Глава 26

Ezek.26:1. And in the one and tenth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Ezek.26:2. before he said Tir against Jerusalem: O good one, having been contrite, having destroyed the heathen, turn to me, who was filled with emptiness. In the eleventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity and in the fourth month of Zedekiah's reign, on the ninth day of the month, Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians. Therefore, a few days before its capture, the Prophet is given the command to pronounce a prophetic word on Tire; for Tire is called "Sor" in the native language. He, too, rejoiced at the siege of Jerusalem, and believed that, after the destruction of this famous city, he himself would gain power over all neighboring nations. Ezek.26:3–6. For this reason says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I will bring upon Sor, and I will bring against you many tongues, even as the sea rises with its waves. And the walls of Sora will fall down, and your pillars will be destroyed, and I will scatter his ashes from him, and cast them into a smooth stone. The drying of the sea will be in the midst of the sea, as I say, says Adonai the Lord: and he will be taken into captivity by the tongue, and his daughters, even in the water, will be killed with the sword, and they will be taken away, as I am the Lord. In these words, God threatens Tire with the invasion of the Babylonians, and says that its fences will be destroyed, that it itself will become a desert, so that it will become like smooth stones on which fishermen usually stretch their snares. He also says that the cities and villages subject to Tire will be ruined, for he calls them daughters. But he also makes it possible to notice the benefit of disasters, for he says: “And they will lead you away, for I am the Lord.” Ezek.26:7. For this is what Adonai the Lord says: Behold, I will bring upon you, Sor, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the North, the king is king, with horsemen and chariots and with horsemen and a collection of many tongues. Ezek.26:8. This daughter of yours will be beaten with a sword, and will put a guard on you, and will protect you, and will dig you in, and will build a fort around you, and will surround you with weapons, and will put his copy directly to you. “Guard” refers to the fortifications that advancing enemies were in the habit of building, so that they could plunder what was outside the besieged city and bring those besieged to the brink of deprivation of necessary supplies. In a word: “to fence” means the enemies building walls from the outside. It is said that he adds to this the fencing of forts, ditches, embankments, so that no one dares to go out, and it is convenient to throw all kinds of arrows into the city. Ezek.26:9. He will destroy your walls and your piers with his weapons. Ezek.26:10. From the multitude of his horses their dust will cover you: and from the neighing of his horses, and from the wheels of his chariots, your walls will shake: I will enter into your gates as I enter into a city from the field. Ezek.26:11. They will trample all your hills with the hooves of their horses, they will cut up your people with a sword, and they will overthrow the structure of your fortress to the ground. Ezek.26:12–14. And he will captivate your strength, and take away your wealth, and scatter your walls, and destroy your houses of desire, and your trees, and your stones, and throw your finger into the midst of the sea, and destroy the multitude of your music, and the voice of your singers will not be heard in you. And I will give you into a smooth stone, drying you up, you will not be with anyone, as I have said, says the Lord Adonai. Everything that I foretell is true, says God. Therefore, accept this prophecy as not false, that the Babylonians will destroy your walls and, having destroyed your houses, will fill the dwellings adjacent to them with stones; There will be such a loud noise from the horses and chariots that it will seem as if the city is shaking from an earthquake. And your property will be plundered, your inhabitants will be enslaved. And such desolation will occur that fishermen will dry wet mud in you, and what they usually do on smooth stones close to the sea will be done in you because of the great desolation. He learns about what was said: “who will not stand together with anyone” from the prophecy of the blessed Prophet Isaiah. For this Prophet also foreshadowed sorrowful events for Tire, but limited these sorrows to a certain time. He says: “Tire will be abandoned for seventy years, like the time of one king, like the time of man” (Is. 23:15): and “after seventy years God will visit Tire, and again it will be restored to its former state, and there will be a marketplace for all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. And his purchase will be holy to the Lord,” etc. (Is. 17, 18). Therefore, the word: “not being united together” makes it clear that there is a change in morals, namely, that one will not be united according to the previous wickedness, but will receive a different, completely opposite dispensation, which, according to the word of the Prophet Isaiah, “will be holy to the Lord.” This is evidenced by events and the prevailing piety today. For, having turned to God from his former superstition and from idolatrous delusion, he received the light of knowledge of God. Ezek.26:15–16. For this is what the Lord says to Sora: Will it not be because of the voice of your fall, when your plagues arise, when the