Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 26:20

"then will I bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make thee to dwell in the nether parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:" — Ezekiel 26:20 (ASV)

With them that descend into the pit. —Compare Isaiah 14:9-20. Tyre is here represented, as Babylon is there, as joining itself to the dead—a striking figure to indicate its utter and final destruction. This is to be understood of the Tyre that existed at that time, the proud mistress of the sea. The question whether there might or might not ever be other inhabitants on the rock of Tyre is one which does not at all come within the scope of the prophet’s vision.

The way of speaking of the place of the dead, as in the lower part of the earth, so common in Scripture , does not by any means prove that the writers thought this to be the actual place of departed spirits. It only shows that, as it is a necessity of human thought and expression to indicate some locality, this locality, in association with the burial of the body, is most naturally placed “under the earth.”

In the same way, people, even on opposite sides of the globe, always speak of God as “above them.” Their gestures and looks, as well as their words, unavoidably involve the same idea, though they perfectly know that He is omnipresent. (Compare even the example of our Lord in Mark 6:41; Mark 7:34; Luke 9:16; John 17:1.)

Set glory in the land of the living. —The word for “glory” is the same as that used in Ezekiel 20:6; Ezekiel 20:15; Daniel 8:9; Daniel 11:16; Daniel 11:41, in connection with Palestine. The prediction is that when Tyre, who is now rejoicing in the calamity of Judah, is past and forgotten, numbered with the dead, then God will establish His people as a living Church to Himself. A ray of Messianic promise shines through the prediction, although, at the time, it might seem nothing more than a foretelling of the restoration from the Captivity.