Ezekiel 27:10

10. Persia… Lud… Phut The Persians appear for the first time in Ezekiel’s century as a national power (Toy). (See notes Daniel 5:28.) They were probably near relatives of the Medes, with whom they had a close alliance, and were at this time the enemies of Assyria. Toy, because of the parallel list (Ezekiel 30:5), changes Persia (Paras) to Cush. Lud originally came from Egypt (Genesis 10:13), and was her warm ally (Jeremiah 46:9) and suffered in her downfall (Ezekiel 30:5), though Genesis 10:22, points to a Semitic origin. A prehistoric migration into the Nile Delta might account for this divergence of statement. Jensen believes the people referred to are not the Lydians (Assyrian, Lu-ud-di) as has been commonly assumed, but some nomadic tribe of the Syrian desert living between Aram and Uz on one side and Babylonia on the other ( Sunday School Times, February 11, 1899). George Adam Smith and many others believe them to have been Libyans (as LXX.). Put, or Phut, was of Hamitic origin and a close relative of the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Canaanites (Phoenicians, Genesis 10:6). The nation appears in many places as a close ally of Egypt (Ezekiel 30:5; Jeremiah 46:9; Nahum 3:9). It also appears in the army of Gog (Ezekiel 38:5). Scholars have generally identified these people with various African nations, as the Nubians or Libyans. A text of Nebuchadnezzar states that in his thirty-seventh year in a campaign against Egypt he defeated “the soldiers of the city of Pudhu-yavan, a distant land which is within the sea,” from which Sayce draws the conclusion that “Phut of the Ionians” may have been Kyrene, or Pelusium, or some other settlement of the Greek mercenaries in Egypt. However, the names of towns migrate rapidly, and the use of the “yavan” as a descriptive term may indicate that there was an original Phut which was not “Phut of the Ionians.” Edward Glaser believes that he has found a Phut ( Puta) in Southwest Arabia ( Acad., 40:76), at which place, close to the base of the Gala Mountains, Mr. W. Bent has found an ancient harbor resembling closely that which is pictured on the Egyptian monuments as that of Punt, the land of incense. (See note Ezekiel 27:21.) Naville, however, is sure that Punt was on the African coast of the Red Sea (Deir el Bahari, 3:1898). It is at any rate plain that Tyre formed her army largely of mercenaries, and it is very natural that she should choose allies of Egypt in her defense against the aggressions of Assyria.

Hanged the shield and helmet in thee So the walls were adorned (See Ezekiel 27:11 and Song of Solomon 4:4).