| Ezekiel 27:1
| And *the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
| Year of the World 3416, Year before Christ 588.
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| Ezekiel 27:2
| Thou, therefore, O son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre:
| Lamentation. Such canticles were usual, and very poetical.
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| Ezekiel 27:3
| And say to Tyre, that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, being the mart of the people for many islands: Thus saith the Lord God: O Tyre, thou hast said: I am of perfect beauty,
| Entry, whence merchants may proceed from an excellent harbour to any place.
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| Ezekiel 27:4
| And situate in the heart of the sea. Thy neighbours, that built thee, have perfected thy beauty:
| Neighbours of Sidon, Josue 19:29. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "thy children." Protestants, "thy builders." (Haydock) --- The description of the Tyrian grandeur, shews their more woeful ruin. (Worthington)
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| Ezekiel 27:5
| With fir-trees of Sanir they have built thee, with all sea planks: they have taken cedars from Libanus to make thee masts.
| Thee. Hebrew, "all thy ship-boards." (Septuagint) (Protestants) (Haydock) --- St. Jerome has divided (Calmet) leuthim, "decks of the sea," as yam denotes the sea. (Haydock)
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| Ezekiel 27:6
| They have cut thy oars out of the oaks of Basan: and they have made thee benches of Indian ivory, and cabins, with things brought from the islands of Italy.
| Benches. Septuagint, "temples." --- Italy. Hebrew Cetim. Macedonia. (Bochart) (Calmet) --- All distant places were styled islands, (Haydock) when they went by water to them.
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| Ezekiel 27:7
| Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for thy sail, to be spread on thy mast: blue and purple from the islands of Elisa, were made thy covering.
| 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.
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| Ezekiel 27:8
| The inhabitants of Sidon, and the Aradians were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were thy pilots.
| Aradians. Sidon and Arad were then subject to Tyre, and supplied rowers. --- Pilots. They studied no other science.
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| Ezekiel 27:9
| The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof, furnished mariners, for the service of thy various furniture: all the ships of the sea, and their mariners, were thy factors.
| Gebal. Septuagint, "Biblos," which is the same, 3 Kings 5:18. --- Furnished. Hebrew, "were in thee to repair thy breaches." Septuagint, "strengthened thy designs."
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| Ezekiel 27:10
| The Persians, and Lydians, and the Lybians, were thy soldiers, in thy army: they hung up the buckler and the helmet in thee for thy ornament.
| Lybians. Hebrew, "Phut." They had been expelled by the Cyreneans. Tyre had in her pay the most warlike nations of Persia, etc. Cyrus soon after shook off the yoke of the Medes, and conquered the Lydians. --- Hung up, ver. 11. This was very usual, Canticle of Canticles 4:4., and Isaias 22:8. (Calmet)
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| Ezekiel 27:11
| The men of Arad were with thy army upon thy walls round about: the Pygmeans also that were in thy towers, hung up their quivers on thy walls round about: they perfected thy beauty.
| 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 Symmachus, "Medes." Ezechiel (xxxviii. 6.) speaks of the Gomerim.
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| Ezekiel 27:12
| The Carthaginians, thy merchants, supplied thy fairs with a multitude of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead.
| Carthaginians. Hebrew, "Tharsis," in Cilicia; (Genesis 10:4.; Calmet) or distant merchants, who came by sea. (Haydock)
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| Ezekiel 27:13
| Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, they were thy merchants: they brought to thy people slaves and vessels of brass.
| Slaves. Those from Greece were much esteemed. (Calmet) --- Alas! thirty thousand Tyrians were themselves thus sold by Alexander [the Great]! (Haydock)
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| Ezekiel 27:14
| From the house of Thogorma they brought horses, and horsemen, and mules, to thy market.
| Horses. Those of Sarmatia (Calmet) were in high repute. (Pliny, [Natural History?] 8:42.
