Ezekiel 26:15 - Meaning and Application

Tyre’s complete ruin is described here in strong, vivid pictures, and the effect is powerful. The prophet first reminds us how high Tyre had once risen and how unlikely such a fall seemed. Remembering former greatness makes present shame and poverty feel even heavier. Tyre was a famous city, the proud “crowning city” (Isaiah 23:8), honored by the nations and able to honor others.

She was “inhabited of seas,” that is, filled with sea traders and visitors who came by water from many places. People brought her the wealth of the seas and goods hidden in the sand. She was strong in the sea, easy for friends to reach, but hard for enemies to attack. Her water defenses made her seem unshakable, so her pride and splendor made her feared everywhere. People stood in awe of the Tyrians and were afraid to offend them. Those who know their own strength are often tempted to frighten weaker people.

Now look at how low Tyre is brought down (Ezekiel 26:19, 20). This famous city becomes a deserted place, no longer crowded with merchants. A city with no people is hardly a city at all, and without care it falls apart by itself. Tyre is pictured like a city overwhelmed by rising water, with the deep coming over it. The waves that once protected her now become the means of her destruction.

She is brought down with those who go to the pit, with buried cities of the old world and with Sodom and Gomorrah, which lie under the Dead Sea. Or she is like people who have been dead for a long time, forgotten above ground and rotting below it. Tyre will be brought low, humbled, and reduced to nothing. It will be like the desolate places of old, and like cities that were once destroyed in the same way. No one will dare rebuild it on that same spot, so it will be as if it never was. People will look for Tyre and not find it. A new city may be built nearby and given the same name, but Tyre as it was will be gone forever.

This shows that the strongest cities in this world can decay and quickly become nothing. Even places once famous in history can disappear so fully that later generations barely know where they stood. In this world, nothing built by human strength is permanent. But in the life to come, we look for a city that will stand forever and flourish in perfect fullness through all eternity.

The inhabitants of Tyre are also shown in deep distress (Ezekiel 26:15). There is great slaughter in the city, with many people killed, including leading men. It is likely that when the city was taken, most of the people were put to death. The wounded cried out to their conquerors, asking for mercy, but their pleas were ignored. The only mercy shown to them was a quick end to their pain.

Tyre’s fall also throws all its neighbors into alarm. The islands shake at the sound of her collapse (Ezekiel 26:15). This is like the shock when a great merchant fails and everyone connected with him starts worrying about their own losses. If people see someone suddenly ruined and far more in debt than he can pay, they begin to fear the same could happen to them. So the islands, which had felt safe in the sea, tremble when Tyre falls and ask, “What will happen to us?” If they learn from it, they will become less secure and will stand in awe of God’s judgments. The fall of a great tower shakes the ground around it, and Tyre’s destruction would be felt across the Mediterranean islands, where so many had business and constant contact with her.

The princes of the sea are also moved by it, whether these are rulers on the islands or wealthy merchants and ship captains who lived like princes (Isaiah 23:8). They come down from their thrones, setting aside the dignity and show of their rank. They lay off their robes and dress themselves in trembling, as if in sackcloth that makes them shiver. They sit on the ground in shame and sorrow, trembling at what has happened to Tyre and at the fear that the same thing may happen to them. If Tyre is not safe, what island is safe? They take up a lament for her and mourn with sad songs and poems over her fall (Ezekiel 26:17). “How are you destroyed!” they cry.

This will surprise them deeply, because Tyre had seemed so secure, both by nature and by human skill. It was famous for its wisdom, filled with wealth, and able to withstand attack for a long time. Yet it is taken in the end. God says, “I make you a terror” (Ezekiel 26:21). It is right for God to make a people a warning to others by the strangeness and suddenness of their punishment, if they had made themselves a terror by misusing their power. Tyre had caused fear, and now it becomes a fearful example.

It will also grieve them greatly. They take up a lament for Tyre because they think it is a great pity that such a rich and splendid city should lie in ruins.

When Jerusalem, the holy city, was destroyed, people did not mourn for it in this way. To many passersby, it was nothing, as in Lamentations 1:12. But when Tyre, the trading city, fell, everyone lamented it. This shows that people who love the world grieve more over the loss of great men than over the loss of good men.

This fall would also sound a loud warning to them. They would tremble on the day Tyre fell, because they would think their own turn was next. If Tyre can fall, who can stand? If a cedar is shaken, let the fir trees cry out. The downfall of others should wake us up from our false sense of safety. The death or decline of others should check our pride when we imagine our own strength is secure and will not be moved.

Tyre’s ruin is also made worse by the hope of Israel’s restoration. Tyre will sink when God sets glory in the land of the living, as in Ezekiel 26:20. The holy land is called the land of the living, because only holy people are truly living people. Where living sacrifices are offered to the living God, and where the living words of God are heard, there is the land of the living. David hoped to see the Lord’s goodness there, as in Psalm 27:13. In that sense, the holy land pointed forward to heaven, which is truly the land of the living.

Even if this land of the living is dishonored for a time, God will set glory in it again. The glory that had gone away will return, and the restoration of what they lost will become part of their honor. God himself will be the glory of the lands that belong to the living. And this will make the misery of those who belong to the land of the dying, those who are always dying, even greater. They will watch the happiness of those whose lasting portion is in the land of the living. Just as the rich man was in torment and saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, so Tyre will see glory set for God’s people in the land of the living.