properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
midst
בְּלֵ֥בbe.Lev
H3820
the heart · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
seas
יַמִּ֖יםya.Mim
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
builders
בֹּנַ֕יִךְbo.Na.yikh
H1129
to build (literally and figuratively) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
perfected
כָּלְל֖וּka.Lu
H3634
to complete · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
beauty
יָפְיֵֽךְya.fe.Yekh
H3308
beauty · noun, common masculine singular construct + 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
Ezekiel 26:5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 27:1-25
Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Tyrus, Eze 27:2. It was yet in the height of its prosperity, and there appeared not the least symptom of its decay; yet the prophet must lament it, because its prosperity is its snare, is the cause of its pride and security, which will make its fall the more grievous. Even those that live at ease are to be lamented if they be not preparing for trouble. He must lament it because its ruin is hastening on apace; it is sure, it is near; and though the prophet foretel it, and justify God in it, yet he must lament it. Note, We ought to mourn for the miseries of other nations, as well as for our own, out of an affection for mankind in gen…
Tyre, in consonance with her seagirt position, separated by a strait of half a mile from the mainland, is described as a ship built of the best material, and manned with the best mariners and skilful pilots, but at last wrecked in tempestuous seas (Eze 27:26).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 27:4
Thy builders have perfected thy beauty - Under the allegory of a beautiful ship, the prophet, here and in the following verses, paints the glory of this ancient city. Horace describes the commonwealth of Rome by the same allegory, and is as minute in his description, Carm. lib. 1. Od. xiv: -
O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus? O quid agis? Fortiter occupa
Portum. Nonne video, ut
Nudum remigio latus,
Et malus celeri saucius Africo,
Antennaeque gemant? ac sine funibus
Vix durare carinae Possint imperiosius
Aequor! non tibi sunt integra lintea;
Non Di, quos iterum pressa votes malo:
Quamvis Pontica pinus,
Sylvae filia nobilis,
Jactes et genus, et nomen inutile
Nil pictis timidus navita…
Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, Fixed by the Lord himself, and which could never be removed. Tyre stood about half a mile from the continent, surrounded with the waters of the sea, till it was made a peninsula by Alexander:
thy builders have perfected thy beauty. The Sidonians were the first builders of the city, as Justin (q) says; who began and carried on the building of it to the utmost of their knowledge and skill; and which was afterwards perfected by other builders, who made it the most beautiful city in all those parts; unless this is to be understood of her shipbuilders, who brought the art of building ships in her to such a perfection, as made her famous throughout the wo…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 4, 5.) Your neighbors who built you have filled your beauty. They built you with Sanir fir trees and all the planks of the sea. They brought cedar from Lebanon to make harm to you. For what reason, I do not know, they translated it thus in the Septuagint: The sons of Beelim surrounded your beauty; the cedar of Sanir was built for you; they brought thin cypress planks from Lebanon to make harm to you with fir. For the sermon of Beelim is not found at all in this place among the Hebrews, but it is written in Gebulaic, which means 'your boundaries'. Also, in what they said, your sons were deceived by the ambiguity of the word and the similarity in the scripture, as the same letters are read differently, 'of masons' and 'of sons', Bonaich and Benaich. Therefore, O Tyre, you who said out of arrogance, 'I am of perfect beauty' or 'I have adorned myself with beauty', since you are situated in the midst of the sea, hear how great things have been bestowed upon you by the generosity of God. Your neighbors and bordering people, who are not from distant regions but from neighboring ones, have filled your decoration, and do you think that what is alien is yours? And he speaks as if tropically to a ship, signifying the beauty of the city and the abundance of all things, so that after he has described all the furniture of the ship, the mast, the masts, the oars, the sails, the prow, the keel, the ropes, the covers, the skins, and other things that the use of the best-equipped ships needs: then he announces that a storm and a south wind, by which the largest waves will be stirred up, will come to it, and it will be subject to shipwreck. Through these things, the destruction of the city of Tyre is signified by King Nebuchadnezzar, or, as many believe, by Alexander, the king of Macedon, who is said to have besieged and captured the city itself for six months after defeating Darius in Lycia. According to mystical interpretations, the planks of the Tyrian ship are cut from the fir or cedar trees of Sanir, from which it is woven and constructed, and its mast is made of cedar or cypress from Lebanon: fir or cedar, because of their lightness and the softness of the joints between the planks that hold and bite each other; or cedar, because it is a wood that does not rot. But Sanir is said to mean 'way of the torch'; or as we think more accurately, the tooth of the…
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
Ezekiel, Book of — Consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (3:22-24), warning them of…
Fairs — (Heb. ‘izabhonim), found seven times in Ezek. 27, and nowhere else. The Authorized Version renders the word thus in all these instances, except in verse 33, where “wares” is used. The Revised Version…
Helbon — Fat; i.e., “fertile”, (Ezek. 27: 18 only), a place whence wine was brought to the great market of Tyre. It has been usually identified with the modern Aleppo, called Haleb by the native Arabs, but is…
Phenicia — (Acts 21:2) = Phenice (11:19; 15:3; R.V., Phoenicia), Gr. phoinix, “a palm”, the land of palm-trees; a strip of land of an average breadth of about 20 miles along the shores of the Mediterranean,…
Tyre · Insular position of — Insular position of
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).
The lamentation commences with a picture of the glory of the city of Tyre, its situation, its architectural beauty, its military strength and defences (Eze 27:3-11), and its wide-spread commercial relations (Eze 27:12-25); and then passes into mournful lamentation over the ruin of all this glory (Eze 27:26-36).
Introduction and description of the glory and might of Tyre. - Eze 27:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 27:2. And do thou, O son of man, raise a lamentation over Tyre, Eze 27:3. And say to Tyre, Thou who dwellest at the approaches of the sea, merchant of the nations to many islands, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Tyre, thou sayest, I am perfect in beauty. Eze 27:4. In t…
Tyre’s past greatness is described in great detail under the metaphor of a mighty sailing ship created out of the very best resources from the surrounding nations.
Rashi on Ezekiel 27:4
your builders [Heb. בֹּנַיִךּ,] your architects, from the word בִּנְיָן, building.
