Ezekiel 27 explained: Funeral Song for a Great Trading City

A lament for a proud city (vv. 1-3)

Tyre was a wealthy island port off the coast of what is now Lebanon, the hub of trade across the Mediterranean. Ezekiel is told to sing a funeral song over it while it is still thriving, and the charge against it is its boast, "I am perfect in beauty."

Tyre pictured as a ship (vv. 4-9)

The city is described as a luxury vessel built from the finest timber of the region, with an embroidered Egyptian linen sail and costly dyed awnings. Neighboring cities supply the rowers and repair crews, while Tyre's own experts take command, a sign of how far its influence reached.

An army of hired soldiers (vv. 10-11)

Tyre paid fighters from far east and far west to guard its walls. Shields hung on the walls were both display and decoration, showing off how many nations served it.

A catalog of trading partners (vv. 12-25)

This long list runs from Tarshish, probably in Spain, through Greece, Asia Minor, Israel, Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia, naming metals, horses, ivory, wheat, wine, spices, gold and fine cloth. It also plainly lists human beings sold as slaves, and some place names and goods are uncertain to scholars today.

The shipwreck (vv. 26-32)

Far out at sea an east wind breaks the ship apart, and everyone and everything aboard goes down. Many read the east wind as Babylon's army, and the sailors left on shore mourn the way people then did, with dust, ashes, shaved heads and sackcloth, a rough cloth worn in grief.

The world looks on (vv. 33-36)

Tyre once made kings and merchants rich, and now those same partners are horrified, and some even jeer, as it vanishes. Christians have noticed that the lament for "Babylon" in Revelation 18, with its weeping merchants, echoes this chapter closely.

Key verse: Ezekiel 27:27

Something to think about

When a city, company or person seems too successful to ever fail, what do you think makes that confidence feel so solid?