Глава 28

Prophecy on the Tyrian king and Sidon 1–10. Sin and punishment for the king. 11–19. Cry over him. 20–26. Prophecy for Sidon. Ezek.28:2. son of man! say to the ruler in Tire: Thus says the Lord God: because your heart is lifted up and you say: “I am God, I sit on the seat of God, in the heart of the seas,” and being a man and not God, you put your mind on a par with the mind of God, - The king of Tire at that time was Itobaal II (Joseph Flavius ​​S. Arr, 1, 21), but since the king in Tire enjoyed insignificant power and influence and nothing is known about any attempts of the Tyrian, as well as Semitic kings in general, not only to idolize themselves, but also to produce a kind of family from the gods, the king is taken here (as in the further prophecy of the Pharaoh in Egypt) as a representative of Tire itself. Thus, the self-deification of which the prophet accuses the Tyrian king is the same pride that, on the other hand, on the external side, is described in Chapter XXVII; here it is viewed psychologically, from the inside. In addition, the ancients rightly noted that many of the features that here describe the pride of the Tyrian king are applicable to the devil and his falling away from God, and by Tire would then be understood the world, the “prince” of which the devil is so often called (Origen, Περι αρχων, Tertul. Adv. Mags. 2, 10 - in the proper sense, and Blessed Jerome and Theodos interpret this passage in a metaphorical way; “To the Chief”, glory. "prince". Heb. nagid in 12 tbsp. melek - “king” is replaced, therefore it should be greater than nasi - “prince” and is intended, perhaps, to indicate the features of royal power in Tire: something like; "Suffets" of Carthage and "judges" of the Jews. But in the book of Samuel the word was applied to Saul and David. “I am God” - for Ezekiel, with his zeal for the glory of God, should have sounded especially outrageous. A stunning characterization of pride, exposing all its dark depths and terrible essence. "On the seat of God in the heart of the seas". Tire's maritime position made it in his opinion as inaccessible as the throne of God. In Ps 103.3 God is pictured sitting on the waters. The Tyrians called their island holy (at Sanchoniaton); every center of a special cult was considered a sacred place. "Mind", slav. more precisely, “heart”, i.e. self-awareness. Living in such a place on earth that could be considered the dwelling of God, Tyr thought that he could act and dispose of himself completely according to the inclinations of his heart. Ezek.28:3. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel, there is no secret hidden from you; A remarkable testimony to the glory that Daniel gained for himself by explaining the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Dan 4.6). Although Ezekiel had in mind readers from the Jewish captives, to whom Daniel could be well known not only for his wisdom (danu in Sanskrit “wise”), the prophet, apparently, assumes that this first sage of the then east was not unknown to the king of Tire: the worldwide fame and importance of Nebuchadnezzar ensured the same fame for Daniel. "There is no secret hidden from you." Slav. “I did not punish you with my wisdom with my cunning” (you do not need teachers); euro satum “secret” of LXX was given a personal meaning, reading it, perhaps, as Khartoum (Babylonian scholars), and gamam - “to bind” “to close” was considered to be Aramaic gama - “to recognize, to inform”; “cunning” is a doublet of the first word of the next verse. Ezek.28:4. with your wisdom and your understanding you acquired wealth for yourself and collected gold and silver into your treasuries; The second sin of the Tyrian king was that he used his wisdom, this gift of God to him, which antiquity looked upon as a treasure, only for the acquisition of perishable wealth. "Wealth", slav. more precisely, “strength” (meaning; Heb. hail). Ezek.28:5. through your great wisdom, through your trade, you increased your wealth, and your mind became proud of your wealth, - It is more closely determined how Tire acquired wealth intellectually: through trade; and it is indicated what wealth led him to: pride. Ezek.28:6. Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you equate your mind with the mind of God, This pride gradually reached that terrible measure, which was mentioned already at the end of Art. 2. Ezek.28:7. Behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most cruel of nations, and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and darken your splendor; "Foreigners" - Chaldeans. - “The fiercest of nations.” Perhaps this refers to the wild hordes that were in the Babylonian army; Wed Ezek.7.21 et seq. - “The beauty of your wisdom” - the splendor that the city, as well as its wealth, owed to its wisdom. These frequent references to the wisdom of Tire are striking, and the prophet pays tribute to him, at the same time revealing in himself a high connoisseur of wisdom and science. – “They will darken” literally “they will desecrate” (Tire considered itself sacred); glory “bed” (killed and wounded). Ezek.28:8. They will bring you down to the grave, and you will die in the heart of the seas with the death of the slain. He who thought to sit on the throne of God will end up in the grave. He who considers himself God will not deserve even ordinary human death, but will die the death of the murdered, who for the most part are deprived of burial. The sea, the position on which inspired such arrogance, will serve as an instrument of death. - “Killed”, glory. “ulcerative” wounded, which aggravates death. Ezek.28:9. Will you then say before your killer: “I am God,” while in the hand of the one who slays you you will be a man and not a god? The words sound like angry mockery (Krech.). Ezek.28:10. You will die by the hand of foreigners the death of the uncircumcised; for I have said this, says the Lord God. “By the death of the uncircumcised,” that is, the wicked (Acts 7.51), whose fate after death should be worse than the fate of the circumcised. Since the Phoenicians were circumcised (Herod. II, 104), this threat can be understood as referring to the impossibility of a proper funeral in war (mourning, washing), which is for the dead what circumcision is for the living (Smend). Kimhi: “You will fall by the hand of the uncircumcised.” Ezek.28:12. son of man! Weep for the king of Tire and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You are the seal of perfection, the fullness of wisdom and the crown of beauty. The lament for the king of Tire follows the prophecy against him, just as the same lament over Tire follows the prophecy against this city (chapters XXVI and XXVII), which well expresses the regret with which the Lord punishes the sinner. As if according to the proverb: de mortuis aut bene aut nihil, and this lament, like that one, is dedicated to depicting the good that was in the deceased and, moreover, represents an enthusiastic panegyric (at least in its first and main part, vv. 12-15). “Seal” in Hebrew. (in the Mishnah, for example) meant, as with us, completion, completeness. "Perfections", Heb. sinks even in Ezek.43.10, where it means a measure, a model, carefully made, cf. Assyrian takintu – “careful preparation”, “splendor”; LXX "likeness" (i.e. to God: the most perfect likeness to God) must be, reading the tabnit. This perfection of the Tyrian king is as internal as external: he is wise and beautiful. But “fullness of wisdom” is not in Wat. and some other codes. Ezek.28:13. You were in Eden, in the garden of God; your garments were adorned with all kinds of precious stones; ruby, topaz and diamond, peridot, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle and emerald and gold, everything skillfully placed in your nests and strung on you, was prepared on the day of your creation. “You were in Eden in the garden of God,” slav., taking Heb. Eaten for the common noun: “thou art in the sweetness of God’s paradise.” In what sense could it be said about the king of Tire that he was and lived in the paradise of God? Since every beautiful area of the earth is not only compared with paradise, Eden in the Old Testament, but is directly called so (Ezek. 31:9, 18, 36:35; Isa. 51.3; Joel 2.3), here Tire itself could be called paradise, if not for its position in a fertile and beautiful area (this area was not given out to either one or the other), then for its countless riches, which further and are calculated in detail. But, it seems, the expression wants to say more: the king of Tire, who considered himself a god, the prophet agrees to recognize, in view of the extraordinary external and internal benefits of his position on earth, as an almost supernatural creature, an inhabitant of paradise (primitive Adam or, as can be seen from v. 14, a cherub, as if taking the place of Adam in paradise), which, however, does not change the terrible fate awaiting him, but rather intensifies its bitterness (as the height of the fall increases: v. 15). If the prophet’s mind, as is very likely, when writing this section, imagined the fall of the devil, then in the king of Tire he could see a repetition and continuation of this fall, which can hardly be imagined within the narrow framework of earthly time. "In the Garden of God". God is Elohim here (and not Jehovah), as for the most part in the first chapters of the book of Genesis. “Clothes”, Hebrew. mecussa απ. λεγ. not transmitted by LXX. - “Decorated with precious stones.” It is remarkable that in Gen. 2.10–12 precious stones are placed in connection with the area of ​​paradise, which was just discussed here, and in Eze. 1.1 with the appearance of the cherubim, with which it is compared in v. 14 Tyrian king 5 The clothes of the eastern kings were thickly studded with precious stones. – Next is the calculation of these stones. Heb. t. and Vulg. count 9 stones, Greek. 