Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
This week we are studying Ezekiel 27, a continuation of the Oracles Against the Nations. Even if you’re a lifelong churchgoer, chances are you’ve never heard a sermon on Ezekiel’s Oracles Against the Nations. Ezekiel’s OAN is in competition with the genealogies in Chronicles or the purity regulations in Leviticus for the least-read scriptures.
Skipping the difficult parts is not the goal of Bible Fiber. I also do not manipulate the text for application lessons to our modern lives. Sometimes the main purpose of a biblical passage is to lay the groundwork for a broader understanding of Israel’s place and circumstances. After Jerusalem fell, the Israelites were in a questioning headspace. They needed proof that they were still the covenant people. They longed for God to punish the nations who came against them. Ezekiel’s OAN answers their doubts, even if indirectly. With Tyre, Ezekiel took three chapters to carry out his goal.
After Ezekiel pronounced an oracle of judgement, God instructed the prophet to raise a lament for Tyre (27:1). A lament is a funeral song, like a graveside eulogy in our time. Occasionally, biblical prophets used laments as literary devices to announce judgment over Israel’s enemies or, in Amos’s case, Israel itself (Isa. 14-17, 19, 23; Amos 5:1-3). Delivered in a mocking tone, the lament expressed sorrow over the fate of a nation or city. They were inviting the condemned to their own funeral.
Ezekiel adds his own spin to the classical lament by shaping it into an extended allegory. His lament over Tyre portrays the city as a luxury merchant ship that was hit by a strong wind and sank.
Ship construction
A stately ship was a fitting representation for the wealthy trade city, which had a knack for putting its wealth, power, and influence on full display. Ezekiel carefully details the ship’s construction and decoration. The Phoenician builders curated the highest quality materials from all over the region. The ship’s timber came from the fir trees of Mount Hermon, also known as Senir. They used the cedar of Lebanon to assemble her mast (27:5). They constructed the oars from the oaks of Bashan and built the deck from pines of Cyprus (27:6). The ship’s embroidered linen sail and banner were imported from Egypt. The purple and blue dyes used for her awning derived from Elishah (27:7).
A handpicked expert crew manned the Tyrian vessel. Her skilled rowers and pilots originated from each of the other Phoenician cities, like Sidon and Arvad. The Phoenicians, of course, had the most experienced seafarers. The elders of Gebal, another Phoenician city, kept the ship caulked and maintained. Ezekiel depicts the hired mercenaries hanging their shields, helmets, and arrows over the walls as a warning to potential invaders (27:10-11).
From a historians’ point of view, Ezekiel 27 is rich with details about the Phoenicians’ construction techniques and advanced shipbuilding skills. Phoenicians were known for their sophisticated craftsmanship and engineering, which allowed for sturdy and efficient vessels. Ezekiel shows that they also invested in the beautification of their fleets. The ship’s every detail was a testament to the efforts of its builders and the pride of its crew.
Commodities
In Verse 12, Ezekiel switched from describing the majestic ship to inventorying its costly cargo. The list of nations who traded with Tyre is exhaustive. With the naming of 37 different commodities, all loan word or technical terms, translating this part of the chapter is difficult. Some scholars wonder if Ezekiel got hold of a Tyrian ship log and adapted it to his literary needs. Otherwise, it is remarkable that a Judean prophet possessed such a sound knowledge of Tyre’s commerce.
Ezekiel listed Tyre’s trading partners in geographical order. He started with Tarshish in the far west and ended with traders in Mesopotamia in the far east. Among the 23 trading partners listed, some are clearly identifiable, while others are subject to debate.
Ezekiel may have modeled his list on the Table of Nations in Genesis (Gen. 10:10-15). The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 is a genealogical account that lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, after the flood. It outlines the various nations that they established. Both Ezekiel’s inventory and Genesis’ Table of Nations include Tarshish, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Cush, and Put. Ezekiel refers to the Canaanites as “men of Arvad.” If Ezekiel intentionally connected his list to Genesis, he was likely sending a theological message to his contemporaries. The God of the Bible had always cared about the workings of the nations and their treatment of the covenant people. He remained sovereign over the entire world and in control of history.
