βSon of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: midst: Heb. heartβ
Prince. The Jews say Hiram, (St. Jerome) supposing that he lived a thousand years; though this is not requisite, as he died only four hundred and thirty years before. The idea is childish. The king who was taken and slain at this siege, was probably (Calmet) Ithobalos. (Josephus, Antiquities x. 11.) β Origen applies this to the angel guardian of Tyre. St. Augustine thins an allusion is made to the fall of Lucifer. But it may all refer to the king, (Calmet) though others explain part of him and the rest of the devil. (St. Jerome) (Estius)
βBehold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:β
Than Daniel; viz., in thy own conceit. The wisdom of Daniel was so much celebrated in his days, that it became a proverb among the Chaldeans, when any one would express an extraordinary wisdom, to say he was as wise as Daniel. (Challoner) (Worthington) β He was now at court, and had explained the dream of Nabuchodonosor, Daniel ii. 27.
βThou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.β
Uncircumcised. The Jews deem this a disgrace, 1 Kings xxxi. 4. The king would be exposed to eternal death, being devoid of faith, &c. (Calmet)
βSon of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.β
Resemblance. The king of Tyre, by his dignity and his natural perfections, bore in himself a certain resemblance to God, by reason of which he might be called the seal of resemblance, &c. But what is here said to him is commonly understood of Lucifer, the king over all the children of pride. (Challoner) β A seal is perfect when it represents things exactly. The prophet speaks ironically, to repress the kingβs vanity.
βThou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. sardius: or, ruby beryl: or, chrysolite emerald: or, chrysopraseβ
Paradise. Thou hadst every thing delightful at Tyre. (Calmet) β Covering. Hebrew, βbandage;β diadem, (Haydock) or belt. Septuagint specify twelve stones. See Exodus xxviii. 17. β Pipes; music used at the coronation, which was celebrated as a birth-day. (Calmet) β God gives and withdraws power from all kings. As long as they act well, they are in a sort of sanctuary. (Haydock)
βThou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.β
Stretched out. That is, thy wings extended. This alludes to the figure of the cherubims in the sanctuary, which with stretched out wings covered the ark, (Challoner) on the holy mountain. (St. Jerome, &c.) β Fire. That is, bright and precious stones, which sparkle like fire. (Challoner) β With these the kingβs robes glittered, or he walked upon them, Esther i. 6. (Calmet) β Calcacabatur onyx. (Lucan x.)
βThou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.β
Iniquity. Tyre was before wicked; but when the king pretended to be a god, (ver. 2.) it could no longer be endured. (Worthington)
βThine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.β
Beauty. Riches have corrupted thy heart.
βThou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.β
Sanctuaries, or temples, which was a crime (Calmet) in an idolater, as he took them to be the temples of a real deity. (Haydock)
βAnd say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.β
Sidon. It gave rise to Tyre, yet was now inferior, though independent of it, (Isaias xxiii. 4.) or subject to Egypt. (Diodorus ii. 2.) β It was now pillaged.
βAnd there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.β
Bitterness. Jezabel came hence; (4 Kings xvi. 31.) and the PhΕnicians hemmed in the Israelites as much as possible, and fought against them. (Calmet) β Sidon was near Tyre, and imitating her crimes was also punished.
βThus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.β
When. All shall praise God, seeing that he receives his people again after he has justly chastised them. (Worthington)