Ezekiel 26:4

Eze 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.

Ver. 4. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus.] Which thou holdest to be inexpugnable. Hence this and the two following chapters, purposely to undeceive thee, if it may be.

I will also scrape her dust from her.] Brought from other places, to make her gardens; for she was built upon a rock, et in petram glabram: to a naked rock will God now reduce her.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 26:4-6. They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, &c. — The expressions of these verses signify that Tyre should be entirely demolished, and that the place where the city stood should be made as bare as the top of a rock, and that it should be employed to no other use but that of a desolate shore, the drying of the fishermen’s nets. Nebuchadnezzar quite demolished old Tyre, and the stones and rubbish of it were afterward made use of by Alexander, to carry on a causeway from the continent to the island where new Tyre stood, by which means he took that. This latter city is since so decayed, that there are no remains of it left but a few huts belonging to fishermen, who are in the habit of hanging out their nets to dry upon the rocks, as is related by travellers that have been upon the place. “The present inhabitants of Tyre.” says Maundrell, page 49, “are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing.” The Jesuit Hadrianus Parvillerius resided ten years in Syria; and the famous Huetius heard him say, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks stretched forth to the sea, and the great stones scattered up and down on the shore, made clean and smooth by the sun, waves, and winds, and useful only for the drying of fishermen’s nets, many of which happened at the time to be spread on them, it brought to his memory this prophecy: see Newton on the prophecies, Diss. 11.; and note on Isa 23:1, &c. And her daughters shall be slain with the sword — By the daughters of Tyre here are meant the lesser towns, which were under her jurisdiction as the mother city, or metropolis of the kingdom: the inhabitants of these would be slain with the sword.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 4. I will also scrape her dust from her] I will totally destroy her fortifications, and leave her nothing but a barren rock, as she was before. This cannot refer to the capture of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It flourished long after his time.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4) Her dust.—Comp. Eze_26:12. The dust is that of her ruined walls and palaces and temples. “Scraping” expresses their utter destruction. As an historic fact, the ruins of the ancient city have all been thrown into the sea, and what now remains is of mediaeval construction, although the greater part of even the mediaeval ruins have been carried away.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. like the top of a rock] like a naked rock, ch. Eze_24:7. Tyre stood upon a small island of rock separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. She shall be swept from her place, and her dust scraped into the sea, leaving her island site a bare rock, cf. Eze_26:12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus.... Undermining them, or breaking them down with their battering rams:

and break down her towers; with axes, Eze 26:9 built upon the walls; erected for the defence of the city, and for watchmen to stand in, to look out from them for the enemy, and observe his motions, as well as for soldiers to fight from:

and I will scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock; a bare smooth rock, which has not any surface of earth upon it. So the Targum,

"I will give her for the smoothness of an open rock.''

Tyre was built upon a rock; and whereas the inhabitants had brought earth thither, and laid it upon it, in order to make gardens and orchards, and plant flowers and trees; this should be all removed, and it should become a bare rock, as it was at first. It denotes the utter destruction of it. It has its name from a word which signifies a rock; See Gill on Isa 23:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Dust. She shall be demolished, and the rubbish thrown into the sea, to make a road by which New Tyre in the island might be attacked, ver. 12. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Destroy; batter and demolish with their mighty engines, which shall shake, disjoint, and beat down the strongest parts of their walls.

Break down; undermine, that they may tumble at once, or employ hands to take them down, as men pull down buildings.

Towers; watch-towers, and those that were for defence and safety of their city, which from their greatness have their name, Migdol.

I will also scrape her dust from her; I will leave thee nothing, thou shalt be scraped, and brushed, and swept, that not so much as dust shall remain to thee.

And make her like the top of a rock; as bare as was the rock on which thy city is built before wealth, beauty, buildings, and strength was brought to it by man’s industry.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Top of a rock — Or, naked rock. (See Eze_24:7-8.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scrape - I will leave thee nothing; thou shalt be scraped, and swept, that not so much as dust shall remain in thee. Like - As bare as was the rock on which thy city is built.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and I shall remove [Heb. וְסִחֵיתִי,] and I shall uproot, like (Prov. 15:25): “The Lord will uproot (יִסַח) the house of the haughty;” (Deut. 28:63); “and you will be uprooted (וְנִסַחְתֶם) from...”

a smooth rock Since it was built on a rock in the midst of the sea, when it will be demolished and its earth will be uprooted into the sea, the rock will be left bare, and so did Jonathan render: a smooth, bare rock.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.