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From: Ezekiel 28:1-10
Oracle against the king of Tyre
“Because your heart is proud,
and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god.
though you consider yourself as wise as a god –
[3] you are indeed wiser than Daniel;
no secret is hidden from you;
[4] by your wisdom and your understanding
you have gotten wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
into your treasuries;
[5] by your great wisdom in trade
you have increased your wealth,
and your heart has become proud in your wealth –
[6] therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Because you consider yourself
as wise as a god,
[7] therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you,
the most terrible of the nations;
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendour.
[8] They shall thrust you down into the Pit,
and you shall die the death of the slain
in the heart of the seas.
[9] Will you still say, ‘I am a god.’
in the presence of those who slay you,
though you are but a man, and no god,
in the hands of those who wound you?
[10]You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
by the hand of foreigners;
for I have spoken, says the Lord God.”
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Commentary:
28:1-10. The oracle here is addressed to the king of Tyre (”the prince” in Eze-
kiel’s language) but he stands for the whole country. The nation is denounced
for its pride — most clearly to be seen in its king, who was rich and clever and
so influential in the region that he came to see himself as a god. He is given a
severe sentence: he will die like any other man (v. 9); worse still, “he will die the
death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners” (v. 10). The prophet clearly
regards pride as being almost as sinful as idolatry, for the gravity of every sin lies
in desiring to be like a god. “Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns
our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God
through the will to become ‘like Gods’ (Gen 3:5), knowing and determining good
and evil. Sin is thus ‘love of oneself even to contempt of God’ (St Augustine, De
civ. Dei, 14, 28). In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the
obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation (cf. Phil 2:6-9)” (Catechism of
the Catholic Church 1850).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.