Ezekiel placed Judah and Israel at the center of the nation list. Mentioning of Israel was anachronistic since the kingdom had been destroyed over a century, but this may be another clue that the commodity list alluded to the Table of Nations. Ezekiel said, “Judah and the land of Israel traded with you; they exchanged for your merchandise wheat from Minnith, millet, honey, oil, and balm” (27:17). Although many of the wares aboard the Tyrian ship were luxury goods—gems, ivory, perfume, and carpet—Judah and Israel traded common food items.
The Bible first mentions a trading relationship between Judah and Tyre when King Solomon was constructing the First Temple. Solomon heavily relied on Tyrian builders and metalworkers for their construction expertise (1 Kings 5:1-12; 2 Chron. 2:3-16). He worked out a diplomatic arrangement with the King of Tyre that Judah would trade wheat and oil for high-quality cedar for the temple.
Even in the shadow of the mighty Babylonian Empire, Tyre forged strategic commercial alliances and maintained its economic dominance in the region. In Ezekiel’s day, Tyre had total control over the eastern Mediterranean Sea trade. Although Tyre was not an empire trying to accrue territory, her far-reaching influence stemmed from her enormous trading powers. The city’s rulers leveraged Tyre’s economic hegemony to negotiate favorable terms with larger empires, ensuring Tyre’s prominence even during periods of conflict. Ezekiel exclaimed, “your borders are in the heart of the seas” (27:4).
Shipwreck
Only once Ezekiel had elaborated on the sailing ship’s majestic construction and valuable cargo does he reveal the actual reason he was composing an allegorical lament. Disaster awaited the ship. A storm was going to capsize the Tyrian vessel, taking crew and commodities with it.
Ezekiel stated, “So you were filled and heavily laden in the heart of the seas. Your rowers have bought you into the high seas. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas” (27:26). The ship was so weighted with her wares that she easily sank.
In antiquity, standard laments had two parts. Laments begin by praising the qualities of the deceased (27:3-25). In Ezekiel’s lament of Tyre, for example, he expounded on her beauty, wealth, and the scope of her influence. As a follow-on, laments acknowledge the tragedy of the loss (27:26-36). In the second part of Tyre’s lament, Ezekiel recounted everything that sank along with the ship. He said, “Your riches, your wares, your merchandise, your sailors and your pilots, your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise, and all your warriors within you, with all the company that is with you, sink into the heart of the seas on the day of your ruin” (27:27).
The uproar of the sea represented the tumultuous consequences of Tyre’s fall. Ezekiel does not directly attribute the destructive wind to God. However, the text implies the presence of a divine hand. Ezekiel may have been paying homage to Psalm 48 by weaving similar language into his lament. The Psalmist had described God’s punishing hand as the east wind that would topple any nation that came against Israel (Ps. 48:2). The imagery of a grand ship transformed into ocean debris reinforces the theme of divine judgment against Tyre.
The sinking of the Tyrian ship parallels in many ways the disastrous fate of the Titanic. In both cases, these grand vessels were symbols of their respective civilization’s wealth, power, and technological prowess, seemingly invincible until their tragic downfalls. The greater the perceived invincibility and grandeur of something, the more shocking and impactful its fall becomes, as it shatters our illusions of security and permanence. These stories remind us that even the mightiest of human achievements are ultimately fragile.
Viewers
The ship sinks within sight of the seafaring nations, some of whom have their own crew aboard the boat. Her trading partners and sister cities watched in horror from the rocky shores, but there was nothing they could do to stop the ship from succumbing to the sea. Spontaneously, the eyewitnesses “wail aloud” and “cry bitterly” (27:30). They shave their heads and cover them with dust. They put on sackcloth and wallow in ashes. In grieving the ship, they performed all the actions that Ezekiel was forbidden to do in mourning his wife’s death.
