Ezekiel 26

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first (or one) of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, because Tyre (or Sor) has said of Jerusalem: Aha, the gates of the peoples (or nations) are broken, she is turned to me, I shall be filled, she is laid waste (or she who was full is laid waste); therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will make many nations come up to you, as the surging sea comes up; and they shall break down the walls of Tyre and destroy her towers, and I will scrape (or winnow) her dust from her, and I will make her a most clear (or most gleaming) rock. There shall be a drying of dragnets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says the Lord God; and she shall be for plunder to the nations. Her daughters also who are in the field (or in the plain) shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The order of the prophecy is woven together in sequence. He had spoken against the Ammonites and Moab and Seir, who are themselves the Edomites, and the Philistines who are on the coast; and he keeps the same boundary along the cord of the sea: for after the Palestinians comes the region of Phoenicia, whose metropolis is the city 'Tyre', which in the Hebrew and Syrian tongue is called 'Sor': 'And because, when Jerusalem was taken, she too rejoiced and insulted her and said: The gates of the peoples are broken; I have a most secure harbor, and now that she is overthrown, the whole multitude that was ruled by her will has turned to me; and because she is laid waste, therefore I shall be filled; or, she who was full before will be reduced to a wilderness: you have said these things, then, and have insulted the ruins of Jerusalem, which was overthrown by the judgment of God because of her sins; therefore, not through messengers nor through any others, but I myself will be against you, O Tyre, and like the waves of the sea I will make the Babylonians come up against you with very many nations, by whose assault your walls and towers will be destroyed, so far that they fall right down to the ground and its dust is scraped away or winnowed into various parts; and she will be so humbled that she is compared to a most gleaming rock, and so great will be the desolation in the city, once most thronged, that the dragnets of fishermen will be spread out and dried in its midst; for I the Lord have spoken, whose words cannot be void, and I will hand her over for plunder to the nations; her daughters also who are in the field, or in the plain, that is, on the coast of Phoenicia, cities and towns, villages and forts, will be slain by the sword — μεταφορικῶς [metaphorically]: because he called them daughters, he speaks of a slaying by the sword —, so that by the outcome of events they may know that I am the Lord, who commanded these things to happen'. According to tropology, since the Hebrew name 'Sor' is rendered 'distress', every soul that is seized by passions can be called 'Sor'; when it sees Jerusalem, in which were the temple and the vision of peace, overthrown by the judgment of God for her vices and sins, it exults and thinks that the dominion of the once famous city is to be transferred to itself. This is understood both of contrary doctrines and of the men of the world: for when they see that a holy man has slipped through negligence, they rejoice and exult, as if the ruin of others were their own resurrection. Therefore the Lord threatens that he himself will fight against men of this kind, and will make very many nations come up against them like the waves of the sea, which destroy in them whatever seems most fortified and firm, and that he will so overthrow all their arguments that they are reduced to dust; that he will also make the dragnets and nets with which they formerly fished for the deceived multitude cease, and have them spread out and dried on the ground of the deserted city, so that in their place other fishermen may come in, whom the Lord sent to fish; and also that her daughters, who were formerly kept as if in a chamber and, being mystic and more secret doctrines, were not readily entrusted to anyone, will come forth and be dragged out into public and cut down by the Church's blade, so that then they may understand that he is the Lord, who both abandoned Jerusalem for a little while on account of her sins and destroyed the fortifications of Tyre on account of her insulting and her rejoicing.

