2 Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you did set your heart as the heart of God -
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thou hast said, I am a god - Compare Ezekiel 29:3; Daniel 4:30; Acts 12:22; 2-Thessalonians 2:4.
I sit in the seat of God - Words denoting the speaker's pride; but the situation of the island-city, full of beauty, in the midst of the blue water of the Mediterranean, gives force to the expression. Compare the words describing the lot of Tyre as having been in Eden Ezekiel 28:13.
Thou art a man - Rather, thou art man.
Thou hast said, I am a god - Compare Ezekiel 29:3; Daniel 4:30; Acts 12:22; 2-Thessalonians 2:4.
I sit in the seat of God - Words denoting the speaker's pride; but the situation of the island-city, full of beauty, in the midst of the blue water of the Mediterranean, gives force to the expression. Compare the words describing the lot of Tyre as having been in Eden Ezekiel 28:13.
Thou art a man - Rather, thou art man.
Say unto the prince of Tyrus - But who was this prince of Tyrus? Some think Hiram; some, Sin; some, the devil; others, Ithobaal, with whom the chronology and circumstances best agree. Origen thought the guardian angel of the city was intended.
I am a god - That is, I am absolute, independent, and accountable to none. He was a man of great pride and arrogance.
Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy heart [is] lifted up, and thou hast said, (a) 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 settest thy heart as the heart of God:
(a) I am safe as God is safe in the heavens and no one can hurt me.
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre,.... Whose name was Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, as he is called in Josephus; for that this was Hiram that was in the days of Solomon, and lived a thousand years, is a fable of the Jewish Rabbins, as Jerom relates: this prince of Tyre is thought by some to be an emblem of the devil; but rather of antichrist; and between them there is a great agreement, and it seems to have a prophetic respect to him:
thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up: with pride, on account of his wisdom and knowledge, wealth and riches, as later mentioned:
and thou hast said, I am a god; this he said in his heart, in the pride of it, and perhaps expressed it with his lips, and required divine homage to be given him by his subjects, as some insolent, proud, and haughty monarchs have done; in which he was a lively type of antichrist, who shows himself, and behaves, as if he was God, taking upon him what belongs to God; pardoning the sins of men; opening and shutting the gates of heaven; binding men's consciences with laws of his own making, and dispensing with the laws of God and man; and calling himself or suffering himself to be called God, and to be worshipped as such; See Gill on 2-Thessalonians 2:4,
I sit in the seat of God; in a place as delightful, safe and happy, as heaven itself, where the throne of God is; so antichrist is said to sit in the temple of God, in the house and church of God; where he assumes a power that does not belong to him, calling himself God's vicegerent, and Christ's vicar; see 2-Thessalonians 2:4, and the Arabic version here renders it "in the house of God": it follows,
in the midst of the seas; surrounded with them as Tyre was, and lord of them as its king was; sending his ships into all parts, and to whom all brought their wares; thus the whore of Rome is said to sit upon many waters, Revelation 17:2,
yet thou art a man, and not God; a frail, weak, mortal man, and not the mighty God, as his later destruction shows; and as the popes of Rome appear to be, by their dying as other men; and as antichrist will plainly be seen to be when he shall be destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming:
though thou set thine heart as the heart of God; as if it was as full of wisdom and knowledge as his; and thinkest as well of thyself, that thou art a sovereign as he, and to be feared, obeyed, and submitted to by all.
PROPHETICAL DIRGE ON THE KING OF TYRE, AS THE CULMINATION AND EMBODIMENT OF THE SPIRIT OF CARNAL PRIDE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF THE WHOLE STATE. THE FALL OF ZIDON, THE MOTHER CITY. THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL IN CONTRAST WITH TYRE AND ZIDON. (Ezekiel. 28:1-26)
Because, &c.--repeated resumptively in Ezekiel 28:6. The apodosis begins at Ezekiel 28:7. "The prince of Tyrus" at the time was Ithobal, or Ithbaal II; the name implying his close connection with Baal, the PhÅnician supreme god, whose representative he was.
I am a god, I sit in . . . seat of God . . . the seas--As God sits enthroned in His heavenly citadel exempt from all injury, so I sit secure in my impregnable stronghold amidst the stormiest elements, able to control them at will, and make them subserve my interests. The language, though primarily here applied to the king of Tyre, as similar language is to the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:13-14), yet has an ulterior and fuller accomplishment in Satan and his embodiment in Antichrist (Daniel 7:25; Daniel 11:36-37; 2-Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:6). This feeling of superhuman elevation in the king of Tyre was fostered by the fact that the island on which Tyre stood was called "the holy island" [SANCONIATHON], being sacred to Hercules, so much so that the colonies looked up to Tyre as the mother city of their religion, as well as of their political existence. The Hebrew for "God" is El, that is, "the Mighty One."
yet, &c.--keen irony.
set thine heart as . . . heart of God--Thou thinkest of thyself as if thou wert God.
Hast said - In thy heart. In the seat of God - Safe and impregnable as heaven itself. A man - Subject to casualties, sorrows, and distresses. Set thine heart - Thou hast entertained thoughts, which become none but God.
*More commentary available at chapter level.