I am against thee, O Tyrus. Ezekiel 26:3 On the importance of having God for our friend W. M. Wade. That vengeance belongs unto God is emphatically declared in the book of God ( Romans 12:19 ). And exemplary is the vengeance with which the Almighty has from time to time visited, not only those who had either arrayed themselves in hostility against Himself, His Word, or His servants; but those who had, without His sanction, either assailed or oppressed His people Nor individuals merely, but assemblages of men, — nay, cities, — and even nations, have often, in a sudden and calamitous overthrow, borne memorable testimony to the truth of these remarks. My text refers to an occasion of the kind. The Tyrians, so called from their chief city, Tyre, but also known by the name of Phoenicians, were at one time the most commercial, most opulent, and, at the same time, proudest people of the oriental world. Shipbuilding was prosecuted to a vast extent at this celebrated place. The carrying trade, too, of most of the mercantile world was in the hands of the Tyrians; besides which the city was the grand depot for the rarest and richest productions of distant nations. Gold, spices, and precious stones from Ethiopia, and the coast of Arabia; — emeralds, fine linen and embroidery work, coral, agate, and wool of delicate hue as well as texture, from Damascus and other parts of Syria; — chests of cedar for bestowing fragrancy on splendid apparel, and splendid apparel itself in ample quantity, from Mesopotamia and other bordering countries; — wheat, honey, oil, and balm, as well as wrought iron, steel, and aromatic gums, from various quarters of Palestine; — silver, iron, tin, and lead, from Tarshish, a place itself of considerable maritime trade; — brazen vessels, and, alas! slaves, from Ionia; — lambs, with other creatures used as provisions, from Arabia; — and ivory from sundry parts of the east: — all these commodities, useful, ornamental, costly, elegant, and various, brought in abundance into Tyre, were sold in her fairs and markets; whence they were exported, or otherwise dispersed, into different and distant countries, cities, and provinces. The consequence was, that Tyre spread itself till it was nearly twenty miles in circumference; containing, 'tis probable, nearly one million of souls. Further, such was the luxurious prodigality that sprung from the opulence which flowed in upon Tyre from her vast commerce, that not only were the people very generally clad in costly stuffs, dyed of the richest hues — among the rest the far-famed Tyrian purple — but even the very sails of their ships were "of fine linen, with embroidered work from Egypt." This minuteness in description has appeared scarcely less than necessary to a proper comprehension of the force of that declaration in the text: "I (God) am against thee, O Tyrus." Having learned from the detail how commercial, great, and splendid, how strong, opulent, and well-peopled a city Tyre was, we can easily deem how it was that the Tyrians, lifted up with pride, and full of self-confidence, had, in their hearts, set at nought the power of Almighty God, thinking that their mountain stood too strong for even His arm to shake. It was, in effect, we conclude, through such a spirit as this that they vaunted themselves over the Jewish people, and spoke scornfully of Jerusalem; though fully aware, at the same time, that the former were under the special patronage of God, and that the latter was the most favoured seat of His majesty and glory on earth. Such, then, as has been described, was the famous city of Tyre when the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to denounce it as marked out for particular judgment by the Most High. The reason is given in verse 2. Jerusalem had been taken and sacked by Nebuchadnezzar; but this should have been far, very far from ministering to the Tyrians occasion of self-gratulation and triumph. Yet did the latter not confine themselves to the manifestation of a selfish and brutal joy at the misfortunes of their Jewish neighbours — to a mere rejoicing over the circumstance that the trade of Jerusalem would from that time flow in Tyrian channels. There is but too full evidence of the fact that they went further than this — that they became ready purchasers of all the spoil which could be wrung from the unhappy people; and, not content even with thus abetting the cruelty and rapacity of others, bought with avidity the wretched Jews themselves — bought them in great numbers, and either kept or transferred them as slaves. "Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus." On the particulars of the denunciation that follows, a very long and awful one, I need not dwell. My design next carries me to view the accomplishment of those predictions of vengeance which Ezekiel was thus commissioned to pour forth against the devoted city. "Passing," says a celebrated traveller, "by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the truth of the prophecy that Tyre, the queen of nations (queen of the sea, too, was she styled); that Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock to fishers to dry their nets on: two wretched fishermen with miserable nets had just given over their occupations." "On the north side of Tyre," says another traveller, Maundrell, "there is an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here but a mere babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc.; there not being so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few wretches harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting themselves chiefly upon fishing; who seemed to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God has fulfilled His word concerning Tyre." Has not God then shown Himself indeed "against Tyrus"? Be it our endeavour, next, to inquire into the use which we should ourselves, with God's help, make of this interesting piece of Bible history. 