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Ezekiel 27:27 Bible in Basic English (BBE)

27 Your wealth and your goods, the things in which you do trade, your seamen and those guiding your ships, those who make your boards watertight, and those who do business with your goods, and all your men of war who are in you, with all who have come together in you, will go down into the heart of the seas in the day of your downfall.

Cross Reference

Proverbs 11:4 BBE

Wealth is of no profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness keeps a man safe from death.

Ezekiel 26:12 BBE

They will take by force all your wealth and go off with the goods with which you do trade: they will have your walls broken down and all the houses of your desire given up to destruction: they will put your stones and your wood and your dust deep in the water.

Ezekiel 26:14 BBE

I will make you an uncovered rock: you will be a place for the stretching out of nets; there will be no building you up again: for I the Lord have said it, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 26:21 BBE

I will make you a thing of fear, and you will come to an end: even if you are looked for, you will not be seen again for ever, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 27:7-9 BBE

The best linen with needlework from Egypt was your sail, stretched out to be a flag for you; blue and purple from the sea-lands of Elishah gave you shade. The people of Zidon and Arvad were your boatmen; the wise men of Zemer were in you; they were guiding your ships; The responsible men of Gebal and its wise men were in you, making your boards watertight: all the ships of the sea with their seamen were in you trading in your goods.

Ezekiel 27:12 BBE

Tarshish did business with you because of the great amount of your wealth; they gave silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods.

Ezekiel 27:18-19 BBE

Damascus did business with you because of the great amount of your wealth, with wine of Helbon and white wool. ... for your goods: they gave polished iron and spices for your goods.

Ezekiel 27:22 BBE

The traders of Sheba and Raamah did trade with you; they gave the best of all sorts of spices and all sorts of stones of great price and gold for your goods.

Ezekiel 27:24 BBE

These were your traders in beautiful robes, in rolls of blue and needlework, and in chests of coloured cloth, corded with cords and made of cedar-wood, in them they did trade with you.

Ezekiel 27:34 BBE

Now that you are broken by the seas in the deep waters, your goods and all your people will go down with you.

Revelation 18:11-24 BBE

And the traders of the earth are weeping and crying over her, because no man has any more desire for their goods, Gold, and silver, and stones of great price, and jewels, and delicate linen, and robes of purple and silk and red; and perfumed wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of fair wood, and of brass, and iron, and stone; And sweet-smelling plants, and perfumes, and wine, and oil, and well crushed grain, and cattle and sheep; and horses and carriages and servants; and souls of men. And the fruit of your soul's desire has gone from you, and all things delicate and shining have come to an end and will never again be seen. The traders in these things, by which their wealth was increased, will be watching far off for fear of her punishment, weeping and crying; Saying, Sorrow, sorrow for the great town, she who was clothed in delicate linen, and purple, and red; with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels! For in one hour such great wealth has come to nothing. And every shipmaster, and all who are sailing on the sea, and sailors and all who get their living by the sea, were watching from far away, And crying out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What town is like the great town? And they put dust on their heads, and were sad, weeping and crying, and saying, Sorrow, sorrow for the great town, in which was increased the wealth of all who had their ships on the sea because of her great stores! for in one hour she is made waste. Be glad over her, heaven, and you saints, and Apostles, and prophets; because she has been judged by God on your account. And a strong angel took up a stone like the great stone with which grain is crushed, and sent it into the sea, saying, So, with a great fall, will Babylon, the great town, come to destruction, and will not be seen any more at all. And the voice of players and makers of music will never again be sounding in you: and no worker, expert in art, will ever again be living in you; and there will be no sound of the crushing of grain any more at all in you; And never again will the shining of lights be seen in you; and the voice of the newly-married man and the bride will never again be sounding in you: for your traders were the lords of the earth, and by your evil powers were all the nations turned out of the right way. And in her was seen the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been put to death on the earth.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 27

Commentary on Ezekiel 27 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-11

The lamentation commences with a picture of the glory of the city of Tyre, its situation, its architectural beauty, its military strength and defences (Ezekiel 27:3-11), and its wide-spread commercial relations (Ezekiel 27:12-25); and then passes into mournful lamentation over the ruin of all this glory (Ezekiel 27:26-36).

Introduction and description of the glory and might of Tyre. - Ezekiel 27:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 27:2. And do thou, O son of man, raise a lamentation over Tyre, Ezekiel 27:3. And say to Tyre, Thou who dwellest at the approaches of the sea, merchant of the nations to many islands, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Tyre, thou sayest, I am perfect in beauty. Ezekiel 27:4. In the heart of the seas is thy territory; thy builders have made thy beauty perfect. Ezekiel 27:5. Out of cypresses of Senir they built all double-plank-work for thee; they took cedars of Lebanon to make a mast upon thee. Ezekiel 27:6. They made thine oars of oaks of Bashan, thy benches they made of ivory set in box from the islands of the Chittaeans. Ezekiel 27:7. Byssus in embroidery from Egypt was thy sail, to serve thee for a banner; blue and red purple from the islands of Elishah was thine awning. Ezekiel 27:8. The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy rowers; thy skilful men, O Tyre, were in thee, they were thy sailors. Ezekiel 27:9. The elders of Gebal and its skilful men were with thee to repair thy leaks; all the ships of the sea and their mariners were in thee to barter thy goods. Ezekiel 27:10. Persian and Lydian and Libyan were in thine army, thy men of war; shield and helmet they hung up in thee; they gave brilliancy to thee. Ezekiel 27:11. The sons of Arvad and thine army were upon thy walls round about, and brave men were upon they towers; they hung up their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect. - The lamentation commences with an address to Tyre, in which its favourable situation for purposes of trade, and the perfect beauty of which she was conscious, are placed in the foreground (Ezekiel 27:3). Tyre is sitting, or dwelling, at the approaches of the sea. מבואת ים , approaches or entrances of the sea, are harbours into which ships sail and from which they depart, just as מבוא העיר s a t , the gate of the city, it both entrance and exit. This description does not point to the city on the mainland, or Old Tyre, but answers exactly to Insular Tyre with its two harbours.