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| Ezekiel 27:15
| The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many islands were the traffic of thy hand, they exchanged for thy price teeth of ivory, and ebony.
| Dedan. Septuagint, "Rhodians;" or rather Arabs are meant, ver. 20. They might receive ivory from Ethiopia. --- Teeth. Hebrew, "horns or tusks," which the elephant casts every year. The ivory is less brittle, 3 Kings 10:18. (Calmet) --- Ebony; a hard black wood, like horn. (Bochart)
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| Ezekiel 27:16
| The Syrian was thy merchant, by reason of the multitude of thy works, they set forth precious stones, and purple, and broidered works, and fine linen, and silk, and chodchod, in thy market.
| Syrian: always much addicted to commerce. (St. 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," etc. (Haydock) --- Linen. Hebrew buts, "silk" extracted from the pinna fish, 1 Paralipomenon 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, etc. St. Jerome renders it the jasper, Isaias 54:12. (Worthington) --- Here he confesses he knows not the meaning. (Calmet)
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| Ezekiel 27:17
| Juda, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants with the best corn: they set forth balm, and honey, and oil, and rosin, in thy fairs.
| Rosin. Our version generally renders this, balm. (Haydock) --- It was much used to heal, Jeremias 8:22., and Genesis 37:25.
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| Ezekiel 27:18
| The men of Damascus were thy merchants in the multitude of thy works, in the multitude of divers riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best colour.
| Rich. Hebrew Chelbon; perhaps the city Chelba, Judges 1:31. The kings of Persia used this wine, and planted vines at Damascus on purpose.
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| Ezekiel 27:19
| Dan, and Greece, and Mosel, have set forth in thy marts wrought iron: stacte, and calamus were in thy market.
| Dan: the citizens of Peneas, the tribe of Dan was in captivity. Grotius places these nations in Zeilan, (Calmet) or Ceylon. (Haydock)
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| Ezekiel 27:20
| The men of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for seats.
| Seats, such as the Turks still use, or to throw over horses instead of saddles.
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| Ezekiel 27:21
| Arabia, and all the princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of thy hand: thy merchants came to thee with lambs, and rams, and kids.
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| Ezekiel 27:22
| The sellers of Saba, and Reema, they were thy merchants: with all the best spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they set forth in thy market.
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| Ezekiel 27:23
| Haran, and Chene, and Eden, were thy merchants: Saba, Assur, and Chelmad, sold to thee.
| Haran, or Charae, famous for the residence of Abraham and the defeat of Crassus. --- Eden, the province where Paradise was situated.
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| Ezekiel 27:24
| They were thy merchants in divers manners, with bales of blue cloth, and of embroidered work, and of precious riches, which were wrapped up, and bound with cords: they had cedars also in thy merchandise.
| Cords, in boxes, which had then no locks.
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| Ezekiel 27:25
| The ships of the sea, were thy chief in thy merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and glorified exceedingly in the heart of the sea.
| Sea. Hebrew Tharsis, in Cilicia; or large, and fit for long voyages. Thine were the best. (Calmet)
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| Ezekiel 27:26
| Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the south wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.
| South. Hebrew kodim, (Haydock) "eastern," or rather "burning," here means Nabuchodonosor, who came from the north, (chap. 26:7.; Calmet) or east. The fall of Tyre is described as a shipwreck. (Haydock)
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| Ezekiel 27:27
| Thy riches, and thy treasures, and thy manifold furniture, thy mariners, and thy pilots, who kept thy goods, and were chief over thy people: thy men of war also, that were in thee, with all thy multitude that is in the midst of thee: shall fall in the heart of the sea, in the day of thy ruin.
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| Ezekiel 27:28
| Thy fleets shall be troubled at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.
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| Ezekiel 27:29
| And all that handled the oar, shall come down from their ships: the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall stand upon the land.
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| Ezekiel 27:30
| And they shall mourn over thee with a loud voice, and shall cry bitterly: and they shall cast up dust upon their heads, and shall be sprinkled with ashes.
| 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 xiv., and Isaias 22:22. (Worthington)
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| Ezekiel 27:31
| And they shall shave themselves bald for thee, and shall be girded with hair-cloth: and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of soul, with most bitter weeping.
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| Ezekiel 27:32
| And they shall take up a mournful song for thee, and shall lament thee: What city is like Tyre, which is become silent in the midst of the sea?
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| Ezekiel 27:33
| Which by thy merchandise, that went from thee by sea, didst fill many people: which by the multitude of thy riches, and of thy people, didst enrich the kings of the earth.
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| Ezekiel 27:34
| Now thou art destroyed by the sea, thy riches are in the bottom of the waters, and all the multitude that was in the midst of thee is fallen.
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| Ezekiel 27:35
| All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at thee: and all their kings, being struck with the storm, have changed their countenance.
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| Ezekiel 27:36
| The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.
| Hissed, through pity and astonishment. (Calmet)
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