Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He describes the ships, riches, merchandise, and pride of Tyre, and therefore its destruction as a shipwreck; so that the greater its glory was, the greater the ruin thereof may appear. First, therefore, he lists its merchandise and the nations coming to Tyre for trade. Then, from verse 26, he foretells the ruin and plunder of all these, and therefore asserts that Tyre will be the subject of a lament for all nations.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 27:1-36
1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. You therefore, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre: 3. and say to Tyre, which dwells at the entrance of the sea, the merchant of the peoples to many islands: Thus says the Lord God: O Tyre, you have said: I am of perfect beauty, 4. and situated in the heart of the sea. Your neighbors, who built you, have filled up your beauty: 5. with fir trees from Senir they built you with all the planks of the sea: they brought cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast. 6. They hewed oaks from Bashan for your oars: and they made your benches of ivory from India, and your cabins from the islands of Italy. 7. Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was woven for you as a sail to hang from the mast: blue and purple from the islands of Elishah were your covering. 8. The inhabitants of Sidon and Arad were your rowers: your wise men, O Tyre, became your pilots. 9. The elders of Gebal and its skilled men served as caulkers for your varied wares: all the ships of the sea and their sailors were engaged in your commerce. 10. Persians, Lydians, and Libyans were in your army as your warriors: they hung shield and helmet in you for your adornment. 11. The men of Arad with your army were upon your walls round about: and the Pygmies, who were in your towers, hung their quivers upon your walls all around: they completed your beauty. 12. Carthaginians were your merchants; from the abundance of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead they filled your markets. 13. Greece, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traders: they brought slaves and bronze vessels to your people. 14. From the house of Togarmah they brought horses, horsemen, and mules to your market. 15. The sons of Dedan were your merchants: many islands were the market of your hand: ivory tusks and ebony they exchanged as your payment. 16. Syria was your merchant because of the multitude of your wares: they offered gems, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, silk, and rubies in your market. 17. Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders in choice wheat, balsam, honey, oil, and resin they offered in your markets. 18. Damascus was your merchant in the multitude of your wares, in the multitude of diverse riches, in rich wine, in wool of the finest color. 19. Dan and Greece, and Mosel offered wrought iron in your markets: cassia and calamus were in your trade. 20. Dedan was your trader in saddlecloths for riding. 21. Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of your hand: with lambs, rams, and goats they came to you as merchants,
...your merchants. 22. The sellers of Sheba and Raamah, they were your merchants: with all the finest spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they offered in your market. 23. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden were your merchants: Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad were your sellers; 24. they were your merchants in many wares, in wrappings of blue and embroidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among your merchandise. 25. The ships of the sea were your chief carriers in your trade: and you were filled and glorified greatly in the heart of the sea. 26. Your rowers have brought you into many waters: the south wind has broken you in the heart of the sea. 27. Your riches, and your treasures, and your manifold wares, your sailors and your pilots, who maintained your goods, and who governed your people: your warriors also who were in you, with all your multitude that is in the midst of you: they shall fall into the heart of the sea in the day of your ruin. 28. At the sound of the cry of your pilots, the fleets shall be troubled: 29. And all who handle the oar shall come down from their ships: the sailors and all the pilots of the sea shall stand upon the land: 30. and they shall cry over you with a loud voice, and shall cry bitterly: and they shall cast dust upon their heads, and shall be sprinkled with ashes. 31. And they shall shave their heads because of you, and shall be girded with sackcloth: and they shall weep for you with bitterness of soul, with most bitter weeping. 32. And they shall take up a funeral song over you, and shall lament you: What city is like Tyre, which has been made silent in the midst of the sea? 33. Which by the going forth of your merchandise from the sea filled many peoples: with the multitude of your riches and your peoples you enriched the kings of the earth. 34. Now you are broken by the sea, in the depths of the waters your riches, and all your multitude that was in the midst of you, have fallen. 35. All the inhabitants of the islands were astonished at you: and all their kings, struck by the tempest, changed their countenances. 36. The merchants of the peoples hissed at you: you have been brought to nothing, and you shall not be forever.
Verse 2: TAKE UP A LAMENTATION.
2. TAKE UP A LAMENTATION. — In Hebrew sa, that is, take up, raise, lift up mournful voices, from a feeling of compassion for so great a disaster of Tyre.
Verse 3: WHICH DWELLS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE SEA.
3. WHICH DWELLS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE SEA. — In Hebrew: Which dwells beside the mouths, that is, the gates of the sea. For it was an island of many ports, says Vatablus. THE MERCHANT. — Tyre, says St. Jerome, is here called a market, that is, a most famous emporium of trade, "of the peoples to many islands," whose merchants were powerful, wealthy, and princely. Second, Maldonatus and Vatablus say: "the merchant" means the trading city, which trades with the most remote islands and peoples.
I AM OF PERFECT BEAUTY. — The first crime of Tyre, says St. Jerome, is pride, in that it thinks its beauty comes not from God, but from its own industry and virtue. Second, in that it claims for itself perfect beauty, as if to say: I am the most beautiful of cities, I am the jewel of the world, I am so beautiful that nothing can be added to me — which belongs to God alone, says Dionysius, chapter IV On the Divine Names.
Verse 4: And Situated In The Heart Of The Sea
4. AND SITUATED IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, — in the midst of the sea, as if to say: You have said proudly, O Tyre: I am the most fortified as well as the most beautiful mistress and queen of the sea, surrounded on every side by the azure sea, and as it were crowned, Isaiah XXIII, 8. For Tyre was round in shape, set upon the hardest rock (whence also in Hebrew it is called tsor, in Chaldean tor, in Latin Tyrus, as if to say, Rock or Crag) on every side surrounded as if by the immense sea, four stadia — that is 500 paces, or half a mile — distant from the land. But Nebuchadnezzar, and after him Alexander, filled the sea on one side with earth, wood, and stones, so that Tyre could be approached on foot and captured, and thus made a peninsula out of an island. So St. Jerome, Pliny book V, chapter XIX, and Curtius, book IV. See what I said about the riches and glory of Tyre on Isaiah XXIII, at the beginning of the chapter.
Mystically, Tyre represents the distresses (for this is what the Hebrew tsor, that is Tyre, means) of this world, which is set in wickedness, and is pressed and struck by various disturbances as by waves, says St. Jerome. What therefore is said here of Tyre literally, apply mystically to the world.
