Ezekiel — Chapter 28
Chapter 28 contains two oracles: against the Prince of Tyre (who claims to be a god, vv. 1-10) and a lament over the King of Tyre (vv. 11-19). The latter passage, with its references to Eden, the holy mountain of God, and the covering cherub, Lapide — following Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, and Gregory — interprets as referring to the fall of Lucifer, the devil, making this one of the key biblical texts on angelology and demonology.
Verse 2
'Cor tuum elevatum est, et dixisti: Deus ego sum' — your heart was lifted up and you said: I am God: Lapide reads the Prince of Tyre's pride as an image of Lucifer's pride and of all human pride that usurps divine prerogatives. He cites Thomas Aquinas on pride as the root of all sin.
Verse 12
The 'King of Tyre' as Lucifer: Lapide argues that the language of Eden, the mountain of God, and 'from the day of your creation until iniquity was found in you' cannot apply to any human king but only to a primordial angelic being. He cites Origen's De Principiis, Tertullian's Adversus Marcionem, Jerome, and Gregory's Moralia in support.
Verse 13
The precious stones as the garment of the covering cherub: Lapide enumerates all twelve stones and connects them to the twelve apostles and the heavenly Jerusalem (Apoc. 21), arguing that Lucifer, as highest of created beings, bore in his angelic nature the pattern of the entire redeemed creation — which he lost through pride.
Verse 17
'Peccavit cor tuum in decore tuo': your heart sinned in your beauty: Lapide follows Gregory and Thomas in identifying Lucifer's sin as an inordinate self-love arising from contemplation of his own excellence, a love that stopped in itself rather than ascending to God as its source. This is the metaphysical anatomy of all pride.
Verse 24
Israel will no longer be a pricking brier or a piercing thorn from all its neighbors: Lapide reads the healing of Israel's relations with surrounding nations as a type of the peace the Church brings to the previously warring nations of the Roman Empire. He cites Eusebius of Caesarea's Historia Ecclesiastica on the Pax Romana as providentially prepared for the Gospel's spread.
Verse 25
When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered... and dwell securely in their own land: Lapide reads this as a Messianic promise fulfilled in the gathering of Jews and Gentiles into the one Church. He emphasizes 'securely' (confidenter) as the characteristic of the justified soul at peace with God — the deep security that surpasses worldly security.