4. Plec de Prescripcions
4.4 Plec de Condicions Econòmiques
1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
2 "Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’
3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves.
4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock.
5 Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations,
6 and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord. 7 "For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army.
8 He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you.
9 He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. 10 His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the war horses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through.
11 The hoofs of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground.
12 They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea.
13 I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more.
14 I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.
15 "This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place in you?
16 Then all the princes of the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled at you. 17 Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you: "‘How you are destroyed, O city of renown, peopled by men of the sea! You were a power on the seas, you and your citizens; you put your terror on all who lived there.
18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall; the islands in the sea are terrified at your collapse.’ 19 "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you,
20 then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living.
21 I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign Lord."
John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, observes here: “Once again the prophecy can be further sub-divided into separate sections, each introduced by the oracular formula, thus says the Lord God (26:7, 15, 19). These do, however, hold together and each adds further significance to the over-all message of the chapter. The first section (1-6) is in typical ‘because … therefore …’ style of the previous chapter. The offence of Tyre is that she rejoices over the fall of Jerusalem and congratulates herself that she has lost a serious commercial competitor. The gate of the peoples (2) suggests that Jerusalem was at the intersection of a large number of international trade-routes and so was able to impose her own tolls. Presumably Tyre looked forward to taking these over herself.”
The Pulpit Commentary observes about Tyre: “As the nearest great commercial city, the Venice of the
ancient world, Tyre, from the days of David (… 2 Samuel 5:11) and Solomon (… 1 Kings 5:1) onward, had been prominent in the eyes of the statesmen and prophets of Judah; and Ezekiel follows in the footsteps of … Joel 3:4; Amos 1:9, 10; Isaiah 23., in dealing with it. The description in Vers. 5 and 14 points, not to the city on the mainland, the old Tyre of … Joshua 19:29, which had been taken by Shalmaneser and was afterwards destroyed by Alexander the Great, but to the island city, the new Tyre, which was, at this time, the emporium of the ancient world. The extent of her commerce will meet us in Ezekiel 27. Here, too, as in the case of the nations in Ezekiel 25, Ezekiel’s indignation is roused by the exulting selfishness with which Tyre had looked on the downfall (actual or imminent, as before) of Jerusalem. ‘Now,’ her rulers seem to have said, ‘we shall be the only power in the land of Canaan.’ Jerusalem, that had been the gate of the peoples, was now broken. The name thus given may imply either.”
The time given for this prophecy is the first day of the eleventh year. This could be New Year’s Day, but most Bible scholars do not interpret the words as such. Barnes’ Notes states: “The number of the month being omitted, many suppose ‘the month’ to mean the month when Jerusalem was taken (the rebirth month), called ‘the month,’ as being so well known. The capture of the city is known to have taken place on ‘the ninth day of the fourth month’ and its destruction on ‘the seventh day of the fifth month.’ This prophecy therefore preceded by a few days the capture of the city.” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary adds:“Verse 2 implies that the oracle came after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586, news of which Ezekiel did not hear until the twelfth year and the tenth month (Ezek 33:21).”
Calling Jerusalem “The gate to the nations” could refer to more than just a reference to its international commercial importance. Since the days of King David, Jerusalem had been the place of God’s revelation on earth. It was the place where the Ark of the Covenant stood. David had composed a psalm at the occasion of the entrance of the ark into the city: “Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — he is the King of glory.”1 Israel’s boasting about the gates of Jerusalem may have had a spiritual meaning, as the place of entrance into the presence of the Lord. If this is true, Tyre’s rejoicing over the destruction of the city could be considered an act of rebellion against God. The fact that in the extended prophecy against Tyre, the city becomes a symbol meaning of Satan himself, would give a much deeper meaning to the taunt and the verdict.
