Ezekiel 25—Recompense Upon The Tares
25:1, 2. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them.—Chapter 25 foretells that after the fall of apostate ecclesiasticism in revolution, in 1918, the end of the various discordant non-Christian elements of Christendom, hostile to true Christianity, which will seek to profit by her fall, will come. The Ammonites (25:1-7) and the Moabites (25:8-11), both children of Lot—who was himself a type of the Great Company class—are a type of a class brought into being by their father, the Great Company class (Lot), while he was in a state of drunken stupor from mixed doctrines, through Lot's daughters, type of the worldly churches of the Great Company. The Edomites, descendants of Esau, represent a class who sell their birthright to sonship of God for a mess of pottage, worldly advantage (25:12-14); and the Philistines, a people who migrated from Egypt, and aggressively preyed upon the Jews, type of a class of aggressive, middle-course, professing Christians who prey upon true Christians. The message begins with words against the Ammonites, types of those believing worldlings who were brought into the churches by the more or less faithless Great Company, and who in an aggressive and predatory fashion as Jesuits, persecuting Romish priests, and Protestant clergy and their kind persecuted the true Christians. The Ammonites are described as “fierce marauders, crafty, cruel, predatory.” The Ammonites worshipped Baal, under the name Chemosh, the god of fire and of fornication, type of the eternal-torment-purgatory god, the encourager of the spiritual adultery of church-state union.
25:3. And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God; Because thou saidst, Aha, against My Sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity.—When God's true Church shall be persecuted in the [pg 487] world-war and revolution, and true Christian faith shall be desolated, and the multitude of those that praise God (Judah, praise) shall go into captivity to the infidel revolutionists, the persecuting, world-loving church members (Ammonites) will he glad of it.
26:4. Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.—God will deliver this class unto the anarchists, to possess them, and make themselves at home with their property, and to make away with their doctrines (milk).
25:5. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—And I will make the lordly clergy class (Rabbah, great) waste and abandoned.
25:6. For thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel.—Because they shall rejoice greatly, in their despite against Christianity.
25:7. Behold, therefore I will stretch out Mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen: and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.—Therefore God will stretch out His hand against them, and deliver them to be despoiled by the infidel anarchists in their midst. He will cut them off as a class, cause them to cease and destroy them, and they shall know that He is God.
25:8. Thus saith the Lord God: Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen.—The Moabites (“Seir” should be omitted) were the civilized part of the descendants of Lot, born of incest, of a drunken father, Lot, and worshippers of Baal, while acknowledging Jehovah. They typed a church membership begotten by the mixture of truth and error, by the Great Company class, through their world-loving churches (daughters of Lot), and worshipping the eternal-torment God, imagining him to be Jehovah, and practicing the spiritual harlotry of union of church and state. Moab was “a nation high spirited, wealthy, populous, civilized, and of wide reputation and popularity.” They type a like class.
25:9. Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshi-moth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.—God will cause this class to be attacked in the anarchy (Beth-jeshimoth, place of desolation), on two [pg 488] grounds, their apostate clergy (Baalmeon, lord of the habitation) and church-state system (Kiriathaim, double city).
25:10. Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.—The anarchists will also overcome the aggressive class (Ammonites).
25:11, 12. And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them.—The professedly Christian “Edomites” (D. 14-19)—nominally believers in God (descendants of Abraham), but worshipping a variety of gods of power, wealth, and worldliness, especially the eternal-torment God—(Josephus says the Edomites worshipped Cese, the destroyer)—will help greatly in pulling down Christianity.
25:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.—God will stretch His hand against this class (Edom-Idumea) and from end to end they shall fall by the weapons of destruction, and by the Sword of the Spirit.—Isa. 34:5, 6; Jer. 49:7-17.
25:14. And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to Mine anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance, saith the Lord God.—The Truth people shall declare what God will do to this class in His furious anger.—Isa. 15:1-9; Jer. 48:1-47.
25:15. Thus saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred.—The worldly professing Christians (Philistines, emigrants from Egypt) persecute God's true people, and shall in the revolution despitefully aid in destroying Christianity.—Joel 3:4.
