Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 28:2
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart [is] lifted up, and thou hast said, I [am] a God, I sit [in] the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou [art] a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
2. am a God ] I am God. Ezekiel speaks from his own point of view, which recognizes but one God, not from that of polytheism. The prince set his heart as the heart of God; he felt and acted as if divine. There is not the slightest allusion, of course, to actual worship being paid to the prince; it is his own feeling alone, his pride and self-exaltation, that is referred to.
I sit in the seat of God ] Naturally the prince speaks of his own abode, Tyre; but he regards, it as divine. He is God and it is the seat of God. There is no doubt allusion to the idea that there was a seat of God or the gods; the prince identified Tyre with it. The beauty and splendour of the place, its richness and renown, possibly also its isolation, make it something not of the earth. In Isaiah 14 the king of Babylon affects to seat himself beside the Most High, here the prince of Tyre identifies himself with God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 2. Say unto the prince of Tyrus] But who was this prince of Tyrus? Some think Hiram; some, Sin; some, the devil; others, Ithobaal, with whom the chronology and circumstances best agree. Origen thought the guardian angel of the city was intended.
I am a god] That is, I am absolute, independent, and accountable to none. He was a man of great pride and arrogance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Unto; of.
The princes; king, whose name was either Ethbaal, or Ithobaal.
Thine heart is lifted up; thou art waxen proud, and aspirest above all reason, and boastest extravagantly in thyself, state policy, and power.
Hast said; thought, imagined, or flattered thyself.
A god; or the mighty and strong one, for so the Hebrew is, and perhaps were better so rendered; he gloried in his strength, as if he were a god. The like you have Isa 14:14.
In the seat of God: as a magistrate he did bear the name and authority of God; but he thought not of this; he dreams of the stateliness, strength, convenience, safety, and inaccessibleness of his seat, as if he were safe and impregnable as heaven itself.
A man, subject to all the casualties, sorrows, and distresses of mans state and life, thou art Adam, of earth, not El, nor like unto the Mighty One in heaven.
Thou set thine heart as the heart of God; thou hast entertained thoughts which become none but God, thou hast projected things which none but God can effect, thou hast promised thyself perpetual peace, safety, riches, and happiness in thyself, and from thyself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Because, c.repeatedresumptively in Eze 28:6. Theapodosis begins at Eze 28:7.”The prince of Tyrus” at the time was Ithobal, or IthbaalII the name implying his close connection with Baal, thePhoelignician supreme god, whose representative he was.
I am a god, I sit in . . .seat of God . . . the seasAs God sits enthroned in Hisheavenly citadel exempt from all injury, so I sit secure in myimpregnable stronghold amidst the stormiest elements, able to controlthem at will, and make them subserve my interests. The language,though primarily here applied to the king of Tyre, as similarlanguage is to the king of Babylon (Isa 14:13;Isa 14:14), yet has an ulteriorand fuller accomplishment in Satan and his embodiment in Antichrist(Dan 7:25; Dan 11:36;Dan 11:37; 2Th 2:4;Rev 13:6). This feeling ofsuperhuman elevation in the king of Tyre was fostered by the factthat the island on which Tyre stood was called “the holy island”[SANCONIATHON], beingsacred to Hercules, so much so that the colonies looked up to Tyre asthe mother city of their religion, as well as of their politicalexistence. The Hebrew for “God” is El, thatis, “the Mighty One.”
yet, &c.keenirony.