12 and 14, glory. 15, adding gold and silver to the stones, Peshito 8. The Hebrew table, apparently the most probable, gives the significant and simplest number: 3 x 3. Gold, which is further mentioned specifically, and silver in LXX are very out of place, tearing apart a row of stones. The stones are named the same as the breastplate of the high priest (Exodus 28.17) had in its rows: 1st (local 1, 2 and 9th stones), 2nd (here: 8, 7 and 3rd stones) and 3rd rows (here: 4, 5 and 6th stones). The stones are presumably identified with our following: 1) Odem, (“red”) LXX, Vulgate and Pescito “sardius” (carnelian), Russian. ruby (both red). 2) Pitda (Sans. pita - yellow), LXX, Vulgate and Russian. topaz. 3) Yahalom, LXX Smaragd, Vulgate and I. Fl. jaspis, Russian diamond. 4) Tarshish, slav. must be vakinth Russian chrysolite, see explanation of Ezek.1.16. 5) Shogam, Targ. Peshito and LXX (Ezek.28.20 and others and should be here) beryl, Russian. p. Ak. fed., Sim., Vulgate onyx. 6) Yasip, conv. with jasper Russian, which is in glory. 14th, and Greek. 13. Vulgate berillus. 7) Sapphire Vulgate and Russian. (see explanation of Ezek.1.25), glory. 6th, Greek 5th. 8) Nofek, Fl., Vulgate and Russian. carbuncle, LXX should be αξθραξ (Glav. 5, Greek 4). 9) Barkat, LXX (3rd) Fl., Vulgate smaragdus, Russian. emerald (Sansk. marakata). Consequently, of these identifications, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9 are more or less reliable. Manchot (lahibuch t. protest. Theof. 14, 472) from the letters of the stones makes up the names of the countries that were under the rule of Xerxes. “Everything skillfully placed in your nests and strung on you” is a tentative translation of 8 Hebrew words with an unknown meaning, which should be a jewelry term; Vulg. sees here a speech about musical instruments, and in the further words: “it was prepared on the day of your creation” he sees an indication of music on the birthday of the Tyrian king. Slav.: “Thou hast filled thy treasures and thy granaries with gold” (the latter not with gold in the proper sense, but with bread that can be turned into gold). Ewald’s understanding is original: the Tyrian king was once the first of all people in paradise, so he had such perfection as no one else and from the first day of his life wore 12 precious stones of the high priestly breastplate as an instrument of divination and prophecy; to obtain this meaning, Ewald is one of the Hebrews. He considers the words to be the one-meaning “Urim”, and changes the other into “Thummim”. “It was prepared on the day of your creation.” Wealth is destined for the Tyrian king (i.e., Tire in general), as is the fate of every person, even at his creation. The doctrine of predestination. Ezek.28:14. You were an anointed cherub to overshadow, and I appointed you to do so; you were on the holy mountain of God, walking among the fiery stones. One of the most mysterious poems in the book. Comparing the king of Tire with a cherub, the prophet goes into such details of the Old Testament teaching about cherubs, which, obviously, have not been preserved to us either in Holy Scripture or in Holy Tradition. “You (in Hebrew for some reason the feminine gender; this pronoun is repeatedly used in the feminine gender instead of the masculine: Numbers 11.15; Deut. 5.24, etc.) were... a cherub.” Lit. "You're a cherub." “When applied to the Tyrian king, these words are an incredible hyperbole and receive their true meaning only when we assume that behind this king the prophet contemplated the initial perfections and the fall of one of the angels” (Glagolev A.A. Old Testament Biblical doctrine of Angels, 700), LXX, punctuated differently (et instead of at), have: “You, (doublet) with the cherub in charge of you"; most of the newer interpreters accept this reading, but the Hebrew is stronger. The Tyrian king is compared with the cherub, as the bearer of the highest fullness of created life (cf. explanation 1:5): Tyre represented the highest level to which earthly, not only material, but also spiritual, at least mental, life could reach. Consequently, he was on earth then, truly what a cherub is in the world. "Anointed". The cherubim of the tabernacle and church were anointed with St. oil (Exodus 30.22–30). Perhaps an indication of the royal anointing, by which the king is given a special height and fullness of spiritual life, bestowed by God and Tire, which this king represents. Both are something sacred, because