Ezekiel 26:1

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) In the first day of the month.—The year was that in which Jerusalem fell (2Kings 25:2-4; 2Kings 25:8-9), but the month is not given here, and cannot now be ascertained. It is plain from Ezekiel 26:2 that Tyre already felt sure of the issue of the siege; but there is a marked difference between this and the language in Ezekiel 25:3, which could only have been used after the capture of the city. This prophecy may therefore well have been given at any time during the eleventh year. Possibly the Alexandrine Septuagint is right in supplying “the first” month; but as this is omitted in the Roman copy, it is more likely to have been a mere conjecture. There is a similar omission in Ezekiel 32:17, but the number is easily supplied there from Ezekiel 26:1. Probably, in both cases the omission is a mere error of the scribes.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 26:1. In the eleventh year, in the first day of the month — By the eleventh year seems to be intended the eleventh of Jehoiachin’s captivity; for Ezekiel seems to reckon this time chiefly from that period. What month it was is not mentioned: some think the first month of the year is meant; others the first month after the taking of Jerusalem.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:1-14 To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely to get by it; or with their fall, when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that easily besets us, yet is not thought so bad as really it is. But it comes from a selfish, covetous principle, and from that love of the world as our happiness, which the love of God expressly forbids. He often blasts the projects of those who would raise themselves on the ruin of others. The maxims most current in the trading world, are directly opposed to the law of God. But he will show himself against the money-loving, selfish traders, whose hearts, like those of Tyre, are hardened by the love of riches. Men have little cause to glory in things which stir up the envy and rapacity of others, and which are continually shifting from one to another; and in getting, keeping, and spending which, men provoke that God whose wrath turns joyous cities into ruinous heaps.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Prophecies against Tyre. The siege of Tyre lasted thirteen years beginning 585 b.c., about three years after the capture of Jerusalem. While besieging Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar had driven Pharaoh Hophra back to the borders of Egypt. Tyre being thus relieved from a dangerous enemy, was exulting in her own deliverance, and in her neighbor's ruin, when Ezekiel predicted the calamity about to befall her. The name Tyre means rock, and was given to the city in consequence of its position. This island-rock was the heart of Tyre, and the town upon the continent - called "Old Tyre," possibly as having been the temporary position of the first settlers - was the outgrowth of the island city. The scanty records of ancient history give no, distinct evidence of the capture of insular Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar; but the fact is very probable. Compare especially Ezekiel 26:7-12; Ezekiel 29:18. The present state of Tyre is one of utter desolation, though the end was long delayed (compare Isaiah 23). Tyre was great and wealthy under Persian, Greek, Roman, and even Muslim masters. The final ruin of Tyre was due to the sultan of Egypt (1291 a.d.).

In the first day of the month - The number of the month being omitted, many suppose "the month" to mean the month when Jerusalem was taken (the rebirth month), called "the month," as being so well known. The capture of the city is known to have taken place on "the ninth day of the fourth month" and its destruction on "the seventh day of the fifth month." This prophecy therefore preceded by a few days the capture of the city. The condition of Jerusalem in the latter months of its siege was such that the Tyrians may well have exulted as though it had already fallen.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 26

Eze 26:1-21. The Judgment on Tyre through Nebuchadnezzar (TWENTY-SIXTH THROUGH Twenty-eighth Chapters).

In the twenty-sixth chapter, Ezekiel sets forth:—(1) Tyre's sin; (2) its doom; (3) the instruments executing it; (4) the effects produced on other nations by her downfall. In the twenty-seventh chapter, a lamentation over the fall of such earthly splendor. In the twenty-eighth chapter, an elegy addressed to the king, on the humiliation of his sacrilegious pride. Ezekiel, in his prophecies as to the heathen, exhibits the dark side only; because he views them simply in their hostility to the people of God, who shall outlive them all. Isaiah (Isa 23:1-18), on the other hand, at the close of judgments, holds out the prospect of blessing, when Tyre should turn to the Lord.

1. The specification of the date, which had been omitted in the case of the four preceding objects of judgment, marks the greater weight attached to the fall of Tyre.

eleventh year—namely, after the carrying away of Jehoiachin, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. The number of the month is, however, omitted, and the day only given. As the month of the taking of Jerusalem was regarded as one of particular note, namely, the fourth month, also the fifth, on which it was actually destroyed (Jer 52:6, 12, 13), Rabbi David reasonably supposes that Tyre uttered her taunt at the close of the fourth month, as her nearness to Jerusalem enabled her to hear of its fall very soon, and that Ezekiel met it with his threat against herself on "the first day" of the fifth month.Tyrus, for insulting over the distress of Jerusalem, is threatened with destruction, Ezekiel 26:1-6: of which Nebuchadrezzar shall be made the instrument, Ezekiel 26:7-14. The consternation and mourning of the isles and princes of the sea for her fall, Ezekiel 26:15-21.

