Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 12/19

For it says, 'He has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling, that I might be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living.' And the Lord too, in the sacred Gospels, makes this same division:

'For these,' he says, 'shall rise to eternal life, and those to punishment and eternal shame.' Therefore he threatens those who at that time inhabited Tyre, living amid their impiety, not only with the assault of the Babylonian and the destruction wrought through him, but also with things grievous and painful in the age to come.

For what is more grievous than not to rise up onto the land of life? To these he adds:

'I will give you over to destruction, and you shall be no more; you shall be sought, and shall not be found for ever, says Adonai the Lord.'

All the divine prophets and the sacred apostles were counted worthy of the same Spirit;

therefore they do not utter things contrary to one another;

for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

But if the divine prophets were counted worthy of the same Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, then the oracles of the blessed prophets are in harmony.

Even if we find the desolation of Tyre set within limits by the prophet Isaiah, and if we hear the prophet Ezekiel saying to Tyre:

'You shall be sought, and shall not be found for ever, says Adonai the Lord'—we shall not say that the prophets disagree, but from the idioms of Scripture we shall resolve the question in view.

For divine Scripture often knows how to call even a short time 'an age.'

'Our age is set in the light of your countenance.' And indeed the same one says:

'The days of our years in them are seventy years, but if in strength, eighty years, and the greater part of them is toil and pain.' Knowing human life to be but so long, he named this an 'age.'

So the phrase, 'You shall not be found for ever,' means, for the age of desolation appointed to you;

and a period of seventy years was appointed to her through Isaiah the prophet.

But if anyone should wish to understand the passage in a more spiritual sense, he will find the prophecy true in this way also.

For if anyone should seek out Tyre, he will not find that former one;

for that one was impious;

but the one that blossomed and flourished anew after that desolate one is seen to be godly, illumined by the light of the knowledge of God.

Whether, then, one wishes to understand the prophecy according to the letter, he will find the time appointed to her named an 'age';

or if one wishes to plunge into the depth, he will again find Tyre to be not that Tyre, but one directly opposite to it.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

And you, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;

and you shall say to Tyre, which dwells at the entrance of the sea, the market of the peoples from many islands:

The words spoken signify a surpassing measure of God's loving-kindness and goodness.

For he himself, judging justly and altogether righteously, commands the prophet to lament the city being chastised,

revealing the disposition with which he chastised it.

Thus says Adonai the Lord to Tyre:

I have clothed myself about with my beauty

(v. 4) In the heart of the sea, to Beeleim.

By these words he reproves her ingratitude and pride;

for having received from God the occasions of her comeliness, she became ungrateful toward the Giver of good things,

and ascribed to her own wisdom and power the abundance of good things that had accrued to her;

and she attributed this to Beeleim as well;

for she not only was ignorant of the Giver of good things, but even dared to attribute the bestowal of these to things utterly powerless, which cannot even clothe themselves with perceptible beauty.

Then he recounts how many and what kind of gifts she enjoyed, and from how many nations the resources of her prosperity were brought to her.

Your sons clothed you about with beauty.

Cedar from Senir was built for you; bands of cypress boards were taken from Lebanon.

To make masts of fir; from Bashan they made your oars.

These are mountains that produce various kinds of timber.

So he enumerates the things brought to her from every quarter, and that you cut the masts from Lebanon and carried them off;

and the oars from Bashan;

and the building materials from Senir.

Your sacred things they made of ivory, wooded houses from the islands of the Chettiim. But instead of 'your sacred things,' the other translators have rendered 'your horn,' in accordance with what precedes;

for the horn follows upon the mast and the oars.

It would not be unfitting to say these were of idols.

For she fashioned idols of ivory, it says, and wooded houses, that is, covered with boards;

for so Aquila also translated.

And, indicating the preciousness of the timber, he also pointed out their places of origin:

For you brought these, it says, from the islands of the Chettiim. And by Chettiim he names the Greek islands.

For through Jeremiah too God says:

and by 'Chettiim,' the regions toward the west.

Now Kittion is a town in Cyprus, so named up to the present day, which, when aspirated according to the Hebrew idiom, shows its kinship with Chettiim;

and Cyprus at that time held sway over the islands.

From these islands, it says, the precious timber was brought to you.

Fine linen with embroidery from Egypt became your spread, to clothe you with glory, and to wrap you about;

blue and purple from the islands of Elisa became your coverings.

Egypt, it says, offered you spreads of every colour and every kind;

and it means the carpets and the other things brought from there.

