Ezekiel28chapter 28

The first oracle is aimed at a living man, the ruler of Tyre — Ittobaal III in these years — and it quotes his own claim: I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas. That was not simply arrogance in a Phoenician context. The king of Tyre served as chief priest of the city god Melqart and presided over his annual festival, and across the ancient Near East royal and divine language ran together. God's answer is blunt: you are a man and not a god, and you will die the death of the slain.

The second oracle changes voice and scale. This figure is called the king of Tyre and is described as having been in Eden, the garden of God, covered with precious stones, an anointed guardian cherub on the holy mountain of God, walking among the stones of fire, blameless from the day he was created until unrighteousness was found in him.

MannaFest reads this the way much of church history has read it: the human king is being addressed with the power behind him in view, and behind the throne of Tyre stands the fall of the anointed cherub — the being Scripture elsewhere names Satan. Others read the whole passage as royal poetry in Eden language, describing no one but the man; the text is given here with the house reading first and the alternative named rather than hidden.

The stones listed are the detail that keeps drawing readers back. Nine are named in the Hebrew text and twelve in the ancient Greek translation, and the set overlaps the stones of the high priest's breastpiece. Whichever count is original, the figure is dressed in something priestly.

The chapter closes with a short oracle against Sidon, Tyre's older sister city up the coast, and then with a promise: Israel gathered from the peoples, dwelling securely, planting vineyards, with no more brier to prick them from any of their neighbours.