God communicated to them from His greatness and because all earthly greatness is sacred until it falls and is desecrated (Trosh.). But they don’t want to attach meaning to anointing. mimshah (from whence "Messiah") Vulg. and everything is new; Vulg. – extensus, referring to the wide-spread wings of the cherubs; Sim. καταμ, εμετρημενος. Indeed, the application of the epithet “anointed” to the cherub is somewhat unexpected. LXX do not have, like the next word. "To overshadow". Lit. "overshadowing" Also an indication of the cherubim of the tabernacle and church, overshadowing the ark with their wings. The king of Tire thus overshadowed (Vulg. protegens) his people, and Tire overshadowed the land. "You were on God's holy mountain." Only Zion is called this way in the Old Testament. Consequently, we are again referring to the cherubim of the church that stood on Zion in the broad sense (Moriah could be considered as a spur of Zion). According to interpreters, Tire, being on an island washed by the sea, stood as if on a mountain of the sea, which could be called “holy” and “God’s” for the abundance of God’s blessing on Tire. “Walked among the fiery stones.” Of the stones, precious stones can most likely be called fiery for their brilliance, which is what they are called in wedge-shaped inscriptions (Delitzsch, Wol. d. Par. 118). Speech about them can most likely be expected here in view of the previous verse: just as cherubim walk in fire (Ezek. 1.13), so the king of Tyre was surrounded and showered with precious stones, this hidden, resting fire, so to speak. One can recall with Grotius that the high priest appeared before the cherubim wearing a breastplate of precious stones, and with Gephernicus that in the Tire church of Hercules there stood an emerald column. – The newest interpreters find that the idea of ​​​​the temple cherubim does not fully cover all the comparisons used here by the prophet, especially the last two expressions, and they think that the prophet here means the dominant idea in the then pagan world of the mountain of God (see explanation Eze. 1.4 “from the north”) - Indian Meru and Kailash, Iranian Garaberetsaiti or Albordsh, Greek. Olympus; paradise, according to pagan ideas, should have had some connection with this mountain, if it was not directly identical with it; therefore, the cherub, being in paradise, was also on this mountain, overshadowing and making it impregnable. As for the fiery stones, perhaps this mountain was covered with them, instead of ordinary stones, so as to be inaccessible to mortals, and only fiery cherubim could walk freely between them. These stones are also associated with thunder arrows or lightning strikes, which, according to Indian beliefs, protect the home of the gods (which is why a place struck by lightning was considered sacred. See Ev.) or fire-breathing mountains (Gitz.). All these parallels can be accepted by the Orthodox interpreter only insofar as echoes of the true religion have been preserved in pagan religions. Bertholet suggests reading instead of “anointed and overshadowing” - “was in trusting communication with the cherubim”, and Kretschmar instead of “stones of fire”, abnei esh - “sons of God” - benei ate: “The king of Tyre walked among the sons of God, the angels.” Ezek.28:15. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. “Perfect”, glory. more precisely: “blameless”. Both the Tyrian king and the pagan Tire he personified are not entirely subject to such praise. The image of a cherub or primitive man here, as in the previous verse, obscures the compared object from the prophet’s gaze. Hence the expression “from the day of your creation,” which in relation to the king of Tire can only mean the day of his accession to the throne. - “Lawlessness”, what, says Article 18: mainly pride, the desire to become equal to God. Ezek.28:16. Because of the vastness of your trade, your inner being was filled with unrighteousness, and you sinned; and I cast you down as unclean from the mountain of God; I drove you, the overshadowing cherub, out of the midst of the fiery stones. “Inner”, i.e. heart; glory "treasures" - “Untruths”, lit. violence, deception. You can't cheat, you can't sell. This began the moral decline of Tire. “He overthrew” – Heb. halal, to defile: from the divine sphere the Tyrian king, a sacred person, fell into the worldly. LXX give the word another meaning - to wound: “thou art wounded by the mountain of God”; It was not harmless for the unclean to stay on the fiery mountain. - “The Cherub expelled you.” LXX considered the latter subject (“and the cherubs brought you together”) in view of Gen. 3.24. Ezek.28:17. Because of your beauty your heart was lifted up, because of your vanity you destroyed your wisdom; Therefore I will throw you