The men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. Your men of skill, O Tyre, were there as your captains.
Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Tyrus, Eze 27:2. It was yet in the height of its prosperity, and there appeared not the least symptom of its decay; yet the prophet must lament it, because its prosperity is its snare, is the cause of its pride and security, which will make its fall the more grievous.
Commenting on Ezekiel 27:1-25
The ancients of Gebal,.... A promontory of the Phoenicians, the same with the Gabale of Pliny (n), and with the land of the Giblites, Jos 13:5. It was by the Greeks called Byblus; and so the Septuagint here render the words, the elders of Bybli or Byblus, a place once famous for the birth and temple of Adonis; it is now called Gibyle. Mr.
Arvad--a small island and city near Phœnicia, now Ruad: its inhabitants are still noted for seafaring habits. thy wise men, O Tyrus . . . thy pilots--While the men of Arvad, once thy equals (Gen 10:18), and the Sidonians, once thy superiors, were employed by thee in subordinate positions as "mariners," thou madest thine own skilled men alone to be commanders and pilots.