25:16, 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will stretch out Mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethim, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay My vengeance upon them.—God will, through the anarchists, stretch out His hand against this class, and will cut off those that carry out persecution and death upon His people (Cherethim, executioners), and all worldly professing Christians as such, including those that border on anarchy (sea coast).
Ezekiel 26—Downfall Of Philosophy
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.—Chapter 26 depicts ecclesiasticism in the guise of an elaborate system of philosophy. The name Tyrus signifies “Rock;” and human philosophy, particularly Greek Platonic philosophy, is the real rock foundation of ecclesiastical teachings. Any true ecclesiastic, when driven by the Word of God from his untenable errors, claims sanction for them by reference to the philosophy of Plato and the inherent immortality of man, etc.
26:2. Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste.—This system and its adherents will manifest their essentially non-Christian nature when Christendom (Jerusalem) falls at the hands of the revolutionists in 1918. Philosophy, Higher Criticism, will rejoice that ecclesiasticism, which claimed to be the gateway to God for the people, is broken. They will imagine that the adherents of a Christianity that has failed will turn to philosophy, and that the adherents of philosophy will be increased now that ecclesiasticism is desolated. Human philosophy will seem to be the sole refuge of the people of Christendom.
26:3. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.—Because Christendom has borne the name of Christ and had the oracles of God, therefore God is against philosophy and will cause the many nations of Christendom to come up against established philosophy, as a sea of anarchy, with the discontented masses attacking, wave after wave, endlessly.
26:4. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.—The anarchists shall destroy the walls of defense, composed of the adherents to human philosophy, and shall break down the loftiest and strongest organizations, its towers of defense. [pg 490] God will remove the last vestiges of human adherence to Christendom's system of philosophy.
26:5. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.—In the anarchy, human philosophy shall be utterly abandoned—deprived of all its former supporters, by whole nations of anarchists.
26:6. And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword: and they shall know that I am the Lord.—The religious organizations (daughters) founded on philosophy, which are in the world (field), shall be wiped out; and in the Kingdom their former adherents shall come to know Jehovah as He is.
26:7. For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people.—Jehovah God declares that against human philosophy (Tyrus) and its systems and adherents, He will array Satan—the king of this evil world, ruler of mystic Babylon, “the gateway to Bel,” to devil worship, king over the kings and other children of disobedience. He shall be permitted to come by God Himself (the North) (Jer. 1:14), with teachings (horses) of anarchy, with institutions based upon such teachings (chariots), with leaders and teachers riding these hobbies (horsemen), with an organised following (companies) and with many people following after anarchy in unorganized mobs (much people).
26:8. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee.—With weapons of destruction (swords) anarchy shall seek to destroy the philosophical churches and other religious organizations (daughters) in the world (field) and shall systematically besiege them.
26:9. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.—Anarchy shall make war against their defenders (walls), and with keen, strong, cutting arguments (axes), shall break down philosophy's strongholds (towers).
26:10. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.—Anarchistic teachings (horses) without limit shall fill the air with confusion (dust); philosophy's defenders (walls) shall fear and quake at the tumult (noise) of the leaders and teachers of [pg 491] anarchy (horsemen), and of their systematic plans (wheels) of destruction, and of the anarchistic organizations (chariots), when Anarchy shall pour its forces through the great ones (gates) of Philosophy, for the great ones will become channels (breaches) for the inpouring teachings of anarchy.
26:11. With the hoofs of his horses shall be tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.—With the impact (hoofs) of doctrines (horses) of destruction, anarchy shall beat down all the orderly ways (streets) of philosophy. Anarchy shall destroy the adherents of philosophy with weapons of destruction, and the learned and mighty colleges and universities (garrisons) shall go down in failure and ruin.
26:12. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.—And the anarchists shall spoil the ideals (riches), and stop the teaching (merchandise) of philosophy; they shall break down the defense of philosophy's adherents (walls), and destroy the pleasing philosophical organizations (pleasant houses). They shall engulf the believers (stones) and supporters (timbers) in the rising tide of anarchy.
26:13. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.—And God will cause the noise of philosophy's siren songs, her falsely pleasant teachings (songs) to cease; and the utterance of her melodious books (harps) shall be no more heard forever.
