Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 26

In the first day of the month. —The year was that in which Jerusalem fell (2 Kings 25:2–4; 2 Kings 25:8–9), but the month is not given here and cannot now be ascertained. It is plain from Ezekiel 26:2 that Tyre already felt sure of the issue of the siege; but there is a marked difference between this and the language in Ezekiel 25:3, which could only have been used after the capture of the city.

This prophecy may therefore well have been given at any time during the eleventh year. Possibly the Alexandrine Septuagint is right in supplying “the first” month; but as this is omitted in the Roman copy, it is more likely to have been a mere conjecture. There is a similar omission in Ezekiel 32:17, but the number is easily supplied there from Ezekiel 26:1. Probably, in both cases the omission is a mere error of the scribes.

She is broken that was the gates of the people. —“Gates” is in the plural simply because the word originally means a leaf of a door or gate, and therefore the two leaves mean the gate; accordingly, the sense would be better conveyed by using the singular in English. On the other hand, “people,” both here and in Ezekiel 27:3, is intentionally in the plural, meaning “the nations.” By omitting all the words in italics in this verse, a better idea is obtained of the exultation of Tyre over the fall of Jerusalem.

This exultation is described as purely selfish and commercial in character, and shows nothing of the spitefulness and religious animosity of the nations mentioned in the previous chapter.

In the days of Solomon, Jerusalem had been made the great commercial emporium of the inland trade from Arabia and even from India, as well as a facilitator of trade in products between Egypt, the Hittites, and other northern nations. Doubtless, some of this commercial importance still remained to Jerusalem in her decay, for which we have already seen evidence in Ezekiel 16:0; however this may have been, a considerable city, situated as Jerusalem was, must necessarily have been the centre of many of those transactions between the surrounding nations which Tyre would gladly have monopolised for herself.

Hence her exultation: “Jerusalem being destroyed, all that gave her importance among the nations must come to increase my prosperity.”

Many nations. —The prophet here, at the outset, glances down through the ages of Tyre’s future history. He has in mind not merely the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, of which he will speak more particularly shortly (Ezekiel 26:7–11), but all the successive conquests until the proud city should be reduced to utter desolation. Most appropriate to the situation and habits of Tyre is the illustration, “as the sea causeth his waves to come up”: God will bring nation after nation to the destruction of Tyre as the sea throws wave after wave against her rock.

Her dust. — Compare to Ezekiel 26:12. The dust is that of her ruined walls and palaces and temples. “Scraping” expresses their utter destruction. As a historic fact, the ruins of the ancient city have all been thrown into the sea. What now remains is of medieval construction, although the greater part of even the medieval ruins has been carried away.

The spreading of nets. —Such has been the chief use of insular Tyre for ages, and although a miserable village of 3,000 people has sprung up, chiefly within the present century, upon a part of its site, other parts still have no more important use. The Tyre upon the mainland has so utterly disappeared that even its site cannot be exactly identified.