Ezekiel embeds the mourners’ full-throated lament within his larger lament. They cried out, “When your wares came from the seas, you satisfied many peoples; with your abundant wealth and merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth” (27:33). Their description of Tyre matches how Isaiah once referred to Tyre as the “bestower of crowns” (Isa. 23:8). But their language exposes their self-interest. Without Tyre as their benefactor, they fear their own economies will falter. They grieve the lost benefits of trading with Tyre. Certainly, Tyre’s demise would have a terrible impact on the broader maritime community.
Recall that in 2008, a mortgage crisis in the United States had a domino effect that created a global economic downturn.
Pride comes before the fall
The shipwreck is an apt metaphor for the consequences of greed and materialism. Chapter 27 never mentions Tyre’s specific crime. On its own, the chapter lacks a clear theological lesson. In context, the lament follows the initial oracle that accused Tyre of trying to replace Judah as the gate to the nations. The ship allegory precedes Ezekiel’s oracle against the arrogant and blasphemous Tyrian king in Chapter 28.
Ezekiel’s ship lament does not indict Tyre. Instead, he uses the Tyrians’ own words to condemn them. Tyre boasted, “I am perfect in beauty” (27:3). Tyre bought into her own propaganda and possessed a lofty opinion of herself. The city was unaware of the impending doom that would shatter its illusion of invincibility. Such a claim to greatness reflected their immense pride and self-sufficiency. Ultimately, the city’s overestimation of its own strength led to its downfall.
The way Ezekiel meticulously described the Tyrian ship’s beauty and strength, the reader almost feels Tyre was justified in her feelings of superiority. Truly, there was no nation greater. Built with the highest quality wood and manned by an experienced crew, the Tyrian ship seemed unsinkable. However, shock was Ezekiel’s number one rhetorical strategy. By extensively promoting Tyre as the envy of the region, its ruin becomes even more noteworthy. The ship capsized with a single east wind.
As the biblical proverb goes, “pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). Or, as my Alabama relatives would say, Tyre got “too big for their britches.”
Although Ezekiel focused on Tyre far longer than any other biblical book, other prophets also reprimanded Tyre’s hubris. Zechariah portrayed the wealth of the Tyrian city as silver heaped up like dust and gold as plentiful as dirt in the streets (Zech. 9:3). Ezekiel was also not the only prophet to credit God with Tyre’s downturn. Zechariah described God as taking all the silver and gold and hurling it into the sea (Zech. 9:4). Isaiah also directly credited Yahweh with punishing Tyre for its conceit. He said, “The Lord of hosts has planned it—to defile the pride of all glory, to shame all the honored of the earth” (Isa. 23:9).
Tyre and Revelation
The author of Revelation adapted Ezekiel’s prophecy against Tyre, the great maritime power, to announce a coming judgement on “Babylon the Great” (Rev. 17-18). The thematic and symbolic parallels between Ezekiel 27 and Revelation 17-18 are impossible to dismiss. Both prophecies depict wealthy maritime powers characterized by pride, luxury, and corrupting influence. The imagery of opulence, including rich descriptions of precious goods and adornments, is prevalent in both accounts. Key shared elements include the personification of the city and the emphasis on their self-exaltation, and the detailed accounts of their destruction. Moreover, both Tyre and Babylon are subject to divine judgment, resulting in a sudden and complete downfall that prompts lamentations from their trading partners and allies.
The Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles to weave a tapestry of divine truth throughout Scripture. Through Ezekiel, God revealed his judgment against the prideful empire of Tyre, foreshadowing the ultimate judgment against all worldly powers that oppose his kingdom. The Apostle John, guided by the same Spirit, expanded upon this prophetic imagery in Revelation, unveiling God’s final verdict on “Babylon the Great,” which represents the culmination of all ungodly systems and empires throughout history. As believers, we can take comfort in knowing that just as God judged Tyre in ancient times, he will bring justice to all worldly powers that exalt themselves against his authority. God has promised that one day, his eternal kingdom will be established where righteousness will reign forever.
Conclusion
That’s it for Ezekiel 27. Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. Join me next week for Ezekiel 28, the last oracle against Tyre. God is going to throw the Tyrian king off his throne.
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Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai