city which was on the
island, as though a hostile army should put Brooklyn into the East River, and
over it march to the capture of New York. That Tyrian causeway of ruins which
Alexander’s army built is still there, and by alluvial deposits has permanently
united the island to the mainland, so that it is no longer an island but a
promontory. The sand, the greatest of all undertakers for burying cities, having
covered up for the most part Baalbec and Palmyra and Thebes and Memphis and
Carthage and Babylon and Luxor and Jericho, the sand, so small and yet so
mighty, is now gradually giving rites of sepulture to what was left of Tyre.
But, oh, what a magnificent city it once was! Mistress of the sea! Queen of
international commerce! All nations casting their crowns at her feet! Where we
have in our sailing vessels benches of wood, she had benches of ivory. Where we
have for our masts of ships sails of coarse canvas, she had sails of richest
embroidery. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Responsibility of city rulers
Cities are not necessarily evils, as has sometimes been argued.
They have been the birthplace of civilisation. In them popular liberty has
lifted up its voice. Witness Genoa, Pisa, Venice. The entrance of the
representatives of the cities in the legislatures of Europe was the deathblow
to feudal kingdoms. Cities are the patronisers of art and literature. Cities
hold the world’s sceptre. Africa was Carthage, Greece was Athens, England is
London, France is Paris, Italy is Rome.
I. Commercial
ethics are always affected by the moral or immoral character of those who have
principal supremacy. Officials that wink at fraud, and that have neither
censure nor arraignment for glittering dishonesties, always weaken the pulse of
commercial honour.
II. So also of the
educational interests of a city. There are cities where educational affairs are
settled in the low caucus in the abandoned parts of the cities, by men full of
ignorance and rum. It ought not to be so; but in many cities it is so. I hear
the tramp of the coming generations. What that great multitude of youth shall
be for this world and the next will be affected very much by the character of
our public schools. Instead of driving the Bible out, you had better drive the
Bible further in.
III. The character
of officials in a city affects the domestic circle. In a city where grog shops
have their own way, and gambling hells are not interfered with, and for fear of
losing political influence officials close their eyes to festering
abominations--in all those cities the home interests need to make imploration.
The family circles of the city must inevitably be affected by the moral
character or the immoral character of those who rule over them.
IV. The religious
interests of a city are thus affected. The Church today has to contend with
evils that the civil law ought to smite; and while I would not have the civil
government in anywise relax its energy in the arrest and punishment of crime, I
would have a thousand-fold more energy put forth in the drying up of the
fountains of iniquity. The Church of God asks no pecuniary aid from political
power; but it does ask that, in addition to all the evils we must necessarily
contend against, we shall not have to fight also municipal negligence. (T.
De Witt Talmage.)
God’s observation of our business hours
“Thus said the Lord.” This account of the trade of Tyre intimates
to us that God’s eye is upon men, and that He takes cognisance of what they do
when they are employed in their worldly business, not only when they are at
church, praying and hearing, but when they are in their markets and fairs, and
upon the exchange, buying and selling, which is a good reason why we should in
all our dealings keep a conscience void of offence, and have our eye always
upon Him whose eye is always upon us. (M. Henry.)
Verses 1-36
Take up a lamentation for Tyrus.
A proud city
The men of the world are wise, choosing the fittest places
for their own advantage and interest. Let us learn so much of the men of the
world, to be wise for our spiritual interest, and seat ourselves near the
waters of the sanctuary, that so, trading with God and Christ, we may abound
with spiritual treasure.
2. Outward excellences lift up men’s hearts, beget vain confidences,
and cause them to boast. This is the great wickedness of cities enriched by
God, that they forget Him, and glory in external excellences.
3. No situation, strength, or outward advantage can secure proud
cities.
4. Artists will put forth themselves to the utmost to show their
skill. “Thy builders have perfected thy beauty”; they concealed not their art;
what skill soever they had in architecture, they strove to manifest the same. (W.
Greenhill, M. A.)