YOUR NEIGHBORS, WHO BUILT YOU, FILLED UP YOUR BEAUTY. — Vatablus: they perfected your beauty, that is, they adorned you with every ornament, whatever was beautiful in the world they brought to you. It is certain, says Adricomius from Berosus in his Description of the Holy Land, that Tyre was so called and founded shortly after the flood by Tyrius, who was the seventh of the sons of Japheth: afterward it was enlarged by the Sidonians, according to Justin, book XVIII. Hence St. Jerome calls Tyre a colony of the Sidonians. For "your neighbors" in Hebrew is gebulayich, that is, your boundaries, that is, those dwelling within your boundaries, that is, your neighboring inhabitants: namely the Sidonians, Gebalites, etc. But Vatablus properly translates it as boundaries,
...he says, and joins it to the preceding words, and translates: In the midst of the sea are your boundaries. So also the Septuagint translates in the Complutensian edition. But St. Jerome asserts that the Septuagint translated: Beelim your sons surrounded you with your beauty, and adds that they corruptly read Beelim instead of gebulayich; and banaich, that is, your sons, instead of bonaich, that is, your builders. Our Vilalpando, however, continuing the Commentary of Father Prado on this and the following chapter, maintains that they did this deliberately, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to signify that Tyre attributed its beauty not to God, but to the Baalim; or rather, that the sons — that is, the citizens — of Tyre adorned it with proud temples built to Baal and Astarte. Hence the Septuagint in the Roman edition of Caraffa has: You said: I have surrounded myself with my beauty in the heart of the sea; the Beelim (or Baalim) themselves, your sons, surrounded you with beauty. Baal was Saturn, to whom they sacrificed freeborn boys, says Quintus Curtius, book IV, as if to say: This adornment of yours, O Tyre, is not adornment, but rather infamous disgrace, and sacrilegious infanticide, indeed parricide.
Verse 5: WITH FIR TREES FROM SENIR.
5. WITH FIR TREES FROM SENIR. — He speaks tropically, says St. Jerome, of maritime Tyre as of a ship (for Tyre's glory was in its ships), furnished with mast, sails, oars, and every equipment, to signify the city's riches, which, dashed against the south wind — that is, the fury of Nebuchadnezzar — suffered shipwreck. Moreover, Senir, or Sirion, is Mount Hermon, which is called Senir, that is, snowy, says the Chaldean, because it is always stiff with snow, and therefore is called Chermon, or Hermon, that is, ruined, cut off, barren, says Masius; or, as Vilalpando says, because it is separated from Lebanon by a valley, and as it were cut off.
Note: By these fir trees he signifies the powerful men, magnates, and governors of the city. WITH ALL THE PLANKS OF THE SEA. — For a ship has two decks, that is, two tiers of planks, as if to say: All the planks of your ships, that is, of your houses, were of fir. Hence in Hebrew it is luchotaim, which is the dual form, meaning: Two sets of planks, that is, two tiers of planks: our translator, by separating the words, reads luchot yam, that is, the planks or decks of the sea.
THE MAST. — Some understand this as the temple of Olympian Jupiter, and other buildings in Tyre. 6. THE BENCHES — are so called as if laid crosswise: they are timbers which, placed crosswise in a ship or house, connect and bind the sides together. The Septuagint translates ier, that is, temples: because, as Sextus Pompeius says, a temple is a crossbeam on which the rowers sit. The benches therefore, says Caesar, are the rowers' seats; these, made of wood, the Tyrians covered and adorned with ivory cut and carved into thin plates. Some, says Theodoretus, translate: your horn, that is, your strength and power, namely your idols and religion: which is the strength of the commonwealth; and hence perhaps the Septuagint translates temples, namely of idols.
OF INDIAN IVORY. — For, as Virgil says: India sends ivory, the soft Sabaeans their incense: And the hard Chalybes send iron, and Pontus its strong-smelling castor.
AND CABINS. — A prætorium, according to Suetonius in his Life of Caligula, is a magnificent chamber, or a country house. Therefore it signifies here that the Tyrians built magnificent palaces, dining halls, chambers, both suburban and urban, with precious timber imported from Italy. Hence the Septuagint and Aquila translate: shaded houses. For a prætorium was properly a magnificent and spacious house built in the countryside, into which buildings they poured enormous sums of money. Hear Suetonius on Caligula, chapter XXXVII: "In building prætoria and villas, setting aside all reason, he desired to accomplish nothing so much as what was said to be impossible to accomplish." The same on Augustus, chapter LXXII: "He was vexed by large and elaborate prætoria," that is, Augustus bore with displeasure certain villas that had been built too elegantly and expensively. Palladius, book I: "The site of the prætorium itself should be in a place somewhat higher and drier than the rest, on account of damage to the foundations, and so that it may enjoy a pleasant view." For since prætors, as army commanders, often dwelt in the countryside and built splendid houses there; hence any similar buildings of others were called prætoria by analogy; and if they were smaller, prætoriola. Hence Ezekiel places these prætoriola, that is, splendid chambers, in the ship: for he compares Tyre to a ship, since it is a maritime city: therefore its palaces and august structures he calls prætoriola.
OF ITALY. — In Hebrew it is Kittim, which signifies not only Cyprus but also Italy, as I showed in Numbers XXIV, 24. The Chaldean translates: from the islands of Apulia, that is, from Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, and other places neighboring Apulia and Italy.
Verse 7: FINE EMBROIDERED LINEN FROM EGYPT WAS WOVEN FOR YOU AS
7. FINE EMBROIDERED LINEN FROM EGYPT WAS WOVEN FOR YOU AS A SAIL. — It signifies tapestries and other similar things customarily brought to Tyre from Egypt, says Theodoretus. Second, Vilalpando: The ship, he says, is tyranny; the mast is the king; the ropes are the princes and leaders who support the king; the sail is the drawn-up battle lines. But note that it is not necessary to apply each detail individually. For merely by all this precious equipment of the ship, he signifies the precious buildings, houses, fortresses, temples, walls, and all the furnishings, riches, and merchandise of the city: and since the luxury of Tyre was so great, it could easily have been that in fact their ships had sails of fine linen and benches of ivory.
Mystically St. Jerome says: By fine linen is signified earth, because it springs from the earth; by hyacinth, the air; by purple, the sea, from which it is obtained; with the addition of scarlet dyed twice, which represents fire by its redness — from which the vestments of the high priest are woven. These four therefore signify "the four elements — earth, air, water, and fire — of which all things consist, which Tyre appropriates to herself, so that she does not use the gifts of God the Creator with gratitude, but says: I am of perfect beauty; or, I have prepared my beauty for myself."
HYACINTH, — that is, wool and cloth of hyacinth color, that is, violet, about which I spoke in Exodus chapter XXV, 3. FROM THE ISLANDS OF ELISHAH, — that is, of Greece, says Theodoretus, especially those which are in the Ionian Sea, says St. Jerome. For Elishah was the son of Javan, from whom Greece was cultivated and named: for in Hebrew it is called Javan. Indeed, some think the Aeolians were named from Elishah. The Chaldean translates Elishah as the islands of Italy; others, the Fortunate Islands, which are called Elysian on account of their pleasantness and fertility, especially of trees and golden apples, which ripen there several times a year. For although Tyre abounded in purple of its own (and it was the finest and most famous, hence called Tyrian, and Sarranian dye), yet it was also imported from elsewhere, as to a common emporium, so that from there it might be distributed to all regions. Vilalpando understands by the islands of Elishah the cities and islands of Spain near Cadiz and Jerez: for there Homer first located the Elysian Fields, on account of the pleasantness and fertility of the place. Hence there is the river Lethe, commonly called Guadalete, which Virgil, Aeneid VI, and Strabo, book I, place at the Elysian Fields. So also Pineda, book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XIV.
