(Verse 27, 29 onwards) Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: Moreover, your fathers have blasphemed against me and have treated me with contempt, even as they spurned me. And I brought them into the land that I had lifted my hand to give them ((Vulgate adds: that land)): they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices and presented there the irritation of their offerings, and they placed there the fragrance of their sweetness, and they poured out their ((Vulgate is silent on this)) libations there. And I said to them, 'What is the high place to which you are going?' And its name was called the High Place until this day. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: As for your fathers, they have provoked Me to anger by their iniquities, by the fact that they have fallen away from Me. So I brought them into the land that I had lifted My hand in an oath to give them.' They saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. They also presented there the provocation of their gifts, and they set there their pleasing aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings. And I said to them: What is abbana, because you enter there? And they called its name abbana until this day. I wanted, he said, to scatter them in the wilderness, and to give them not good precepts, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they should have offered to me, and consecrate all their first-fruits to them by fire, so that I might kill them and destroy them. But when he says, I wanted, he shows that he did not do what he wanted. And that which follows: 'And they shall know that I am the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint. For it did not seem fitting to them to know after their destruction that he himself is the Lord. But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel, who have come to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whom you have descended, have also blasphemed against me and held me in contempt; after I brought them into the land which I had given them to possess, they turned against me to provoke me. For when they saw every high hill and leafy tree, they would sacrifice on the mountains and in the groves and thickets, and offer victims to the idols, and pour out libations. And when I saw this, I said to them: What is this, Bama? for it is called high: or why do you enter into such a place which you have chosen for yourselves in all the hills, so that even today these places are called Bamoth, and the ancient error retains its original name? Regarding Bama, which we translate as excelsum, there is an error in the Septuagint edition, where it is written as ἀββανὰ, which does not resonate in the Hebrew language. Bama can mean 'in which' if the two syllables are divided into two words, but in the present context, that sense does not fit. However, wherever it is written in the Books of Kings and Chronicles: 'The people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places,' Bama in the singular and Bamoth in the plural mean 'high places.'
(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.
(Chapter 28, Verse 1 onwards) 'The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas,' yet you are a man, and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that is hidden from you. By your wisdom and your understanding you have gained wealth for yourself and have acquired gold and silver in your treasuries.' In the abundance of your wisdom, and in your trading, you have multiplied strength for yourself, and your heart has been lifted up in your power. Therefore, thus says the Lord (God adds): because your heart has been lifted up as the heart of God, therefore, behold, I will bring upon you the most strong of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your splendor. They shall kill you, and deliver you up, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea. Are you saying, 'I am God,' in the presence of those who are about to kill you, even though you are a man and not God, and they will kill you with the hands of foreigners? You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of strangers, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: 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 make your heart like the heart of a god— are you wiser than Daniel? The wise have not taught you their discipline: have you made for yourself strength and made gold and silver in your treasuries, or in your abundant knowledge have you multiplied your strength and your power? Your heart is lifted up in your strength, therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have given your heart as the heart of God, behold, I will bring upon you foreign pestilential people from the nations, and they will unsheath their swords against you because of the splendor of your knowledge, and they will humble your splendor in destruction. They will lead you away, and they will dispose of you, and you will die the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea. Will you say, 'I am God,' when you face those who kill you? You are a man, not God, in the midst of your attackers. You will die at the hands of foreigners, uncircumcised in heart, because I have spoken, declares the Lord God.' Wherever YHWH is placed in the Septuagint, the first name, YHWH, is the proper name of God and is unspeakable. The second name, Adonai, is the common name found frequently in humans. However, just as the city of Tyre is depicted as a ship, first in its wealth and then in its destruction and mourning, so too is a prophetic discourse addressed to the ruler of Tyre. It is stated that he became proud and did not make good use of the wealth he possessed, and as a result suffered sadness and lamentation, experiencing great misfortune. Therefore, the first things to be said must be explained. It is written in Isaiah (Isa. 14) concerning the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, that he equated himself with God's power and became so arrogant that he dared to say, 'I will ascend above the stars of heaven and I will be like the Most High.' And hurled from his throne, he deserved to hear: How did Lucifer fall, he who rose in the morning? And of Pharaoh in the same prophet: The rivers are mine, and I made them (Isaiah 29:9). And of the prince of Tyre, who in his pride arrogantly said: I am a god, and I sit on the throne of God, or I dwell in the habitation of God, even though he is a man and not God. Although these words may seem to exceed the powers of human frailty, and not to be the words of men but of raving demons, we must take them as hyperbole, in that they have swelled to such an extent and have not known their measure, that in the midst of the swelling of worldly happiness and the power of the kingdom, men have not known themselves and have claimed eternal dominion for themselves. Although under the guise of princes, kings, and individual cities, or provinces, opposing powers may be demonstrated, about which the Apostle Paul writes: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). And in another place: We speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing (1 Corinthians 2:6). And again, discussing wisdom, he says, which none of the rulers of this world knew. