VM44....No, Halley's is a very unreliable text, especially in its use of archaeology which is woefully outdated and inaccurate (such as identifying Hammurabi with Amraphel in Genesis 14, identifying Merneptah as the pharaoh of the Exodus on the basis of the Merneptah Stele, the evidences cited for the conquest, etc.). Use with caution.
I thought it's worth elaborating on two points discussed in the other thread. The author (as does thirdwitness) tries to justify the arbitrary fragmentation of the narrative on two grounds: (1) "many nations" are mentioned in v. 3, which is held to be the antecedent of the plural inflection in v. 12, and which imply a series of attacks by different nations, and (2) pronominal reference shifts from the singular in v. 7-11 to the plural in v. 12, implying that the events in v. 12 are discontinuous from those in v. 11 and assume a later siege altogether. As I've argued before, the structure of the narrative indicates that v. 7-12 are a unity: (1) Nebuchadnezzar arrives with his army in v. 7, (2) he ravages the mainland villages in v. 8a, (3) he constructs a siege ramp to reach the fortifications and begins his siege in v. 8b, (4) he strikes the walls with his battering rams and destroys the towers in v. 9, (5) the walls are breached and the army pours inside in v. 10, (6) the calvary rides through the streets inside the fortified city and start killing people in v. 11, (7) they plunder the loot and raze the city as a whole in v. 12a, and (8) they throw the debris of the fortified city into the sea in v. 12b. The events discussed in v. 12 (#7-8 in the sequence) are clearly dependent on the foregoing and bring the siege to its natural conclusion. As for the reference to "many nations" and the shift from implied "he" to "they", the author ignores the following:
- "Many nations" does not mean that Ezekiel is talking about many different attacks of Tyre by different nations. How many different desolation events are narrated in the lament? Just one. Why does Ezekiel refer to "many nations"? Because "all the nations round about" were vassals of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:10-12, 27:7, 28:10-11; cf. BM 21946), and the king augmented his army with their military forces (cf. Jeremiah 35:11, 2 Kings 24:1-2). Thus Ezekiel earlier said, concerning the siege of Jerusalem and the defeat of Jehoiachin: "Then the nations came against him, those from regions round about. They spread their net for him and he was trapped in their pit. With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel" (Ezekiel 19:8-9). The reference to the plural "nations" does not mean that Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon multiple times by each nation but that the client nations of Nebuchadnezzar were all involved in this event. This event was the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, an event rather parallel to the siege of Tyre in the use of military forces.
- Similarly, the following reference to Nebuchadnezzar's expected attack on Egypt refers to his army as including those from the (plural) nations: "I will put an end to the hoardes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He and his army -- the ruthless ones of the nations -- will be brought in to destroy the land" (Ezekiel 30:10-11). And regarding Tyre: "I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of the nations, they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor" (Ezekiel 28:7). Again, the reference is to Nebuchadnezzar's multinational military force, just as the Babylonian king sent Syrians in Jeremiah 35:11 and Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites in 2 Kings 24:1-2. Compare with the military force of "Babylonians, Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them" in Ezekiel 23:23.
- What about the shift from implied "he" to "they" in v. 12? It is linguistically naive to infer that this shift entails that a separate siege by different "nations" (i.e. not Nebuchadnezzar) is implied in v. 12. First of all, although it is claimed that the plural "nations" in v. 3 are the assumed antecedent of the plurals in v. 12, there many other closer antecedents in the text. There are the "horses and chariots" and "horsemen," of v. 7, the "horses" and "horsemen" of v. 10, and the "horses" of v. 11. These are the military forces involved in the siege and these are mentioned much closer to v. 12 than the "many nations" of v. 3. There are also the mentions of the "assembly" and "numerous people" in v. 7 which while formally singular are mass nouns that can serve as antecedents for plurals. It is certainly true that the shift in number reference between v. 11 and v. 12 is mildly awkward in the Hebrew, but what the author completely overlooks is that this grammatical quirk is actually a common stylistic feature of Ezekiel and many similar examples can be adduced:
"Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity ('t-`wnm)" (Ezekiel 4:4). "This is Jerusalem and I have set her (shmtyh) in the center of the nations, with countries all around her (sbybwtyh). Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled (w-tmr) against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her (sbybwtyh), for they have rejected (m'sw) my laws and they have not followed (l'-hlkw) my decrees" (Ezekiel 5:5-6; the NIV has rendered "she" for "they" and "has" for "have" for clarity).