YOUR COVERING, — with which you covered and adorned both yourself, that is, clothing your citizens with these materials; and also your houses, halls, and chambers, furnishing them with fine linen and purple hangings, seats, cushions, etc.
Verse 8: The Arvadites
8. THE ARVADITES, — inhabitants of the island Aradus near Tyre, which was founded by Aradius, the ninth son of Canaan, Genesis X, 18. The Septuagint translates: Your princes, the Sidonians (who formerly ruled over you, but now) together with the Arvadites are your rowers. Mystically, the Arvadites in Hebrew signify those who cast down, the Sidonians hunters, of whom it is said in Psalm CXXIII: "Our soul has been snatched from the snare of the hunters;" in Hebrew Sidonim, that is, of the Sidonians. "These, therefore, are those who hunt unwary souls placed on high, to lead them down to earthly things, and become rowers to steer them to shipwreck," says St. Jerome.
Verse 9: The Elders Of Gebal
9. THE ELDERS OF GEBAL, — Gobel, or Gebal (Psalm LXXXII, 8: "Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, with the inhabitants of Tyre") is Giblus, or Byblos, a city of Phoenicia, whence its inhabitants were called Giblites, or Byblians. The Septuagint translates Gebalites as presbyterous bibliōn, which their interpreter ambiguously renders "elders of the books;" and the Scholiast incorrectly: "elders in books." For Biblia here are not the Bible, nor books; but it is a nation so called, which had skilled woodworkers: hence the Giblites cut timber for Solomon in the construction of the temple, 1 Kings V, 18. In Hebrew it reads: The elders of Gebal and its wise men repaired in you your leaks, namely lest your ship admit water; ship, I say, both properly speaking, because you abound in ships in the sea, and metaphorically, namely your city and commonwealth. Hence the Septuagint translates: The elders of Byblos and their wise men who were in you, strengthened your counsel. Namely, good counselors by their advice preserve the commonwealth, like a ship, safe from all storms in every danger and calamity, lest it spring leaks.
ALL THE SHIPS OF THE SEA AND THEIR SAILORS WERE ENGAGED IN YOUR COMMERCE. — From the Hebrew you may translate more clearly thus: All the ships of the sea and their rowers were in you, to trade your merchandise; or to sell your wares; the Septuagint: They became for you toward the West of the West. For in Hebrew arab means to pledge, to contract, to trade, and generally to mingle; hence it also means evening, or the West, when light and darkness mingle. St. Jerome and Theodoretus explain thus: Merchants came to you from all, even the most remote western regions, namely from Spain, says Pineda, book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter V. For Tartessus, a city of Spain near Cadiz, was a colony of the Tyrians; whence it had great commerce with them. So the Song of Songs is called the greatest song, that is, the most beautiful. The Chaldean translates: All who go down to the sea, and their sailors, were rowers in you, as if to say: So great was your magnificence and glory, O Tyre, that you recruited as your rowers those who had been the sailors — that is, helmsmen and pilots — of other nations' ships.
Tropologically Vilalpando says: The merchant is called evening or West because of avarice; first, because he sells or buys his wares through fraud and lies; second, because like a wolf of the evening he covets the goods of the poor; third, because of the blindness of mind that the desire for profit brings; fourth, because this greed for gain with its followers leads him to the eternal darkness of hell. So St. Jerome.
Verse 10: Persians And Lydians
10. PERSIANS AND LYDIANS, — as if to say: All peoples served you: the lowly ones in craftsmanship, such as the Giblites, Arvadites, Sidonians; but the strong and warlike ones in battle, such as the Persians, Lydians, and Africans: who in time of war were your garrison; but in time of peace, with their helmets and shields hung up, were your adornment, says Maldonatus.
Verse 11: AND ALSO THE PYGMIES.
11. AND ALSO THE PYGMIES. — Pliny, book VII, chapter II, writes that the Pygmies are peoples in the farthest reaches of India,
...with a salubrious and ever-springlike climate, who do not exceed three spans or hand-breadths in height. The same author, together with Aristotle, History of Animals VIII, XII, asserts that they fight with cranes. Hence also Ovid, Fasti VI: "Nor the bird that rejoices in Pygmy blood" — that is, the crane. At length Juvenal in Satire 3 sings of them: "Against the sudden Thracian birds and their noisy cloud / The Pygmy warrior runs to battle in tiny arms. / Soon unequal to the foe, and snatched through the air by curved / Talons he is borne by the savage crane, etc. / No one laughs, where the whole cohort is not taller than one foot." Wherefore St. Augustine, book XVI, chapter VIII, admits these Pygmies as a sort of monstrous humans. Others add that they beget offspring at the age of five, and die at eight. But these things are proved to be fabulous, first, because the first authority on the Pygmies is Homer, a fabulous poet, Iliad III; for from him derive Aristotle, Pliny, Augustine, and others. Hence Eustathius, writing on Homer, says that by the comparison with cranes he amplifies the tumult of the Trojans: but introduces the Pygmies as a pleasant part of the fable, in his customary manner.
Likewise from him and from Suida, Aldrovandus teaches this, book XX, chapter V. Second, because these authorities disagree among themselves about the location. For the Scholiast on Homer places them in the middle of Egypt: Pliny now in Asia, now in India, now in Ethiopia. Aristotle, Ammianus, and Philostratus place them in caves of the earth, like ants. Third, because that ortygomakhia, that is, the battle with cranes, as well as the story of their reproduction, and other similar things, appear fabulous. Such also is the story of Menalcas in Athenaeus, book IX, chapter XIII, that partridges fight with Pygmies, whereas conversely Basil writes that the Pygmies ride upon partridges, and so go forth to war against the cranes. Why not? In the time of the Emperor Theodosius, says Nicephorus, book XII, chapter XXXVII, a man the size of a partridge was seen — a Pygmy, to be sure.
Thus one fable sows another, one lie sows another, as strawberry begets strawberry, but also equally destroys it: for storytellers and liars immediately contradict themselves. We see dwarfs of small stature in the courts of princes, and our Portuguese report that such are frequently born in Tartary: but these are anomalies and do not have offspring or progeny to form a nation. Hence Martial, book XIV, depicts a dwarf thus: "If you look only at the man's head, you would think him Hector: / If you see him standing, you would take him for Astyanax."
Fourth, what kind of praise, I ask, would this be for Tyre, that it had little Pygmy men as its defenders? Lyranus responds that they were placed there not for defense, but to mock enemies: just as the Jebusites placed the blind and lame in Zion, as if they alone could defend the impregnable Zion against David, 2 Samuel V, 6. But why would it be necessary to bring Pygmies from so far away for this? They could have placed infants and scarecrows for this purpose, that is, phantoms, for example straw men, with which birds are frightened away from eating the wheat. And how could Ezekiel say of them: "They completed your beauty"?
