"This is one of the more difficult passages in the Book of Ezekiel--if not in the whole Bible! The reason for the difficulty lies mainly in the lack of sufficient data to reach precise conclusions. There are many terms and phrases that are only used in these verses in the OT. . . .
"Ancient mythology should be kept in mind, for it shows the Phoenicians' religious thinking and provides cultural aid in interpreting the passage. However, to interpret the passage as a myth is unwarranted."383
28:11-12 Ezekiel received instruction from the Lord to lament the king (Heb. melek) of Tyre. Evidently the same person addressed in the previous speech (vv. 1-10) is in view in this lament.384He had been the model of perfection in the sense that he was full of wisdom and beauty (cf. vv. 2-5; 27:3). "The seal of perfection"is literally "the one sealing a plan."He had been the leader responsible for affixing his seal to the plans that resulted in Tyre's maritime glory.
28:13 This king had been in Eden, the garden of God, or Ezekiel was comparing him to someone who had been there.385Eden, the garden of God, is probably a figurative way of describing the blessing that this ruler had enjoyed at God's hand (cf. 31:9; Gen. 13:10). If we take the statement literally, this must refer to someone who was in the Garden of Eden, probably Satan. The description of this ruler covered with precious gems and gold indicates the extent of his wealth.386God had prepared him for this privileged destiny from the time that He had created him.
"The concept of the Garden of Eden presents one of the major difficulties in interpreting this section as Tyre's literal human king. A possible solution may be found in understanding ancient Near Eastern temples. These ancient temples normally encompassed a large enclosure with a garden, not just a building (cf. [H. J.] van Dijk, [Ezekiel's Prophecy on Tyre,] p. 117). If the term for God' in this phrase is understood as god,' then perhaps Eden, a garden of a god,' was an expression used metaphorically to describe the splendor of the temple complex of Melkart, the king of the city' (which was the meaning of the god's name), with whom Tyre's human king was seeking identity. Though this interpretation is a hypothesis (as are all others), normal cultural hermeneutics may aid in the explanation of the text and should not be ignored. It is readily admitted that this phrase you were in Eden, the garden of God' is the most difficult obstacle to the interpretation of the king of Tyre as the literal king of the city. The above, however, is certainly a plausible understanding of the phrase."387
28:14 God had given the king a position as an anointed cherub who covers or guards. This description has suggested to many readers that the king in view may be more than an man. Perhaps the Lord was looking beyond the human king of Tyre to the spiritual ruler behind him, namely, Satan (cf. Dan. 10:13; Matt. 16:21-23).388It is more probable that the human king was cherub-like in that God had allowed him to reign, and he exercised a guarding function over his city-state.
"It seems as if Tyre's king was identifying himself with the patron deity of Tyre, Melkart, directly or symbolically, as the god's guardian sphinx. The Phoenician male-sphinx (or cherub) was normally bejeweled and sometimes had the head of the priest-king (cf. [R. D.] Barnett, "Ezekiel and Tyre,"in Eretz-Israel, vol. 9,] p. 13). The sphinx was considered to be all-wise. Such a description fits well the verses under discussion, for the king is called a guardian cherub (sphinx) and the many jewels listed in v. 13 as his covering befit the many jewels that adorned the Phoenician sphinx (cherub). The passage would then be declaring that the king of Tyre had become as the guardian cherub for the god Melkart and was bejeweled with his riches as cherub-sphinx normally was."389
This ruler had also been on the holy mountain of God, a title that appears exactly this way nowhere else in the Old Testament. This description suggests Jerusalem (cf. Ps. 99:9; Isa. 11:9; 56:7; 65:25), but a mountain in Scripture is also a figure for a kingdom (e.g. Ps. 30:7; et al.). What other literal mountain might be in view is hard to imagine since there are no literal mountains that God had uniquely appointed close to Tyre. Perhaps Ezekiel meant that the king of Tyre had been walking in Jerusalem among fiery stones gathering spoils (cf. 26:1-6) shortly after Jerusalem's destruction. Or perhaps he meant that the king of Tyre was in the domain of the pagan deities ("the mount of god"meaning "the seat of the gods") since he claimed to be a god and was perhaps a guardian cherub of Melkart.
"The lament God inspires Ezekiel to sing over the king of Tyre contains a series of metaphorical references to the story of the Garden of Eden and to the Mountain of God. The king is compared to a guardian angel at the mountain and, in a way, to Adam himself in the garden. The comparisons are not exact, but imagistic--overtones and general allusions rather than straight one-for-one correspondences to the garden story. The allusions to the mountain of God (e.g., vv. 14, 16) reflect a poetic theme in the Old Testament in which the mountain represents God's abode."390
". . . it seems . . . likely that Ezekiel's imagination wandered freely and drew on a wide variety of symbolical background all interwoven with his message of the fall of Tyre."391
Probably the kingdom of God is in view here. Evidently the meaning is that this ruler participated in God's kingdom by ruling as king over Tyre, since all ruler's occupy their thrones with the sovereign Lord's permission (Rom. 13:1). This ruler also walked among the stones of fire, or the brightly shining stones, just mentioned (v. 13). That is, he lived in an environment that was glorious and blessed by God.
"The ritual of burning a god has been discovered on a bowl from Sidon and is recorded in the cult of Melkart at Tyre (cf. Barnett, pp. 9-10). Melkart's resurrection was celebrated by a burning in effigy,' from which he would then be revitalized through the fire and the smelling of the burnt offering. Again, in keeping with the Phoenician religious-cultural background with which the passage is so closely tied by the king's claim of deity, perhaps the explanation of walking among the fiery stones is a reference to the king's self-exaltation of himself even as the god Melkart--even to the extent of his claiming resurrection after burning by fire."392
28:15 The king had conducted himself blamelessly from his earliest days until he lifted himself up in pride.393
28:16 Abundant trade had made this king increasingly violent to the point that he sinned against God. The reference to trade supports the view that the earthly king is in view.
Because of this sin, the Lord had cast the king from His mountain as profane or common. The king could no longer rule under God's permissive authority. The Lord had destroyed His servant in that He had removed him from his privileged place of service and allowed his enemies to defeat him.
28:17 The Lord repeated the fact of His judgment and the reason for it, namely, the pride of the king. He had brought him down from his exalted position to the level of other ordinary people; he would no longer be god-like. He had also demonstrated His humiliation before the king's peers, other kings, that they might observe and learn.
28:18 The king had also multiplied iniquities through the abundant trade he had pursued unjustly thus making what should have been clean common (cf. v. 16). Therefore, God would consume the king with His judgment that would arise from within his own sinful self. He would allow everyone on earth to witness his destruction.
28:19 Those who knew him would feel appalled at his end. He would be a source of terror to observers, a horrible warning of the consequences of pride, and he would be no more.
"What Adam and Eve were tempted to try to get was equality with God (Gen. 3:4). That is exactly what Tyre's king wanted, too. Whatever he personally may have thought of himself, the passage makes it clear that his actions were those of a person seeking such wealth and power as to be his own god."394
Conservative interpreters of this passage divide into three basic groups. Some believe that only the human king of Tyre is in view throughout the passage.395Others believe only Satan is in view.396The third view is that both the human king and Satan are in view. Some who hold this opinion believe that the king is the primary referent and that Satan is seen as the power behind his throne.397Others hold that the primary referent is Satan and that the king comes into view only secondarily.398
As far as I have been able to determine, the view that this passage reveals something about Satan before the Fall (Gen. 3) originated with the church fathers, including Origin, in the third and fourth centuries A.D. They applied the teaching of the passage to Satan and even interpreted it as specifically teaching things about Satan.
