Ezekiel 27:9
The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
The ancients of Gebal and its wise, skilled craftsmen served in Tyre as caulkers maintaining her ships, while all the ships of the sea with their mariners and crews from across the sea were present in her to carry her merchandise and conduct her trade. The verse portrays Tyre in her glory before her fearful fall as a prosperous commercial metropolis of great wealth, maritime power and worldwide merchandise, made of perfect beauty by her builders. It belongs to the lamentation over Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28, within the prophecies against Ammon, Moab, Tyre, Sidon and Egypt, foretelling her ruin and utter destruction until she would become a place for the spreading of nets. That word is fulfilled and its fulfilment is evident today in the ruins of Tyre, which stand as a striking object-lesson showing the reliability of prophecy. Her commercialism made her corrupt and exalted until God had to humble her, and the same traffic belongs to end-time Babylon, the modern Tyre, so the chapter stands as a warning to proud cities that forget and defy God that all modern Tyres and Babylons will share her judgment.
Tyre's Maritime Greatness
The ancients of Gebal and its wise men were in Tyre as her calkers, experienced elders and skilled craftsmen who maintained her ships. Their presence shows part of Tyre's glory before her fearful fall, when her builders had made her of perfect beauty. In that glory the wise men of Tyre herself served as pilots, while her merchants were as princes and her traders as the honorable of the earth.
All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in Tyre to occupy her merchandise, with sailors and crews from across the sea present to conduct business and carry her goods. Tyre thus relied on skilled shipbuilders and on ships and sailors to support its trade. When the city faced capture, its people put their wealth aboard ships and sailed away.
The verse belongs to the picture of Tyre as a prosperous city of great wealth, maritime power and extensive commerce. It presents Tyre as the ancient commercial metropolis of the world, full of ships and mariners trading its merchandise. Its worldwide system of merchandise, with workmen and ships and mariners from many places occupied in her trade, was likened to a continual world's fair.
Those workmen, ships and mariners from many places reveal a spirit of merchandise whose traffickers were found everywhere. They sought to possess all nations and to gather every commodity, even the bodies and souls of men. In doing so they overrode honor and integrity and put the god of gold before God.
Prophecy Warning and Fulfillment
Ezekiel 27 belongs to the lamentation over Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28, which gives the ruin of Tyre and predicts her utter destruction. It stands within the prophecies of other nations in Ezekiel 25 to 31 covering Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Egypt, and belongs to a prophecy foretelling the destruction of Tyre and Sidon. It is a remarkable prophecy whose fulfilment is evident today.
The prophecy described Tyre as the ancient commercial metropolis of the world, full of ships and mariners trading its merchandise, and foretold that Tyre would become a place for the spreading of nets, a place where people spread nets. That word is fulfilled, and the ruins of Tyre stand as a striking object-lesson of fulfilled prophecy. That fulfilled prediction is presented as showing the reliability of prophecy.
The chapter sets forth a worldwide system of merchandise, with workmen and ships and mariners from many places occupied in her trade. That commercialism made Tyre corrupt and exalted until God had to humble her. The same kind of traffic belongs to end-time Babylon, the modern Tyre, not one city but a federation taking in all the earth, whose fall leaves her merchants desolate. All modern Tyres and Babylons will become one with Nineveh and Tyre.
The verse pictures Tyre as a great center of maritime trade, with skilled elders and craftsmen from Gebal serving as ship caulkers while ships and sailors from across the sea gathered there to trade, and portrays her as a prosperous trading city whose skilled builders and ship crews supported its commerce. The chapter is presented as a warning from Tyre's judgment whose lesson applies to cities that forget and defy God. Tyre serves as an example of a proud city that faced judgment for its open defiance of God, a lesson applied to modern San Francisco.