Fifth, the Spanish and Portuguese, who explored all the Indies, saw no Pygmies. Again, of all the geographers who carefully and diligently surveyed the entire world, there is no one who writes or asserts that he saw these Pygmies; therefore they do not exist. For they are not so small as to be invisible.
You will say: Olaus Magnus, book II On the Northern Peoples, chapter XI, says that Pygmies still exist in the north. I respond: He only says that he heard from serious men that the inhabitants of Greenland fight with cranes, just as Pliny asserts the Pygmies do. Therefore he does not expressly assert that those inhabitants are Pygmies: for the inhabitants of Germany also fight with cranes, when they kill, capture, and destroy them with arrows, firearms, and spears, and yet they are not Pygmies. Moreover, Olaus does not say he saw this but heard it. Finally this author has many fabulous and incredible things, as when he claims there are real griffins, which are eagles in front and lions behind, which dig up gold and build nests from it: whence to plunder this gold, several thousand men go forth to battle against them. All of which I have shown to be false and fabulous in Leviticus XI, 13. Indeed from the north, because of the cold, we see huge and tall men, and giants rather than pygmies, emerge.
You will say second: In the history of St. Macarius the Roman in the Lives of the Fathers it is said that St. Macarius, journeying toward paradise, found a people that was only one cubit in height, and he calls them Pichiti, that is, Pygmies. I respond that this history is suspected of being false by Baronius and other learned men. For in the same account it is narrated that St. Macarius came very close to the earthly paradise, which is situated, it says, "where the sky is joined to the earth:" and that before it a Cherub keeps watch, "who from the feet to the navel has the likeness of a man, the breast like a lion, the hand like crystal," etc. — which smacks of fable. Moreover, in place of Pichiti, a manuscript codex reads Pytici; whence Pytheci, whence cercopitheci (as Father Herbert noted), which is a species of apes. Therefore they were apes, not humans.
Sixth, because in Hebrew it is gammadim, which the Chaldean translates as Cappadocians; the Septuagint as guards; Theodotion retains the Hebrew gammadim; our translator, Aquila, Vatablus, Pagninus, Lago, and Lyranus translate it as Pygmies. The Syriac and Arabic versions both make no mention of Pygmies here. Therefore Pygmy is the same as pēkhuaios, that is, one cubit tall. So Hesychius, Favorinus, Henry, Stephanus, and others in their Lexicons. Moreover, they are called cubitales (cubit-men), not because they were only one cubit tall, as the authors already cited would have it; nor, as Forster suggests, because given the height of the towers in which they stood, they appeared to people standing below to be one cubit tall, the size at which Pygmies are commonly thought to be; but because they were five or six cubits in stature, and were very large, almost like giants: so that they were measured not by the foot, as other men usually are, but by the cubit. So in Hebrew anse hammiddah, that is, men of measure, 1 Chronicles XX, 6, and elsewhere, refers not to those of small stature but of great stature. Hence St. Jerome, the author of our translation: "Pygmies," he says, "are called from pugme, that is, from wrestling and combat," so that Pygmy is the same as agraph, that is, a pugilist, from fighting and wrestling; as if the Prophet said: Pygmies, that is, the most warlike fighters were in the garrison of Tyre.
Such a Pygmy — that is, one measured by cubits — was he of whom Pliny writes, book VII, chapter XVI: "We find in the records of Salamis that the son of Euthymenes grew to three cubits within three years." Such also was Og, king of Bashan, that is, one measured by cubits, of whom it is said in Deuteronomy III, 11: "His bed of iron is shown, nine cubits in length and four in breadth, measured by the cubit of a man." Such also was Goliath, "who was six cubits and a span in height," 1 Samuel XVII, 4. For the giants, because of their massive bodies, were strong and warlike, Genesis VI, 4. Hence some think the Hebrew Gammadim is the proper name of a certain people who were at that time famous and warlike. Hence Marinus in his Lexicon translates Gammadenses: for they are listed alongside the Persians, Lydians, Arvadites, and other nations. But I was unable to find this nation and this name anywhere. I found in Mela and Pliny the Gamphasantes, a people of Ethiopia: but these are far removed from the Gammadim both in name and in character, for they were unwarlike. Hear Pliny, book V, chapter VIII: "The Gamphasantes go naked and are inexperienced in battle, they do not gather for any foreign assembly."
Second and more genuinely, the Gammadim seem to be so called from the root gomed, that is, cubit, as if Cubitantes — that is, wrestlers (and gomed according to Pollux is a measure containing the space from the elbow to the closed fingers, which is otherwise called ammah), because they appear to have been powerful warriors, entirely devoted to wrestling and fighting. For just as rams fight with horns, and are therefore said to butt, and are called butters: so the Gammadim are called as if cubitantes, that is, those who fight with elbows and by the thrust and push of their elbows. For the greatest force of a man is in his elbows, just as that of beasts is in their horns. Such cubitantes were the ancient fighters called Pancratiastae, who fought with their whole body but especially with their elbows, just as the Acrochiristae were called those who dueled with the tips of their hands and fingers; the Pugilists proper were those who fought with fists. Not that these men fought from the towers of Tyre with elbows alone: but the Gammadim, that is, cubitantes, are called powerful and combative wrestlers, robust warriors trained in wrestling and arms, by catachresis: just as pugilists are called not only those who fight with fists, but those who fight with swords, spears, and missiles.
Pancratium, says Budaeus (in Greek pankration, that is, all-powerful), is a type of sport and wrestling, so called from the fact that it is carried out with the employment of all the body's forces and the exertion of all sinews. For pancratiastae used not only fists, but also kicks and elbows, and every mode of attacking and grappling. Hence Propertius, book III, elegy XIV: "And he suffers wounds from the hard pancratium." For the wrestling of pugilists and athletes originated from the fact that, as Donatus says, the ancients, before the use of iron and weapons, fought with elbows, fists, kicks, bites, and bodily wrestling. Hence Lucretius, book V: "The ancient weapons were hands, nails, and teeth."
The same was noted by Charles Pascal, book VI On Crowns, chapter XXIV. Therefore the Gammadim in Hebrew are the same as in Greek the Anconites and Pancratiastae, in Latin the Cubitantes (elbow-fighters): for elbows — angular, sharp, bent, and hard — are in a man what horns are in a ram. Hence that saying of Homer, Odyssey 7: "Leaning on my elbow I shall recline:" from which Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of the Romans, received his name, says Servius. For Ancus, in Greek ankōn, means elbow: hence in Latin "one is called Ancus who has a bent arm that cannot be straightened," says Festus, from ancon, that is, a curved elbow; and ancilia (small shields) are so called because they are shields curved at the ankylē, that is, the elbow, around which they are swung. Therefore they are called cubitantes because they were dressed and protected with shields at the elbow. Hence again in Homer, Iliad 8, ankulotoxa are called archers who use a bow that is curved and bent like an elbow: and ankylai are javelin-throwers who use a hooked javelin, which is called ankylē because it resembles a bent elbow; for ankylē means the bending of the elbow. Moreover, ancones in walls and on promontories are called the angles that contain and protect each side. Hence Pliny, speaking of Ancona, a city of Italy, assigning its etymology from its situation, book III, chapter XIII: "It is situated," he says, "on the very elbow of the bending shore." For ancon in Greek means elbow. Therefore just as Ancona is said to be situated at a bent angle, as it were, of an elbow, and protects that entire region of Italy; and just as ancones protect walls and both shores of the sea: so these Gammadim, powerful warriors, like ancones, protected Tyre. And so they are called Gammadim, that is...