But it is doubtful to no one that, according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who comes from the north, is understood as the devil, who, though he is a most harsh wind and a left-hand one, is called by the name 'right-hand', claiming for himself the dignity of the name; and he is the king of kings and of all the kingdoms which he showed to the Lord, when he said to him: All these have been handed over to me, and I will give them to you if you fall down and worship me. He has horses and chariots, of which it is written: A horse is deceitful for safety, and: All who mount horses have fallen asleep, and in another place: Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring to Tyre (or to you, Sor) Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north, king of kings, with horses and chariots and horsemen and a company and a great people. Your daughters who are in the field he shall slay with the sword, and he shall surround you with siegeworks, and heap up a mound round about, and raise the shield against you, and he shall direct mantlets and rams (or lances) against your walls, and destroy your towers with his weaponry. By the flood of his horses their dust shall cover you; at the sound of horsemen and wheels and chariots your walls shall be shaken, when he has entered your gates as through the entry of a city laid waste (or as one entering a city from the plain). With the hoofs of his horses he shall trample all your streets, your people he shall cut down with the sword, and your noble statues shall fall to the ground (or he shall bring down the substance of your strength to the ground). They shall lay waste (or he shall lay waste) your riches, they shall plunder your merchandise (or he shall despoil your substance), and they shall destroy (or he shall destroy) your walls, and your splendid (or desirable) houses they shall overthrow (or he shall overthrow), and your stones and your timber or your dust they shall put in the midst of the waters (or he shall cast into the midst of the sea). And I will make the multitude of your singers cease (or he shall destroy the multitude of your musicians), and the sound of your lyres (or the voice of your instruments) shall be heard no more, and I will make you a most clear (or a most gleaming) rock; you shall be a drying of dragnets, nor shall you be built any more, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. As is my custom, I have joined both editions, and where they differ I have coupled them side by side, looking to the brevity of the volumes. So what he had said: I will make many nations come up to you as the surging sea comes up, and Tyre shall be for plunder to the nations, he now sets out more plainly: that the Lord will bring Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north, the king of kings, with horses and chariots and with a boundless multitude of troops, who will first overthrow the cities and forts on the coast that are subject to Tyre, and afterwards cause Tyre to be besieged, and wall her in with his army and mound and siegeworks, and assail her walls with mantlets and rams, and destroy them; and so great will be the multitude of his horsemen that, by the dust of the cavalry and the noise of the howling army and the rattle of wheels and the neighing of horses, the foundations of the city will be shaken; and so he will enter the city, its walls torn down, like one entering securely from the plain; and so great will be the security of the conquering army that the hoofs of horses will trample the streets of Tyre, and all the people will fall in the midst of the city, and the once noble statues, or all her substance, will fall to the ground, and nothing of her former riches will be preserved in the captured city; but along with the walls the noble houses too will be destroyed, and so great will be the savagery of the victors that the timber and stones left over from the fire will be thrown into the midst of the sea; and either Nebuchadnezzar or the Lord himself will make cease all the gladness of the city with which it once resounded in songs and psalteries, and, overthrown right down to the ground, it will be a drying of dragnets.

He slays the daughters of Tyre, souls placed in distress and in a kind of prison of sins, in the field and the widest plain, and surrounds Tyre with his siegeworks, so as to hold her shut in, so that no one from her can escape the dominion of the Babylonian king; he destroys her walls and overthrows her towers, and whatever she may have had in the way of doctrines trembles violently at the flood of his horses and the sound of his horsemen and the clatter of wheels and chariots; and he will enter her gates with no one preventing him, and the hoofs of his horses will trample the streets of the city — for wide and spacious is the way that leads to death —, and he will cast down to the ground all her substance — or the noble statues, by which they had fashioned for themselves images of falsehood, of which it is written: Lord, in your city you will scatter their image —; and, the walls destroyed, the noble houses too will be overthrown which she had prepared for herself and in which she exulted; and she will come to such desolation that they throw into the deep her stones and timber, with which she had built her walls and constructed her masonry, and her songs and music, by which she trusted in herself in the wisdom of this world, and all the sound of lyres will be heard no more; and her fishing will cease, and she will be brought so low that she is a drying of dragnets and is not built any more, because, handed over to Nebuchadnezzar at the sentence of the Lord, she has been utterly overthrown, in accord with what the Apostle also says: Whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. The passages are difficult, and the prudent and diligent reader ought to pardon my labor; or if he can find something better, I too shall pass over to his opinion, provided he knows that he will receive from others the pardon he grants to me.

