Page 141 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXVIII. 135

deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am
God? but thou shalt be a man, and no god, in the hand
of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of
the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have
spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Yer. 6—10.) If
he aspired to be God in pretension, he should feel what
it is to be man in weakness when the sword of the
terrible stranger should defile his brightness, and he
should die the deaths of such as are slain in the heart
of the seas, for it should prove then no impregnable
shelter but his most ignominious grave. He should die
the deaths of the uncircumcised, of men farthest from
God.
There is more difficulty as to verses 11—19. Is it
the same personage, or a different one? I am disposed
to think it the same historically, but with a deeper
reference to Satan’s fall incorporated into it; and this
may be one reason why the Spirit of God changes
“ prince” into “ king.” The picture is beyond com­
parison more elaborate than the former sketch, yet not
without links that connect both together. u Moreover
the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man,
take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say
unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Thou sealest
up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every
precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and
the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the
sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the
workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was pre­
pared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” (Yer.