Page 137 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXVII. 131
As it would seem that some places in Arabia are here
meant, so perhaps the second Dedan. Arabia and all
the princes of Kedar traded in lambs and rams and he-
goats. Again merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded
with Tyre, furnishing the markets with the best spices
and with all precious stones and gold. Next we find
the Mesopotamian traders. From these eastern sources
they had the most showy articles, purple, and damask,
3,nd embroidery, wound up with the ships of Tarshish,
the great means of conveyance for the ancient world.
Instead of the singular expression in our version, u The
ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market,”
there is good authority for understanding “ The ships
of Tarshish were thy walls, thy trade.” A similar ex­
pression has been used popularly of our own country.
But no fulness from without, no glory even in the
heart of the seas, could resist the word of Jehovah.
The day of Tyre was come. “ Thy rowers brought thee
into great waters: the east wind broke thee in the heart
of the seas.” From verse 26 just quoted begins the
prophet’s description of the ruin of Tyre. We return
to the previous allegory. Tyre is a ship that founders
at sea. Nebuchadnezzar is the east wind that upset
her. " Thy riches and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy
mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers
[or barterers] of thy merchandise, and all thy men of
war [or warriors] that are in thee, even with all thy
•company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall in the
heart of the seas in the day of thy fall.” (Ver. 27.)
Slowly had Tyre risen to this immense and concen­
trated trade; how quickly all fell to ruin when Nebu­
chadnezzar struck the first blow and irretrievably