26:14. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.—Philosophy, falsely so-called, shall be utterly desolated, and shall be built up no more forever; for Jehovah God has spoken it.
26:15. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?—The world will be full of revolutionary republics (isles), devoid of Christian principles and following man-made ideas; these republics shall be shaken to their foundations, when anarchy begins its dread slaughter of men and of systems.
26:16. Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves [pg 492]with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.—Then shall the rude rulers of the revolutionary, half-anarchistic republics lose their positions of power (thrones), and lay aside their honors (robes), and discard their works of revolution (broidered garments); they shall be filled with dread and with trembling, and shall marvel at the downfall of their socialistic and revolutionary philosophies.
26:17. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!—They shall lament; for the great systems of human philosophy shall be destroyed, where abode polished cosmopolitan men of the world (seafaring men), the renowned system of thought which was strong among all peoples (in the sea), even in the midst of a world of restless, discontented masses.
26:18. Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.—Now shall the revolutionary republics (isles) tremble in the year of philosophy's downfall; the republics in the midst of the anarchistic peoples (sea) shall be in trouble with the failure of the system of man-made philosophy.
26:19. For thus saith the Lord God; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee.—For God will utterly desolate philosophical teachings; when He brings up the sea of anarchy upon them, and engulfs them in the tidal wave.
26:20. When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living.—God will bring human philosophy down to destruction, without an adherent and in disgrace and reproach (into the pit), in order that He may establish His glorious truth in the Kingdom of resurrection and of life.
26:21. I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.—God will make human philosophy a wasted, desolated thing (a terror); never shall it exist any more; though men and devils should seek to reestablish it, never shall it be found again, saith Jehovah God.
Ezekiel 27—Philosophy's Utter Ruin
27:1. The Word of the Lord came again unto me, saying.—In Chapter 27 Christendom, regarded as an independent system of pagan philosophy, is represented as a gallant ship. Its component parts are represented symbolically (27:4-7), as are its mariners and pilots (27:8-9). In verses 9 to 25 the figure reverts to a mercantile city, and the sources of its articles of trade. It is again pictured as a ship, which is steered by its mariners into an angry sea, and wrecked.—Verses 26 to 36.
27:2. Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus.—The man-made system of Pagan philosophy must fall.
27:3. And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God: O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.—O Christendom, thou that hast the entree to the ears of the peoples (sea), which art a salesman (merchant) of philosophical doctrines for the people of many revolutionary republics, thus says the Lord God: O Christendom, ecclesiasticism, thou hast regarded thy pagan philosophies as perfect, faultless and beautiful.
27:4. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.—Thou, as an independent pagan religious organization or system, belongest among the disobedient children (sea) of the world. Thy philosophers, doctors of divinity, professors and writers, have perfected thy seemingly beautiful philosophy.
27:5. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.—They have made as thy fundamental supporters (boards) believers in everlasting human life (firs, evergreen trees), in high stations in society (Mount Senir, or Hermon, “pointed rock” was in Benjamin, one of the Hebrew tribes, and type of the Great Company). They have taken as the support (masts) of thy seeming righteousness (linen sails) earth's greatest men and the rulers, believers in inherent immortality (cedars), picturing them as from the loftiest, purest sources. (Lebanon, a great mountain range, means “white, snowy.”).
[pg 494]27:6. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.—The prominent tares, leaders (oaks), whom other tares follow and worship, and who are fruitful in producing more tares (Bashan means fruitful), are the mechanism (oars) for making thee move and progress among the people. The company of free-thinkers (Ashurite means freemen) have made thy white (supposedly righteous) seats (ivory signifies dreams—of immediate spirit life when they die) to be the seats (seats of the mighty), of the rowers who work the oars.
27:7. Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.—Thy ensigns, banners, sails, over thee, to be driven by the winds of error, are false righteousness (linen), with innumerable works of self-righteousness (broidered work), and of worldliness (Egypt); thou wast covered with the faithfulness (blue) and royalty (purple) of the worst of earth's pagan peoples (Elishah, descended from Javan, European, the most cruel and ferocious people of earth, as shown by their history, including this furious world-war.)