set thine heart as . . .heart of GodThou thinkest of thyself as if thou wert God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre,…. Whose name was Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, as he is called in Josephus; for that this was Hiram that was in the days of Solomon, and lived a thousand years, is a fable of the Jewish Rabbins, as Jerom relates: this prince of Tyre is thought by some to be an emblem of the devil; but rather of antichrist; and between them there is a great agreement, and it seems to have a prophetic respect to him:
thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up: with pride, on account of his wisdom and knowledge, wealth and riches, as later mentioned:
and thou hast said, I am a god; this he said in his heart, in the pride of it, and perhaps expressed it with his lips, and required divine homage to be given him by his subjects, as some insolent, proud, and haughty monarchs have done; in which he was a lively type of antichrist, who shows himself, and behaves, as if he was God, taking upon him what belongs to God; pardoning the sins of men; opening and shutting the gates of heaven; binding men’s consciences with laws of his own making, and dispensing with the laws of God and man; and calling himself or suffering himself to be called God, and to be worshipped as such; [See comments on 2Th 2:4]:
I sit in the seat of God; in a place as delightful, safe and happy, as heaven itself, where the throne of God is; so antichrist is said to sit in the temple of God, in the house and church of God; where he assumes a power that does not belong to him, calling himself God’s vicegerent, and Christ’s vicar; see 2Th 2:4, and the Arabic version here renders it “in the house of God”: it follows,
in the midst of the seas; surrounded with them as Tyre was, and lord of them as its king was; sending his ships into all parts, and to whom all brought their wares; thus the whore of Rome is said to sit upon many waters, Re 17:2:
yet thou art a man, and not God; a frail, weak, mortal man, and not the mighty God, as his later destruction shows; and as the popes of Rome appear to be, by their dying as other men; and as antichrist will plainly be seen to be when he shall be destroyed with the breath of Christ’s mouth, and the brightness of his coming:
though thou set thine heart as the heart of God; as if it was as full of wisdom and knowledge as his; and thinkest as well of thyself, that thou art a sovereign as he, and to be feared, obeyed, and submitted to by all.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) I am a God.The arraignment of the prince occupies Eze. 28:2-5, his consequent doom Eze. 28:6-10. The point of the charge is inordinate pride, begotten of great prosperity; this prosperity, being attributed to his own powers instead of to its true source, led him to imagine himself almost more than mortal. Similar instances of what may be called the insanity of prosperity may be seen in the case of Sennacherib (2Ki. 18:33-35); of the then living monarch of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, to whom this prophecy might well serve as a warning (Dan. 3:15; Dan. 4:30; comp. also Dan. 7:25, Dan. 11:36-37); of Pharaoh (Eze. 29:3); of Herod (Act. 12:21-23); of the one foretold in 2Th. 2:4; to which list might be added the names of some more modern conquerors, and, in their degree, of many who have been eminently successful in other walks of life, and have consequently sacrificed to their own net (Hab. 1:16). It is not to be supposed that the king of Tyre, like some Oriental monarchs and later Roman emperors, actually claimed for himself religious homage; but he had that proud sense of elevation and self-sufficiency which is only translated into words in the expressions of the text.
The seat of God.This expression is chosen not merely with reference to the great natural beauty and apparently impregnable position of Tyre, but also to the fact that it was called the holy island, and looked up to by all its colonies as the central sanctuary of their worship. The Temple of Melkarth was said by the priests to have been founded as far back as 2750 B.C., and Arrian speaks of it as the oldest sanctuary in the annals of mankind. (See also Note on Eze. 28:6.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Tyrus Tyre ( rock), now at the height of its glory, having been already in existence over two thousand years. This island fortress was very proud and very beautiful, and seemed an impregnable Gibraltar. Its lack of drinking water was originally its greatest weakness, as is seen from a record of an Egyptian traveler in the fourteenth century B.C. and from a Tel-el-Amarna tablet, where Abimilki, the governor, appeals for help to the Pharaoh, saying that Zimrida the Sidonian had cut off his supplies of wood and water. But evidently this defect had been remedied before the Nebuchadnezzar campaign, which Josephus says lasted thirteen years ( Antiquities of the Jews, Eze 10:11). The inscriptions mentioned above prove that even then Tyre was celebrated for her vast wealth, as in Isaiah’s time she was the city “that giveth crowns” (Isa 23:8). For history and commerce of Tyre see Jeremias’s Tyrus, Movers’s Phoenicia, and notes Eze 26:2; Ezekiel 27.
