ezekiel 27 and 28

Read Ezekiel 27 and 28 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Eze 27:1-3a {s} Take up a lamentation for Tyre, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands
Eze 27:3b-36 {p} Tyre’s destruction from the east/ the wailing of the nations, kings of the earth
Eze 28:1-5 {s} Prophecy against the prince of Tyre whose heart is lifted up
Eze 28:6-10 {p} Because you have exalted yourself as a god you will be slain as a man
Eze 28:11-19 {p} The lamentation for the king of Tyre, whose heart was lifted up/ eternal destruction
Eze 28:20-24 {p} The prophesy against Sidon: judgments executed in her midst, YHVH glorified
Eze 28:25-26 {p} The house of Israel regathered to dwell in safety in their land, when YHVH judges the nations

The reverse parallelism:

1a) Eze 27:1-36 {s+p} Tyre, her lamentation/ perfection of beauty/ trading/ day of her ruin;

1) Eze 27:1-3a {s} Take up a lamentation for Tyre, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands;
2) Eze 27:3b-11, Tyre, and the perfection of her beauty;
3) Eze 27:12-25a, Tyre, and her trading and merchandise;
4) Eze 27:25b-34, The day of Tyre’s ruin/ the lamentation for her;

1a) Eze 27:25b-27, Tyre glorious in the midst of the seas but broken in the day of her ruin;

1) Eze 27:25b-26a, You were filled + glorious in the midst of the seas/ Your oarsmen brought you into many waters;
2) Eze 27:26b, But the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas;
3) Eze 27:27, Your merchandise + pilots + entire company in your midst will fall on the day of your ruin;

central axis) Eze 27:28-32, The bitter lamentation for Tyre, destroyed in the midst of the sea;
2a) Eze 27:33-34, Tyre enriched many peoples but broken by the seas in their depths;

1) Eze 27:33, With your wares + luxury goods by sea you satisfied + enriched many people + kings;
2) Eze 27:34a, But you are broken by the seas in the depths of the waters;
3) Eze 27:34b, Your merchandise and the entire company will fall in your midst;

5) Eze 27:35-36 {p} Inhabitants of the isles astonished/ become a horror + be no more forever;

1b) Eze 28:1-2a, The word of YHVH: Say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says YHVH God;

1c) Eze 28:2b-5 {s} Because your heart lifted up as a god in the midst of the seas/ deception of your wisdom;

1.1) Eze 28:2b, Because your heart is lifted up;
2) Eze 28:2c, You say, I am a god, I sit in the midst of the seas/ yet you are a man and not a god;
3.1) Eze 28:2d, Though you set your heart as the heart of a god;
3.2) Eze 28:3-5a, The deception of your wisdom, by which you have increased your riches;
1.2) Eze 28:5b {s} And your heart is lifted up because of your riches;

2c) Eze 28:6-10a, Because your heart as a god/ Nations against your wisdom in the midst of the seas, your death;

3.1) Eze 28:6, Thus says YHVH God: Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god;
3.2) Eze 28:7, I will bring the terrible nations against the beauty of your wisdom to defile your splendor;
1.1) Eze 28:8a, They shall throw you down into the Pit, and you shall die the death of the slain;
2) Eze 28:8b-9, Midst of the seas/ will you say ‘I am a god’ (you are a man, not a god in the hand of the slayer;
1.2) Eze 28:10a, You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of aliens;

2b) Eze 28:10b {p} For I have spoken, says YHVH God;

2a) Eze 28:11-19 {p} The king of Tyre, his lamentation/ perfection of beauty/ trading/ his day of ruin;

1) Eze 28:11-12a, Take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him;
2) Eze 28:12b-15, The king of Tyre, and the perfection of his beauty till iniquity was found in him;
3) Eze 28:16-18b, The king of Tyre, his trading and violence + iniquity;

1a) Eze 28:16a, By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within;
1b) Eze 28:16b, And you sinned;
1c) Eze 28:16c, Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God + destroyed you;
central axis) Eze 28:17a, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
2c) Eze 28:17b, I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you;
2b) Eze 28:18a, You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities;
2a) Eze 28:18b, By the iniquity of your trading;

4) Eze 28:18c, The day of the king of Tyre’s ruin by fire from his midst/ turned to ashes upon the earth;
5) Eze 28:19 {p} The peoples astonished at you/ become a horror + be no more forever.

Today’s prophecy is against the “prince of Tyre,” (Eze 28:1-10), and the “king of Tyre,” (Eze 28:11-19). They are two different entities. The prince of Tyre is a man, while the “king of Tyre” was in Eden, and an anointed covering cherub. Cherubim were the living creatures that Ezekiel saw in the beginning of his prophecies and visions — clearly not human. How can this be?

The king of Tyre is most likely a type for Lucifer, the most perfect of created beings, until the day that iniquity was found in him (Eze 28:15), most likely the sin of pride, of desiring to exalt himself as god and coveting God’s throne (Eze 28:2). He was cast out, and has since been named Satan, or “the adversary.” The prince of Tyre, then, clearly a man and not god, is a type of antichrist, who is influenced or possessed, even, by the king of Tyre, the adversary. The prince of Tyre will be slain as a man, and the king of Tyre will also be destroyed, devoured by fire brought from his midst (Eze 28:18).

Ah but there is a flaw in your reasoning Christine! The iniquity of the king of Tyre is the iniquity of the violence of his trading. I saw that too – that the trading of the king of Tyre was a matching pair for the trading of the city of Tyre, and it made no sense to me either. Whenever that happens, there is usually something lost in translation, and that was the case this time too.

Trading, or traffic, is in Hebrew Strong’s H7404, rekullah: trade, merchandise. But the root is Strong’s H7402, “to go about” … hence, as the going about is for the purpose of trading or merchandising, the term means a trader, or merchantman. But the root can also mean, going about for the sake of slander, and the Hebrew word for “slander” is very similar in form! A slanderer is what the adversary is: he tells lies about God, and he accuses the brethren with false accusations, to both God and man. Bearing false witness – one of the most lightly esteemed of the Ten Commandments, but as it is the sin of Satan, it ought not to be so.