The Lament Over the King of Tyre
11 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. They were prepared in the day that you were created. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers. Then I set you up on the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your commerce, your insides were filled with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I have cast you as profane out of God’s mountain. I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I have cast you to the ground. I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your commerce, you have profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought out a fire from the middle of you. It has devoured you. I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you. 19 All those who know you among the peoples will be astonished at you. You have become a terror, and you will exist no more.”’”
The lament describes someone in Eden, on the holy mountain, created perfect and found unrighteous — and the profile is laid out exactly as the text gives it.
The second oracle is addressed to the king of Tyre, and it is set as a lamentation rather than an accusation. Its first difficulty is plain. The previous section has just finished insisting that the ruler of Tyre is a man and no god. This one begins by describing someone who was in the garden of God.
The description should be read slowly and in full, because everything depends on what it actually says. You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God, adorned with nine named stones and with gold work prepared in the day that you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers, set on the holy mountain of God, walking up and down among the stones of fire. And then the sentence that fixes the shape of the whole passage: You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
Every clause there is outside what can be said of any human king. Tyre's ruler was not in Eden. He was not a cherub. He was not created perfect, and he was not on the mountain of God. The passage supplies an origin, a rank, a place, a state of original perfection, and a moment when that changed. The moment is described with a verb that keeps the cause inside the subject. Unrighteousness was found in him, not brought to him.
What corrupted it is named twice, and it is the same fault the human prince was charged with in the previous verses. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. The excellence was real, and it became the occasion. That parallel is why the two oracles stand together. What happened in the city is the shape of something older, and the lament traces the pattern back to where it began.
The end is stated as a casting out and a burning that comes from within: I have brought out a fire from the middle of you. The result is laid before kings and before all who knew him. And a final clause permits no continuation: you will exist no more. Scripture describes this figure carefully and does not name him here. The profile is complete enough that a reader can see who is being described, and this passage leaves the identification to the reader, as it was left.
held with reason What this mark means