Prophecy Against Sidon and Promise for Israel

The threatening word against Sidon is very brief, and couched in general terms, because as a matter of fact the prophecy against Tyre involved the announcement of the fall of Sidon, which was dependent upon it; and, as we have already observed, Sidon received a special word of God simply for the purpose of making up the number of the heathen nations mentioned to the significant number seven. The word of God against Sidon brings to a close the cycle of predictions of judgment directed against those heathen nations which had given expression to malicious pleasure at the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah. There is therefore appended a promise for Israel (Ezekiel 28:25, Ezekiel 28:26), which is really closely connected with the threatening words directed against the heathen nations, and for which the way is prepared by Ezekiel 28:24. The correspondence of נקדּשׁתּי בהּ (I shall be sanctified in her) in Ezekiel 28:22 to נקדּשׁתּי בם (I shall be sanctified in them) in Ezekiel 28:25, serves to place the future fate of Israel in antithesis not merely to the future fate of Sidon, but, as Ezekiel 28:24 and Ezekiel 28:26 clearly show, to that of all the heathen nations against which the previous threats have been directed.

Ezekiel 28:20-24

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 28:21. Son of man, direct thy face towards Sidon, and prophesy against it, Ezekiel 28:22. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will be against thee, O Sidon, and will glorify myself in the midst of thee; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I execute judgments upon it, and sanctify myself upon it. Ezekiel 28:23. I will send pestilence into it, and blood into its streets; slain will fall in the midst of it by the sword, which cometh upon it from every side; and they shall learn that I am Jehovah. Ezekiel 28:24. And there shall be no more to the house of Israel a malignant thorn and smarting sting from all round about them, who despise them; but they shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. - Jehovah will glorify Himself as the Lord upon Sidon, as He did before upon Pharaoh (compare Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:16-17, to which the word נכבּדתּי in Ezekiel 28:22, an unusual expression for Ezekiel, evidently points). The glorification is effected by judgments, through which He proves Himself to be holy upon the enemies of His people. He executes the judgments through pestilence and blood (vid., Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 38:22), i.e., through disease and bloodshed occasioned by war, so that men fall, slain by the sword (cf. Ezekiel 6:7). Instead of נפל we have the intensive form נפלל, which is regarded by Ewald and Hitzig as a copyist's error, because it is only met with here. Through these judgments the Lord will liberate His people Israel from all round about, who increase its suffering by their contempt. These thoughts sum up in Ezekiel 28:24 the design of God's judgments upon all the neighbouring nations which are threatened in Ezekiel 25-28, and thus prepare the way for the concluding promise in Ezekiel 28:25 and Ezekiel 28:26. The figure of the sting and thorn points back to Numbers 33:55, where it is said that the Canaanites whom Israel failed to exterminate would become thorns in its eyes and stings in its sides. As Israel did not keep itself free from the Canaanitish nature of the heathen nations, God caused it to fell these stings of heathenism. Having been deeply hurt by them, it was now lying utterly prostrate with its wounds. The sins of Canaan, to which Israel had given itself up, had occasioned the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16). But Israel is not to succumb to its wounds. On the contrary, by destroying the heathen powers, the Lord will heal His people of the wounds which its heathen neighbours have inflicted upon it. סלּון, synonymous with סלּון in Ezekiel 2:6, a word only found in Ezekiel. ממאיר, on the contrary, is taken from Leviticus 13:51 and Leviticus 14:44, where it is applied to malignant leprosy (see the comm. on the former passage). - For השּׁאטים אותם, see Ezekiel 16:57 and Ezekiel 25:6.

Ezekiel 30:11 Parallel Commentaries

the terrible

Ezekiel 28:7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations...

Ezekiel 31:12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him...

Ezekiel 32:12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them...

Deuteronomy 28:50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young:

Isaiah 14:4-6 That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!...

Jeremiah 51:20-23 You are my battle ax and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms...

Habakkuk 1:6-9 For, see, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land...

and fill

Ezekiel 35:8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in your hills, and in your valleys, and in all your rivers...

Ezekiel 39:4,11-20 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your bands, and the people that is with you...

Isaiah 34:3-7 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses...

Zephaniah 1:17,18 And I will bring distress on men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD...

Revelation 14:20 And the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even to the horse bridles...

Revelation 19:18 That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses...