Ezekiel 27:8-9

27:8 The leaders ¹  of Sidon ²  and Arvad ³  were your rowers;

your skilled ⁴  men, O Tyre, were your captains.

27:9 The elders of Gebal ⁵  and her skilled men were within you, mending cracks; ⁶ 

all the ships of the sea and their mariners were within you to trade for your merchandise. ⁷ 

[27:8]  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.

[27:8]  ² map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[27:8]  ³ sn Sidon and Arvad, like Tyre, were Phoenician coastal cities.

[27:8]  ⁴ tn Or “wise.”

[27:9]  ⁵ sn Another Phoenician coastal city located between Sidon and Arvad.

[27:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “strengthening damages.” Here “to strengthen” means to repair. The word for “damages” occurs several times in 1 Kgs 12 about some type of damage to the temple, which may have referred to or included cracks. Since the context describes Tyre in its glory, we do not expect this reference to damages to be of significant scale, even if there are repairmen. This may refer to using pitch to seal the seams of the ship, which had to be done periodically and could be considered routine maintenance rather than repair of damage.

[27:9]  ⁷ sn The reference to “all the ships of the sea…within you” suggests that the metaphor is changing; previously Tyre had been described as a magnificent ship, but now the description shifts back to an actual city. The “ships of the sea” were within Tyre’s harbor. Verse 11 refers to “walls” and “towers” of the city.