The eleventh year of Jeconiah’s captivity, the year wherein Jerusalem was taken.

The first day of the month; that month which followed the taking of Jerusalem, i.e. the fifth month; for Jerusalem was taken on the fourth month, ninth day, and in twenty days after the news was brought to Tyrus, which behaved herself as the prophet will declare.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass in the eleventh year,.... Of Jehoiachin's captivity and Zedekiah's reign, the same year that Jerusalem was taken:

in the first day of the month; but what month is not mentioned; some have thought the first month, and so it was the first day of the year; others the fourth, the same in which the city of Jerusalem was taken; but more probably the fifth, the first of which was twenty days after the taking it; in which time the news of it might be brought to Tyre, at which she rejoiced; and for which her destruction is threatened, and here prophesied of:

that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows:

Geneva Study Bible

And it came to pass in the {a} eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

(a) Either of the captivity of Jeconiah or of the reign of Zedekiah.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. first day of the month] The 11th year of Jehoiachin’s captivity was that in which Jerusalem was taken. On the 9th day of the 4th month of this year the city was stormed, and on the 10th day of the 5th month it was destroyed (Jeremiah 52:6; Jeremiah 52:12). The present prophecy assumes the destruction of the city (Ezekiel 26:2). The month is not stated. If the 11th year be read in Ezekiel 33:21 (see there), fugitives announcing the fall of the city reached the prophet on the 5th of the 10th month of that year. The prophecy is probably later than this date, and the month may be the 11th or 12th.

1. All prophecy is moral, is based on moral considerations. What the prophet aims his threats against is not the prosperity of Tyre, but its pride of heart, which was rebellion against Jehovah, God over all. The humiliation of Tyre was morally as good as its ruin, in so far as it shewed that there were higher forces in the world than itself.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - In the eleventh year, etc. The last date given (Ezekiel 24:1) was the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year (sc. B.C. 590). We have now come to the eleventh year, on which, on the ninth day of the fourth month, Jerusalem was taken, while its destruction followed in the seventh day of the fifth month (Jeremiah 52:6, 12). Here the number of the month is not given in the Hebrew or the Vulgate, while the LXX. inserts the "first month." In Ezekiel 32:17 we have a like omission, and in both cases it is natural to assume an error of transcription. The tidings of the capture may have reached both Tyre and Tel-Abib, and Ezekiel may have heard of the temper in which the former had received them, just as he had heard how the nations named in the previous chapter had exulted in the fall, imminent and, as they thought, inevitable, of the holy city. Ezekiel 26:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In four sections, commencing with the formula, "thus saith the Lord," Tyre, the mistress of the sea, is threatened with destruction. In the first strophe (Ezekiel 26:2-6) there is a general threat of its destruction by a host of nations. In the second (Ezekiel 26:7-14), the enemy is mentioned by name, and designated as a powerful one; and the conquest and destruction emanating from his are circumstantially described. In the third (Ezekiel 26:15-18), the impression which this event would produce upon the inhabitants of the islands and coast-lands is depicted. And in the fourth (Ezekiel 26:19-21), the threat is repeated in an energetic manner, and the prophecy is thereby rounded off.

This word of God bears in the introduction to the date of its delivery to the prophet and enunciation by him. - Ezekiel 26:1. It came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, that the word of Jehovah came to me, saying. - The eleventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin was the year of the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52:6, Jeremiah 52:12), the occurrence of which is presupposed in Ezekiel 26:2 also. There is something striking in the omission of the number of the month both here and in Ezekiel 32:17, as the day of the month is given. The attempt to discover in the words בּאחד an indication of the number of the month, by understanding לחדשׁ as signifying the first month of the year: "on the first as regards the month," equivalent to, "in the first month, on the first day of it" (lxx, Luther, Kliefoth, and others), is as forced and untenable as the notion that that particular month is intended which had peculiar significance for Ezekiel, namely, the month in which Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed. The first explanation is proved to be erroneous by Ezekiel 26:2, where the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in the fifth month of the year named, is assumed to have already happened. The second view is open to the objection that the conquest of Jerusalem happened in the fourth month, and the destruction in the fifth (Jeremiah 52:6 and Jeremiah 52:12); and it cannot be affirmed that the conquest was of less importance to Ezekiel than the destruction. We cannot escape the conclusion, therefore, that the number of the month has been dropped through a corruption of the text, which has occurred in copying; but in that case we must give up all hope of being able to determine what the month really was. The conjecture offered by Ewald and Hitzig, that one of the last months of the year is intended, because Ezekiel could not have known before then what impression the conquest of Jerusalem had made upon Tyre, stands or falls with the naturalistic view entertained by these writers with regard to prophecy.