(10) The uncircumcised.--To the Jew this term conveyed all, and more than all, the opprobrium which the Greeks and Romans attached to barbarians. (Comp. Ezekiel 31:18; Ezekiel 32:19; Ezekiel 32:21; Ezekiel 32:24-28, &c.) It is equivalent to saying "the profane and impious."
Ezekiel 28:11-19 contain the doom upon the prince of Tyre. He is represented as like the first man, perfect, and placed in Eden, until, upon his fall (Ezekiel 28:15-16), he is ignominiously driven forth. The passage is strongly ironical.
Verse 10. - The climax comes in the strongest language of Hebrew scorn. As the uncircumcised were to the Israelite (1 Samuel 17:36; 1 Samuel 31:4), so should the King of Tyro, unhonored, unwept, with no outward marks of reverence, be among the great cues of the past who dwell in Hades. Ezekiel returns to the phrase in Ezekiel 31:18; Ezekiel 32:24. The words receive a special force from the fact that the Phoenicians practiced circumcision before their intercourse with the Greeks (Herod., 2:104).
28:1-19 Ethbaal, or Ithobal, was the prince or king of Tyre; and being lifted up with excessive pride, he claimed Divine honours. Pride is peculiarly the sin of our fallen nature. Nor can any wisdom, except that which the Lord gives, lead to happiness in this world or in that which is to come. The haughty prince of Tyre thought he was able to protect his people by his own power, and considered himself as equal to the inhabitants of heaven. If it were possible to dwell in the garden of Eden, or even to enter heaven, no solid happiness could be enjoyed without a humble, holy, and spiritual mind. Especially all spiritual pride is of the devil. Those who indulge therein must expect to perish.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised,.... Or the death of the wicked, as the Targum; the first and second death, temporal and eternal: the former
by the hand of strangers, the Chaldeans, in various shapes; and the latter will follow upon it: it may denote the various kinds of death which the inhabitants of Rome will die when destroyed, some by famine, some by pestilence, and others by fire; when these plagues shall come upon her in one day, Revelation 18:8.
for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and therefore it shall surely come to pass; strong is the Lord that will judge, condemn, and destroy mystical Babylon, or Tyre.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 contain the doom upon the prince of Tyre. He is represented as like the first man, perfect, and placed in Eden, until, upon his fall (Ezekiel 28:15-16), he is ignominiously driven forth. The passage is strongly ironical.
by the hand of strangers, the Chaldeans, in various shapes; and the latter will follow upon it: it may denote the various kinds of death which the inhabitants of Rome will die when destroyed, some by famine, some by pestilence, and others by fire; when these plagues shall come upon her in one day, Revelation 18:8.
for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and therefore it shall surely come to pass; strong is the Lord that will judge, condemn, and destroy mystical Babylon, or Tyre.