to the ground, I will hand you over to shame before kings. “Destroyed wisdom.” Unwise policy towards Nebuchadnezzar. - “I will throw... to the ground” - I will overthrow from the throne or St. mountains. – “For shame” I guess. translation of euro απ. λεγ.; glory "in reproof". Ezek.28:18. With the multitude of your iniquities in your unrighteous trade you have defiled your sanctuaries; and I will bring fire from among you, which will consume you: and I will turn you into ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you. “Sanctuaries” hardly mean pagan ones, for example, the temple of Melqart, but must be a state of innocence and purity, the holiness of the mountain of God, and many more. h. – pluralis majestatis. - “Fire”, “ashes” - an indication of the burning of the city, and the image of the Tyrian king is replaced by the image of the personified city, which is natural at the end of the speech. Others see here an indication of the phoenix (a mythological perversion of the idea of ​​cherub) with its self-immolation. Ezek.28:19. All who knew you among the nations will be amazed at you; You will become a horror, and you will not exist forever. Wed. Ezek.27.36. Refrain of lamentation over Tyre. Ezek.28:21. son of man! turn your face towards Sidon and prophesy against it, Sidon is a city, the oldest of Tire (Genesis 10.19), named already in the Tel Amarna inscription (Tsiduna, in another inscription. Sidin, the root of “hunt”, “fishing” (i.e. fishing), from ancient times was under the hegemony of the more powerful Tire; this, apparently, was the case under Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27.8); but at the same time he felt for a certain independence (in Jeremiah 25.22 and others, the Sidonian kings are named next to those of Tire). takes its place: it was a large and powerful city when Artaxerxes III Ox destroyed it in 351. Afterwards it was restored and now represents a flourishing city (Saida) - Only one conflict is known about it with Israel in Judgment 10.12, but from it the prophecy of Ezekiel was much shorter than the prophecy against Tire. Ezek.28:22. and say: Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified among you, and they will know that I am the Lord, when I have judged him and demonstrated my holiness in him; The guilt of Sidon is not indicated in brevity, but only hinted at in v. 24. – “I will be glorified” in the punishment of Sidon for wickedness and sin v. 24 (see there). - “Among you,” who until now has despised Me. – “And they will know that I am the Lord”;] in the sense of Ezek.25.5. - “And I will show My holiness in him” - also that “I will be glorified”: the glory of God is His holiness (Isaiah 6.3), manifested in punishment and destruction of wickedness. Ezek.28:23. and I will send upon him a pestilence and bloodshed in his streets, and those slain in his midst will fall with the sword that devours him on every side; and they will know that I am the Lord. “Plague and bloodshed”, see Ezek.5.12; the first consequences of the siege. - “Devouring him from everywhere.” Slav. “in you and around you” (surrounding settlements). Ezek.28:24. And he will no longer be a prickly thorn and a painful thistle to the house of Israel, more than all his neighbors he will be ill-wishing, and they will know that I am the Lord God. "Thorn" (Numbers 33.55). Jezebel. "More than all neighbors". Heb. mi, “from” also allows for a simple dividing meaning: Sidon, among other neighbors, ill-wishered Israel; glory "from" Ezek.28:25. Thus saith the Lord GOD: When I have gathered the house of Israel from the nations among whom they are scattered, and have demonstrated my holiness in them before the eyes of the nations, and they dwell in their land which I have given to my servant Jacob: Ezek.28:26. Then they will dwell in it safely, and they will build houses and plant vineyards, and they will live in safety, because I will bring judgment on all their evildoers around them, and they will know that I am the Lord their God. Speeches against the nearest neighbors - the pagans, who are to be eliminated for the good of the kingdom of Israel, naturally conclude with a messianic prediction for Israel, mainly spiritual. - “They will build houses, plant vineyards” cf. Isa 65.21. According to Indian sagas, vultures (a mythological corruption of cherubs) are guardians of gold; they dig it and build their nests from it, and the Indians receive only shavings (Ctes Aelian. Hist. anim, IV, 27. Paus. CXXIV, 6. Philostr. Vit. Appollon, III, 48). Herodotus places these vultures digging and storing gold in the north and says that the Arimaspians steal gold from them (III, 116; IV, 13.27). The wings of the phoenix, which is hinted at in v. 18, were χρυσοκομα (Herod. I, 73, etc.). You might be interested in: