Ezekiel 27:5

This lament soon turns into an allegory. The prophet speaks to Tyre as to a person. He paints a vivid picture of where she sits and of how pleased she is with herself. From verse 4 the allegory of a ship is before us, and it fits the special character of Tyre remarkably well.

The ship stands here as a picture of Tyre. It is a very natural figure, and we still use it when we speak of the "ship of state." We think of the power and skill human effort must put out to make it prosper, to catch favourable winds and steer clear of sandbanks and rocks... We may say that man has been working at this ship ever since, doing his best to perfect its beauty. We see how attractive it can be in the constant displays it gives us of everything that nature and man produce. It gathers all this together, and, so to speak, embodies in itself the restless, ever-craving spirit of man, the tireless energy that works in him.

The word for "cypresses" does not only mean what we now call cypress. It would cover the whole fir family, to which the cypresses belong. But Senir, or Hermon, was famous for these trees, and their wood was the best for the work in view here... This was the mountain whose white dome towered over the land of Israel... So Senir supplies the funeral cypress as the material for the ship of Tyre. No wonder the end is a funeral!

It is called 'cedar' from the firmness of its roots. Its wood lasts a long time and smells sweet. Builders used it for beams, pillars and masts, and for carved images. 1 Kings 6:9-10; Isa. 44:14; Ezek. 27:5... It is not really one of the trees of Palestine itself, but Scripture always links it with Lebanon.

Lebanon, which means "white," is the range whose southern point is Hermon... It supplies the cedar masts. On them the crew hoists the sail that carries the trading ship forward on its course.

In one sense Tyre stood on Israel's territory, yet Tyre has another character, and a separate prophecy of its own (Ezek. 26-28). It represents the world and its riches, in contrast with Israel as the people of God. It rejoices too, but not like the others, out of personal hatred. Its interests were the opposite, and once the power that held back its career was destroyed, its natural selfishness had free course.

From verse 26 the prophet begins his description of the ruin of Tyre. We return to the earlier allegory. Tyre is a ship that sinks at sea. Nebuchadnezzar is the east wind that wrecked her.