1. First, then, we may the more clearly discern the force of that scripture that "vengeance belongs to God" alone; to whom it must be left to repay evils or injuries done, derived, or wished against His people. The people of God are to repose their cause in the hands of God. And why are they so to act? Why, when the injuries which they receive are great and unquestionable, may they not themselves endeavour to take an adequate revenge? Because the truly religious temper, which only God can approve, is a temper that can have no affinity with a revengeful disposition. Neither is the retribution that God inflicts at all allied to revenge. It is the righteous chastisement of a lawgiver, whose statutes, holy, just, and good, have been inexcusably transgressed, and His authority set at nought, by those on whom the visitations fall. 2. We are taught from our subject that God will not fail to avenge, as far as shall be proper, His people, of their inveterate and irreclaimable adversaries. 3. We are taught by this scripture the severity of the Divine vengeance, when once the long-suffering of God has reached its limit, as well as the absolute impossibility of anyone's escaping or avoiding the terrible effects of the aroused anger of the Almighty Jehovah. Long may His patience be tried, ere that holy anger be excited, but when once kindled, how resistless and destructive is its power. Dreadful, truly, is their condition who, being still in their sins, have God "against" them. Alarming would be the danger of that traveller who, unarmed, should discover a lion advancing towards him, in a path out of which he could not turn to escape the terrible beast; with which again, personal contest would be to all appearance hopeless. Yet would some possibility of escape in such a case exist. Aid, unknown to the stranger, might be at hand. To another object, a different kind of prey, the attention of the savage creature might be drawn off. Presence of mind, aiding the happy execution of some sudden thought, might render the jeoparded stranger victorious, or put him in unlocked for safety. Nay, the lion might, unstung by hunger, or with the magnanimity that some have been fond of ascribing to this animal, allow the other, unhurt, quietly to pass him. Such things have indeed happened. But no probabilities exist — no possibility exists, that he against whom God cometh as an avenging adversary, will be able to avoid encountering Him, and perishing in the encounter. None. His purposes change not; their execution nought can hinder. And as for God's not troubling Himself about the evil that He cannot but see — think what is His own character. First, is He not of an infinite wisdom, purity, and holiness? Then think what He has done for sinful man, when a believer, repentant, and reformed; not because of man's own merit in being such, but when he is such; — given to him, that is, everlasting life in happiness and glory. Think of these things, and then let common sense answer the question, whether this all-holy and all-beneficent Being will or will not take notice of — will or will not tremendously punish — the unbelieving, impenitent, and unholy? ( W. M. Wade. ) Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon. Ezekiel 26:7-14 The prophecy against Tyre Sermons by Monday Club. I. WHAT WERE THE GROUNDS OF HER JUDGMENT. She was judged for her sins. 1. She abused the privilege of civilisation. Tyre was the most cultivated state of antiquity, invented letters, weights and measures, money, arithmetic, the art of keeping accounts. She made her painting and sculpture and architecture and music and letters, all her skill and learning and refinement, instruments of corruption. 2. Tyre abused also the privilege of commerce. The Tyrians were a nation of merchants. But there are two classes of merchants. There are those who aim to develop new countries, to introduce new crops and arts and industries, to elevate races, to make commerce the servant of God. There are others who make everything bend to gain. A prince or an entire people may thus abuse the privilege of commerce. So Tyre abused her privilege. 3. She abused the privilege of her intimate connection with the Jewish people. In the enjoyment of this distinction she stood alone. Tyre was a bulwark of Israel, covering Zion as the wing of the cherub covered the altar. In the unscrupulousness of her lust of empire and gain she broke the "brotherly covenant," and when Jerusalem fell she rejoiced in her overthrow. To her unscrupulousness nothing was too sacred to be turned to profit. II. THE DELAY OF THE JUDGMENT. The method of God, sometimes, is swift retribution, as with Sodom and Gomorrah, sometimes slow, as with Tyre. She was long in filling her measure of guilt. Over two hundred years before the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, Joel prophesied against her. A few years later Amos took up the prophecy, then Isaiah in , Ezekiel in 590 , Zechariah in 487 . Yet the judgment delayed. She suffered calamities, but always rose above them. The prophecies were not literally fulfilled. The Christian era came in. Tyre still