Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath
broken thee in the midst of the seas. Thy riches, and thy fairs,
thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the
occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in
thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall
fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin. The suburbs
shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots. And all that
handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall
come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land; And
shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry
bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow
themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald
for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee
with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. And in their wailing
they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee,
saying. What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of
the sea? When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst
many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the
multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise. In the time when
thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy
merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fail. All
the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their
kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their
countenance. The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou
shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more (verses 26-30).
The description of Tyrus as a ship as given in the first part of this
chapter is here maintained. Tyrus is to be shipwrecked. The east wind is
Nebuchadnezzar, who came against the proud city to accomplish part of
her ruin; and Alexander the Great, as we saw in our previous study,
completed the work. A comparison with Revelation xviii will bring out
the striking correspondency. When finally Babylon the great falls, that
coming religious-commercial world-system, with Rome as a center, her
fall and desolation, will surely be greater than the fall of Tyrus. For
this all is rapidly preparing.