The sin of Tyre
To Ezekiel, as to the prophets generally, Tyre is the
representative of commercial greatness, and the truth which he here seeks to
illustrate is that the abnormal development of the mercantile spirit had in her
case destroyed the capacity of faith in that which is truly Divine. The real
god of Tyre was not Baal nor Melkarth, but the king, or any other object that
might serve as a symbol of her civic greatness. Her religion was one that
embodied itself in no outward ritual; it was the enthusiasm which was kindled
in the heart of every citizen of Tyre by the magnificence of the imperial city
to which he belonged. The state of mind which Ezekiel regards as characteristic
of Tyre was perhaps the inevitable outcome of a high civilisation informed by
no loftier religious conceptions than those common to heathenism. It is the
idea which afterwards found expression in the deification of the Roman
emperors--the idea that the state is the only power higher than the individual
to which he can look for the furtherance of his material and spiritual
interests, the only: power, therefore, which rightly claims his homage and his
reverence. None the less, it is a state of mind which is destructive of all
that is essential to living religion; and Tyre in her proud self-sufficiency
was perhaps further from a true knowledge of God than the barbarous tribes who
in all sincerity worshipped the rude idols which represented the invisible power
that ruled their destinies. And in exposing the irreligious spirit which lay at
the heart of the Tyrian civilisation the prophet lays his finger on the
spiritual danger which attends the successful pursuit of the finite interests
of human life. The thought of God, the sense of an immediate relation of the
spirit of man to the Eternal and the Infinite, are easily displaced from men’s
minds by undue admiration for the achievements of a culture based on material
progress, and supplying every need of human nature except the very deepest, the
need of God. The commercial spirit is indeed but one of the forms in which men
devote themselves to the service of this present world; but in any community
where it reigns supreme we may confidently look for the same signs of religious
decay which Ezekiel detected in Tyre in his own day. At all events, his message
is not superfluous in an age and country where energies are well-nigh exhausted
in the accumulation of the means of living, and whose social problems all run
up into the great question of the distribution of wealth. (John Skinner, M.
A.)
The fate of Tyre
Why was Tyrus rebuked and stripped and humbled? Because it came to
pass in the case of Tyrus, as it comes to pass in our case, that too much
prosperity begets a spirit of sneering. And God will not have any sneering in
His school. How did Tyrus sneer? She sneered religiously, which is the worst
kind of sneering. “Because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha.” That
“Aha” cost Tyrus her life. He who sneers at Jerusalem challenges God; he who
mocks the humble poor defies high Heaven. Tyrus versus Jerusalem,--the
case so limited, Jerusalem might go down; but so long as Jerusalem stands for
godliness, the true worship, the right conception of things, he who offends
Jerusalem has to fight Omnipotence. Can Tyrus fail? When Tyrus fails all the
islands of the sea know of it: “Then all the princes of the sea shall come
down,” etc. Behold them all!--princes of Polynesia coming down from their
thrones, stripping themselves, themselves folding up the garments and putting
them away, and then replacing the garments embroidered and golden with garments
of trembling. Why? Because famed Tyrus has fallen. Howl, fir tree; for the
cedar is fallen. We should learn from ruins. O vain man, poor boaster, you
shall beg tomorrow! You that steep your arms to the elbows in gold shall write
a begging letter ere the year closes. Riches make to themselves wings and fly
away, and the great Babylon which you have builded is but a bubble in the air.
Lay not up for yourselves riches where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal: have riches in heaven; have riches in the word
of God. See the uselessness of what is called environment. Tyrus had
environment enough; her shipboards, trees of cedar; her masts made of the
cedars of Lebanon; her oars of the oaks of Bashan; fine linen with broidered
work from Egypt, blue and purple from the isles of Elishah; treasure upon
treasure. So much for environment! We think if we had more pictures on the
walls we should pray more; if we had a larger garden behind the house we should
be more spiritually minded. It is not so. A man’s heaven is in his heart; a
man’s hell is within. Moreover, what is environment? Who are we that we should
define environment and say, Under such and such circumstances such and such
moral issues would take place? Never! unless there be something more. Only the
Spirit can make man right, and only Christ, according to the faith, to the
Christianity which I solemnly accept, can get at the spirit with renewing and
sanctifying energy. All other teachers are reformers. Christ is a Saviour. When
Christ gets into a man’s heart, all the rest follows--all the cleanliness comes
the same day, and on the morrow comes music, and on the third day comes the
dawn of heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The position of Tyre on land and sea
Part of the city was on an island, and part on the mainland.
