Ezekiel 26:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 26:19
For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee;
water · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
cover
וְכִסּ֖וּךְve.khi.Sukh
H3680
properly · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 8:7-8 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory:…
Ezekiel 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea cause…
Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy…
Daniel 11:40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with…
Revelation 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 26:15–end
The utter ruin of Tyre is here represented in very strong and lively figures, which are exceedingly affecting.
1. See how high, how great, Tyre had been, how little likely ever to come to this. The remembrance of men's former grandeur and plenty is a great aggravation of their present disgrace and poverty. Tyre was a renowned city (Eze 26:17), famous among the nations, the crowning city (so she is called Isa 23:8), a city that had crowns in her gift, honoured all she smiled upon, crowned herself and all about her. She was inhabited of seas, that is, of those that trade at sea, of those who from all parts came thither by sea, bringing with them the abundance of the seas and the treasures hidd…
great waters--appropriate metaphor of the Babylonian hosts, which literally, by breaking down insular Tyre's ramparts, caused the sea to "cover" part of her.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 26:17
Wast strong in the sea - The strength of Tyre was so great, that Alexander despaired of being able to reduce it unless he could fill up that arm of the sea that ran between it and the main land. And this work cost his army seven months of labor.
John Gill on Ezekiel 26:19
For thus saith the Lord God,.... Both to the terror of Tyre, and for the comfort of his people:
when I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; whose trade is ruined, whose inhabitants are destroyed, and whose walls are broken down, and become a mere waste and desert; where no person or anything of value are to be seen:
when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters shall cover thee: the waters of the sea shall rush in and overflow the city, the walls of it being broken down; just as the old world, and the cities of it, were overflowed with the deluge, to which the allusion may be; whether this was literally accomplished on Tyre is not certai…
(Verse 19 onwards) Because this is what the Lord (the Vulgate adds God) says: When I make you a desolate city like cities that are uninhabited, and I bring an abyss upon you, and many waters cover you, and I bring you down with those who descend into the pit (or to those who descend into the grave) to the everlasting people, and I place you in the farthest land (or in the depths of the earth) like the ancient wildernesses, with those who are brought down into the pit (or descend into the grave), so that you will not be inhabited, and when I give glory in the land of the living (or so that you will not rise again in the land of the living), I will bring you to nothing (or I will give you destruction) and you will not be, and you will not be sought after (the Vulgate adds anymore) forever, says the Lord God. Join the things that were said with the ones before. When I will hand you over, O Tyre, a city forever desolate, just like other cities that are not inhabited at all, and if I bring upon you the abyss, and many waters cover you, or the infinite multitude of enemies, or certainly the one who speaks to the island and compares the frequency of adversaries in the city established on the island to the waves of the abyss: and if I drag you down with those who descend into the lake, or into the pit, to those who are in hell, of whom we also read in the Psalms: They will enter the lower parts of the earth: they will be delivered into the hands of the sword, the parts of foxes will be (Ps. LXII, 10, 11); to the everlasting people, where there is weeping of eyes, and gnashing of teeth, and I will place you in the last land, where the ancient dragon is established, and like the ancient desolations and deserted places, where there is no remembrance of good things, but eternal punishments, nor will I make you rise again in the land of the living, of which it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land (Matthew V, 4). And in another place: I will please the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 115:9): then you will be reduced to nothing, or you will perish forever, and you will be no more, according to what is written in another psalm: Leave me, that I may be refreshed before I depart, and I shall be no more (Psalm 39:14). Not that he who is in eternal punishment ceases to exist, but because it is said in the holy scriptures that he who does not…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Nebuchadnezzar, Or Nebuchadrezzar — (may Nebo protect the crown), was the greatest and most powerful of the Babylonian kings. His name is explained to mean “Nebo is the protector against misfortune.” He was the son and successor of…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Tyre — A rock, now es-Sur; an ancient Phoenician city, about 23 miles, in a direct line, north of Acre, and 20 south of Sidon. Sidon was the oldest Phoenician city, but Tyre had a longer and more…
Cities · Were frequently: Depopulated — Were frequently: Depopulated
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 26:19–end
Thus will Tyre, covered by the waves of the sea, sink into the region of the dead, and vanish for ever from the earth. - Eze 26:19. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, When I make thee a desolate city, like the cities which are no longer inhabited, when I cause the deep to rise over thee, so that the many waters cover thee, Eze 26:20. I cast thee down to those who have gone into the grave, to the people of olden time, and cause thee to dwell in the land of the lower regions, in the ruins from the olden time, with those who have gone into the grave, that thou mayest be no longer inhabited, and I create that which is glorious in the land of the living. Eze 26:21. I make thee a terror, and thou ar…
God would demonstrate his sovereign power by utterly destroying Tyre. It would be as though that great city had sunk into the depths of the chaotic ocean waves, with its inhabitants condemned to the pit where the unrighteous dead reside, never to return.
Rashi on Ezekiel 26:19
when [I] bring up the deep upon you “When I bring upon you companies of nations as numerous as the waters of the deep, and many nations will cover you.” Jonathan translated it in this manner, but according to its apparent meaning, first it was given into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and ultimately, the sea came up and inundated it.