stood; Shalmaneser had besieged it; Nebuchadnezzar had invested it by sea and land for thirteen years, and conquered it; Alexander the Great, in , after a frightful siege of six months, had stormed, captured, and destroyed it, massacring thousands of its inhabitants, and selling thirty thousand into slavery. But after each disaster it had arisen anew, In the days of , in the fifth century , it was still standing, a city powerful and opulent. It was still flourishing eight hundred years later, in the times of the Crusades. It was the seat of a Christian bishopric. It had stood over twenty-five hundred years. The prophecies against it were nearly two thousand years old. Was the Bible, then, which had proved true in prophecies against Egypt and Nineveh, and Edom and Judah, to be found at fault here? III. THE LITERAL FULFILMENT OF JUDGMENT. In the year 1291 the Sultan of Egypt laid siege to the strong city of Ptolemais or Acre. Terror spread through the crusaders' kingdom. Tyre shared it. Capture meant massacre and slavery. Ptolemais fell on the very day on which the evil news reached Tyre. At vespers the people in mass forsook their city. In panic and haste they embarked upon their galleys, and went out never to return. The Mahometan came. He overthrew the city. He choked one of the matchless harbours with the ruins. He cast into the sea, statues and columns and the huge stones of warehouses and palaces. He set the last fire to her splendour. He scraped the rock. Standing amid the ruins we may see the dust and ashes of her conflagration, the broken marble columns beneath the sea and scattered upon the shore, the fishers' nets spread upon the rock, and feel, with every traveller who thus stands, that the last prophecy concerning her must also prove true, "That shalt be built no more." 1. The fate of Tyre is a warning to those engaged in traffic. Beware of the iniquity of traffic, of the pride, the luxury, the unscrupulousness, the atheism. 2. The fate of Tyre exalts the Word of God. If we look upon its ruins simply as a record of fulfilled prophecy, they force the conviction, This is the accomplishment of the Word of God, the one thing on earth amid the vast mutations of time, as passes unceasingly the glory of the world, which is unchangeable. ( Sermons by Monday Club. ) And they shall make a spoil of thy riches. Ezekiel 26:12 Spoliation of treasure is a moral gain F. Wayland. Scholars and artists have mourned for ages over the almost universal destruction of the works of ancient genius. I suppose that many a second-rate city, in the time of Christ, possessed a collection of works of surpassing beauty, which could not be equalled by all the specimens now existing that have been discovered. The Alexandrian library is believed to have contained a greater treasure of intellectual riches than has ever since been hoarded in a single city. These, we know, have all vanished from the earth. The Apollo Belvidere and the Venus de Medicis stand in almost solitary grandeur to remind us of the perfection to which the plastic art of the ancients had attained. The Alexandrian library furnished fuel for years for the baths of illiterate Moslems. I used myself frequently to wonder why it had pleased God to blot out of existence these magnificent productions of ancient genres It seemed to me strange that the pail of oblivion should thus be thrown over all to which man, in the flower of his age, had given birth. But the solution of this mystery is found, I think, in the remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii. We discover that every work of man was so penetrated by corruption, every production of genius was so defiled with uncleanness, that God, in introducing a better dispensation, determined to cleanse the world from the pollution of preceding ages. As when all flesh had corrupted his way, He purified the world by the waters of the flood, so, when genius had covered the earth with images of sin, He overwhelmed the works of ancient civilisation with a deluge of barbarism. It was too bad to exist: and He swept it all away. ( F. Wayland. ) And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease. Ezekiel 26:13 Sin silencing song Monday Club Sermons . The classics tell of a lake called Avernus, which means "birdless." A poisonous vapour arises from its foul waters. Birds attempting to fly across it fall stupefied into its bosom. The eagle's wing becomes powerless, and gradually the proud bird sinks down, until its lifeless body floats upon the dark waters. The nightingale loses by degrees her power of song, and at length the sweet singer falls trembling into the waves of death. This may be a fiction; it is nevertheless a picture of life. There is a lake of sinful pleasure lying along our path. Heedless of it, many spread their wings of strength and beauty upon its outer shore. They think to go a little beyond its margin, and then return. But the spell is on them. Before they are aware the wing has lost its strength and the voice its charm. The momentum gained bears them onward and down until they sink in the dark and fatal flood. ( Monday Club Sermons . ) Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall? Ezekiel 26:15 Tyre's fall awakens alarm in others As when a great merchant breaks, all that he deals with are shocked by it, and begin to look about them. Or when they see one fail and become bankrupt, of a sudden, in debt a great deal more than he is worth, it makes them afraid for themselves, lest they should do so too. Thus the isles, which thought themselves safe in the embraces of the sea, when they see Tyrus fall, shall tremble and be troubled, saying, What will become of us?" And it is well, if they make this use of it, to take warning by it not to be secure, but to stand in awe of God and His judgments. ( M. Henry . ) I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more. Ezekiel 26:21 The humiliation of Tyre A. B. Davidson. All prophecy is moral, is based on moral considerations. What the prophet aims his threats against is not the prosperity of Tyre, but its pride of heart, which was rebellion against Jehovah — God over all. The humiliation of Tyre was morally as good as its ruins, in so far as it showed that there were higher forces in the world than itself. ( A. B. Davidson. ).