...cubitantes, that is, powerful and mighty with their elbows (by elbows understand also the neighboring shoulders and arms), and bearing shields, armed with bucklers at the elbow; or archers hurling missiles with a recurved and hooked bow like an elbow. Finally, like ancones, the strongest defenders and protectors of Tyre: for that they were javelin-throwers is clear from what follows: "They hung their quivers upon your walls," as if to say: They are Gammadim, that is, armed and protected with a light shield at the elbow, and simultaneously drawing bows with the elbow. For they shot arrows with the bend of both the arm and their bow, and unharmed themselves they wounded and injured the enemy. Hence Symmachus translates, Medes. For the Medes were formerly famous archers. Hence Horace, book II of the Odes, ode XVI: "The quiver," he says, "of the Mede for flocks." Hence Ezekiel says: "They completed your beauty." Again, the Medes were terrible in their dress and manner of fighting, and, as Horace says in book I of the Odes, ode XXIX, "horrible." Hear Herodotus, book VI: "The Athenians," he says, "were the first of all the Greeks to charge the enemy at a run, the first who endured looking upon men dressed in Median garb, whereas before this, even hearing the name of the Medes was a terror to the Greeks." Therefore these Gammadim, that is, cubitantes, appear to have been a certain class of pugnacious men, entirely devoted to fighting and war, such as among the Romans were the gladiators, among David the Cherethites and Pelethites; and now among the Poles are the Cossacks, among the Hungarians the Haiduks, among the Turks the Janissaries.
That this is so is clear from St. Jerome, who, although he is the author of our version and, following Aquila, translated Gammadim as Pygmies, expressly explains them thus in his Commentary: "Pygmies," he says, "that is warriors, and those most ready for war, from pugmē, which in the Greek language means combat." What could be clearer?
Finally, Gammadim alludes to the root amad, that is, he stood, persisted, stood firm: for the letters ayin and gimel are related. Hence the Syrians, and even now those who speak Hebrew, say gain for ayin: indeed the Septuagint, St. Jerome, and other ancients also did the same, when for amorah they translated Gomorrah; for omor, gomor. So Gammadim is said as if ammadim, that is, stationary soldiers, such as were formerly among the Romans the triarii, and now are the Swiss. For these are strongest in defensive warfare: for they stand firmly and steadfastly at their post, and allow themselves to be cut to pieces rather than leave it, and rather than surrender their prince or city to the enemy: hence they are customarily placed in city garrisons. Hence the Septuagint translated: your guards, as if to say: You had, O Tyre, for your protection whatever can be humanly desired: for you had the sea for a moat, a rock for a rampart, towers for battlements, Gammadim for garrison soldiers; but none of these will be able to protect you against the Chaldeans, or rather against God who sends the Chaldeans. Have giants who, gripping enemies with their elbows, crush them, as a lion seizing a beast in its arms, crushes and kills it like...
...a flea; have the Swiss, have the Cossacks, have the Janissaries armed with shields and quivers at the elbow: God will blow all these away like flies, so that from you mortals may learn to place their defenses not in soldiers, not in walls, not in siege engines, but in God alone, and to strive to reconcile Him, angered by their sins, through repentance: and if they do so, they will need neither Gammadim nor Swiss, but God will defend and fight for them against all enemies, against all the most warlike soldiers, against all demons, according to Proverbs XVIII, 10: "The name of the Lord is a most strong tower; the just man runs to it and is exalted."
Verse 12: THE CARTHAGINIANS.
12. THE CARTHAGINIANS. — The Hebrew Tarshish signifies the sea, as the Chaldean translates it here, and all islanders, or those beyond the sea, such as especially were the Carthaginians, who filled all seas with their fleets, especially the route to Tyre. For Carthage was a daughter and colony of Tyre. Aptly therefore by Tarshish here Carthage is understood. See the comments on Isaiah II, 16. This was a city that rivaled and terrified the Roman empire, says Cicero in the Pro Murena. Of it Virgil sings thus in Aeneid I: "There was an ancient city, Tyrian colonists held it, / Carthage, facing Italy and the distant / Mouths of the Tiber, rich in resources and fiercest in the pursuits of war." And Solinus, chapter XXX: "This city," he says, "as Cato states in a senatorial speech, when king Iarbas was in possession of affairs in Libya, a woman named Elissa built; she was Phoenician by origin, and called it Karthadam, which in the Phoenician tongue expresses 'new city.' For Kartha is the same as city, hada means new: instead of which the Hebrews (whose language is akin to Phoenician, and to the Punic language descended from it, according to St. Augustine) say Kiriat chadas or hadas. Moreover from Karthada was made Karthago, changing d to g and a to o. Hence by Stephanus in his book On Cities it is called kainē polis, that is, new city; and Virgil, Aeneid I, gives it the same epithet, when he says: 'You will see / The walls and the rising citadel of new Carthage.'"
In Greek it is called Karchēdōn, as if Kartagēdōn. Therefore it is a fiction that Carthage is named from kartha meaning a bull's hide. Thus the Spaniards called the new city they founded in the West Indies Carthagena. Similarly Dido, the foundress of Carthage, "was really called," says Servius, "Elissa before: but after her death she was called Dido by the Phoenicians, that is, a heroine, in the Punic language, or beloved;" and perhaps even before her death from dod, that is, beloved: whence David, and that passage of Psalm LXVII: "The King of virtues of the beloved, of the beloved," says Father Serarius on Joshua II, Question XXV, in whom see more on Hebrew-Punic names.
Verse 13: GREECE.
13. GREECE. — Hebrew javan; with different vowel points it is the same as Ionia, that is Greece, called Javan from Javan, the fourth son of Japheth. Javan, says St. Jerome, means "he is, and he is not," which tropologically describes deceptive heresies. Literally, Vilalpando says: Javan, that is, "he is and he is not," refers to the Greek merchants, who are now in this port and now are not, but have departed elsewhere. Alcazar adds, on Revelation XVII, 7, page 812, at the end, that by this name is noted the inconstancy of all the Greeks, not only of their intellects but also of their pride and power.
TUBAL, — that is, the Iberians, namely the Spaniards. So St. Jerome. See the comments on Genesis X, 2. MESHECH, — that is, the Cappadocians, whose capital, which was afterward called Caesarea by Augustus Caesar, is still called Macaza in their language to this day; so called from Meshech, the sixth son of Japheth, says Josephus, Antiquities I, VI.
THEY BROUGHT TO YOUR PEOPLE. — The Hebrew adds benephesh, that is, with human souls, that is, at the risk of the souls — meaning lives — of men. For these are the dangers that merchants undergo.
