8

will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations, and will cut thee off from among the * people; I will destroy thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

THUS saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Moab saith, [and Seir,] Lo, the house of Judah is like all the nations; 9 therefore, lo, I will open the side of Moab from his cities, even from his borders will I open the glory of the country, 10 Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. Unto the sons of the east will I give it for a possession, together

7.

-for a spoil.

But, according to some, 1

* H. peoples.

12 MSS. Keri, Houb. c. xxvi. 5. xxxvi. 5. conveys the notion of dapes opiparæ, cibus exquisitior. The letters are easily confounded. Thus we have 2 for 71, c. xlvii. 13.

Ar.

8.

to the nations.—', among the nations, 1 MS. 2 originally. ó.

-[and Seir].-' is omitted in ó. MS. Vat. and in Arab. The note in ed. Sixt. Quint. is, In plerisque libris sequitur, Kai σneip. quod dicit S. Hieronymus in lxx non haberi, sed de Theodotionis editione additum esse. may be a corruption of 1, Zoar being

Possibly

a city of Moab. Jer. xlviii. 34.

-like all the nations.-Subdued by Nebuchadnezzar indiscriminately with them.

Observe that the house of Israel and Judah is the reading of ó. Ar. and that 1 MS. has in the margin.

9.

-the side.-Seen Numb. xxxiv. 11.

from his cities.-In and we seem to have an instance of a double reading inserted in the text. See ó. MS. Vat. and Arab. If either of these words occurred twice, we might render distributively, "from every one of his cities."

even from his borders.-11 V. Syr. "and from his borders." See the cities mentioned, Josh. xiii. 20. Numb. xxxii. 37, 38. Jer. xlviii. 23, 24.

10. See Moab and Ammon joined Zeph. ii. 8, 9. Nebuchadnezzar subdued both. Jos. Ant. x. ix. 7. ed. Hav.

v. 13.

—will I give it.-The vau in the original is merely conversive, as

11

12

with the sons of Ammon: that Rabbah of the sons of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations: and on Moab will I execute judgments; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

THUS saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Edom hath dealt in * taking vengeance on the house of Judah; and they have greatly offended, and avenged themselves 13 upon them; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off from it man and beast; and I will make it desolate from Teman, and unto Dedan they shall fall by the 14 sword. I will also shew my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall deal with Edom according to mine anger, and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 THUS saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the Philistines have dealt in vengeance, and have taken vengeance with despite heartily, for destruction, with the old hatred; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I will

16

* H. in avenging vengeance.

-that Rabbah.—Rabbah is found in Syr. and thus the passage is satisfactorily restored. "That thou mayest not mention the sons of Ammon among the nations," seems an unusual transition.

12. and they have greatly offended.-Et deliquerunt delinquendo. But 17 MSS. 3 edd. read with Houbigant □ws, et deliquerunt delictum. Some give us the idea of a sacrilegious offence; Judah being God's heritage.

p♪, 1 MS.

13. Teman and Dedan were noted cities of Idumea, See Jer. xlix. 7, 8. Tema was a son of Ishmael: Gen. xxv. 15: Dedan was a grandson of Abraham by Jokshan: 1 Chron. i. 32: Gen. xxv. 3.

14. -by the hand.-After the restoration of the Jews, Edom was subdued by them. See on Amos i. 12.

stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the 17 sea-ports. And I will execute great * vengeance upon them, with + furious rebukes: and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall shew my vengeance upon them.

CHAPTER XXVI.

1 AND it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of 2 Jehovah came unto me, saying: Son of man, because Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, "Aha, she is broken; the merchandise of the people is turned unto me;

16.

* H. vengeances.

+ H. rebukes of fury.

H. peoples.

-Cherethites.-See on Amos ix. 7. Compare Zeph. ii, 5. In

the original there is a paronomasia.

1.

"in the twelfth

66

-in the twelfth year.-6. MS. Al. read 'n year," for "ny: "in the eleventh year." The same MS. reads, on the first day of the first month;" agreeably to Ezekiel's usual manner of

or, as Houbigant ; באחד לחדש before בראשון dating facts: supplying

conjectures, 72; which word, says he, occurring twice, transcribers by a common mistake inserted it only once. Arab. supplies a like omission 2 Kings xxv. 3: rendering, "on the ninth day of the fourth month." The Coptic MS. reads in the text "the tenth year."

It is plain that the date in the text must be posterior to whatever is the true date c. xxxiii. 21: because this prophecy was delivered after the taking of Jerusalem was known to Ezekiel and his people. See v. 2.

