Ezekiel · chapter 27 of 48
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Ezekiel 27 is a funeral lament over Tyre, described as a magnificent ship built from the best materials of many lands. Its trading partners brought gold, silver, horses, grain and slaves from across the known world. But the rowers take it out to the high seas, an east wind wrecks it and the ship sinks, while sailors and merchants mourn.
After the announcement of judgment in chapter 26, Ezekiel is told to raise a lament, a funeral song, over Tyre. Instead of a sermon, the prophet uses a poetic image: the city as a splendid ship. The chapter is also a window onto the economy of the ancient world, because it names dozens of peoples and the goods they sold to Tyre.
Ezekiel is to lament over Tyre, which calls itself perfect in beauty and whose borders are in the heart of the seas. The prophet describes the ship: its planks are cypress from Senir, its mast cedar from Lebanon, its oars oak from Bashan, its deck ivory set in wood from Cyprus, its sails embroidered linen from Egypt. Sailors from Sidon and Arvad rowed it, and Tyre's own wise men were its pilots.
Then comes the trade: Tarshish, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Judah and Israel, Damascus, Arabia and many more brought silver, iron, tin, horses, grain, wine, textiles and slaves. The whole ancient world is gathered in a list that shows the reach of Tyre's power. The ships of Tarshish were its caravans, and Tyre grew full of wealth in the heart of the seas.
But its rowers take it into deep waters and the east wind wrecks it in the middle of the sea. Its riches and its crew go down. The captains of other ships weep bitterly on the shore, cover themselves with dust and shave their heads. The merchants among the peoples hiss in astonishment, and Tyre becomes a terror, never to be again.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Tyre claims to be perfect in beauty. Its pride makes it think it is self-sufficient, and the prophet records the boast to set up the contrast with what comes next: beauty built on human wealth cannot stand against God's judgment.
The elders of Gebal and its skilled workers repaired the ship's seams, and every ship of the sea came to trade with it. A city that relies on the help of many can look strong until the wind changes.
The rowers take the ship into deep waters and the east wind wrecks it. Those who should have guided it lead it to ruin, and the image shows that God's judgment can fall on what looked most secure.
The sailors raise a lament over Tyre and ask who was ever like it in the midst of the sea. The lament acknowledges the greatness that was lost, but makes clear that no human greatness lasts.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: To raise a lament, a funeral song, over Tyre. — Ezekiel 27:2
Answer: As perfect in beauty. — Ezekiel 27:3
Answer: The oars were made of oaks of Bashan and the mast of a cedar of Lebanon. — Ezekiel 27:5-6
Answer: Wheat, among other goods. — Ezekiel 27:17
Answer: The east wind. — Ezekiel 27:26
Answer: They hiss in astonishment at Tyre's sudden end. — Ezekiel 27:36
The image of the sinking ship invites us to examine what our security rests on. A ship can be made of the finest materials and steered by the best pilots and still be wrecked. In a class or small group you can talk about how our culture measures success by wealth, prestige or influence, and what place we give God among those measures.
The chapter also teaches us to weep with those who weep without celebrating anyone's fall. Ezekiel's lament acknowledges the loss even of a proud city. That compassion, joined to the truth about judgment, is a good guide for speaking about the powers of this world.
Ezekiel 27 ends with Tyre sunk and the merchants of the world stunned at its end. Chapter 28 turns the message to the ruler of Tyre, whose pride is the root of the fall just described.
The list shows how far Tyre's trade reached and how much wealth was gathered in a single city. For ancient readers it was also a map of the known world. Its role in the chapter is to stress how much Tyre had to lose and how complete its fall would be.
Many readers notice echoes of this lament in Revelation 18, where merchants and sailors mourn the fall of Babylon, the great city of commerce. It is not a direct quotation, but both share the idea that wealth joined to arrogance ends in ruin.