27:8. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners; thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.—The adherents of the belong-to-a-church or go-to-hell idea (Zidon meant “fortress,” and the idea is the fortress of ecclesiasticism), and the supporters of the falsely comforting refuge of Platonic immortality of the soul (Arvad means refuge, and Platonic heathen philosophy is the refuge of philosophic Christendom) were thy mariners, the ones who “worked” thy oars; thy philosophers (wise ones), from Plato to Nietsche, charted thy evil course, and were the real “sky-pilots” for the rowers to row by.
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 doctors of divinity (ancients of Gebal) (Psa. 83:7) and the creed builders said enough on both sides of any question for theological authorities (calkers) to keep the people (sea) from getting on the inside, or having any real participation in thy affairs. In the middle of verse 9 the figure changes back to that of the prosperous mercantile city that Tyre was. All the independent religious and philosophical churches and other organizations (ships) of the sea (peoples and nations) with their sky-pilots (mariners) were in thee, O Christendom, thou aggregation [pg 495] of confused and contradictory philosophies, to receive, hold and disseminate thy teachings, doctrines, traditions, fables and philosophies (merchandise).
27:10. They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war; they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.—Believers in the hell-fire superstition (Persians were fire worshippers), and middle-course, conservative worldly men of sin (the people of Lud and Phut were dark-skinned men, living probably west of Egypt, type of worldly compromisers with sin) were in thine army, those that fight the bad fight of error for thee; in thee they hung the shield of credulity (faith) and the helmet of a false salvation; they extolled the loveliness of thy philosophy.
27:11. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were in thy towers; they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.—The believers in human immortality, thy philosophic refuge (Arvad means “refuge”) with thine army just mentioned were the wall of thy defense and thy watchmen, college professors, economists (the Gammadim are thought to mean watchmen or guards) were in thy watch towers; upon thy walls, in the minds of thy supporters (walls) they hanged their shields of credulity; they have made thy philosophies and sophistries seem perfectly beautiful.
27:12. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.—Thy preachers (merchants, trading in philosophy for gain) were a hard proposition (Tarshish means hard), with an abundant supply of teachings regarded worth while by the world; with worldly truth—silver—with strong earthly authority—iron—with actually worthless philosophies (tin was as the dross of silver) and with downright wicked doctrines (lead symbolized wickedness—Zech. 5:7-8) they taught and preached (traded) in thy preaching places (fairs).
27:13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.—Believers in Greek philosophy (Javan represented the Greek race), and believers in the most far-fetched and uncouth ideas, such as monkey-born evolution (Tubal and Meshech were the remotest and rudest of nations), were thy preachers (merchants). They sold men into bondage to sin, and presented teachings of human perfection (brass) attainable otherwise than through Christ. Brass should be translated copper, and signifies perfect human nature.—T. 18.
[pg 496]27:14. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.—The representatives of the rudest and crudest ideas (Togarmah) preached in thy churches with doctrines (horses) and with followers of the doctrines and with mixed human and spirit nature ideas (mules).
27:15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present, horns of ivory and ebony.—Men of low ideals (Dedan means low) were thy preachers; many revolutionary republics (islands) were thy preaching places; they presented thee with dreams, visions (ivory) of power (horns), good and bad (ebony).
27:16. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and flat linen, and coral, and agate.—Believers in doctrines of lofty self-righteousness (Syria signifies high land) were thy preachers; they traded for gain in philosophies of eternal life (emeralds) without Christ's purchase, with teachings of self-kingship (purple), with works of self-mastery (broidered work), with self-righteousness (linen), with an imitation ransom (red coral), and imitation character jewels (agate).
27:17. Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.—With thine errors were mingled God's Truth to make up thy mixed doctrines. Some of thy preachers were really believers in the Bible (of Judah and Israel), taught the wholesome spiritual Bible truths (wheat), good teachings for the natural man (Pannag means millet), and teachings about Christ's Second Coming (honey), the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit (Rev. 10:9, 10), and the balm of the comfort of the Word of God.—Rom. 15:4.
27:18. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.—Thy preachers (merchants) were among the chiefest of the lofty, self-righteous, lordly ones (Damascus was capital of Syria, the high land), trading in all varieties of thy doctrines and philosophies, especially the mixed doctrines (wine) of earthly prosperity (Helbon, fruitfulness) and in natural human righteousness (white wool).
