Tyre's Glory and Demise: Totalizing Description in Ezekiel 27

Abstract

In Ezekiel 27, the city of Tyre is depicted as a beautiful ship whose success in trade is the very cause of its demise. As a seafaring vessel, Tyre is laden with goods from the surrounding nations with whom it trades. But a heavy ship in a storm can sink. In Ezekiel 27, weightiness-"glory" (7133)-turns to excess weight, and it is precisely this weightiness that brings about Tyre's failure on the sea. The presentation of Tyre's demise is heightened by a preceding praise of its glory. This glory is the city's beauty, systematically described from end to end, as perfect bodies are in biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature. Ezekiel 27 is thus animated by two simultaneous metaphors: the city as a ship, whose weight determines its viability on the sea, and the city as a body, whose interaction with others determines its success in the world but whose corporeal boundaries must be maintained for health.