Ezekiel
Verse 2. Lamentation. Such canticles were usual, and very poetical.
EXPLANATIONS
Ezekiel 27
Historical chapter commentary
Ezekiel
Verse 3. Entry, whence merchants may proceed from an excellent harbour to any place.
Ezekiel
Verse 4. Neighbours of Sidon. Joshua 19:29. Calmet.—Septuagint “thy children.” Prot. “thy builders.” Bible.—The description of the Tyrian grandeur, shews their more woeful ruin. Worthington.
Ezekiel
Verse 5. Thee. Hebrew “all thy ship-boards.” Septuagint Prot. Bible.—S. Jerom has divided ( Calmet.) leuthim, “decks of the sea,” as yam denotes the sea. Bible.
Ezekiel
Verse 6. Benches. Septuagint “temples.”—Italy. Hebrew Cetim. Macedonia. Boch. Calmet.—All distant places were styled islands, ( Bible.) when they went by water to them.
Ezekiel
Verse 7. Linen. Cotton, (Exodus 25:4) used for standards. Septuagint “for bed coverlets,” or for sails.—Mast. Cleopatra and Caligula were still more sumptuous in their sails.—Elisa, or Elis, famous for purple: yet Tyre was more so.
Ezekiel
Verse 8. Aradians. Sidon and Arad were then subject to Tyre, and supplied rowers.—Pilots. They studied no other science.
Ezekiel
Verse 9. Gebal. Septuagint “Biblos,” which is the same. 3 Kennicott. 5:18.—Furnished. Hebrew “were in thee to repair thy breaches.” Septuagint “strengthened thy designs.”
Ezekiel
Verse 10. Lybians. Hebrew “Phut.” They had been expelled by the Cyreneans. Tyre had in her pay the most warlike nations of Persia, and so forth Cyrus soon after shook off the yoke of the Medes, and conquered the Lydians.—Hung up. verse 11. This was very usual. Song of Songs 4:4. Isaiah 22:8. Calmet.
Ezekiel
Verse 11. The Pygmeans. That is, strong and valiant men. In Hebrew Gammadim. Challoner.—He does not speak of those fabulous men hardly a cubit high. Gomed signifying a “cubit,” has caused them to be styled so here. Septuagint “guards;” or Sym. “Medes.” Ezechiel (38:6) speaks of the Gomerim.
Ezekiel
Verse 12. Carthaginians. Hebrew “Tharsis,” in Cilicia; (Genesis 10:4. Calmet.) or distant merchants, who came by sea. Bible.
Ezekiel
Verse 13. Slaves. Those from Greece were much esteemed. Calmet.—Alas! thirty thousand Tyrians were themselves thus sold by Alexander! Bible.
Ezekiel
Verse 14. Horses. Those of Sarmatia ( Calmet.) were in high repute. Pliny viii. 42.
Ezekiel
Verse 15. Dedan. Septuagint “Rhodians;” or rather Arabs are meant. verse 20. They might receive ivory from Ethiopia.—Teeth. Hebrew “horns or tusks,” which the elephant casts every year. The ivory is less brittle. 3 Kennicott. 10:18. Calmet.—Ebony; a hard black wood, like horn. Bochart.
Ezekiel
Verse 16. Syrian: always much addicted to commerce. Saint Jerome—Septuagint read Adam for Aram, as if the traffic in men was meant: ( Calmet.) “ivory, and to those who brought, thou gavest thy rewards. (16) Men of thy traffic,” and so forth Bible.—Linen. Hebrew buts, “silk” extracted from the pinna fish. 1 Chronicles 15:27. Silk. Hebrew ramoth, may rather denote unicorns. Job 28:18. Calmet.—Chodchod. It is the Hebrew name for some precious stone, but of what kind in particular, interpreters are not agreed. Challoner.—Some say the carbuncle, and so forth S. Jerom renders it the jasper. Isaiah 54:12. Worthington.—Here he confesses he knows not the meaning. Calmet.
Ezekiel
Verse 17. Rosin. Our version generally renders this, balm. Bible.—It was much used to heal. Jeremiah 8:22. Genesis 37:25.
Ezekiel
Verse 18. Rich. Hebrew Chelbon; perhaps the city Chelba. Judith 1:31. The kings of Persia used this wine, and planted vines at Damascus on purpose.
Ezekiel
Verse 19. Dan: the citizens of Peneas, the tribe of Dan was in captivity. Grotius places these nations in Zeilan, ( Calmet.) or Ceylon. Bible.
Ezekiel
Verse 20. Seats, such as the Turks still use, or to throw over horses instead of saddles.
Ezekiel
Verse 23. Haran, or Charæ, famous for the residence of Abraham and the defeat of Crassus.—Eden, the province where Paradise was situated.
Ezekiel
Verse 24. Cords, in boxes, which had then no locks.
Ezekiel
Verse 25. Sea. Hebrew Tharsis, in Cilicia; or large, and fit for long voyages. Thine were the best. Calmet.
Ezekiel
Verse 26. South. Hebrew kodim, ( Bible.) “eastern,” or rather “burning,” here means Nabuchodonosor, who came from the north, (Calmet. 26:7. Calmet.) or east. The fall of Tyre is described as a shipwreck. Bible.
Ezekiel
Verse 30. Ashes. They followed the same customs as the Jews. Calmet.—The latter were ordered to avoid cutting the hair, like them; yet did so. Deuteronomy 14. Isaiah 22:22. Worthington.
Ezekiel
Verse 36. Hissed, through pity and astonishment. Calmet.