Ezekiel 26:4

4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down its towers. I will scrape its soil from it and make it a bare rock.

Ezekiel 26:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 26:4

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus
&c.] Undermining them, or breaking them down with their battering rams: and break down her towers;
with axes, ( Ezekiel 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 Isaiah 23:1).

Ezekiel 26:4 In-Context

2 Mortal, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, "Aha, broken is the gateway of the peoples; it has swung open to me; I shall be replenished, now that it is wasted,"
3 therefore, thus says the Lord God: See, I am against you, O Tyre! I will hurl many nations against you, as the sea hurls its waves.
4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down its towers. I will scrape its soil from it and make it a bare rock.
5 It shall become, in the midst of the sea, a place for spreading nets. I have spoken, says the Lord God. It shall become plunder for the nations,
6 and its daughter-towns in the country shall be killed by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.