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary comments on “The gate to the nations”: “Different explanations have
been given of the meaning of the words put into the mouth of Tyre. ‘The door of the nations is broken in pieces.’ The plural daltowt indicates the folding doors which formed the gate, and are mentioned in its stead. Jerusalem is the door of the nations, and is so called according to the current opinion of expositors, because it was the centre of the commerce of the nations, i.e., as a place of trade. But nothing is known to warrant the idea that Jerusalem was ever able to enter into rivalry with Tyre as a commercial city. The importance of Jerusalem with regard to other nations was to be found, not in its commerce, nor in the favorable situation which it occupied for trade …, but in its sanctuary, or the sacred calling which it had received for the whole world of nations … That Jerusalem is called a gate of the nations, not because it had hitherto been open to the nations for free and manifold intercourse, but for the very opposite reason, namely, because the gate of Jerusalem had hitherto been closed and barred against the nations, but was now broken in pieces through the destruction of the city, and thereby opened to the nations. Consequently the nations, and notably Tyre, would be able to enter now; and from this fact the Tyrians hoped to derive advantage, so far as their commercial interests were concerned. But this view is not in harmony with the text. Although a gate is opened by being broken in pieces, and one may force an entrance into a house by breaking the door (Gen 19:9), yet the expression ‘door of the nations’ cannot signify a door which bars all entrance on the part of the nations, inasmuch as doors and gates are not made to secure houses and cities against the forcible entrance of men and nations, but to render it possible for them to go out and in. The source from which the envy and the enmity manifesting itself in this malicious pleasure took their rise, is indicated in the last words: ‘I shall fill myself, she (Jerusalem) is laid waste,’ which Jerome has correctly linked together thus: … to be filled with merchandise and wealth, as in Ezek 27:25. On account of this disposition toward the kingdom of God, which led Tyre to expect an increase of power and wealth from its destruction, the Lord God would smite it with ruin and annihilation.”
This prophecy gives more than a description of the international animosity of one nation against another; it depicts the struggle between light and darkness, between God and Satan. Generally speaking, we know very little about the fall of Lucifer and the confrontation between the devil and the Creator. We owe much of our knowledge to the two prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel.2 In pronouncing a verdict against Tyre, God reveals Himself as the adversary of Satan, who is God’s adversary. And in the announcement that Tyre’s punishment will be carried out by “many nations,” who will come “like the sea casting up its waves,” God announces that Satan will be defeated by
1.
Ps 24:7-10mankind which he inspired to rebel against God. The prophecy over Tyre foreshadows the ultimate victory of mankind, as described in the words in Revelation: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”1
When God is through with Tyre, she will be nothing more than “a bare rock.” There are two words in Hebrew for “rock.” One is tsuwr, a rock as foundation, from which the name Tyre is derived, the other is cela`, a cracked rock. Tsuwr will become cela`. The play on the name Tyre in Hebrew is difficult to translate in English. In the same way as the busyness of Rabah in Ammon would “a resting place for sheep,”2 so the busy harbor of Tyre would become “a place to spread fishnets.”
Vv.7-14 describe in detail how the destruction of Tyre by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar will take place. The Hebrew text uses the name Nebuchadrezzar, on which John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, comments: “This spelling of his name was thought to be more correct than Nebuchadnezzar, being closer to the Babylonian Nabu-kudurri-ussur, but both forms are found in the Hebrew Bible and Nebuchadnezzar may have been the common western Aramaic form.
God calls the king of Babylon “king of kings,” which is another indication that this prophecy has a much deeper meaning than a foretelling of the future of Tyre. The Pulpit Commentary observes: “There is a special emphasis of abruptness in the way in which Ezekiel brings in the name of the great Chaldean conqueror … of whom he speaks as ‘king of kings.’ The title is used by Daniel (2:37) of Nebuchadnezzar, and by Artaxerxes of himself (… Ezra 7:12), by Darius in the Nakshi Rustam inscription … by Tiglat-Pileser, with the addition of ‘lord of lords.’”
In his conquest of Tyre, King Nebuchadnezzar foreshadows the King of kings who will appear at the end of world history, of whom the Apostle John writes: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”3
The Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary comments on Ezekiel’s prophecy about the siege and destruction
of Tyre: “The first stage of this prophecy came true when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, besieged the mainland city of Tyre for 13 years (585 B.C. - 572 B.C.) and apparently destroyed it. However, Nebuchadnezzar had no navy; so he could not flatten the island city. But losing the mainland city was devastating to Tyre. This destroyed Tyre’s influence in the world and reduced her commercial activities severely. The second stage of Ezekiel’s prophecy was fulfilled in 332 B.C., when Alexander the Great besieged the island city of Tyre for seven months. He finally captured it when he built a causeway from the mainland to the island. Hauling cedars from the mountains of Lebanon, he drove them as piles into the floor of the sea between the mainland and the island. Then he used the debris and timber of the ruined mainland city as solid material for the causeway. Hence, the remarkable prophecy of Ezekiel was completely fulfilled.”
The last section of this chapter, vv.15-21, describes the reaction of the surrounding nations to Tyre’s destruction. If the next two chapters can be seen as a reference to Satan, personified in “the ruler of Tyre,”4 then this section symbolically refers to the destruction of the kingdom of darkness. The lament of the princes of the coast is echoed by the Apostle John in Revelation in connection with the fall of Babylon, as a symbol of the fall of the empire of the Antichrist.5 We will see more about the similarity in the next chapter.