I am a god So boasted the king of Babylon (Isa 14:13-14; Dan 4:30). The inscriptions prove this statement of the prophet to be a literal truth. (Compare self-deification of the Roman emperors, Act 12:21-23.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god (or ‘I am El’), I sit in the seat of the gods (or ‘of God’), in the midst of the seas’. Yet you are a man and not a god (or ‘not El’), although you set your heart as the heart of the gods.”
There has been much debate about what this king actually claimed for himself. Usually Mediterranean kings, in contrast with Egyptian pharaohs, did not see themselves as fully divine, but rather as chosen servants of the gods. However, there were exceptions, and taking it at face value this was one. Certainly he was guilty of overweening pride. But this king also appears to have seen himself as a god, or at least as a godlike figure (there were various levels of gods), and Tyre as the seat of the gods. And this view would have been expected of his people. This in itself brought Tyre under condemnation. They had usurped the throne of God.
But he is warned that he is in fact only a man. He is not a god (compare Isa 31:3), even though he has set his heart on god-like status..
El was the father figure among the gods, but the word also simply meant ‘a god’, or sometimes God, especially in poetry. The plural ‘elohim’ could mean ‘gods’, or when applied to Yahweh ‘God’ (the plural showing intensity), or even ‘heavenly beings’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 28:2. I am a god These words are an insolent boast of self-sufficiency; as if he had said, “I neither fear any prince, nor stand in need of any assistance; I am seated in a place of impregnable strength; the seas surround me; I am freed from the assaults of an enemy.” See Isa 23:9 and Lowth.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart [is] lifted up, and thou hast said, I [am] a God, I sit [in] the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou [art] a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Ver. 2. Say unto the prince of Tyrus. ] Princes must be told their own, as well as others. It was partly by flattery that this prince was so high flown. His glory, wealth, and wit also had so blown him up that he forgot himself to be a man. Tabaal, Josephus, out of Berosus, calleth him; Diodorus Siculus, Ithobaal; others, Ethbaal. A most proud and presumptuous person he was, and a type of the devil, who is the “king of all the children of pride.” Job 41:34 Here he holdeth himself to be wiser than Daniel; Eze 28:3 yea, to be the sum and perfection of all wisdom; Eze 28:12 to excel the high priest in all his ornaments, os humerosque Deo similis Eze 28:13 yea, to be above Adam ( ib. ); above the cherubims; Eze 28:14 lastly, to be God himself, and to sit in his seat. Eze 28:2 O Lucifer outdeviled! And yet as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so by nature there are many Ethbaals in the best of us; for “as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of a man to a man.” Pro 27:19 Julius Caesar allowed altars and temples to be dedicated unto him, as to a god; and what wonder, whereas his flatterers told him that the freckles in his face were like the stars in the firmament? a Valladerius told Pope Paul V, and he believed it, that he was a god, that he lived familiarly with the Godhead, that he heard predestination itself whispering to him, that he had a place to sit in council with the Divine Trinity, &c. Prodigious blasphemy! Is not this that “man of sin,” that Merum scelus, pure wickedness spoken of by Paul in 2Th 2:4 ? See more of this there. Was it not he that made Dandalus, the Venetian ambassador, roll under his table, and, as a dog, eat crusts there? and that suffered the Sicilian ambassadors to use these words unto him, Domine Deus papa, miserere nostrum; O Lord God the Pope, have mercy upon us. And again, O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.
In the midst of the seas.
a Sutton.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Son of man. See note on Eze 2:4.
the prince of Tyrus. The prince (Hebrew. nagid) is to be distinguished as the type (verses: Eze 28:1-10) from the king (melek) of Tyre, the antitype (verses: Eze 28:11-19). See the Structure above. He is a mere man, as shown in Eze 28:9, where note the emphasis marked by the Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6). He was Ithobalus II, Ileb. ‘Ethbaal. See Josephus (cont. Apion. 21).
