Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The Lesson of the Tile

FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF MR. FRANK E.

WRIGHT OF PHILADELPHIA.

+

"Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem."Ezekiel, 4, 1.

E

ZEKIEL, more than any other of the prophets,

proclaims his messages after the priestly fashion, by "types," by himself enacting examples. His first message to his countrymen was delivered in this fashion. Following God's command he took a "tile," a flat piece of hardened clay, and made upon it a rough model of Jerusalem. Then he moulded, around this, forts and battering rams and all the works of a besieging army. Thus his friends, questioning what this strange play meant, might be more permanently impressed with the weight of his prophecy. He declared that even thus should Jerusalem be destroyed.

Moreover he was bidden lie upon his left side before his model for three hundred and ninety days, each day typifying a year during which God had endured the wickedness of all Israel. Then he was to turn upon his right side and lie forty days, for the forty years that Judah would continue in sin. During this time, the prophet was to eat and drink only an exact and limited amount, some of it, foul and evilly prepared, to indicate the straits to which Jerusalem should be reduced for food. At the close of this strange prophesying, Ezekiel was bidden shave off his hair and use it as the people of Judah should be used, part to be burned, part smitten with a sword, part scattered to the wind, and only a few hairs carefully preserved.

[graphic][merged small]

EZEKIEL XXVI-TYRE THREATENED

Chapter 26

1359

1 Tyrus, for insulting against Jerusalem, is threatened. 7 The power of Nebuchadrezzar against her. 16 The mourning and astonishment of the sea at her fall.

ND 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,

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:

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.

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.

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.

6 And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

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.

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.

9 And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.

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.

11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.

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.

13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

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.

15 Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake

1360

EZEKIEL XXVI-THE SEA ASTONISHED

at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

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 with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be aston

ished at thee.

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!

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.

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;

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;

21 I will make thee at error, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.

Chapter 27

1 The rich supply of Tyrus. 26 The great and unrecoverable fall thereof.

HE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

2 Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; 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. 4 Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

5 They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.

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.

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.

8 The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.

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.

« AnteriorContinuar »