Verse 14: FROM THE HOUSE (that is, from the nation and people)
14. FROM THE HOUSE (that is, from the nation and people) OF TOGARMAH, — that is, of Phrygia, who are strong in horsemanship, and indeed the Phrygian nation was the first to yoke pairs of horses, says Pliny, book VII, chapter XVI. So Theodoretus and Josephus, Antiquities I, VI. For Togarmah was the son of Gomer, Genesis X, 3, from whom the Tigranæi — who are called Phrygians by the Greeks — are believed to be named, and by a corruption of the Hebrew word, the Turks, says Maldonatus. Hence some here understand the Turks. Others believe them to be the Germans. Hence the Chaldean translates: from the province of Germany, as if by dropping the first syllable The-, Togarmah would be the same as Germany.
HORSES AND HORSEMEN. — By horsemen he means both soldiers and charioteers, and those who drive chariots and horses, such as were the Phrygians, who, as slaves and servants, served chariot-driving rather than military service, and were sold for this purpose in the market of Tyre. So Maldonatus. Second, Vatablus by horsemen understands horse-trainers who teach noble youths the art of riding, whom the French call les piqueurs: these stood for hire in the market of Tyre, to lease and sell their skill and service to those eager for equestrian art; just as in the Roman forum there stands a crowd of tenants and rustics. Third, and better, Marinus in his Lexicon and Pineda, book V On the Affairs of Solomon, IX: "Horses," he says, "horsemen and mules." Hebrew susim, pharasim, and peradim, which are indeed three kinds of horses that were customarily sold at Tyre. First, susim means common and chariot horses; second, pharasim means military horses, spirited and warlike; third, peradim, which our translator renders "mules," is a breed of horse proper to Syria, suited for war and swift in running, about which see Aristotle, History of Animals VI, chapters XXIV and XXXVI. Hence kings and princes rode upon them; as did Absalom and his brothers, 2 Samuel XIII, 29, and XVIII, 9.
Hence it is called a horse because it begets: it is also called a mule by Aristotle, in Hebrew pered, that is, separated; because it is a separate and peculiar breed of horse, and because it resembles a mule in appearance, as Aristotle says. Therefore these Syrian mules are different from ours, and partly resemble our horses, partly our mules. Moreover, Latin authors teach that "horseman" is sometimes used for the horse itself, and Virgil does this in Georgics III: "Mounted on its back, they taught the steed (that is, horse) under arms / To paw the ground, and gather its proud steps." So Solomon is said to have had "one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen" — that is, military horses, which in Hebrew are called pharasim, 2 Chronicles I, 14. Therefore pharasim sometimes means a military horse, sometimes a horseman who paras, that is, spurs and goads the horse to run.
Verse 15: THE SONS OF DEDAN.
15. THE SONS OF DEDAN. — The Septuagint: the sons of the Rhodians. So also Polychronius, Theodoretus, and the Greeks. Not as though the Septuagint were deceived by the similarity of the Hebrew letters resh and daleth, as St. Jerome would have it, but because from the fourth son of Javan, called Dedan, the place was called Dedan, which afterward, with the word corrupted, was called Rhodan, which the Greeks, adapting it to their own idiom, called Rhodon, as if this island bore a resemblance to a rose. Maldonatus holds that the Dedan here belongs to Edom, as in Jeremiah XXV, 23. But this Dedan is different from that one; for this one is placed among the islands, while that one was on the mainland, namely in Edom.
MANY ISLANDS WERE THE MARKET OF YOUR HAND, — that is, they conducted trade with you. So the Septuagint. EBONY, — made of ebony, which is a precious kind of wood; whence today precious rosaries are made from it. "India alone produces black ebony," says Virgil, Georgics II. Under India, says Servius, Virgil included Ethiopia and neighboring Egypt. Ebony is black, solid, beautiful, resembling stone in luster and weight: hence when plunged into water it sinks, and it burns with a pleasant odor. It is believed to be of fine substance and cleansing power, and therefore to dispel dimness of the eyes. Hence among the ancients ebony was so prized that it was brought to the Emperor Nero as a rare commodity. Herodotus writes that the Ethiopians, along with gold and ivory, also paid as tribute a hundred logs of ebony every third year. So that in the ranking of tributes ebony held the third place, says Pliny, book XII, chapter IV. The Chaldean translates: peacocks.
THEY EXCHANGED AS YOUR PAYMENT. — "In" means for your payment. 16. THE SYRIAN. — In Hebrew Aram; Aram was the son of Shem, grandson of Noah, from whom Armenia was cultivated and named. Unless you prefer to say Aram was named from height: for aram means high, exalted. So St. Jerome; for Armenia is the highest of all lands. Evidence for this is that the ark first rested upon it when the flood ended, Genesis VIII, 4. Formerly all Syria and its neighboring regions were called Aram. Thus Aram Dammesek is Syria of Damascus, that is, Coelesyria, which lies between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Aram Naharaim is Mesopotamia, which lies between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. The Septuagint translates: man, perhaps reading Adam for Aram, as St. Jerome holds, or, as Vilalpando says, because the Arameans, according to St. Jerome, being most addicted to trade, are called Adamites, that is, earthly, and seekers of earthly gain.
OF YOUR WORKS, — that is, your merchandise: or as the Septuagint has it, your market; the Chaldean: of your riches, as if to say: In order to buy the things that were made in you with marvelous craftsmanship, especially purple dye, they brought every kind of merchandise to you. GEMS. — So the Roman edition reads: therefore Theodoretus and Maldonatus incorrectly read "gum," that is, balsam, or a drop of myrrh, that is, stacte, as the Septuagint has; although Maldonatus, following R. David, interprets "drop" as a kind of precious black stone, which St. Jerome elsewhere translates as carbuncle.
AND EMBROIDERED WORK, — that is, clothes with a scale-like pattern, and as if marked with shields, namely Phrygian garments embroidered in various patterns: for this is what the Hebrew rikma means. CHODCHOD, — that is, onyx, says Theodoretus. St. Jerome, in Isaiah LIV, 12, translates it as jasper; the Chaldean: gems. The Hebrews understand by this name all kinds of precious merchandise. Polychronius says alabandeum, that is, a carbuncle, or ruby, about which see Pliny, book XXXVII, VII. So also Vilalpando and Vatablus.
Verse 17: In Wheat
17. IN WHEAT, — that is, they offered wheat in your markets. For in Hebrew the letter beth is used for eth, especially with verbs of contact. CHOICE, — that is, the best, the finest.