But what follows: Nor shall you be built any more, seems to raise a question: how has she not been built, when today we see her as the most noble and most beautiful city of Phoenicia? — whence some will have it that Tyre is to suffer these things in the last time, and is not to be built afterwards —; but how will they be able to keep to the person of Nebuchadnezzar — especially since we read in what follows that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre and did not receive the wages of his labor, and that Egypt was therefore handed over to him, because he had served the sentence of God in the siege of Tyre —? Those who contradict this history say that they have read the Greek histories and those of the Phoenicians, and especially of Nicolaus of Damascus, and others of the barbarians, and have found nothing about a siege of the city of Tyre by the Chaldeans; whereas we can prove that many things are said in the Scriptures to have been done which are not found in Greek volumes, and that we ought not to acquiesce in the authority of those whose faithlessness and lies we detest. So what is said: Nor shall you be built any more, can be taken thus: that she will by no means any longer be queen of the peoples, nor have her own dominion as she had under Hiram and the other kings, but will be in servitude either under the Chaldeans or the Macedonians or the Ptolemies and, last of all, the Roman kings.

Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles be shaken at the sound of your fall and the groaning of your slain, when they have been killed in your midst? And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their seats, and shall take off their spoils, and cast away their varied garments; and they shall be clothed with astonishment, they shall sit on the ground, and, dumbfounded at your sudden fall, they shall marvel. And taking up a lamentation over you, they shall say to you: How you have perished, you who dwell in the sea, renowned city, who were strong in the sea with your inhabitants, whom all shall dread! Now the ships shall be astonished in the day of your terror, and the isles in the sea shall be troubled, because no one goes out from you. (LXX: "For thus says the Lord God to Sor: Shall not the isles be shaken at the voice of your fall, when your wounded groan, when the sword has been drawn in your midst? And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their seats, and shall take off their crowns, and shall be stripped of their varied garments; they shall go mad with frenzy, they shall sit on the ground, and they shall dread their own destruction, and shall groan over you. And they shall take up a lamentation over you, and shall say to you: How you have perished and been scattered in the sea, praised city, who were strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who gave her fear to all her inhabitants! And the isles shall dread in the day of your fall, and the isles in the sea shall be troubled at your going out.") First let us lay open the very words of the history, disclosing the sense of what is said by a very brief μεταφράσει [paraphrase]. 'Thus says Adonai the Lord to Tyre, which is called 'Sor': In the day of your fall, when you have collapsed under Nebuchadnezzar's assault, and at the groaning of the wounded or slain who have been killed in your midst, shall not the isles be shaken? And all the kings will come down from their seats or thrones, and the princes of the sea who rule over various isles, and they will take the diadems off their heads, laying aside all the glory of reigning, and will cast from them their most precious garments, gleaming with incredible variety; and by the greatness of their astonishment they will be turned to madness and, cast down in humility, will sit on the ground; and when they see that you have collapsed, they will dread like things for themselves, and will think that no good thing on earth is lasting; rather, on the contrary, they will take up a lamentation over you and recite a tearful song, saying: How you have perished, you who dwell in the sea, renowned city (or praised)' — for we read in Greek and Latin and barbarian histories that Tyre was an island and had no approach from the land, but that afterwards mounds were thrown up by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans or, as some affirm, by Alexander king of the Macedonians, and the place was prepared by siege and with mantlets and rams, and from an island a peninsula was made —; 'you, then, O Sor, O Tyre, who were once the strongest among all the isles, or praised by the voice of all among the cities, together with your inhabitants whom all feared, how suddenly you have collapsed! Now the isles will be astonished or terrified over you, and — as it stands better in the Hebrew — the ships, in the day of your terror and fall, and the isles in the sea will be troubled — hence it is more consistent to read 'ships' above, so that 'isles' is not set down a second time —, because no one goes out from you — or, as the Seventy translated, in the day of your going in —, when you have been led away captive'. Let these meanwhile be laid as a kind of foundation of the history; now we shall strive to set the spiritual roof upon it. Imagine someone who, having long kept his chastity, flourished in many virtues, and afterwards collapsed into some grave and mortal sin: will not all the isles be moved at the sound of his fall and of his slain virtues, those, namely, who are beaten by the salt and bitter waves of this world? And all who seemed to be princes in the brine of this world will come down from the throne of their pride and, cast down in humility, will take off from their heads the diadems they seemed to possess through good works, and will cast away the garments varied with a diversity of virtues, and will be clothed with astonishment, or through the greatness of their fear will seem in some way insane, and will sit on the ground, and, stunned at his sudden fall, will marvel, so much so that all take up wailing and lamentation over him who has collapsed, and say: How you have perished, you who were formerly safe; how you have collapsed, you who had stood so long, who in the sea of this world were thought renowned among all, who were strong in the opinion of all; and your inhabitants, that is, your most strong thoughts that resisted all the fiery darts of the devil, which formerly were a terror to all adversaries, have been turned to astonishment! And the ships too, namely all the saints, who cross the waves of this world, are stunned when they see that you have fallen, in the day of your terror and fall; and the isles will be troubled, lest they too suffer like things — for the falls of others are examples for the righteous, since we all dwell in this world in a weak and feeble state and with wavering step, and our victory is never certain and secure, when those who had stood before go out from you, or at your going out, in your end and consummation —. For we are judged not by things past but by things present; and we must beware and always fear lest the storm of a single hour overthrow old glory and solid firmness.

