And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.
Tyre was the great trading city of the sea, and she had just watched Jerusalem fall — and welcomed it. God's answer fills the whole chapter. Here it reaches her music: the songs stop and the lyres fall silent.
The Boast Behind the Sentence
Tyre made her living from trade. One writer finds the cause of her judgment right there:
F. W. GrantThe merchant does not have the true spirit of service for God, but finds in man's need the opportunity for his own gain, and this is what we find as the cause of his judgment here. Jerusalem has been judged… She says against Jerusalem: "Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me. I shall be replenished now that she is laid waste." How naturally we understand it! How common such rejoicing is among merchants at all times! Making a habit of gaining riches from the need of others hardens the heart, there is little need to say.
Part of One Collapse
The silencing of the songs is not a separate stroke. It belongs to a list — stones, timber, dust, singing — that goes down as one thing:
F. W. GrantAs the prophet speaks here, the breach in Tyre had already been made for him by their sins. Her stones, her timber and her dust were now to be thrown into the middle of the sea. The noise of her songs was to cease. All her pomp and glory were to perish together.
The Hand That Carried It Out
The verses just before name Nebuchadnezzar as the attacker. Then verse 12 switches to "they." One writer sees more than one hand in it:
William KellyIt may be that "they" in verse 12 goes beyond Nebuchadnezzar and takes in Alexander the Great. His vengeance was still more complete. He threw the stones and timber and dust of Tyre into the middle of the water. There was no recovery after that.
The silence did not fall all at once. God carried out the sentence in stages:
F. W. GrantThe siege by Nebuchadrezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Grecian king Alexander. This truly broke her strength. Even so, the remnant of a city stayed for a long time, wasting and drying up more and more until the end came. As we see today, nothing is left but a bare rock, used only for spreading nets.
What Tyre Stands For
Tyre is more than a dead city on a map. One writer looks at the next chapter, where her trading partners turn on her:
W. T. P. WolstonEzekiel 27 describes Tyre's grandeur and her trading links with all the world. It then announces that in "the day of your ruin" all her former friends "will hiss at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." Such is the world and its end, as changeable as the waters that carried Tyre's ships. Tyre represents the commercial glory of the world, which passes away.
The Same Silence, Later
Scripture sounds this silence again at the end, when judgment falls on Babylon the great. Music is named there too — and not because music is wrong in itself:
An Outline of Sound WordsWhen God's judgment is poured out on Babylon the great, every department of man's world will be remembered. The world of music that began with Jubal is not forgotten, for "the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more." God was pleased to have the music of David in connection with the temple worship, and He will have music from Israel on earth again. But the music of man's world is used to charm man's heart away from God. That music is marked out for judgment.
Why God Empties the Stage
The silence is not the last word. Later in the chapter God gives His own reason for tearing all this down:
F. W. GrantThe lessons of God's school are too humbling for man to welcome. He may be forced to accept the sentence of condemnation on himself. He must also accept the passing away of all the false glory he would love to make true, but cannot. God's sentence is on it. But, as He says here, this is so that He may set true glory in the land of the living… All this has indeed to pass away. What can be shaken is to be removed, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Our kingdom is in what cannot be shaken.
Summary
- Cause — Tyre cheered Jerusalem's fall because it meant more trade. Gaining riches from other people's need hardens the heart.
- Sentence — the songs do not fall alone. Stones, timber, dust and music all perish together.
- Instrument — Nebuchadnezzar began the end and Alexander finished it. Today only a bare rock remains, used for spreading nets.
- Pattern — Tyre stands for the commercial glory of the world. The same silence falls on Babylon the great at the end.
- Purpose — God clears away false glory to set true glory in the land of the living. What can be shaken goes; our kingdom cannot be shaken.