by Kyle Pope
Synopsis: In asking, "Is Ezekiel 28:14 about Satan?" Kyle considers the context of a frequently misrepresented text and offers clarification as to its true meaning.
Ezekiel chapter 28 begins by instructing the prophet to speak to the "prince of Tyre" (v. 2). In the middle of the chapter, the prophet is told to "take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre" (v. 12). This lamentation contains wording that has led some commentators to conclude that the prophet is speaking of Satan. It says to the king of Tyre, "you were in Eden, the garden of God" (v. 13), "you were the anointed cherub" (v. 14) and "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you" (v. 15). In my judgment, nothing in the text indicates that this language refers to Satan; rather, it uses references to Eden and heaven to illustrate the change in the relationship that Tyre enjoyed with the Israelites and God, as a result of the sins of the current king of Tyre.
Centuries before the time of Ezekiel, the Davidic monarchy established a special relationship with the kingdom of Tyre and its head, Hiram. When David took the throne, Hiram sent cedars to David, with which his palace was built (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Chron. 14:1). These two kings shared friendship and affection for one another. After David's death, Scripture says, "Hiram had always loved David" (1 Kings 5:1). Upon learning of Solomon's rise to the throne, Hiram declared:
"…Because the LORD loves His people, He has made you king over them." Hiram also said: "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal house for himself!" (2 Chron. 2:11-12, NKJV).
Hiram was instrumental in the construction of the temple. Solomon made a treaty with Hiram (1 Kings 5:12), and Hiram supplied Solomon with many of the materials necessary for the construction of the temple (1 Kings 5:8-10). He also sent a master craftsman named Huram (or also Hiram) to Solomon. This man, who was half-Israelite, crafted many of the articles for the temple (2 Chron. 2:13-16). Solomon gave Hiram wheat, pressed oil (1 Kings 5:11), and twenty cities in Galilee (1 Kings 9:11). Even after the building of the temple, ships from Hiram brought gold, silver, and ivory to Solomon every three years (2 Chron. 9:21). This bond of friendship and cooperation was remembered long after Solomon. In the time of Amos, when Tyre had not given assistance to Israel in conflict with Edom, Tyre was rebuked because it "did not remember the covenant of brotherhood" that had existed in earlier times (Amos 1:9).
As time went on, Tyre further betrayed this "covenant of brotherhood." Through Joel, the Lord rebuked Tyre for carrying off gold from the Israelites and selling some of them into slavery to the Greeks (Joel 3:4-6). By the time of Ezekiel, this covenant had been even further eroded. Ezekiel was a priest who was carried off with the early captives taken with Jehoiachin, king of Judah (Ezek. 1:1-3). While Babylon exercised control over Judah, God instructed the people through Jeremiah not to resist Babylon, but to submit to its yoke (Jer. 27-29). God gave a similar instruction to the king of Tyre (Jer. 27:3), a man identified in extra-biblical history as Ithobaal or Ethbaal III (Josephus, Against Apion, 1.21). Unfortunately, Zedekiah, the king who reigned in place of Jehoiachin, did not follow this instruction, causing Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem and eventually destroy the temple and kill him (2 Kings 25). During this time, Ithobaal, the king of Tyre, looked on the fall of Jerusalem with joy, saying of Jerusalem, "Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste" (Ezek. 26:2). Responding to this arrogance and the king's failure to heed the Lord's instruction regarding Babylon, the Lord issued a three-chapter rebuke of Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28, declaring, "Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people" (26:7). Josephus records that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years, after which its rule was reduced from a monarchy to mere judges (Against Apion, 1.21).
Some conclude that chapter twenty-eight refers to Satan because of its similarity to Isaiah's proverb against the king of Babylon that refers to "Lucifer" (Isa. 14). Like Ezekiel, Isaiah starts off talking about the king of Babylon and then speaks of "Lucifer" lifting himself up only to be brought down (Isa. 14:12-13). The word "Lucifer" means "Light-Bearer" (BDB). Although the modern world associates the name Lucifer with Satan, no such association is ever found in the Bible. It was not until the Middle Ages that commentators began to interpret Isaiah as a reference to Satan, applying the name Lucifer to him rather than to the king of Babylon.
Ezekiel 28 is a similar text. Many of the references refer directly to the kinship between Israel and Tyre, particularly as it relates to the temple. Tyre was "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty" (28:12) as the supplier and source of the craftsman that fashioned the temple. The precious stones (28:13) were those found on the priests' breastplate (Exod. 39:10-13), an image that Ezekiel, as a priest, would certainly associate with the temple. Tyre was the "anointed cherub [or "extended cherub" (Gesenius)] that covers" (28:14a), in the sense that Huram, the craftsman king Hiram sent, appears to have constructed the large extended cherubim that covered the ark in the center of the temple (2 Chron. 2-4). Tyre was "upon the holy mountain" (28:14b) as a neighboring ally assisting Israel in the construction of the very house of God. However, because so much had changed from the time of Hiram to the time of Ithobaal, God declared, "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you" (Ezek. 28:17). The "covenant of brotherhood" was now gone. These are, indeed, sad words, but they refer to the king of Tyre—not to Satan.
Author-Bio: Kyle preaches for the Olsen Park Church of Christ in Amarillo, TX. He has written several books published by Truth Publications including How We Got the Bible. The church website is olsenpark.com. He can be reached at kmpope@att.net.