For thus says the Lord God: When I make you a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, and bring up the deep upon you, and many waters cover you, and I drag you down with those who go down into the pit (or to those who go down into the ditch) to the everlasting people, and set you in the uttermost land (or in the depth of the lands) like the ancient wastes, with those who are led down into the pit (or go down into the ditch), so that you are not inhabited, and I give glory in the land of the living (or so that you do not rise again in the land of the living), I will reduce you to nothing (or I will give you to destruction), and you shall not be, and when sought you shall not be found any more forever, says the Lord God. Join what has been said with what preceded. 'When I make you, O Tyre, a city desolate forever, as are other cities that are not inhabited at all, and bring up the deep upon you, and many waters, or boundless multitudes of enemies, cover you — or certainly, because he is speaking to an island and to a city set on an island, he τροπικῶς [figuratively] compares the throng of adversaries to the waves of the deep —, and drag you down, with those who go down into the pit or into the ditch, to those who are in hell — of whom we also read in the Psalms: They shall go into the lower parts of the earth and shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be portions for foxes —, to the everlasting people, where there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth, and set you in the uttermost land, in which the ancient dragon has been placed, and like the ancient wastes and deserts, where there is no remembrance of good things but punishments are everlasting, and do not cause you to be raised up in the land of the living — of which it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land, and in another place: I will please the Lord in the region of the living —, then you will be reduced to nothing, or you will perish forever, and you shall be no more', according to what is written in another psalm: Spare me, that I may be refreshed before I depart and shall be no more: not that he who is in everlasting punishments ceases to be, but that he who does not live to God is said in the holy Scriptures not to subsist. Hence Esther too, speaking against idols: Do not hand over, she says, your scepter to those who are not: surely those to whom she begs that it not be handed over existed, but they were not, to God, since they had ceased to be to the virtues and to the living God.

This we have said briefly about Tyre μεταφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase]; it can also be referred to those who, set in the distress of this world, are led down to the underworld and are covered by the deeps and waves of punishments, and are dragged to the lower parts of the earth, and are joined to those who are in the ancient wilderness, and are led down into the pit or the everlasting ditch, so that they are no longer inhabited by the Holy Spirit; of whom it is written: The ungodly, when he has fallen into the depth of evils, despises; and henceforth they will not be in the land of the living, but will perish, and be reduced to nothing, and cease to be to God. These testimonies are made use of by those who say that the punishments of the ungodly, and not of sinners, are perpetual: of the ungodly who, sought by God, were not found, and have ceased to be forever, because by their own fault they lost him who says: I am the life.

And this is to be noted: that Tyre is sought by him who came to seek and to save what had perished, and who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep on the mountains, seeks the one straying sheep — the woman too who had lost one drachma seeks and finds it, and calls together her neighbors to share her joy —; but if Tyre, when sought, is not found, the fault is not the seeker's but his who has fled the hand of the good shepherd. 'And no more', he says, 'shall you be forever' — or, as is written in the Hebrew 'lolam' and in the Greek αἰών [age], it signifies 'one age', according to that passage of Isaiah, who says that after seventy years Tyre is to be restored to her whole state; and they say that 'one age', that is, the span of a human lifetime, is reckoned at the number of seventy years, as the psalmist says: The days of our years in them are seventy years; but if in the strong, eighty years; whatever is beyond is toil and pain —.