Alexander, the conqueror, was much embarrassed when he found so much of the
city was on an island, for he had no ships. But his military genius was not to
be balked. Having marched his army to the beach, he ordered them to tear up the
city on the mainland and throw it into the water, and build a causeway two
hundred feet wide to the island. So they took that part of the city which was
on the mainland, and with it built a causeway of timber and brick and stone, on
which his army marched to the capture of that part of the city which was on the
island, as though a hostile army should put Brooklyn into the East River, and
over it march to the capture of New York. That Tyrian causeway of ruins which
Alexander’s army built is still there, and by alluvial deposits has permanently
united the island to the mainland, so that it is no longer an island but a promontory.
The sand, the greatest of all undertakers for burying cities, having covered up
for the most part Baalbec and Palmyra and Thebes and Memphis and Carthage and
Babylon and Luxor and Jericho, the sand, so small and yet so mighty, is now
gradually giving rites of sepulture to what was left of Tyre. But, oh, what a
magnificent city it once was! Mistress of the sea! Queen of international
commerce! All nations casting their crowns at her feet! Where we have in our
sailing vessels benches of wood, she had benches of ivory. Where we have for
our masts of ships sails of coarse canvas, she had sails of richest embroidery.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Responsibility of city rulers
Cities are not necessarily evils, as has sometimes been argued.
They have been the birthplace of civilisation. In them popular liberty has
lifted up its voice. Witness Genoa, Pisa, Venice. The entrance of the
representatives of the cities in the legislatures of Europe was the deathblow
to feudal kingdoms. Cities are the patronisers of art and literature. Cities
hold the world’s sceptre. Africa was Carthage, Greece was Athens, England is
London, France is Paris, Italy is Rome.
I. Commercial
ethics are always affected by the moral or immoral character of those who have
principal supremacy. Officials that wink at fraud, and that have neither
censure nor arraignment for glittering dishonesties, always weaken the pulse of
commercial honour.
II. So also of the
educational interests of a city. There are cities where educational affairs are
settled in the low caucus in the abandoned parts of the cities, by men full of
ignorance and rum. It ought not to be so; but in many cities it is so. I hear
the tramp of the coming generations. What that great multitude of youth shall
be for this world and the next will be affected very much by the character of
our public schools. Instead of driving the Bible out, you had better drive the
Bible further in.
III. The character
of officials in a city affects the domestic circle. In a city where grog shops
have their own way, and gambling hells are not interfered with, and for fear of
losing political influence officials close their eyes to festering
abominations--in all those cities the home interests need to make imploration.
The family circles of the city must inevitably be affected by the moral
character or the immoral character of those who rule over them.
IV. The religious
interests of a city are thus affected. The Church today has to contend with
evils that the civil law ought to smite; and while I would not have the civil
government in anywise relax its energy in the arrest and punishment of crime, I
would have a thousand-fold more energy put forth in the drying up of the
fountains of iniquity. The Church of God asks no pecuniary aid from political
power; but it does ask that, in addition to all the evils we must necessarily
contend against, we shall not have to fight also municipal negligence. (T.
De Witt Talmage.)
God’s observation of our business hours
“Thus said the Lord.” This account of the trade of Tyre intimates
to us that God’s eye is upon men, and that He takes cognisance of what they do
when they are employed in their worldly business, not only when they are at
church, praying and hearing, but when they are in their markets and fairs, and
upon the exchange, buying and selling, which is a good reason why we should in
all our dealings keep a conscience void of offence, and have our eye always
upon Him whose eye is always upon us. (M. Henry.)