(Note: Insular Tyre possessed two harbours, a northern one called the Sidonian, because it was on the Sidonian side, and one on the opposite or south-eastern side, which was called the Egyptian harbour from the direction in which it pointed. The Sidonian was the more celebrated of the two, and consisted of an inner harbour, situated within the wall of the city, and an outer one, formed by a row of rocks, which lay at a distance of about three hundred paces to the north-west of the island, and ran parallel to the opposite coast of the mainland, so as to form a roadstead in which ships could anchor (vid., Arrian, ii. 20; Strabo, xvi. 2. 23). This northern harbour is still held by the city of Sur , whereas the Egyptian harbour with the south-eastern portion of the island has been buried by the sand driven against the coasts by the south winds, so that even the writers of the Middle Ages make no allusion to it. (See Movers, Phönizier , II. 1, pp. 214ff.).)

ישׁבתי , with the connecting i , which is apparently confounded here after the Aramaean fashion with the i of the feminine pronoun, and has therefore been marked by the Masora as superfluous (vid., Ewald, §211 b ). The combination of רכלת with ' אל איּים ר may be accounted for from the primary meaning of רכל , to travel about as a merchant: thou who didst go to the nations on many shores to carry on thy trade. Tyre itself considers that she is perfect in her beauty, partly on account of her strong position in the sea, and partly because of her splendid edifices.

(Note: Curtius, iv. 2: Tyrus et claritate et magnitudine ante omnes urbes Syriae Phoenicesque memorabilis . (Cf. Strabo, xvi. 2. 22.))

In the description which follows of this beauty and glory, from Ezekiel 27:4 onwards, Tyre is depicted allegorically as a beautiful ship, splendidly built and equipped throughout, and its destruction is afterwards represented as a shipwreck occasioned by the east wind (Ezekiel 27:26.).

(Note: Jerome recognised this allegory, and has explained it correctly as follows: “He (the prophet) speaks τροπικῶς , as though addressing a ship, and points out its beauty and the abundance of everything. Then, after having depicted all its supplies, he announces that a storm will rise, and the south wind ( auster ) will blow, by which great waves will be gathered up, and the vessel will be wrecked. In all this he is referring to the overthrow of the city by King Nabuchodonosor,” etc. Rashi and others give the same explanation.)

The words, “in the heart of the seas is thy territory” ( Ezekiel 27:4 ), are equally applicable to the city of Tyre and to a ship, the building of which is described in what follows. The comparison of Tyre to a ship was very naturally suggested by the situation of the city in the midst of the sea, completely surrounded by water. As a ship, it must of necessity be built of wood. The shipbuilders selected the finest kinds of wood for the purpose; cypresses of Antilibanus for double planks, which formed the sides of the vessel, and cedar of Lebanon for the mast. S e nir , according to Deuteronomy 3:9, was the Amoritish name of Hermon or Antilibanus , whereas the Sidonians called it Sirion . On the other hand, S e nir occurs in 1 Chronicles 5:23, and Sh e nir in Song of Solomon 4:8, in connection with Hermon , where they are used to denote separate portions of Antilibanus. Ezekiel evidently uses Senir as a foreign name, which had been retained to his own time, whereas Sirion had possibly become obsolete, as the names had both the same meaning (see the comm. on Deuteronomy 3:9). The naming of the places from which the several materials were obtained for the fitting out of the ship, serve to heighten the glory of its construction and give an ideal character to the picture. All lands have contributed their productions to complete the glory and might of Tyre. Cypress-wood was frequently used by the ancients for buildings and (according to Virgil, Georg . ii. 443) also for ships, because it was exempt from the attacks of worms, and was almost imperishable, and yet very light ( Theophr. Hist. plant. v. 8; Plinii Hist. nat. xvi. 79). לחתים , a dual form, like חמתים in 2 Kings 25:4; Isaiah 22:11, double-planks, used for the two side-walls of the ship. For oars they chose oaks of Bashan ( משּׁוט as well as משׁוט in Ezekiel 27:29 from שׁוּט , to row), and the rowing benches (or deck) were of ivory inlaid in box. קרשׁ is used in Exodus 26:15. for the boards or planks of the wooden walls of the tabernacle; here it is employed in a collective sense, either for the rowing benches, of which there were at least two, and sometimes three rows in a vessel, one above another, or more properly, for the deck of the vessel (Hitzig). This was made of she4n , or ivory, inlaid in wood. The ivory is mentioned first as the most valuable material of the קרשׁ , the object being to picture the ship as possessing all possible splendour. The expression בּתּ־אשּׁרים , occasions some difficulty, partly on account of the use of the word בּת , and partly in connection with the meaning of אשּׁרים , although so much may be inferred from the context, that the allusion is to some kind of wood inlaid with ivory, and the custom of inlaying wood with ivory for the purpose of decoration is attested by Virgil, Aen . x. 137:

“Vel quale per artem

Inclusum buxo, aut Oricia terebintho

Lucet ebur.”