And Greece sent out to you coverings of every kind, some of sea-purple, some clad in the hue of blue;

for by Elisa he calls Greece.

And your princes who dwell in Sidon, and the Aradians, became your rowers.

The Hebrew and the Syriac do not have 'your princes,' but 'your neighbours.'

But that we may also understand the rendering of the Seventy, let us take it thus:

namely, that those who were formerly your princes, the Sidonians, now together with the inhabitants of Aradus man your naval fleet, rowing your ships;

and those skilled among you fulfil the office of steersmanship.

For your wise men, it says, O Tyre, who were in you, these were your pilots.

(Verse 9.) 'The elders of Byblos and their wise men who were in you, these strengthened your counsel.'

They did not fortify their own city, but rather offered to you their most excellent counsels and deliberations.

'And all the ships of the sea, and their oarsmen, were in you, trafficking in your commerce, and they became for you toward the utmost west.' From every quarter, he says, merchants flowed together, some selling their wares, others buying;

for this is what is meant by 'trafficking in your commerce.' And not only did those near to you put in at your harbours, but even those dwelling at the very furthest bounds of the west.

For the phrase 'toward the utmost west' signifies this;

for not only, he says, those dwelling to the west of you, but even those still further west than they.

'Persians and Libyans and Lydians were in your army, your warriors, who hung up shields and helmets in you;

these gave your glory.'

'They were upon the walls round about.'

'But the Medes also were guards in your towers;

they hung their quivers upon your shoulders round about;

these perfected your beauty.'

He mentions also the kinds of full armour: quivers, and shields, and helmets.

The 'pelta' is the small shield which lightly-armed troops carry in battle;

and those who perform the pyrrhic dance also use it.

'The Carthaginians were your merchants, from the multitude of all your power; silver, and gold, and bronze, and iron, and tin, and lead they gave for your market.'

Carthage (it is the metropolis of what was of old called Libya, but now Africa) both the Syrian and the Hebrew name Tharshish;

and through the metropolis he indicated the commerce, brought from the whole nation, of the materials mined there.

'All Greece, and the lands extending alongside it, trafficked with you in the souls of men, and vessels of bronze they gave for your market.'

Slaves, he says, and bronze vessels were brought to you from Greece and the neighbouring regions.

'From the house of Thogorma they gave horses, and horsemen, and mules for your market.'

Horses, he says, and their riders, and mules, Phrygia sent to you;

for thus they interpret 'the house of Thogorma.' (Verse 15.)

'The sons of the Rhodians were your merchants; from the islands they multiplied your commerce, horns and ivory tusks.'

The 'horns' Symmachus interpreted as ebony, from which what are called ebony wares are made.

These things, he says, the Rhodians, sailing across the sea, brought to you, and supplied your need of them.

'And to those things imported you gave in exchange your wages;'

(Verse 10.) 'The men of your commerce, from the multitude of your mingled company.'

All these things, he says, you received, and you gave in return to those who brought slaves, having very many resident aliens;

for he called these 'the mingled company'—those who, setting out from other nations, chose to dwell together with them.

'Myrrh-oil, and purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen from Tharshish, and Raamoth, and Choth they gave for your market.' You had, besides the things already mentioned, still other goods from Carthage, which not only adorned you with clothing and clothed you in embroidered garments, but also brought you the great fragrance of perfumes.

For by 'myrrh-oil' he names what is called balsam;

and by 'Raamoth' the other aromatics.

'Judah and Israel, these were your merchants in the sale of wheat, and of ointments, and of cassia;

and first honey, and oil, and resin they gave into your mingled company.'

So great, he says, was the abundance brought to you from the Judaean commerce, that those with you, and the strangers and resident aliens within you, enjoyed the imported goods, using some for food, and others for the delight that comes from fragrance.

You therefore trafficked in this also, selling off the surplus, and gathering the gold that came from it.

'Rich wine from Chelbon, and glossy wool from Miletus.'

Chelbon was a certain village neighbouring upon it.

From every quarter, he says, good things were brought to you;

sweet and fragrant wine from this nation, and the finest wool from Miletus;

this too is a city, formerly of Ionia, but now of Caria;

and 'Chelbon' Symmachus interpreted as Chalbane.

'From Asel wrought iron, and wheels are in your mingled company.'

'Arabia, and all the rulers of Kedar, these were merchants through your hands;

and rams, and lambs, in which they traded with you.'