Verses 12-23
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds
of riches.
The fairs of Tyre
Let us look in upon a world’s fair at Tyre. Ezekiel leads us
through one department, and it is a horse fair. Underfed and overdriven for
ages, the horses of today give you no idea of the splendid animals which,
rearing and plunging and snorting and neighing, were brought down over the
planks of the ships, and led into the world’s fair at Tyre, until Ezekiel, who
was a minister of religion, and not supposed to know much about, horses, cried
out in admiration, “They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with
horses.” Here in another department of that world’s fair at Tyre, led on by
Ezekiel the prophet, we find everything all ablaze with precious stones. Like
petrified snow are the corals; like fragments of fallen sky are the sapphires;
and here is a gate a-blush with all colours. What is that aroma we inhale? It
is from the chests of cedar which we open, and find them filled with all kinds
of fabric. But the aromatics increase as we pass down this lane of enchantment,
and here are cassia and frankincense and balm. Led on by Ezekiel the prophet,
we come to an agricultural fair, with a display of wheat from Minnith and Pannag,
rich as that of our modern Dakota or Michigan. And here is a mineralogical
fair, with specimens of iron and silver and tin and lead and gold. But, halt!
for here is purple, Tyrian purple, all tints and shades, deep almost unto the
black, and bright almost unto the blue; waiting for kings and queens to order
it made into robes for coronation day; purple, not like that which is now made
from the orchilla weed, but the extinct purple, the lost purple, which the
ancients knew how to make out of the gastropod molluscs of the Mediterranean.
Oh, look at those casks of wine from Helbon! See those snow banks of wool from
the back of sheep that once pastured in Gilead! Oh, the bewildering riches and
variety of that world’s fair at Tyre! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Great fairs universal
But the world has copied these Bible mentioned fairs in all
succeeding ages, and it has had its Louis the Sixth fair at Dagobert, and Henry
the First fair on St. Bartholomew’s Day, and Hungarian fairs at Pesth, and
Easter fairs at Leipsic, and the Scotch fairs at Perth (bright was the day when
I was at one of them), and afterward came the London world’s fair, and the New
York world’s fair, and the Vienna world’s fair, and the Parisian world’s fair,
and it has been decided that, in commemoration of the discovery of America in
1492, there shall be held in this country in 1892 a world’s fair that shall
eclipse all preceding national expositions. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Damascus was thy merchant
in the multitude of thy wares of thy making.
Home industries to be encouraged
It is the wisdom of a nation to encourage art and industry, and
not to bear hard upon the handicraft-tradesman; for it contributes much to the
wealth and honour of a nation to send abroad “wares of their own making,” which
may bring them in the “multitude of riches.” (M. Henry,)
Verse 24
These were thy merchants in all sorts of things.
Business troubles
Many of our business men are suffering trials and temptations from
small and limited capital in business. This temptation of limited capital has
ruined men in two ways. Sometimes they have sunk down under the temptation.
They have yielded the battle before the first shot was fired. They blanched at
the financial peril. The gloom of their countenances overshadowed even their
dry goods and groceries. Despondency, coming from limited capital, blasted
them. Others have felt it in a different way. They have said: “Here I have been
trudging along. I have been trying to be honest, all these years. I find it is
of no use. Now it is make or break.” The small craft that could have stood the
stream is put out beyond the lighthouse, on the great sea of speculation. After
a while the bubble bursts. Creditors rush in. The law clutches, but finds
nothing in its grasp. The men who were swindled say: “I don’t know how I could
ever have been deceived by that man”; and the pictorials, in handsome woodcuts,
set forth the hero who in ten years had genius enough to fail for 150,000
dollars!
2. Many of our business men are tempted to over-anxiety and care.
From January to December the struggle goes on. Even the Sabbath cannot dam back
the tide of anxiety; for this wave of worldliness dashes clear over the
churches, and leaves its foam on Bibles and prayer books. This excitement of
the brain, this corroding care of the heart, this strain of effort that
exhausts the spirit, sends a great many of our best men, in middle life, into
the grave. Oh, I wish I could, today, rub out some of these lines of care; that
I could lift some of the burdens from the heart; that I could give relaxation
to some of these worn muscles! It is time for you to begin to take it a little
easier. Do your best, and then trust God for the rest.