Here Ezekiel assigns the riches of various nations. In a similar and notable way, Sidonius Apollinaris, in his Panegyric to the Emperor Majorian, describes what each nation and region produces: "India brings ivory, the Chaldean amomum, / The Assyrian gems, the Chinese silk, the Sabean incense, / Attica honey, Phoenicia palms, Lacedaemon olives, / Argos horses, Epirus mares, the Gaul cattle, / The Chalybes arms, the Libyan grain, the Campanian wine, / The Lydian gold, the Arab gum, Panchaia myrrh, / Pontus castor, Tyre purple, Corinth bronze, / Sardinia silver, Spain ships." So also Pindar in the Pythians assigns to Lacedaemon dogs; to Syria goats; to Argos arms; to Thebes chariots; to Sicily vehicles. And Virgil, Georgics II: "India alone produces black / Ebony: to the Sabaeans alone belongs the incense-tree. / Why should I speak of the Ethiopian groves white with soft wool, / And how the Chinese comb fine fleeces from leaves? / Media produces bitter juices and the lingering taste / Of the blessed fruit." And soon, preferring Italy to all, he thus recounts its riches and produce: "But heavy harvests and the Massic juice of Bacchus / Have filled it: olives thrive, and joyful herds. / Hence the war-horse proudly enters the field. / Here is perpetual spring, and summer in other months, / Twice the flocks are heavy, twice the tree useful with fruit. / This same land shows rivers of silver and mines of bronze / In its veins, and has flowed most abundantly with gold. / This land produced a fierce race of men, the Marsi, the Sabellan youth, / The Decii, the Marii, the great Camilli, / The Scipios stern in war, and you above all, O Caesar. / Hail, great mother of harvests, Saturnian land, / Great mother of men."
Verse 18: In The Multitude Of Your Works
18. IN THE MULTITUDE OF YOUR WORKS, — because namely the products, for example Tyrian garments, or purple goods, which...
...Dedan here is of Edom, about which see Jeremiah XXV, 23. The Septuagint; although Maldonatus, following R. David, interprets "drop" as a kind of precious black stone, which St. Jerome elsewhere translates as carbuncle.
...you made, O Tyre, you sold to the Damascenes. So Polychronius and Theodoretus. IN RICH WINE. — Aquila and Theodotion retain the Hebrew word and translate: in wine from Helbon, which the Scholiast considers to be the city Malaba: whence the name Malvasia (a most delicate wine) seems to derive, but it is Damascene, not Cretan: for the discussion here is about the riches of Damascus brought to Tyre. OF THE FINEST COLOR. — In Hebrew tsachar, that is, bright, splendid.
Verse 19: Dan
19. DAN, — a city on the borders of Israel, 1 Kings III, 20, which was afterward called Paneas, and in honor of the Emperor Tiberius was named Caesarea Philippi, by Philip the Tetrarch, the brother of Herod. MOSEL. — A place name: I have not yet found where it is located, and no one explains it. Vatablus takes Mosel as a common noun and translates: a wandering Greek, that is, one running here and there for the sake of trade. CASSIA. — Liquid myrrh (for oralias means to drip), which is the purest and finest. Hence it is called a tear of myrrh, just as the tear of wine is the most excellent and delicate. CALAMUS, — is not cinnamon, but another fragrant spice, about which see Pliny, book XII, XXII.
Verse 20: In Saddlecloths For Riding
20. IN SADDLECLOTHS FOR RIDING, — which they used both in their bedchambers, furnishing them while remaining at home, and when riding in chariots spread with them. The Chaldean translates: precious clothes for horsemanship. That is, these were precious coverings with which they decked and adorned their chariots and horses. The Septuagint translates: choice beasts for chariots.
Verse 21: Kedar
21. KEDAR, — a region of Arabia, named from Kedar the son of Ishmael, says St. Jerome. THE MERCHANTS OF YOUR HAND, — that is, entering into agreements with you by the giving of hands: or rather, meaning: They were at your hand, that is, neighboring and close by, bringing kids and lambs to your markets: or, as Maldonatus says, those who traded on your behalf, as if they were your hands and servants, as in verse 15 he said: "Many islands were the market of your hand."
Verse 22: YOUR MERCHANTS WITH ALL THE FINEST SPICES.
22. YOUR MERCHANTS WITH ALL THE FINEST SPICES. — Spices are called not only perfumes, but also fragrant and medicinal fruits, or all aromatic merchandise, such as cloves, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, galbanum, cassia, frankincense, aloe, musk, sandalwood, mastic, amber, balsam, ginger, cassia, etc., which were formerly brought from Arabia and India to Tyre and Alexandria, and now to Lisbon. SHEBA. — Whence the Sabean Arabs. RAAMAH, — is a city of Arabia Felix.
Verse 23: Haran
23. HARAN, — that is, Carrhae of the Parthians, where Crassus was slain. CANNEH, — Theodoretus holds it to be Calneh, or Calanneh, where the Tower of Babel was built, in that it is said in shortened and corrupted form Chene for Chalanneh; or certainly Babel was called in Hebrew Chene, that is, named, celebrated: the Septuagint translates: the land of Canaan. EDEN, — the most pleasant region of Syria near Damascus, as is gathered from Amos I, 5, from the Hebrew, where many think Adam was formed and paradise existed. CHILMAD. — The Chaldean: Media.
Verse 24: IN MANY KINDS.
24. IN MANY KINDS. — In Hebrew hemichlulim, that is, in a totality or all-encompassing variety of merchandise, for example cloths, which they wrapped in precious "wrappings" of hyacinth, and bound with cords of silk: so great was the luxury of Tyre, so great its riches. So St. Jerome and Theodoretus.
Verse 25: THE SHIPS OF THE SEA WERE YOUR CHIEF CARRIERS IN
25. THE SHIPS OF THE SEA WERE YOUR CHIEF CARRIERS IN YOUR TRADE. — In Hebrew, your ships are sarot, that is, chief — namely, they were preeminent among all the ships of all nations. Hence Pliny, book V, chapter XIII, praises the Phoenicians, whose capital was Tyre, as the inventors of arts: first, navigation; second, warfare; third, astronomy; fourth, letters. Our translator renders it "your" [princes], as if to say: Your princes are like ships, because by their industry they bring all merchandise and riches into the city, that is, they arrange for them to be brought; as if to say: Your princes trade with ships of the sea and enrich themselves thereby: or, as others say: The ships that trade for you on the sea are your princes, that is, belong to your princes: that is, your merchants and sailors are not poor or common, but princes. Or, as Vilalpando says: Your princes are like ships, because just as a ship carries merchandise that contributes nothing to the ship, indeed often harms it and sinks it: so the wealth, honor, and administration of the commonwealth is a heavy burden to princes, and often their ruin, not their relief or consolation, Ecclesiastes V, 12. Fifth and most simply, and most aptly to the Hebrew: Your ships are your princes, that is, they hold the first and chief place in your commerce, so that they appear to be the princes of your trade.
YOU WERE GLORIFIED, — can be translated from the Hebrew as: you were weighed down, namely like a ship with your merchandise and riches, in which you glory: whence, overwhelmed and crushed by them, you suffered shipwreck, as follows.
Verse 26: Your Rowers Have Brought You Into Many Waters
26. YOUR ROWERS HAVE BROUGHT YOU INTO MANY WATERS, — as if to say: Just as a trireme heavily laden, if it is rowed into the deep sea by its rowers, is exposed to the danger of being sunk by the wind, waves, and its own weight: so your governors, O Tyre, wishing to raise you to the height of glory and riches, exposed you to the danger of destruction. Second, into many waters, namely of calamities, or of the peoples and soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar, your governors led you; since by the abundance of their riches and goods they enticed the enemy to besiege and conquer you.