2. -Tyre.-Fuit Tyrus emporium totius orientis nobilissimum, ditione non tam terrestri quam per mare late sparsa, opibus copiisque florentissimum. Illius splendorem, rem nauticam, vires conductitias, mercatumque uberrimum graphice descripsit Ezekiel. Marsham. can. chron. sec. xviii. p. 537.

-the merchandise.-Houbigant reads , as c. xxvii. 3: and this is the reading of Chald.: the Hebrew word, as it is differently

3

* she that was full is become desolate;" therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah :

Lo, I am against thee, O Tyre; and I will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his 4 waves to come up: and they shall destroy the walls of

Tyre, and throw down her towers: and I will scrape off her earth from her, and I will make her like the top of a 5 rock. She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord

*H. the full is the desolate.

pointed, signifying mercatrix or mercatura. ó. Ar. read 7 and 1203, and ó. should be pointed as Arab. Éлεσтрá¶η прòя pé. "Aha, she is ἐπεστράφη πρὸς μέ. people are turned about unto me."

:נשברת דלות

3.

Εὐγε, συνετρίβη, ἀπόλωλε, τὰ ἔθνη broken, she is brought low: the Possibly the true reading may be,

66 thou art broken, thou art brought low :" &c.

she that was full.-Read on, with 6. Ar. Chald. Houb. -as the sea &c.—They shall be as loud, as numerous, as irresistible, as the waves of the sea. This is one of the beautiful and expressive images which occur in the magnificent prophecy here recorded.

4. -her earth.-An allusion to the custom in Palestine of fertilizing particular spots by carrying mould to them from other places less eligible for the purpose of sowing or planting.

5.

-the top.-The bare shining surface of a rock.

—for the spreading of nets." The present inhabitants of Tyre are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing." Maundrel. p. 49. The Jesuit Hadrianus Parvillerius resided ten years in Syria; and Huetius heard him say, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks stretched forth to the sea, and the great stones scattered up and down on the shore, made clean and smooth by the sun waves and winds, and useful only for the drying of fishermen's nets, many of which happened at the time to be spread on them, it brought to his memory this prophecy. See Bishop Newton on the prophecies. i. 190. 4o. Diss. xi.

in the midst of the sea.-Probably Old Tyre, or its suburbs, stood in the sea on a peninsula, See v. 17: and c. xxvii. 4. Thus Carthage is alluded to in Appian as tóλɩs év tñ Dadáσơŋ, a city in the sea. Libyca. p. 41. ed. H. Steph. c. 51. Vitr. in Isai. p. 666. Vitringa thinks it pro

Jehovah. And she shall be for a spoil to the nations:

6 and her daughters that are in the field shall be slain by

7

the sword and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I will bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north; with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a company of much people. 8 Thy daughters in the field shall he slay with the sword; and he shall set a tower against thee, and cast up a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee: and his battering-rams shall he set against thy walls, and 10 thy towers shall he break down with mattocks. By the

9

*H. pour out.

*

bable that insular Tyre served as a station for the ships of Old Tyre. "Alexander employed the ruins and rubbish of the old city in making his causeway from the continent to the island, which henceforwards were joined together. It is no wonder therefore, as Bishop Pocock observes, Travels i. b. 1. c. 20. p. 81, 82, that there are no signs of the ancient city; and as it is a sandy shore, the face of every thing is altered, and the great aqueduct in many parts is buried in the sand." Bishop Newton. Diss. xi. However, Dr. Pocock mentions a great bay, south of Tyre, and assigns some reasons for supposing that Old Tyre stood in a corner of this bay. Travels. ib.

7. ——————and with a company &c.-р 2 or 3 MSS. But a more important reading is by, for Dy, which is found in 3 MSS. and is confirmed by ó.

That Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the reign of Ithobal, see Jos. contr. App.l. i. §. 20, 21, p. 451, 2: ed. Haverc. Compare Ant. x. xi. §. 1. p. 538. See Jer. xxvii. 3, 6. Ezek. xxix. 18—

20: and on Amos i. 10.

8.

9.

-the buckler." In forming the testudo." Michaelis.
―his battering-rams.-Percussiones arietis sui.

bp Chald. contra, adversus, e regione. See Cappellus.

.percussit מחא

—with mattocks -The original word is derived from 7 to lay waste; and here denotes some tool, as a pickaxe, by which besiegers demolished walls, when they approached them under cover.