27:8 The leaders 1 of Sidon 2 and Arvad 3 were your rowers;
your skilled 4 men, O Tyre, were your captains.
“‘O Tyre, you have said, “I am perfectly beautiful.”
“‘You were the sealer 8 of perfection,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
1 tc The MT reads “the residents of”; the LXX reads “your rulers who dwell in.” With no apparent reason for the LXX to add “the rulers” many suppose something has dropped out of the Hebrew text. While more than one may be possible, Allen’s proposal, positing a word meaning “elders,” is the most likely to explain the omission in the MT from a graphic standpoint and also provides a parallel to the beginning of v. 9. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:81.a parallel to v. 9.
2 map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.
3 sn Sidon and Arvad, like Tyre, were Phoenician coastal cities.
4 tn Or “wise.”
5 tn Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.
6 sn Rome, another economic power, is described in a similar way in Rev 17:1.
9 tn Heb “lift up.”
10 tn For a discussion of possible nuances of this phrase, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:580-81.