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Ezekiel 28:21

in Ezekiel 28

“Son of man, set your face against Sidon and prophesy against her.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

Son of man, set thy face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,

KJV

Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,

This verse in Ezekiel 28

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Prophecy against Zidon. Zidon (mod. Saida) was more ancient than Tyre and was the original metropolis of Phoenicia Gen 10:19, but in the times of Phoenician greatness it ever played a subordinate part. Only once Jdg 10:12 do we find the “Zidonians” in conflict with Israel. The evil which they did was the seducing them to idolatry (compare Eze 28:24), as in the case of Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians 1Ki 16:31. The capture of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar increased the importance of Zidon, which was a wealthy and flourishing town when Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed it.

This site's exposition

Again the word of the Lord came unto me

on Ezekiel 28:20-24

The oracle turns last to Zidon, Tyre's older sister city, and the recognition formula lands three times in five verses, they shall know that I am the Lord, the book's stated purpose for the judgment. Verse 24 gives Israel's stake in the whole sequence, there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn, naming the neighboring cities' long history of contempt for Israel as the wound the judgment answers. Henry and Gill both read the brier and thorn as the same figure Moses had already used, pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides at Numbers 33:55, a people whose scorn had been a constant irritant rather than an occasional wound.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 20 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Sidon and prophesy against it, and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in you. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments in her and am sanctified in her. And I will send pestilence upon her and blood in her streets, and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword all around, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Son of man, set thy face against Zidon,.... An ancient city, near to Tyre, and in confederacy with it, greatly given to idolatry and superstition; and may design all the antichristian states in the communion of the church of Rome: and prophesy against it; the prophet is bid to look towards this place with a stern countenance, as before against Tyre; threatening it with ruin, and prophesying of it, in the following manner.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Zidon--famous for its fishery (from a root, Zud, "to fish"); and afterwards for its wide extended commerce; its artistic elegance was proverbial. Founded by Canaan's first-born (Ge 10:15). Tyre was an offshoot from it, so that it was involved in the same overthrow by the Chaldeans as Tyre.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • בֶּן־O son of

    ben-H11214930 times

  • אָדָ֕םhumankind

    ʾadamH120551 times

  • שִׂ֥יםset

    simH7760584 times

  • פָּנֶ֖יךָface your

    paneikhaH64402123 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • צִיד֑וֹןSidon

    tzidonH672122 times

  • וְהִנָּבֵ֖אand prophesy

    vehinave'H5012115 times

  • עָלֶֽיהָ׃on it

    ʾaleihaH59215755 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 25:22

    all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 47:4

      For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts…

  • Through

    Ezekiel 27:8

    The men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. Your men of skill, O Tyre, were there as your captains.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 10:18

      the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans were scattered,

    • 1 Kings 9:27

      And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

    • Ezekiel 27:11

      Men of Arvad and Helech manned your walls all around, and the men of Gammad were in your towers. They hung their shields around your walls; they perfected your beauty.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 6:2

    “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 19:9

      With hooks they caged him and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into captivity so that his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 25:2

    “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 49:1–6

      Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Is he without heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Why have his people settled in their cities?

  • Through

    Genesis 10:15

    And Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,

    it leads to

    • Exodus 34:11

      Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

    • Numbers 34:2–15

      “Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Ezekiel

The Prophet Ezekiel, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Ezekiel, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.