Ezekiel 28 · The Lantern

A Prophecy against the Ruler of Tyre

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

Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre: Thus says the Lord GOD: Because your heart is high and you have said: I am a god, in the seat of gods I sit, in the heart of the seas — and you are a man and not a god, though you set your heart like the heart of a god —

The bishops have directed that the case of the prince of Tyre should be examined, to say something about merits and faults, and they have ordered also that I should return to the subject of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, on certain points.

And you will no longer say, 'I am God,' but, having learned through your downfall, you will recognize that you are a human, not God. But if we wish to call the prince of Tyre the same power to whom the city itself, or the province, was given by God, let us accept that testimony. I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.

The devil has fallen into such madness and is excited in such a frenzy that he has called himself God, and he has persuaded people to offer worship to him instead.

see, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is dark to you.

Who would refuse the counsel of Daniel, of whom God said, "Who is wiser than Daniel?" How can people doubt about the minds of those to whom God has given such grace? By the counsel of Moses wars were brought to an end, and for his merit's sake food came from heaven and drink from the rock.

The same apostle writes that God alone is wise, although both Solomon and many other holy people are called wise, and it is said, according to the Hebrew, to the prince of Tyre, "You are wiser than Daniel." Therefore, just as he alone is called the light, immortal and wise, although they are many who are immortal, and who are lights and who are wise, so also the human perfectio…

Nay, can we be better men than Daniel himself, concerning whom God, speaking to the prince of Tyre, says by the prophet Ezekiel, "Art thou wiser than Daniel?" who also is placed among the three righteous men to whom alone God saith that He would grant deliverance,—pointing, doubtless, in them to three representative righteous men,—declaring that he would deliver only Noah, Dani…

By your wisdom and by your understanding you made wealth for yourself, and you made gold and silver in your treasuries.

By the abundance of your wisdom, in your trading, you increased your wealth; and your heart grew high in your wealth.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you set your heart like the heart of a god,

therefore see, I am bringing against you strangers, the ruthless of the nations. And they will draw their swords against the loveliness of your wisdom and profane your brilliance.

To the pit they will bring you down, and you will die the deaths of the slain in the heart of the seas.

Will you still say: I am a god — before the one killing you? And you are a man and not a god, in the hand of those profaning you.

The deaths of the uncircumcised you will die, by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken, the utterance of the Lord GOD.

A Lament for the King of Tyre

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

We now find in the prophet Ezekiel two prophecies addressed to the prince of Tyre, the first of which might appear, before one had heard the second, to be spoken of some man who was prince of the Tyrians. For the present, therefore, we shall take nothing from the first one.

(Vers. 11 seqq.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

The Lord speaks as follows to Ezekiel: "Son of man, take up a lament over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You experienced the pleasures of God's paradise.

Son of man, lift up a lament for the king of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord GOD: You were the seal of proportion, full of wisdom and perfect in loveliness.

It If you turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, you will at once perceive that this angel was both by creation good and by choice corrupt. For he speaks of the devil there in the person of the prince of Tyre.

He fell, for his dwelling place was always in heaven. He is the one to whom the words of Ezekiel are addressed: "You were stamped with the seal of perfection." Notice exactly what the prophet says: "the seal of perfection." He did not say to the devil, you are the sign of perfection, but the seal of perfection.

One of the angel powers, the marshal of one host, bore in himself no trace of natural evil from his Maker's hand but had been created for good, yet by his own free and deliberate choice he turned aside from good to evil and was stirred up by madness to the desire to take up arms against his Lord God.

In Eden, the garden of God, you were. Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz and diamond, beryl, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald, and gold. The work of your settings and your mountings was in you; on the day you were created they were prepared.

You were an anointed cherub who covers, and I set you so. You were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

Blameless you were in your ways from the day you were created, until injustice was found in you.

By the abundance of your trading they filled your midst with violence, and you sinned. So I profaned you from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Your heart grew high in your loveliness; you corrupted your wisdom because of your brilliance. To the ground I cast you; before kings I set you, to be a spectacle.

By the abundance of your iniquities, in the injustice of your trading, you profaned your sanctuaries. So I brought out fire from your midst — it devoured you — and I made you ashes on the ground before the eyes of all who see you.

All who know you among the peoples are desolate over you. A sudden end you have become, and you are no more, forever.

A Prophecy against Sidon

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

Son of man, set your face toward Sidon and prophesy against her.

And say: Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be honored in your midst. And they will know that I am the LORD, when I do judgments in her and am sanctified in her.

And I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the slain will fall in her midst by the sword against her from all around; and they will know that I am the LORD.

And there will no longer be for the house of Israel a pricking brier or a painful thorn from any around them who treat them with contempt; and they will know that I am the Lord GOD.

The Restoration of Israel

Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they were scattered, and am sanctified in them before the eyes of the nations, then they will dwell on their land that I gave to my servant Jacob.

And they will dwell on it in security and build houses and plant vineyards; and they will dwell in security when I do judgments on all those around them who treat them with contempt. And they will know that I am the LORD their God.

Ezekiel28

A Prophecy against the Ruler of Tyre

A Lament for the King of Tyre

A Prophecy against Sidon

The Restoration of Israel