"Syria was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made. They gave (ntnw) you for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals, and rubies" (Ezekiel 27:16).
"And the land of Egypt shall become desolate and waste; then they will know (wyd`w) that I am Yahweh. Because you said, 'The Nile is mine and I have made it,' thus I am against you and your rivers" (Ezekiel 29:9-10).
"Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon drove his army ('t-chylw) in a hard campaign against Tyre; every head was rubbed bare and every shoulder made raw. Yet he received (l'-hyh lw) no reward nor his army (w-lchylw) from the campaign he served (`bd) against Tyre. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off (w-nsh') its wealth. He will loot (w-shll) and plunder the land as pay for his army (l-chylw). I have given him (ntty lu) Egypt as his wages (p`ltw) for his service (`bd) because of what they did (`shw) for me" (Ezekiel 29:18-20; the NIV replaces the "they" with "he and his army" for clarity).
These are several examples out of many in Ezekiel that reflect the same pattern in the lament on Tyre in ch. 26. Some of these quite strikingly parallel the pattern in that passage. The example in Ezekiel 5:5-6 refers to Jerusalem as a singular entity for several clauses until the reference suddenly switches to the plural. The switch is not because a new entity is in view but rather the perspective shifts from Jerusalem viewed as a mass entity to individual Jerusalemites who have not followed God's ordinances. The plural in "they will know that I am Yahweh" in Ezekiel 29:9-10 has as its antecedent "land of Egypt" which implies a plural entity of people living in the Egypt but which is formally a singular noun. The reference then shifts from the third to the second person in the next clause, going back to Pharaoh who was the original addressee of the oracle. The closest parallel in these examples is Ezekiel 29:18-19 which has a whole series of singular references to Nebuchadnezzar but the last clause unexplicably shifts to the plural even tho the preceding clause of the same sentence is in the singular. And just like in ch. 26, the antecendent of this plural lies in allusions to the army.
In two of these cases, the NIV translates the verbs non-literally to better express the sense and thus soften Ezekiel's careless habit of shifting between the singular and plural. Interestingly, the Greek LXX also softens the shift to the plural in ch. 26 while clearly interpreting v. 12 as referring to Nebuchadnezzar:
"For thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will bring up against you, O Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north: he is (esti) a king of kings, with horses, and chariots, and horsemen, and a concourse of very many nations. He shall slay (houtos ... anelei) your daughters that are in the field with the sword, and he shall set (dósei) a watch against you, and he shall build (perioikodomései) forts around you, and he shall put (peribalei) a rampart round against you, and he shall set up (perioikodomései) warlike works, and he shall array (dósei) his spears against you. He shall cast down (kathelei) with his own (hoplois) swords your walls and your towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses (hippón autou) their dust shall cover you, and by reason of the sound of his horsemen (hippeón autou) and the wheels of his chariots (armatón autou) your walls shall be shaken, when he enters (eisporeuomenou autou) into your gates, as one entering into a city from the plain. With the hoofs of his horses (hippón autou) they shall trample (katapatésousin) all your streets. He shall slay (anelei) your people with the sword, and he shall shall bring down (kataxei) to the ground the support of your strength. And he shall plunder (pronomeusei) your power, and despoil (skuleusei) your possessions, and he shall cast down (katabalei) your walls, and he shall demolish (kathelei) your pleasant houses; and he shall cast (embalei) your stones and your timber and your dust into the midst of your sea" (Ezekiel 26:7-12 LXX).
Note that v. 12 has singular reference throughout, i.e. referring to Nebuchadnezzar. Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate from the Hebrew, also regarded v. 12 as referring to Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Jerome, Commentariorum in Hiezechielem, 14), tho he left the plurals intact in his translation.