27:19. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.—Apostate Christians (Dan was the seat of idolatry and types a class once spirit-begotten but fallen away) [pg 497] and Grecian pagans (Javan represented the Greeks) preached in thy church gatherings; lordship, authority (iron), the claim of apostolic authority (cassia, deputyship), and a claimed knowledge of the Bible (calamus) were in thy churches (markets).
27:20. Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.—Preachers of low ideals (Dedan, low) preached that thy church organizations (chariots) should be made presentable by being robed in the embroidery of many works, church fairs and suppers, institutional work, and civic and social service (chariot clothes or robes).
27:21. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.—Thy preachers, with claims of consecration, separateness (Arabia, wilderness), and all the powerful right reverends, fathers, and other lords (Kedar, powerful), they traded (exchanged from one church to another) their converts (lambs), old church members (rams), and out-and-out tares (goats).
27:22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.—The preachers in captivity (Sheba, captivity) to Satan, and those who tremble at Satan's word (Raamah, trembling) set forth a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit (principal spices, Exodus 30:23), all kinds and degrees of self-development of character (precious stones), and the alleged inherent spark of the Divine (!) in man (gold).
27:23. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.—The preachers of New Thought, Theosophy, Christian Science and other phases of Spiritism, self-styled, strong and enlightened (Haran), set up and distinguished (Canneh), and believers in delightful delusions (Eden, delight), are in captivity (Sheba, captivity) to Satan, and really without hope of Kingdom honors (Chilmad, level, plain, without mountains).
27:24. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.—These self-reliance preachers set forth the robes of a counterfeit faithfulness (blue), fruitless works of self-improvement (broidered work), and organizations (chests) offering an imitation righteousness (rich apparel), bound with cords of free-thought love and a delusive hope, and represented as having eternal life (cedar).
27:25. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious [pg 498]in the midst of the seas.—The mighty independent religious sects (ships of Tarshish—Isa. 3:16) did preach of thy philosophies and thou wast richly supported (replenished) and made of great reputation (glorious) among the peoples and nations (seas).
27:26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.—The picture changes back to a gallant ship. Thy strong preachers (rowers) have steered thee into angry seas (anarchy); the doctrines (winds) from the presence of Christ the Sun of Righteousness (east wind) have broken thy power in the midst of a time of anarchy (seas).
27:27. 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.—Thy philosophies, thy churches, thy doctrines, thy preachers, thy philosophers, thy Doctors of Divinity (sky-pilots), thy church members, all thy church workers, and all the multitude that come to church, shall fall in the anarchy in the day of thy ruin.
27:28. The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.—Those affiliated with thee shall quake at the shoutings and threatenings of thy sky-pilots.
27:29. 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.—All those that work, the influential church members, the preachers, and all the sky-pilots of the anarchistic masses (sea) (Rev. 18:17-18), shall abandon their independent organizations or their heathen religions, and shall try to find more solid ground to stand on than thou wast on.
27:30. 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.—They shall speak against thee, and cry out with bitterness against thee, they shall show signs of grief.
27:31. 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.—It was a custom in ancient times for those who had suffered great calamities to shave their heads. The Lord promises such an occasion for weeping to Zion, His professed people.—Isa. 3:24.
[pg 499]27:32. 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?—In their bemoaning the downfall of so-called “Christian philosophy” they shall lament over thee, saying, What organization was ever like Christendom, like her who has been destroyed in anarchy?
27:33. 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.—When thy philosophies were accepted by the masses, thou didst satisfy many people. Thou didst enrich materially and mentally the rulers and the clergy-lords of society with thy innumerable philosophies and thy doctrines.
27:34. 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 fall.—When thou shalt be broken and engulfed in the roaring waves of anarchy, thy doctrines shall cease and all thy supporters shall fall.
27:35. 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.—All the people of the revolutionary republics shall marvel at thy fall, and the rulers of that brief era shall be troubled and afraid of meeting thy fate in the anarchy.
27:36. The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.—The preachers (merchants) then taking their place among the unbelieving masses shall scoff at thee; thou shalt be a “worn-out and wasted thing” (literal) and never shalt thou exist any more.