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. II, 8). Also, in the prophecy of Daniel, it is clearly written that the Prince of the Israelite people is Michael, and the prince of Greece, and the prince of Persia (Dan. X). And Moses explicitly writes in the Song of Deuteronomy: When the Most High divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam, he established the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of the angels of God (Deut. XXXII, 8); or as it is better in Hebrew: according to the number of the sons of Israel. And so it happened that the people of the Lord, his portion, Jacob, became the inheritance of Israel. And we should not be surprised that on the opposite side the worst kings precede the best kings, David, Solomon, Josiah, and the patriarchs, and prophets, as a foreshadowing of the Lord and Savior. Therefore, according to both understandings, let us discuss the arrogant kings and apostate princes equally, which are written. He says, therefore (or, as said by Alexander, since you are a man, and being surrounded by the frailty of human flesh and swollen with pride, you think that you can dwell on the throne of God in the heavens, even though you are held in the narrowness of the middle of the sea and on the islands. And also, because you boast of your wisdom to such an extent that the men of your kingdom challenge Solomon with riddles: Are you wiser than Daniel, who by the grace of God conquered all the magicians and soothsayers, and is now the wisest in Babylon? Or, to put it another way: Even if you are wiser than Daniel, who is acknowledged to be the wisest of all, and even if you desire to compare yourself to God in the magnitude of wealth and power: you will still be captured by your enemies, and with the destruction of your city, you will be struck by many wounds. And you will no longer say, 'I am God,' but, having learned through your downfall, you will recognize that you are a human, not God. But if we wish to call the prince of Tyre the same power to whom the city itself, or the province, was given by God, let us accept that testimony. I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes' (Psalm 82:7). For power was given to them to govern the provinces, like judges appointed by the Emperor. However, they, forgetting their honor and being driven by a tyrannical mindset, rose up against their king and Lord. Dispersed throughout the whole world, they took on the names of idols and, filled with pride, fell into the judgment and snare of the devil. About this, Jesus spoke in the Gospel: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18).
Who would refuse the counsel of Daniel, of whom God said, “Who is wiser than Daniel?” How can people doubt about the minds of those to whom God has given such grace? By the counsel of Moses wars were brought to an end, and for his merit’s sake food came from heaven and drink from the rock. How pure must have been the soul of Daniel to soften the character of barbarians and to tame the lions! What temperance was his, what self-restraint in soul and body! Not unworthily did he become an object of admiration to all, when—and all people do admire this—though enjoying royal friendships, he looked not for gold or counted the honor given him as more precious than his faith. For he was willing to endure danger for the law of God rather than to be turned from his purpose in order to gain human favor.
The same apostle writes that God alone is wise, although both Solomon and many other holy people are called wise, and it is said, according to the Hebrew, to the prince of Tyre, “You are wiser than Daniel.” Therefore, just as he alone is called the light, immortal and wise, although they are many who are immortal, and who are lights and who are wise, so also the human perfection that proceeds not from nature but from grace shows that those who seem to be perfect are imperfect.
This is the reason, if I am not mistaken, why in the prophet Ezekiel a certain most haughty person is asked, “Are you then wiser than Daniel?” Nor on this point can that be possibly said that some contend for in opposition to the Lord’s Prayer: “For although,” they say, “that prayer was offered by the apostles, after they became holy and perfect and had no sin whatever, it was not on behalf of their own selves but for imperfect and still sinful people that they said, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’ They used the word our, they say, “in order to show that in one body are contained both those who still have sins and themselves, who were already altogether free from sin.” Now this certainly cannot be said in the case of Daniel, who (as I suppose) foresaw as a prophet this presumptuous opinion when he said so often in his prayer, “We have sinned” … he expresses himself in language so distinct and precise … and wanted above all things to commend it to our notice: “My sins,” says he, “and the sins of my people.” Who can contradict such evidence as this, but one who is more pleased to defend what he thinks than to find out what he ought to think?
Can anyone claim to be without sin, when Daniel confesses his own sins? I mean, some proud person or other was asked through the prophet Ezekiel, “Are you wiser than Daniel?” Again, the prophet also placed this Daniel among the three holy men in whom God signifies the three sorts of human beings he is going to deliver when the great tribulation comes on the human race.
Could we be better than Daniel himself, concerning whom the Lord said to the prince of Tyre by the prophet Ezekiel: “Are you wiser than Daniel?” He is unique in being included among the three just men whom God says he will deliver, doubtless showing three special types of just people, when he says he will so deliver them as not to deliver their sons with them, but they only shall be delivered: namely, Noah, Daniel and Job.
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 20:27-29:29