What does Ezechiel Chapter 28 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

A divine-status boast is rebuked. The king’s lament receives distinct edition interpretation. Sidon judgment precedes Israel’s return promise.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 28 rebukes Tyre's prince for saying he is God in God's chair in the sea, although he is a man. Wisdom and trade have increased gold, silver and strength and lifted his heart. The edition separately explains being wiser than Daniel as his own conceit and says Daniel's celebrated wisdom became a Chaldean proverb; it does not assign that fame to the king's carnal shrewdness. Strong foreign nations draw swords against his wisdom and beauty, kill him in the sea and bring the death of the uncircumcised. The question asks whether he will still claim divinity before his killers.

A lament calls the king the seal of resemblance, wise and beautiful. The edition explains natural dignity's resemblance to God and says the passage is commonly understood of Lucifer, king over pride's children; this interpretive statement is not made the verse's sole explicit referent. Paradise, nine named stones—sardius, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, onyx, beryl, sapphire, carbuncle and emerald—gold work and pipes prepared at creation describe his splendor. A stretched, protecting cherub walks among fiery stones on the holy mountain. The edition compares extended wings with cherubims over the ark and explains sparkling gems. Anointing is not in this wording. Perfection ends with iniquity; merchandise fills inward parts with sin, expulsion follows and beauty's pride loses wisdom. Cast before kings, defiled sanctuaries and sinful traffic bring an internal fire and ashes before witnesses, astonishment and disappearance.

Sidon receives judgment, pestilence, street blood and sword from all sides so the Lord is glorified and recognized. Israel's surrounding painful stumbling blocks and thorns cease. Gathered from scattered peoples, Israel returns to Jacob's given land, building houses and planting vineyards in confidence after judgment of surrounding enemies. The promises do not supply an independent timetable, ultimate spiritual-territorial guarantee or claim that all neighboring populations are totally eradicated.

The story inside

Opening: A divine-status boast is rebuked. Development: The king’s lament receives distinct edition interpretation. Conclusion: Sidon judgment precedes Israel’s return promise.

Lessons worth keeping

1
A divine-status boast is rebuked.
2
The king’s lament receives distinct edition interpretation.
3
Sidon judgment precedes Israel’s return promise.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 94314–94324
28:2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God. 28:3. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel: no secret is hid from thee. Thou art wiser than Daniel.... Viz., in thy own conceit. The wisdom of Daniel was so much celebrated in his days, that it became a proverb amongst the Chaldeans, when any one would express an extraordinary wisdom, to say he was as wise as Daniel.
Lines 94332–94340
28:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up as the heart of God: 28:7. Therefore behold, I will bring upon thee strangers: the strongest of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy beauty. 28:8. They shall kill thee, and bring thee down: and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain in the heart of the sea.
Lines 94351–94358
28:12. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou wast the seal of resemblance.... The king of Tyre, by his dignity and his natural perfections, bore in himself a certain resemblance to God, by reason of which he might be called the seal of resemblance, etc. But what is here said to him is commonly understood of Lucifer, the king over all the children of pride.
Lines 94366–94373
28:14. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of fire. A cherub stretched out.... That is, thy wings extended. This alludes to the figure of the cherubims in the sanctuary, which with stretched out wings covered the ark.—Ibid. The stones of fire.... That is, bright and precious stones which sparkle like fire.
Lines 94378–94390
28:16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire. 28:17. And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground: I have set thee before the face of kings, that they might behold thee. 28:18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thy iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, to devour thee, and I will make thee as ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see thee.
Lines 94413–94421
28:25. Thus saith the Lord God: When I shall have gathered together the house of Israel out of the people among whom they are scattered: I will be sanctified in them before the Gentiles: and they shall dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. 28:26. And they shall dwell therein secure, and they shall build houses, and shall plant vineyards, and shall dwell with confidence, when I shall have executed judgments upon all that are their enemies round about: and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.