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Nebuchadrezzar - king of kings - An ancient title among those proud Asiatic despots shahinshah and padshah, titles still in use.

Verses 7-14

The description of the siege is that of a town invested by land.

Ezekiel 26:7

Nebuchadrezzar - Jeremiah 21:2 note.

Ezekiel 26:8

Lift up the buckler - i. e., set a wall of shields, under cover of which the walls could be approached.

Ezekiel 26:9

Engines of war - Or, his battering ram. “axes” swords. They who would break flown the towers, rush on with their swords to slay the defenders.

Ezekiel 26:11

Garrisons - pillars, on which stood statues of some protecting god. Compare 2 Kings 10:26.

Ezekiel 26:14

The siege had been on land, but the victory was to be completed by the subjection of the island-citadel.

To be secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely to get by it; or with their fall, when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that easily besets us, yet is not thought so bad as really it is. But it comes from a selfish, covetous principle, and from that love of the world as our happiness, which the love of God expressly forbids. He often blasts the projects of those who would raise themselves on the ruin of others. The maxims most current in the trading world, are directly opposed to the law of God. But he will show himself against the money-loving, selfish traders, whose hearts, like those of Tyre, are hardened by the love of riches. Men have little cause to glory in things which stir up the envy and rapacity of others, and which are continually shifting from one to another; and in getting, keeping, and spending which, men provoke that God whose wrath turns joyous cities into ruinous heaps.

This chapter is based on Daniel 4.

Exalted to the pinnacle of worldly honor, and acknowledged even by Inspiration as “a king of kings” (Ezekiel 26:7). Nebuchadnezzar nevertheless at times had ascribed to the favor of Jehovah the glory of his kingdom and the splendor of his reign. Such had been the case after his dream of the great image. His mind had been profoundly influenced by this vision and by the thought that the Babylonian Empire, universal though it was, was finally to fall, and other kingdoms were to bear sway, until at last all earthly powers were to be superseded by a kingdom set up by the God of heaven, which kingdom was never to be destroyed. PK 514.1

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