11Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me: 12“Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God:
“You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
14You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
15You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
16In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I exposed you before kings,
to feast their eyes on you.
18By the multitude of your iniquities,
in the unrighteousness of your trade
you profaned your sanctuaries;
so I brought fire out from your midst;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of all who saw you.
19All who know you among the peoples
are appalled at you;
you have come to a dreadful end
and shall be no more forever.”
Prophecy Against Sidon
20The word of the Lord came to me: 21“Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against her 22and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I am against you, O Sidon,
and I will manifest my glory in your midst.
And they shall know that I am the Lord
when I execute judgments in her
and manifest my holiness in her;
23for I will send pestilence into her,
and blood into her streets;
and the slain shall fall in her midst,
by the sword that is against her on every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
24“And for the house of Israel there shall be no more a brier to prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.
Israel Gathered in Security
25“Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”
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If what we said in the previous Note is a correct interpretation, we may say that Ezekiel is relating the fate of the king of Tyre not only to the fall of man, but also to something even deeper, the fall of Satan himself, called in the reference in Isaiah 14 'Lucifer, son of the morning'. The phrase in 14, 'the anointed cherub that covereth' ('guardian cherub' NIV) seems to suggest some tutelary responsibility, and this is in line with the Old Testament idea that angelic beings were set over individuals and nations by God to be their protectors. It may be, as has been suggested, that Lucifer was appointed originally by God as the tutelary angel for the earth, and that he fell through pride. It can hardly be accidental that both Ezekiel and Isaiah write in this same mysterious way, and that indeed the Apostle John does so also in Revelation. It is clear that all three were able to see behind the 'seen and temporal' godless powers of their day and discern the dark and sinister demonic forces that activated and controlled them. It is not without significance either, surely, that in the emphasis on demonic evil it is not the low and the ugly and the disgusting, but on the contrary the high and the beautiful and the bright, to which the prophet draws our attention. It is in this guise as 'an angel of light' that Satan is at his most devastating. The final section of the passage (20-26) deals with the doom of Zidon, which is distinguished here from Tyre, although close by it. Zidon had been peculiarly the source of corrupting idolatrous influences upon Israel. Jezebel, wife of king Ahab was the daughter of the king of Zidon and high priest of Baal, and was responsible for so much Baal worship in Israel. The last two verses of the chapter (25, 26) give a promise of restoration to Israel when all the judgments on her enemies will have been accomplished. They give a foretaste of what is to follow in chs 33ff; but before this can be, another pronouncement of doom must be made - upon Egypt, and to this we come in the next Note.