then I will make you go down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you to dwell in the world below, among ruins from of old, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set beauty in the land of the living.
Ezekiel's word against Tyre ends with the world's great trading city sinking out of sight, down among the dead of ages past, while God sets glory somewhere else. Two questions shape the verse: what is this "pit," and whose is the "land of the living"?
A ruin meant to be final
Tyre was a rich trading city built out on an island. The sentence is that no one will live there again. One commentator sets that against every reason to expect a rebuild:
William KellyThe destruction of Tyre was to be complete. Whatever the importance of its position — and its past success seemed to invite the rebuilding of such a commercial centre — all hope on man's part would be vain, for the Lord says, "I will make you terrors, and you shall be no more. Though you are sought for, you shall never be found again, says the Lord Jehovah."
The fulfilment came long after Ezekiel spoke:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAbout 240 years later, this prophecy came literally true. Alexander the Great came against the city built on the island. After seven months he took it by building a causeway, which let his forces enter. To build it, Alexander used the ruins of the old city. He laid the stones, timber and the very dust of the destroyed city into the sea.
Why the sentence fell
Tyre watched a trade rival fall and counted her gain:
Numerical Bible NotesJerusalem has been judged — Jerusalem, in many ways a centre of attraction for the people around, "the gate of the peoples," as Tyre calls her. The rejoicing at her fall is Canaanite enough. 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! Habitually getting rich out of the need of others hardens the heart. So it was with Tyre, and for this she is judged.
"The pit" and "the lower parts of the earth"
These are the Bible's words for the unseen state of the dead. Scripture leaves them vague, and Ezekiel uses them more than any other book:
J. N. DarbyScripture is vague about Sheol. Sight stops at the grave, and all is dark and silent beyond… Some uses of "lower parts of the earth" belong to Sheol, and some to the earth itself: Psalm 63:9; 139:15; Isaiah 44:23. The phrase is most common in Ezekiel (Ezek. 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24).
The same scene opens out later in Ezekiel. It shows what "those who go down to the pit" means for a proud nation:
William KellyHere judgment sweeps them off the earth after long patience and sends the boastful down to the pit. There lie the fairest, without a token of relationship to God, "with the uncircumcised." There lie Assyria, Elam, Meshech and Tubal, Edom, Sidon and other nations north of Palestine. They lie in helpless weakness and humiliation, ashamed of the might they were once so proud of.
Glory set where Tyre cannot go
The verse turns from the grave to a living land. Older translations read "I shall set glory in the land of the living"; the ESV has "I will set beauty." Either way, the clause points away from Tyre:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe last sentence of verse 20, "And I shall set glory in the land of the living," means the coming glory of the earthly Zion, the glory in store for Israel.
So the ruin serves a purpose beyond punishment. God clears away what man calls glory to make room for something that lasts:
Numerical Bible NotesThe sentence of God is upon it; but, as He says here, so that He may set true glory in the land of the living. The earth today is little like this. It is more like a graveyard of the dead… All this has to pass away. Everything that can be shaken must go, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Our kingdom is in what cannot be shaken.
Two cities in view
Tyre stands against Jerusalem all through the chapter. One writer traces the same rivalry to the end of the Bible:
Morrish Bible DictionaryEzekiel 26:2 shows that Tyre, the merchant city of the world, was the rival of Jerusalem, the city of God. So Babylon (compare Ezek. 27 with Rev. 18) is the rival of the new Jerusalem. God was known in the palaces of Jerusalem — the god of this world in Tyre. There a man could satisfy the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
Summary
- Cause — gain. Tyre profited from a neighbour's ruin. Getting rich from other people's need hardened her heart, and for this she is judged.
- Sentence — the pit. She goes down among the dead of long ago, to the "lower parts of the earth." There proud powers lie stripped of the strength they boasted in.
- Proof — history. Alexander finished the work, sweeping the city's own stones, timber and dust into the sea.
- Contrast — glory relocated. Tyre loses her glory, but glory itself is not lost. God sets it in the land of the living — the coming glory of Zion and Israel.
- Lesson — what cannot be shaken. False glory goes so that true glory can stand. Tyre is the merchant city of the world, Jerusalem the city of God — and only one of them has a future.