Some, he says, brought you wrought iron, others mules and horses for chariots, others camels, and rams, and lambs, so that some might bear burdens, and others provide food and clothing.

By 'Kedar' he calls the descendants of Ishmael;

and 'Asel' some have supposed to be Asia, which has the best craftsmen of iron, and produces ironware exceedingly well.

'The merchants of Saba and Regma, these too were your merchants, with the finest of aromatics, and precious stones, who also gave gold for your market.'

Saba and Regma derive their descent from Chous;

and Chous was the firstborn of Cham.

These, then, are Ethiopian and Indian nations;

and he makes clear also the things brought from there: precious stones, and gold, and aromatics.

'Charrhan' is Carrhae, and 'Chalan' is Chalane, where the tower was built.

'Saba, and Assur, and Charman were your merchants;'

(Verse 24.) 'bringing merchandise in Machalim, and in Galima;'

'hyacinth-blue, and embroidered work, and choice treasures bound up in chests, tied with cords and in cypress-wood ships—in these was your commerce.'

'Saba' he names as an Indian nation;

for we find this name also in the genealogy of Shem;

and 'Charman' he names as what is called Carmania.

As for the phrase 'In Machalim and in Galima, hyacinth-blue, and embroidered work, and choice treasures bound up in chests,' Aquila interpreted it thus:

'With made-up wrappings of hyacinth-blue and of embroidery, and bound up in chests.' And 'in chests' he renders into Greek from the Hebrew;

and it signifies 'in hidden vessels;'

for thus also the Syrian, understanding it, interpreted it;

and costly clothing, he says, and of varied kinds, covered with precious wrappings, and stored away in vessels most excellently wrought, and bound up with cords, was brought to you.

'The ships of the Carthaginians were in your commerce, in the multitude of your mingled company.'

You made use also of the ships of the Carthaginians for commerce, having a boundless multitude not only of your own, but also of imported goods.

'And you were filled, and became very heavily laden in the hearts of the seas.'

(Verse 26.) 'In much water your oarsmen brought you.'

Satiety, he says, made you leap for joy, and while enjoying the good things you forgot your Benefactor.

This same accusation he brought also against Israel.

For 'Jacob ate,' he says, 'and was filled, and the beloved kicked out.' Since you have reaped no benefit from prosperity, I will teach you self-control through adversity.

'For the wind of the south,' he says, 'has crushed you in the heart of the sea.' Figuratively he thus named the Babylonian;

since the south wind is wont to stir up the greatest waves and to raise a grievous surge against those who sail, figuratively—as though speaking of a coastal city—he calls the assault of the enemies a south wind.

Then, that we may not dwell on the same points, he says that:

And you, and your settlers, and the rowers, and the pilots, and the counselors, and the merchants, and those who fill the ranks of war—utter destruction shall overtake them;

for this he signified when he said:

They shall fall in the midst of the heart of the seas. And he adds that, when the siege and the capture have taken place, your pilots who dwell far off shall be seized with great fear and shall turn to flight;

the sailors too shall do the same together with the prow-men, and abandoning their vessels, wailing and lamenting, they shall take to the land;

and they shall strew earth upon their heads, and lie down upon the very ground, wiping off the dust from thence;

they shall strip their heads of the comeliness of their hair, and girding themselves with sackcloth, they shall continue wailing and mourning.

Then he sets forth also the lamentation made by them.

…of the sea? In quietness, he says, and peace you passed all this time,

no one having dared to stir up tumult against you.

How great a wage did you find for yourself from the sea? This suffices to teach all men not to be high-minded over seeming prosperity, because of the change that follows;

for this he says also to Tyre:

What have you gained in so long a time from your abundant trade? And indeed he says:

And from your mingled multitude and your commerce you enriched all the kings of the earth.

(v. 34.) But now you are crushed in the sea, in the deep of the water;

your mingled multitude and all your assembly fell in the midst of you, and all your rowers.

Those who dwell in the islands shall be gloomy over you, and their kings shall be utterly astonished, and their face shall weep.

Merchants from the nations shall hiss over you; you have become a destruction, and you shall be no more forever.

Consider, he says, how the toil about trade profited you nothing, nor the coming of all the nations.

For this reason all the islanders and coast-dwellers, together with their own kings, lament you, seeing the city once most illustrious suddenly become vanished and gone;

and marveling at your change into utter desolation, by their hissing they shall signify the astonishment of their mind.

