(8) Deaths.--The plural accurately represents the rare form of the original, and indicates emphatically a violent death.

Verses 8, 9. - The effect of the Chaldean invasion was to bring the king down to the nether world of the dead. In the use of the plural "deaths" we have a parallel to the "plurima morris imago" of Virgil ('AEneid,' 2:369). And this death was not to be like that of a hero-warrior, but as that of those who are slain in the midst of the seas, who fall, i.e., in a naval battle, and are cast into the waters. Would he then repeat his boast, I am God?

28:1-19 Ethbaal, or Ithobal, was the prince or king of Tyre; and being lifted up with excessive pride, he claimed Divine honours. Pride is peculiarly the sin of our fallen nature. Nor can any wisdom, except that which the Lord gives, lead to happiness in this world or in that which is to come. The haughty prince of Tyre thought he was able to protect his people by his own power, and considered himself as equal to the inhabitants of heaven. If it were possible to dwell in the garden of Eden, or even to enter heaven, no solid happiness could be enjoyed without a humble, holy, and spiritual mind. Especially all spiritual pride is of the devil. Those who indulge therein must expect to perish.They shall bring thee down to the pit,.... Or, "to corruption" (k); to the grave, the pit of corruption and destruction; so antichrist shall go into perdition, into the bottomless pit from whence he came, Revelation 17:8,

and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas; that die in a sea fight, whose carcasses are thrown overboard, and devoured by fishes.

(k) "ad corruptionem".