sword is drawn from your midst, that the islands will shake? And all the princes of the sea will bring down from their thrones the tongue of the sea, and they will cast off the crowns (τὰς μ ί τρας) from their heads, and they will take off their speckled garments, they will be horrified: they will sit on the earth, and will fear their destruction, and will groan for you. Tire at the beginning was famous not only in Asia, but also in Europe, therefore the disaster that befell it necessarily became known. Having learned about him, those living on the islands, the Prophet said, will come into fear, and their kings, in sadness and sorrow, will take off their diadems, which are called crowns above, take off valuable clothes, take on a sad look, expecting that the same thing will befall them. This is what God meant when he said: “And they will fear their destruction,” and the news of your misfortunes will greatly upset them. Ezek.26:17–18. And they will receive a cry for you, saying: How did you perish and crumble from the sea, the praised city, who was strong in the sea, you and those who live in you, who gave your fear to all who live in you? And the islands will fear from the day of your fall, and the islands will be troubled by your power in the sea. Thinking about your former power and seeing the disaster that has befallen you in the present, they will cry for you, as for the city of old that was notorious and made everyone talk about you, but they will also take care of themselves, fearing that they will not suffer the same thing. Ezek.26:19. For this is what the Lord Adonai says: When I give you a city that is desolate, like cities that were never inhabited, I will also bring an abyss over you, and plenty of water will cover you. Ezek.26:20. And I will bring you down to those who descend into the abyss, to the people of the age, and I will dwell in the depths of the earth, like an eternal desert with those who descend into the abyss, so that you will not inhabit the earth below the belly. He called the Babylonian army “the Abyss” because of its large numbers. Since Tire is surrounded by waters, is like an island and stands entirely inside the sea, having only one entrance from solid land, then by the way he used this allegory, calling many enemies “much water and an abyss.” What is said: “I will bring those who descend into the abyss to the people of the age” means death, under the power of which all who in the present age depart from this life come. Therefore, the dead are called “people of the century”. And this “you will rise lower than life on the earth” means the same as this saying of the psalmist: “for this reason the wicked will not rise to judgment, lower than the sinner to the council of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5). And the then inhabitants of Tyre, as wicked, will not “rise upon the land of the belly.” And blessed David called this land the land of the living, for he says: “my soul is taken away from death, my eyes from tears, and my nose from creeping” in order to please “the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 115:7, 8). And the Lord in the Holy Gospel makes this division, for he says: some will rise to eternal life, and others to torment and eternal shame (Matthew 25:46). Therefore, God threatens the then inhabitants of Tire, who lived in wickedness, not only with the invasion of the king of Babylon and death from him, but also with sorrows and torment in the future life. For what is more regrettable than this - not to rise “on the land of the belly?” To this God adds: Ezek.26:21. I will hand you over to destruction, and you will never be sought, and you will never be found, says Adonai the Lord. All the divine prophets and sacred apostles were honored with the same Spirit, therefore they do not speak contrary to each other, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. If the divine prophets were vouchsafed the same Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, then the broadcasts of the blessed prophets agree. And if in the Prophet Isaiah we find the desolation of Tyre, limited to a certain period, and we hear that the Prophet Ezekiel says to Tyre: “having been sought, and never found, says Adonai the Lord,” then we will not claim that the prophets disagree, but we will resolve the issue by the distinctive properties of Scripture. For it is customary to often call divine Scripture an age and a little time. This is the saying of blessed David: “our age is for the illumination of Your face” (Psalm 89:8); and he says: “The days of our years are seventy years in them; As long as they are able, eighty years, and their labor and illness multiply." And therefore, knowing that this is the continuation of human life, he called it a century. Therefore it is said: “not to be found in the age,” that is, in the age designated for desolation; and the Prophet Isaiah determined for this period of seventy years. But if anyone wants to understand this place in a more spiritual sense, in this case he will find the prophecy true. For if anyone begins to look for Tire, he will not find the former Tire, because he was wicked, but after the devastation of Tire, the one that arose again and flourished, as we see, is pious and illuminated by the light of the knowledge of God. So, if anyone wants to understand the prophecy literally, he will find that the time determined by Tire is called an age; or someone will want to penetrate into the depths, and then again he will find that the real Tire is not the former Tire, but is completely opposite to it.