3. Many of our business men are tempted to neglect their home duties.
It is often the case that the father is the mere treasurer of the family, a
sort of agent to see that they have dry goods and groceries. The work of family
government he does not touch. A man has more responsibilities than those which
are discharged by putting competent instructors over his children, and giving
them a drawing master and a music teacher.
4. Many of our business men are tempted to put the attainment of
money above the value of the soul. There are men in all occupations who seem to
act as though they thought that a pack of bonds and mortgages could be traded
off for a title to heaven, and as though gold would be a lawful tender in that
place where it is so common that they make pavements out of it. Salvation by
Christ is the only salvation. Treasures in heaven are the only incorruptible
treasures. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Verse 26
Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.
“Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters”
I. This is truly
applicable to sinners who are beginning to taste of the result of their
sins--ungodly persons, who have chosen their own ways and followed their own
devices, and now at last are finding that the way of transgressors is hard.
1. Certain transgressors are beginning to feel the result of
wrong-doing in their circumstances. They have brought themselves from wealth to
poverty by drunkenness, dishonesty, or vice.
2. Others who have not yet been afflicted by any outward providence
are beginning to feel the sting of sin upon their conscience. This will, I
trust, be used for their good.
3. O soul, thou art come now where thy sins compass thee about, and
shut thee in on every side. Listen to me, while I speak to thee words which may
seem harsh, but they are all meant in love to thee. If the waters be great
today, what will they be ere long? If now thou canst not bear the wages of sin,
what wilt thou do when they are paid thee in full? “What wilt thou do in the
swelling of Jordan?” Learn, I pray thee, this piece of timely wisdom. Thy
rowers have brought thee into no quiet waters; they have found thee no harbours
of delight: shall they any longer be thy rowers? Do this one thing to thine own
soul if thou hast any sense left, or any pity on thyself; cry out against those
who are ruining thee. Oh, that the Spirit of the Lord may help thee to break
the oars and cast the rowers into the sea! Remember, also, that they have rowed
thee into the stormy waters, but they cannot row thee out of them. Thou canst
find no rest by continuing in sin, neither canst thou save thyself from thy
present forlorn condition. O man, cry mightily unto God. He will hear thee.
II. I see another
ship. It is not black with the grime of the world; it resembles the gilded
barge of a mighty prince; but still, for all that, its rowers have brought it
into great waters. This represents the self-righteous brought into distress.
Many men are fondly persuaded that either they need no saving, or that they can
save themselves. There is no end to the gallant show which self-righteousness
can exhibit. No ship of Tyre can excel it. Yet to this glorious ship a trying
voyage is appointed. Alas, my friend! thy rowers have brought thee into great
waters. Think of the difficult journey which lies before you. The proposal is
that you shall row yourself by your good works across yon sea of sin to the
port of glory. Before you enter upon a matter it is well to count the cost. Do
you not know that, if you are to be saved by obedience to the law of God, your
obedience must be absolutely perfect? Look, sirs, you have been resting in your
own righteousness; have you never sinned? Do you claim to have been absolutely
perfect before your Maker from your childhood? Surely, you must have a brow of
brass to make such a boast. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Verily, my friend, “thy rowers have
brought thee into great waters.” If thou art to be saved by thy works, see
where thou art! Any one day thou mayest slip and stumble, and then what becomes
of all thy past life? If this be thy style of standing before God, it is a poor
standing indeed. Canst thou ever be sure that thou wilt be safe in an hour’s
time? Come, my friend, canst thou be sure that thou hast done enough, and felt
enough, and prayed enough, and given enough alms, and gone a sufficient number
of times to the meeting house, or to the church? Canst thou be sure that it is
well with thee even now? The religion of self-righteousness never proposes such
a thing as security. It does not give the quiet of faith, much less the deep
repose of full assurance. “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.”
