Ezekiel 26:12
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They will plunder your wealth and pillage your merchandise. They will demolish your walls, tear down your beautiful homes, and throw your stones and timber and soil into the water.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The prophet had soon done with those four nations that he set his face against in the foregoing chapters; for they were not at that time very considerable in the world, nor would their fall make any great noise among the nations nor any figure in history. But the city of Tyre is next set to the bar; this, being a place of vast trade, was known all the world over; and therefore here are three whole chapters, this and the two that follow, spent in the prediction of the destruction of Tyre. We have "the burden of Tyre," Isa. 23. It is but just mentioned in Jeremiah, as sharing with the natives in the common calamity, Jer 25:22; Jer 27:3; Jer 47:4. But Ezekiel is ordered to be copious upon that head. In this chapter we have, I. The sin charged upon Tyre, which was triumphing in the destruction of Jerusalem (Eze 26:2). II. The destruction of Tyrus itself foretold. 1. The extremity of this destruction: it shall be utterly ruined (Eze 26:4-6, Eze 26:12-14). 2. The instruments of this destruction, many nations (Eze 26:3), and the king of Babylon by name with his vast victorious army (Eze 26:7-11). 3. The great surprise that this should give to the neighbouring nations, who would all wonder at the fall of so great a city and be alarmed at it (Eze 26:15-21).
Open source ↗26:12-14 The end result was exactly as the prophet had described earlier in metaphorical language. Tyre would become a bare rock, a desolate haunt for local fishermen to spread their nets to dry, instead of a bustling center for long-distance trading vessels and caravans from the east (26:2). According to Josephus, Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years, although it was not finally destroyed until the time of Alexander the Great (332 BC).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?
Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of valuable articles.
Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines,
They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas.
But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”
“Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.
Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come— a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.
She will become a place to spread nets in the sea, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. She will become plunder for the nations,
The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.