Tyrus = Tyre (the city), as in Eze 26:2.
the Lord GOD. Hebrew Adonai Jehovah. See note on Eze 2:4.
thine heart. Note the Figure of speech Polyptoton (App-6), by which the word heart is repeated in different inflections for emphasis. “Thine heart., in the heart (midst). thine heart. the heart. “
GOD. Hebrew ‘El (singular) App-4.
of God. Hebrew. Elohim (plural) App-4.
midst = heart (as in Eze 27throughout),
a man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
a man, and not. GOD (‘El). Note the Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6), by which the same thing is put in two ways (first positive and then negative) to emphasize the fact that the “prince” here spoken to (verses: Eze 28:2-10) is purely human (‘adam), and therefore not “the king” spoken to in verses: Eze 28:11-19.
not GOD = not ‘El. App-4.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the prince: Josephus states, on the authority of Menander, who translated the Phoenician annals into Greek, and Philostratus, that this prince was Ithobal.
Because: Eze 28:5, Eze 28:17, Eze 31:10, Deu 8:14, 2Ch 26:16, Pro 16:18, Pro 18:12, Isa 2:12, Dan 5:22, Dan 5:23, Hab 2:4, 1Ti 3:6, 1Pe 5:5
I am: Eze 28:6, Eze 28:9, Gen 3:5, Act 12:22, Act 12:23, Rev 17:3
I sit: Eze 28:12-14, Isa 14:13, Isa 14:14, Dan 4:30, Dan 4:31, 2Th 2:4
in the midst: Heb. in the heart, Eze 27:3, Eze 27:4, Eze 27:26, Eze 27:27, *marg.
yet: Eze 28:9, Psa 9:20, Psa 72:6, Psa 72:7, Isa 31:3
thou set: Eze 28:6, 2Th 2:4
Reciprocal: Jdg 7:2 – Mine own 1Sa 17:44 – Come to me 2Ki 19:22 – exalted thy voice 2Ch 32:25 – his heart Job 40:11 – behold Psa 12:3 – tongue Psa 73:6 – Therefore Psa 87:4 – this man Psa 119:21 – rebuked Psa 138:6 – but the proud Pro 30:13 – General Isa 2:17 – the loftiness Isa 10:13 – For he saith Isa 23:2 – the isle Isa 23:8 – the crowning Isa 37:23 – against whom Isa 47:7 – thou saidst Isa 47:10 – Thy wisdom Jer 9:23 – wise Jer 48:7 – because Jer 50:32 – the most proud Eze 11:5 – Thus have Eze 16:49 – pride Eze 26:17 – strong Eze 28:14 – upon Eze 28:18 – defiled Eze 29:3 – My river Dan 4:4 – was Dan 7:4 – and a Dan 11:12 – his heart Zep 2:15 – I am Zec 9:4 – he will Mar 7:24 – Tyre Luk 14:9 – and thou 1Co 4:7 – why Gal 6:14 – that I Jam 3:5 – so Rev 18:7 – much she
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 28:2. Say to the prince of Tyrus The name of this prince was Ithobalus, according to the Phenician annals. Because thy heart is lifted up In pride and self-conceit; and thou hast said Namely, in thy heart; I am a god I am like a god. I sit in the seat of God Inaccessible by mortals. In the midst of the seas As God is safe from all injury in his throne in heaven, so am I as safe; for the sea secures me. These words express an insolent boast of self-sufficiency, as if he had said, I fear no man, nor stand in need of any: I am seated in a place of impregnable strength: the sea defends me, so that no enemy can assault me. And they represent the excessive pride and carnal security of this prince, who trusted in his own strength, and forgot his dependance upon God. The same crime was in like manner punished in the king of Egypt, Eze 29:3, and afterward in Nebuchadnezzar himself, Dan 4:30-31. Yet thou art man, and not God Subject to all the infirmities, casualties, sorrows, and distresses that attend human nature, and to all the changes of human affairs, and hast not any of that innate, invincible power, and of that immutability of condition, which is in God. Though thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God Hast entertained thoughts which become none but God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
28:2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy heart [is] lifted up, and thou hast said, {a} I [am] a god, I sit [in] the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou [art] a man, and not God, though thou settest thy heart as the heart of God:
(a) I am safe as God is safe in the heavens and no one can hurt me.