Uncertainty follows uncertainty, and the wind of fear tosses the billows of
doubt.
III. There is a
third case, the errorist in his difficulties. This is a very common sight in
these wayward times. I might say to many a man who has ventured out to sea
under the strong impulse of curiosity, trusting to his own proud intellect,
“Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.” The only safe course for a
thoughtful man is to trust in God, and to accept the Scriptures as infallible
truth. There is our anchorage. But there are men who cannot abide this; and,
first of all, I think that they begin to get into great waters when they
resolve to be guided by their own judgment and their own intellect, without
submitting to the teachings of Christ. O my wise and thoughtful friend, do you
know what will soon happen to you? You will probably fall under the domination
of another’s intellect: you will become the shadow of some greater man. The man
who will be guided by nobody is usually guided by someone more foolish or more
knavish than himself. In the dogmas of modern thought there is not enough
mental meat to bait a mousetrap: as to food for a soul, there is none of it; an
ant would starve on such small gram. No atonement, no regeneration, no eternal
love, no covenant: what is there worth thinking upon? “They have taken away my
Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” They have taken away the light,
the life, the love, the liberty of free grace, and they have given us nothing
in the stead thereof but pretty toys, which they themselves will break before many
days are past. How many who only meant to go a little from the old ways of
truth have gone too far aside even for themselves! Truly, my speculative
friend, “thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.”
IV. Behold the
backslider filled with his own ways. O wanderer from the Lord thy God, “thy
rowers have brought thee into great waters.” You know how it begins: first of
all, that holy, joyful walk with God is lost. It did not seem much merely to
lose rapturous enjoyment; but it was much in itself, and it meant more. Then
there came a loss of relish for the means of grace. Secret prayer was
neglected, and the Bible was unread. The forms of religion were kept up longer
than the enjoyment of it; but there was no life, no power in them. After that
there came a general fault-finding with brethren, a quarrelling with sisters, a
constant cavilling at this and that. Then there came a distaste for Christian
company: godly people were too common place and prosaic. The love of something
“brighter” called them away from solid conversation. Songs other than those of
Zion began to be relished, and teachings not of the Bible were listened to. At
last it went further: it came to actual and open sin, and ruin followed. O
friend, “thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.” Oh, that He would
come who owns thy barque, who shed His blood for thee! Oh, that He would step
into thy vessel, and take the helm and turn thee round tonight by a great
stroke of His almighty grace, and turn thy head to the port of peace! (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The east wind hath broken
thee in the midst of the seas.
Broken by the east wind
In this splendid chapter the prophet describes Tyre under the
image of one of her own merchant vessels. Looking at it simply as a piece of
composition, what an extreme interest there is in this enumeration of the
various races which were subject to this mighty city, and the lands from which
she drew her supplies! We are reminded of the far-spreading colonies of the
Anglo-Saxon race. We can almost hear the noise of her construction in the
earlier verses, and see fine linen hoisted as her sail, whilst she is manned
and piloted by her statesmen. Heavily laden with the choice merchandise of the
East, she sails the seas, independent of the winds of heaven, because the galley
slaves toil at treble banks of oars on either side. But their rowing brings her
into great waters; she encounters the east wind, which breaks her in the heart
of the sea; and in one day, pilots, rowers, men of war, and merchandise, are
lost--all brought to silence in the midst of the sea. What a powerful
conception of the great ship sinking in silence with all on board! One cry; the
waves meet over her; and only a floating spar tells where she sank. So is it
with many a life. The whole world is laid under contribution for its outfit.
Bashan, Chittim, Egypt, bring their quota; and to all appearance, as it glides
from its stocks upon the sea of life, a fair voyage awaits it, and large
exchange of the wares of human industry and thought. But where Christ is not
the Pilot, and His word not the chart, the rowers bring it into great waters,
and it is broken by the east wind. O mariner! see to it that Christ is on
board; for He only can still the tempest and speak peace, and guide thee out of
the great waters. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》