Chapter 59. Tyrus and Shebna
Just as the book of Zechariah describes a high priest prefiguration of Jesus, Joshua/Yhowshuwa who replaces Satan as high priest, so Isaiah 22 discusses a mystery figure, Shebna, who is a prophetic allegory for Satan. Shebna ordered a sepulchre hewed for himself from a rock on high, but Shebna was carried away in a mighty captivity by Assyria. The language is very much like the end-time capture of Satan, his imprisonment in the abyss, and his destruction at the end of the millennium. Shebna’s sepulchre/qeber was a burying tomb/grave hewed/chatsab out of stone on high, and a “graveth habitation” that can mean grave, temple, or dwelling place in a rock/cela` or a stone stronghold. The prophetic allegory conveys that Satan hewed a great temple or fortress, perhaps the “House of Judgment,” the “Archeion,” where Satan will be pulled from and sent to the abyss prison. God drove Shebna in the time of the Assyrian Apocalypse from his “station” and “state,” then pulled him down. “Station” is defined as a garrison, an outpost, or a standing-place; “state” means an office, state, or service; and “pull down” means to overthrow, destroy, break into pieces, pluck down, and ruin.
Moreover, Shebna, the ruler of the “rock,” is reflective of Satan/Helyel and like the king of Babylon/Helel’s fall to the pit prison in Sh’owl (14:13–20), as well as Tyrus’ fall to the pit prison in Ezekiel 28:5–19. Tyrus/Tsor also means rock, just as both Satan and Shebna are/were rulers of the rock, all who did widespread traffic of merchandise and iniquities. Ezekiel’s prophecies portrayed king Tyrus as an archetypical antichrist figure like Nimrod, the Assyrian, and the king of Babylon. Accordingly, Tyrus was classified as one of Terrible Ones, a beast king, even though he was not king over one the seven prophetic beast empires.
