Day 250: Ezekiel 25-27

(The previous post concluded with the final chapter of the first type of prophecies that were included in the Book of Ezekiel: Destruction of Jerusalem. This post begins looking at the second type of prophecies (chapters 25-32): Judgment against other nations.)

Ezekiel 25
1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them:

(God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy against the Ammonites. Ammon was from Lot. This prophecy continued through verse 7.)

3 and say unto the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity:

(The Ammonites said "aha" to God's sanctuary (holy place). They were glorying over the destruction of Jerusalem.)

4 therefore, behold, I will deliver thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.

(Because they have said "aha," God would deliver them into the hand of the "children of the east.")

5 And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

(Rabbah was the capital city of the Ammonites.)

6 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast clapped thy hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel;
7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

(Verses 8-11: concerned a prophecy against Moab. Moab was also from Lot.)

8 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the nations;
9 therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,
10 unto the children of the east, to go against the children of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations.

(The Moabites would join the Ammonites in being given to the "children of the east" as a possession.)

11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

(Verses 12-14: concerned a prophecy against Edom. Edom was from Esau.)

12 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
13 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will stretch out my hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even unto Dedan shall they fall by the sword.

(God would make Edom desolate from Teman (in the south) to Dedan (in the north), the whole country of Edom. In the Book of Job, Eliphaz was a Temanite that had a worldview similar to Calvinists.)

14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord Jehovah.

(Verses 15-17: concerned a prophecy against the Philistines.)

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity;
16 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
17 And I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful rebukes; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

(An effect of all of these judgments was that the people being judged would know that Jehovah was God.)




Ezekiel 26
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gate of the peoples; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:

(Ezekiel prophesied against Tyre…)

3 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up.

(Because Tyre, a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast, said "aha" (like the Ammonites) against Jerusalem, God would bring judgment against them. It took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years to defeat Tyre. While Nebuchadnezzar was attacking Jerusalem, he drove Pharaoh back to Egypt. Tyre rejoiced over what was happening to Judah and Egypt.)

4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

(Tyre would be made into a "bare rock." It would be scraped clean from what had been a very wealthy city.)

5 She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah; and she shall become a spoil to the nations.
6 And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
7 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and much people.

(God used Nebuchadnezzar to bring judgment upon Tyre.)

8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and raise up the buckler against thee.
9 And he shall set his battering engines against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.
10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.
11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people with the sword; and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.

(Notice, verse 12 transitioned from singular to plural (he to they). This could have meant that what Nebuchadnezzar did was not all that happened to Tyre.

Verses 12-14 were literally fulfilled by Alexander the Great.)

12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.
13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

(There would be silence in the place of music. Tyre was a place of music.)

14 And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

(Verses 15-21: recorded other nations lamenting the fall of Tyre.)

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?
16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at thee.
17 And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, that caused their terror to be on all that dwelt there!
18 Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be dismayed at thy departure.
19 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters shall cover thee;
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:
21 I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt no more have any being; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord Jehovah.

(These prophecies have been fulfilled. Next, there were more specific prophecies concerning Tyre...)




Ezekiel 27
1 The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,
2 And thou, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;
3 and say unto Tyre, O thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea, that art the merchant of the peoples unto many isles, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in beauty.

(Tyre was prideful.)

(Verses 4-25: showed the riches of Tyre, her former greatness.)

4 Thy borders are in the heart of the seas; thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

(Verses 5-9: Tyre's navy.)

5 They have made all thy planks of fir-trees from Senir; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for thee.
6 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; they have made thy benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim.
7 Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, that it might be to thee for an ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thine awning.
8 The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were in thee, they were thy pilots.
9 The old men of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to deal in thy merchandise.

(Verses 10-11: Tyre's army.)

10 Persia and Lud and Put were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
11 The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and valorous men were in thy towers; they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have perfected thy beauty.

(Lud referred to Ethiopia. Put referred to Libya. Tyre was said to have perfect beauty. We will see in the next post that Lucifer also had perfect beauty. Lucifer had much traffic. Likewise, verses 12-25 covered Tyre's merchants.)

12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.
13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for thy merchandise.

(Tarshish referred to England. Some people see Tubal and Meshech as prophetically referring to cities in Russia even though these cities were not actually in the same area as Russia.)

14 They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and mules.
15 The men of Dedan were thy traffickers; many isles were the mart of thy hand: they brought thee in exchange horns of ivory and ebony.
16 Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy handiworks: they traded for thy wares with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies.

(Togarmah referred to Turkey. Dedan and Syria referred to Arab countries.)

17 Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy traffickers: they traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
18 Damascus was thy merchant for the multitude of thy handiworks, by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches, with the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
19 Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among thy merchandise.
20 Dedan was thy trafficker in precious cloths for riding.
21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants.
22 The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers; they traded for thy wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
23 Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were thy traffickers.
24 These were thy traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

(Other than Judah, the lands referred to in these verses covered Arab nations.)

25 The ships of Tarshish were thy caravans for thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.

(Verse 26-36: showed Tyre's downfall in response to God's judgment.)

26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the seas.
27 Thy riches, and thy wares, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the dealers in thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, with all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

(Throughout the Bible, an east wind brought destruction. Also, remember these verses when we look at Lucifer in the next post. A lamentation for Tyre began…)

28 At the sound of the cry of thy pilots the suburbs shall shake.
29 And all that handled the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand upon the land,
30 and shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31 and they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.
32 And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?

(Tyre was perfect in beauty to the point no one could conceive of her ever becoming ugly, just like Lucifer.)

33 When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
34 In the time that thou wast broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thy company did fall in the midst of thee.
35 All the inhabitants of the isles are astonished at thee, and their kings are horribly afraid; they are troubled in their countenance.
36 The merchants among the peoples hiss at thee; thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being.

(This post covered prophecies against countries surrounding Israel. The majority of the prophecies concerned Tyre. Tyre was a city perfect in beauty, full of music, and participating in much traffic. However, because of Tyre's pride, she was humbled and made ugly. Ezekiel 27 provided the context for the next chapter. The next chapter continued this context and then moved to insight into how Lucifer became Satan.)

Day 251

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