But the phrase 'you shall be no more forever' we shall understand according to the interpretation already given by us.

But if it is needful to add yet another to what has been said, we shall not shrink from it.

We have heard the God of all speaking through the prophet Jeremiah:

At one moment I will speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to root them out and to pull down and to destroy;

yet if that nation turn from their evils, I will repent concerning the evils which I devised to do to them;

and at one moment I will speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build up and to plant.

For he declares sentence against those who make no use of repentance;

but upon those who have received the medicines of repentance the vote of punishment lies idle.

This happened also in the case of the Ninevites;

for he decreed utter destruction against them, saying:

Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. But when they repented he received them, and dissolved the sentence.

And here too, therefore, the change of the descendants dissolved the vote of perpetual punishment.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

And you, son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre:

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Because your heart was lifted up, and you said:

I am God, I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea;

but you are a man and not God, and you have set your heart as the heart of God.

Abominable indeed are all the kinds of sin, but most abominable of all is pride;

for 'everything lofty,' he says, 'is an abomination before the Lord;' and:

The Lord sets himself against the proud; and the divine Apostle:

'Not a novice,' he says, 'lest being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil.' This disease the ruler of Tyre also had—both the one seen and the one unseen.

For we the godly are ruled, properly and truly, by the God of all;

but we are ruled also by men adorned with godliness.

So Tyre too, now similarly to us, has both God as king and the men appointed by him to rule.

But of old, sick with ignorance of God and enslaved to impiety, it had as ruler and king the devil, the inventor and at once teacher of wickedness and impiety;

and it had also a visible ruler, one wickedly energized by this one and enslaved to impiety.

The discourse, therefore, is addressed to both; yet not everything fits either this one or that one;

some things fit both, some fit one of the two;

but the things now read fit both.

…he called himself [God], and persuaded men to offer him this worship;

and the visible ruler of the Tyrians, having contracted this same conceit, and looking to his great prosperity, supposed himself to be God.

But you are a man, and not God. And by comparison:

So far, he says, am I from matching your affairs against the divine nature, that I will show them falling short even of prudent men.

But you have both been deprived of the divine grace and have not received understanding from wise men.

Then comes the refutation from the facts:

For when I will it, I will straightway strip you of all these things, and set experience over you as a teacher of realities.

For if you had gained this possession from your own wisdom, then using that same wisdom you would not have been stripped of what you acquired;

but being stripped and left bereft of all these things, cast away your foolish reasonings, and know that it was I who both gave these things and took them back again.

For since in receiving them you did not know me, you shall learn me by being stripped.

Because you have set your heart as the heart of God:

In requital for this, behold, I bring upon you strangers, pestilent ones from the nations, and they shall empty their swords against you, and against the beauty of your knowledge, and they shall lay low your beauty unto destruction.

And they shall bring you down, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea.

'Am I God?' in the presence of those who slay you? But you are a man, and not God, in the hand of those who wound you.

'You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised at the hands of strangers, for I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.'

When, he says, those enemies whom I send against you strip you of your royal power, and dispatch you to death by slaughter, will you then still, swaggering and boasting, name yourself a god, as though frightening them with the divine title? But this cannot come to pass.

For the change of circumstances will also work a change of mind, and you shall learn that you are a man and not a god, as you are wounded and slain, and butchered just like your uncircumcised subjects.

For my sentence is mighty and beyond gainsaying.

'For I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.' These words fit also the vengeful demon who wrought his wickedness in the visible ruler of the Tyrians.

Therefore he also threatens him with destruction from strangers, from plagues, and from the nations.

Such of old were those who through the preaching of the Gospel received the change unto the knowledge of God.

'They,' he says, 'provoked me to jealousy with what is no god; they angered me with their idols.'

It is also possible to find the name 'strangers' applied to the godly who have believed.

The plots, and the shrines that were built by them for you, they will tear up from their very foundations, and they will hand you over, as it were to a kind of death, to oblivion, having received authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all your power. And through these very events you shall learn that in vain you persuaded men that you are a god.

You shall suffer these things because you had an uncircumcised mind, and did not circumcise the grievous passion of your arrogance.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

'Son of man, take up a lamentation over the prince of Tyre.'

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

'You are a seal of likeness, full of wisdom, and a crown of beauty.'

'And in the luxuriance of the paradise of God you came to be; you were clothed with every precious stone—sardius and topaz and emerald and jacinth and carbuncle and sapphire and jasper, and silver and gold and ligure and agate and amethyst and chrysolite, beryl and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold in you, from the day you were created.'

