Bible Strands
Ezekiel 28:16
By the vastness of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I banished you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel records Yahweh’s judgment speech directed at the "guardian cherub" addressing the king of Tyre. The declaration occurs between the announcement of the figure's original blamelessness and the subsequent casting to earth before kings.
The words — The Hebrew בְּרֹב רְכֻלָּתְךָ (bə-rōḇ rə-kullāṯ-ḵā) literally means "in the abundance of your trading." This phrase directly introduces the mechanism of corruption before the text notes the filling with violence and the act of sinning.
The thread — The pattern of commercial expansion breeding violence appears in Habakkuk 2:8 and 2:17, where plunder and bloodshed trigger divine retribution. Paul later warns that the desire for wealth similarly leads to temptation and destruction in 1 Timothy 6:9.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that material accumulation and transactional power inevitably produce moral corruption. It requires the reader to abandon the pursuit of earthly abundance as a foundation for identity or security.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Cross-references
- 1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
- Habakkuk 2:8 Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
- Habakkuk 2:17 For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of your bloodshed against men and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
- Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
- John 2:16 To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”
- Ezekiel 8:17 “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!
- Micah 2:2 They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
- Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence.
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Isaiah 22:19 I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.