THE SOUTH WIND HAS BROKEN YOU, — that is, it will break you, like a tree planted on a rock in the midst of the sea; for against this the south wind rages, indeed storms furiously. This is Nebuchadnezzar, whom he aptly compares to the south wind, because he came to Tyre from the siege of Jerusalem, which was situated to the south. Second, the stormy south wind aptly signifies the storms, tempests, and shipwrecks of Tyre. Hence they say the south wind (auster) was named from draining (hauriendis) the waters. So Polychronius, Theodoretus, and St. Jerome, who says: "All the riches of Tyre perish when the south wind blows."
Verse 27: Your Wares
27. YOUR WARES, — all your baggage, all your chests full of merchandise, all your furnishings, says Maldonatus. Vatablus translates: all your trade, that is, all the merchandise and riches that you acquired by trading.
Verse 28: At The Sound Of The Cry Of Your Pilots, The Fleets Shall Be Troubled
28. AT THE SOUND OF THE CRY OF YOUR PILOTS, THE FLEETS SHALL BE TROUBLED, — as if to say: Just as when a ship perishes in shipwreck, the sailors and pilots cry out so that other ships and fleets are disturbed, each fearing the same shipwreck for themselves: so at your disaster, O Tyre, and the wailing and clamor in that disaster, other cities and kingdoms were troubled. Second, properly, as if to say: Other ships and fleets which were bringing merchandise to you, seeing you overthrown, will be troubled and will descend from their ships to the land, as follows. Mystically, St. Jerome says: "Some," he says, "absurdly interpret the pilots as the bishops of heretics, the counselors as presbyters, the lookouts as archdeacons, the rowers and sailors as deacons; the helmsmen they refer to the whole people: and if they had added the devil as the ship-master, they would have completed the tragedy. All of these will wail together after they have perceived the shipwreck of their ship, and have stood upon the land, and have lost all the beauty of their falsely-named knowledge, and instead of joy and gladness, have sealed their repentance with grief in the bitterness of their heart."
Verse 31: They Shall Shave
31. THEY SHALL SHAVE, — by shaving their heads they will make baldness.
Verse 32: WHAT CITY IS LIKE TYRE?
32. WHAT CITY IS LIKE TYRE? — This is a funeral song; for mourners will say: "What city is like Tyre?" as if to say: What city was ever so glorious, and is now so pitiable, as Tyre? WHICH HAS BEEN MADE SILENT, — which has lost both voice and life, which has been slain, that is, cut off, and has perished, so that scarcely any trace or memory of it remains. For the dead are called "the silent ones" among the Hebrews and Latins. Hence in Hebrew dumah, that is silence, is the name for the underworld. So also Ovid, Fasti V: "Soon they also called the spirits of the dead 'silent ones' (lemures)." Hence to be struck dumb and to be silent is the same as to die.
Verse 33: Which By The Going Forth Of Your Merchandise
33. WHICH BY THE GOING FORTH OF YOUR MERCHANDISE, — which by the exportation of goods across the sea you filled the peoples. So Maldonatus.
Verse 34: Now You Are Broken By The Sea
34. NOW YOU ARE BROKEN BY THE SEA, — as if to say: In the sea you seemed to yourself most secure, but the Chaldeans cast your citizens and riches into the sea. Hence he adds: "In the depths of the waters are your riches."
Verse 35: AND ALL THEIR KINGS, STRUCK BY THE TEMPEST, CHANGED THEIR
35. AND ALL THEIR KINGS, STRUCK BY THE TEMPEST, CHANGED THEIR COUNTENANCES. — He calls the disaster of Tyre a tempest, since it was situated in the sea, and the report of it struck and terrified neighboring kings like a storm: for a tempest brings destruction to ships and islands. In Hebrew it reads: Their kings shuddered with horror, and their faces were troubled, so Vatablus; the Septuagint: Their kings shall be stupefied with astonishment, and their faces shall weep. But horror and stupor can be understood as a horrible and astounding tempest, as our translator renders it.
Verse 36: They Hissed
36. THEY HISSED, — either as if astonished, or rather as if mocking: just as one who sees a man fall into the mud, first pities him, then mocks. Similar passages are Job XIX, 8, and XXIX, 17. YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO NOTHING. — Vatablus translates: You have become a terror, that is, you have become a mirror and example of the wrath of God, by which all nations are terrified and struck with awe.
YOU SHALL NOT BE FOREVER, — that is, for a long time, namely for 70 years, as is said in Isaiah XXIII, 15; or, as if to say: You shall never return to your former glory and riches. Truly St. Augustine, in his Sentences, sentence 96: "The impiety of the wicked," he says, "must perish, either by their own judgment or by the sentence of God. For no iniquity endures, to which either correction or damnation puts an end."
Note: In this chapter he compares the commonwealth to a ship, its governors to a helmsman, its riches to merchandise: and this aptly for the kingdom and commonwealth of Tyre, which, situated in the sea, abounded in ships, helmsmen, and merchandise: Tyre therefore stood out in the sea like a ship. So symbolically any powerful city has the appearance of a ship: for both are enclosed by their walls and ramparts: both have their houses, storerooms, decks, towers, and watchtowers: both have their citizens, soldiers, governors, tillers, and helms. Hence Juvenal: "Or Arviragus shall fall from the British tiller;" signifying that Domitian would gain possession of Britain after expelling Arviragus, the lord of the island. Moreover, Suetonius in his Life of Nero, chapter XLVI, relates that a few days before his death he saw in a dream that the tiller of the ship he was steering was wrenched from him, and that he was dragged by Octavia into the deepest darkness: to which the soothsayers answered that this portended he would be cast down from the administration of the empire, and would die most miserably.
Moreover, on an ancient Tyrian coin there stands a ship struck upon it, evidently for the reason that the Tyrians boast themselves to be the authors of the first navigation. So Pierius, Hieroglyphics XLV, chapter X. On ancient coins of Janus a ship is seen with its helmsman and the inscription Roma. For Janus (whom many think to have been Noah) arrived in Italy by ship. Hence Ovid, Fasti I: "But good posterity stamped a ship on bronze, / Testifying to the arrival of the divine Guest." Moreover in the Gospels the Church is signified by a ship, especially because from the ship of Peter Christ preached and taught the crowds. Hence the Roman Pontiff bears in his ring a ship with Peter the fisherman. For he steers the ship of Christ, that is, the Church: of which accordingly it is said: "It tosses on the waves, but that bark is never sunk."
Let princes and magistrates therefore remember that they are the helmsmen of the commonwealth, and that they must govern the commonwealth with that same care, vigilance, and diligence with which a helmsman steers a ship. Let them therefore be Argonauts...
...Theodoretus and St. Jerome, who says: "All the riches of Tyre perish when the south wind blows."