One might, doing violence to the text, apply these things also to the visible ruler of Tyre;

but properly and truly they fit the destroying demon who wrought his wickedness in him.

So then, taking these words as referring to the visible ruler of Tyre, we shall understand them thus:

'You are a seal of likeness.' For man was formed according to the divine image, full of wisdom;

for he is rational and honored with reason, and 'a crown of beauty';

for he is superior to all the irrational creatures—those that go on land, those that fly, and those that live in water and on both.

'And in the luxuriance of the paradise of God you came to be.' For you derive your race from the forefather, who as soon as he was formed was placed in the paradise of luxuriance, to work it and to keep it.

And fittingly he also calls Jerusalem, which is named a holy and divine city, a paradise, since it possesses the plants of God's prophecy and high priesthood, which furnish life and salvation.

There was of old a friendship between the king of the Tyrians and the king of the Israelites, and there was a certain intercourse between them with one another;

and this is easy to learn from the Books of Kings.

'You were clothed with every precious stone'—this is plainly understood according to the letter, and taken as referring to the king.

For with countless good things I adorned you, and I brought to you from every quarter all manner of materials, out of which you made diadems and crowns, brooches and girdles and rings, and filled your storerooms; yet you persisted in thinking the contrary, on account of the abundance and splendor of these things.

But with regard to the devil we shall not understand these things in that way; rather, the phrase

'You are a seal of likeness'—we shall take as referring to the rule and authority given to him of old.

For the divine Apostle says:

'According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.' So that it is clear that of old he had been entrusted with the administration of this air, but having fallen from that dominion through arrogance, he now displays his own activity among those who disbelieve the word of the preaching.

'Full of wisdom and a crown of beauty, and in the luxuriance of paradise you came to be.' By these words he hints at his former virtue.

'For God saw,' he says, 'all things that he had made, and behold, they were very good.' And this one too was among the things that were made, not having yet received the change from his own will unto the worse.

For indeed the high priest, bearing on his breast the oracle of judgment—which had set upon it these very stones—used to enter into the Holy of Holies;

and the breast is like a kind of storehouse of the heart, and a place of safekeeping.

And all that follows fits not the visible ruler of Tyre, but the invisible one.

'For you were formed,' he says, 'with the Cherub, anointed by God who dwells there.'

For together with those holy and venerable powers you were deemed worthy both of creation and of anointing;

and here he calls 'anointing' the sanctification which is supplied by the divine Spirit to the incorporeal and holy powers.

'And I set you on the holy mountain of God';

he calls the height of knowledge a mountain, and 'stones of fire' the most holy powers;

for they possess both preciousness and a luminous nature;

and divine Scripture often knows to call the godly among men 'holy stones' as well.

'For holy stones,' he says, 'roll upon the ground.' But these are holy, yet not fiery.

'He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.' None of these things fits the visible ruler of the Tyrians, even if some of the contentious, ten thousand times striving to quarrel, should call the Jews 'stones of fire,' and cite the Tyrians' intercourse with them;

for neither are the Jews stones of fire.

But even if someone should call the prophets among them 'stones of fire,' not even so will the interpretation stand;

for the Tyrians had no fellowship with the prophets, since they lived in impiety;

but they carried on their commercial dealings with the lowly and mean among the Jews, whom no one in his right mind would dare to name 'stones of fire'—men who transgressed the divine law, and who, contrary to what that law approves, made contracts with the heathen.

'I set you on the holy mountain of God'—one can see that this fits him.

For neither did he dwell in Jerusalem, that we might even grant these things to be said concerning Mount Zion;

and what follows clearly shows this.

'For you walked,' he says, 'blameless in your days,'

'from the day you were created, until iniquities were found in you.'

For such was the devil before his fall.

But concerning men we have heard:

'No one is clean from defilement, not even if his life on earth be but a single day.' But this one, being incorporeal, was blameless in the beginning;

but when he made use of the inclination toward the worse, he went off onto the diametrically opposite road.

'For from the abundance of your traffic you filled your storerooms with lawlessness, and you sinned, and you were wounded.'

For not being content with the wisdom and authority given to you, but lusting after greater things, you became full of lawlessness, and received the wounds of sin.

These things the prophet Isaiah says concerning him:

'How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, he that rose early in the morning? He is crushed to the ground, he that sent to all the nations.' For having all as his subjects, he fell from his tyranny through the saving cross.