Part 552 (2/2)
27:35. All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at thee: and all their kings being struck with the storm have changed their countenance.
27:36. The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.
Ezechiel Chapter 28
The king of Tyre, who affected to be like to G.o.d, shall fall under the like sentence with Lucifer. The judgment of Sidon. The restoration of Israel.
28:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
28:2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am G.o.d, and I sit in the chair of G.o.d in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not G.o.d: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of G.o.d.
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.
28:4. In thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast made thyself strong: and hast gotten gold an silver into thy treasures.
28:5. By the greatness of thy wisdom, and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy strength: and thy heart is lifted up with thy strength.
28:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Because thy heart is lifted up as the heart of G.o.d:
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.
28:9. Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am G.o.d; whereas thou art a man, and not G.o.d, in the hand of them that slay thee?
28:10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncirc.u.mcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord G.o.d.
28:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre:
28:12. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: 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 G.o.d, 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.
28:13. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of G.o.d: every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes were prepared in the day that thou wast created.
28:14. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of G.o.d, 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.
28:15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee.
28:16. By the mult.i.tude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast thee out from the mountain of G.o.d, 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.
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