and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
Tyre watched Jerusalem fall and counted her own profit. God's sentence on that merchant city reaches past her sea walls to the towns she planted inland, and it ends by telling us why: they will know who the LORD is.
The grudge behind the sword
The judgment has a stated cause, and it is about money. Tyre saw a rival trading gate broken and licked her lips.
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. Tyre 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 easily we understand it! How common such rejoicing is among merchants, in every age! Making a habit of getting rich from the need of others hardens the heart; that hardly needs saying. So it is with Tyre here: and for this she is judged.
Her daughters on the mainland
The "daughters on the mainland" are not children. Kelly takes them to be the colonies Tyre had planted, and he links their fall to the closing words of the verse.
William KellyHer doom is pronounced. Her very dust will be scraped from her. She herself will be like the top of a rock where nets are spread, out in the middle of the sea. Her daughters in the field — I take these to be the colonies she planted — will be killed by the sword. So they should know that it was Jehovah.
Tyre stood in two parts: one on the mainland, one on an island offshore.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinNebuchadnezzar came first against her as predicted in verses 7-11. He besieged Tyre on the mainland and took the city after thirteen years. But the part of Tyre built on the island in the sea escaped, protected by Tyre's fleet.
The spoiler becomes the spoil
The sentence matches the crime.
Numerical Bible NotesShe has watched many nations come to her again and again to supply her. Now those same nations come up against her with the unstoppable force of the sea waves. They rise over her defences, destroy her walls, and break down her towers. She who has so often profited by the spoil of the nations shall in turn be a spoil for the nations.
A ruin carried out in stages
The sword in this verse begins a work that took centuries to finish.
Numerical Bible NotesThe siege by Nebuchadnezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Greek king Alexander. This broke her strength for good. A remnant of the city lasted a long time, wasting and drying up more and more, until the end came. Today, as we can see, nothing is left but a bare rock, used only for spreading nets.
Knowing the LORD through judgment
The same closing words end many of Ezekiel's judgments on the nations. Writing about Edom, Darby weighs what kind of knowing they describe.
J. N. DarbySo this knowledge of Jehovah comes by the judgment itself. It is not a spiritual knowledge of Him that follows from it. For when all the earth rejoices, Edom will be left desolate. It is through judgment that all the nations will know that Jehovah is God.
What Tyre still says to us
Tyre stands for more than one city.
W. T. P. WolstonThat godless city, mentioned by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, represents the world with its riches and lusts. It hated God and God's people, and was glad of Israel's fall, because it left her freer to indulge her own selfishness.
Summary
- Cause — Tyre gloated over a neighbour's ruin and expected to grow rich by it. Getting rich from other people's need hardens the heart.
- Measure — The city that lived off the spoil of nations becomes a spoil for the nations. The punishment mirrors the sin.
- Reach — The sword does not stop at the island. Her "daughters on the mainland" — the colonies she planted — fall with her.
- Timing — Nebuchadnezzar's siege is the beginning of the end, not the end. The bare rock came only after centuries.
- Purpose — In the end they "know that I am the LORD." That knowledge comes by the judgment itself, not by any spiritual knowledge of Him that follows it.