Ezekiel 26:4

• The nations Tyre wanted to trade with would instead attack her, prepared for war. Like Jerusalem, she would become loot for their armies.

• as the sea brings up its waves: This image fits Tyre very well. Tyre was built on a small island along the coast. Waves were a normal part of life there.

  The picture shows how enemies would strike Tyre again and again, like waves hitting the shore. It is a metaphor (a word picture) for a military assault.

The message against Tyre, Israel’s northwestern neighbor, is more detailed than the short messages before it. It consists of three similar sections (Ezekiel 26:2–21; 27:1–36; and 28:1–19). Each section conveys the same idea: Tyre would meet a terrible end and cease to exist (Ezekiel 27:36).

• This section contains a series of messages of judgment against nearby nations. There are six shorter messages against Judah's immediate neighbors, arranged in a clockwise order, followed by a final message against Egypt (Ezekiel 30–32). Through experiencing God's judgment, the nations would recognize God's control over everything. The nations might be used to carry out God's judgment on his people, but they would not avoid judgment themselves.

• One of the main purposes of these messages was to show that the negative part of God's promise to Abraham ("I will … curse those who curse you," Genesis 12:3) was still active. No one can harm God's people and avoid consequences, even when God's people are under his judgment.