Verse 4
Ezekiel described Tyre as a large, beautiful merchant ship. [Note: See Edwin M. Good, "Ezekiel’s Ship: Some Extended Metaphors in the Old Testament," Semitics 1 (1970):79-103.] He used this figure to portray Tyre’s pride and her prominence and dominance as a maritime power.
"The earliest Phoenician ships each had 50 oarsmen and were quite fast. The later commercial ships were much longer and had a crew of up to 200 with two or three banks of oars on each side." [Note: Dyer, "Ezekiel," p. 1280.]
The limits of this "ship of state" were those of the sea itself, and its builders had made it into a magnificent enterprise. The materials that had gone into its construction had been of the finest quality.
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