Benson Commentary Ezekiel 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Ezekiel 26:1 . In the eleventh year, in the first day of the month — By the eleventh year seems to be intended the eleventh of Jehoiachin’s captivity; for Ezekiel seems to reckon this time chiefly from that period. What month it was is not mentioned: some think the first month of the year is meant; others the first month after the taking of Jerusalem. Ezekiel 26:2 Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Ezekiel 26:2-3 . Because that Tyrus hath said, Aha, she is broken, &c. — The meaning seems to be, the city is broken, at whose gates the people entered in; that is, the place is demolished where there used to be a confluence of people from all parts, especially at the solemn festivals. She is turned unto me, I shall be replenished — Tyre rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem, because she expected her trade would be increased by it in becoming the mart for the commodities which, while Jerusalem stood, were bought and sold there. To which may be added, that when Jerusalem was taken, the spoil of the city was carried thither for sale, and several of the inhabitants who were made captives, were there sold as slaves. Therefore, behold, I am, against thee, O Tyrus — The providence of God had greatly favoured Tyre: it was a pleasant and wealthy city, and might have continued so if its inhabitants had sympathized with Jerusalem in her calamities; but when, instead of that, they took pleasure in those calamities, and rejoiced at the fall of that neighbouring city, because of the gain which they thought would thereby accrue to them, they provoked the wrath of God against themselves, for he cannot but abhor the conduct of all such as take pleasure in the calamities of others. I will cause many nations to come up against thee, &c. — The Chaldeans with their confederates might be very properly called many nations, as, without doubt, the army of Nebuchadnezzar, whose dominions were very extensive, was made up of the people of various nations. As the sea causeth his waves to come up — “They shall be as loud, as numerous, as irresistible, as the waves of the sea. This is one of the beautiful and expressive images which occur in the magnificent prophecy here recorded.” — Bishop Newcome. Great and victorious armies are described in other places of Scripture under the figure of an inundation carrying all before it. Ezekiel 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. Ezekiel 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. Ezekiel 26:4-6 . They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, &c. — The expressions of these verses signify that Tyre should be entirely demolished, and that the place where the city stood should be made as bare as the top of a rock, and that it should be employed to no other use but that of a desolate shore, the drying of the fishermen’s nets. Nebuchadnezzar quite demolished old Tyre, and the stones and rubbish of it were afterward made use of by Alexander, to carry on a causeway from the continent to the island where new Tyre stood, by which means he took that. This latter city is since so decayed, that there are no remains of it left but a few huts belonging to fishermen, who are in the habit of hanging out their nets to dry upon the rocks, as is related by travellers that have been upon the place. “The present inhabitants of Tyre.” says Maundrell, page 49, “are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing.” The Jesuit Hadrianus Parvillerius resided ten years in Syria; and the famous Huetius heard him say, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks stretched forth to the sea, and the great stones scattered up and down on the shore, made clean and smooth by the sun, waves, and winds, and useful only for the drying of fishermen’s nets, many of which happened at the time to be spread on them, it brought to his memory this prophecy: see Newton on the prophecies, Diss. 11.; and note on Isaiah 23:1 , &c. And her daughters shall be slain with the sword — By the daughters of Tyre here are meant the lesser towns, which were under her jurisdiction as the mother city, or metropolis of the kingdom: the inhabitants of these would be slain with the sword. Ezekiel 26:5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it , saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations. Ezekiel 26:6 And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 26:7 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. Ezekiel 26:7-11 . Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar — Josephus asserts, upon the authority of the Phenician Annals, translated by Menander, the Ephesian, into Greek, “that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre thirteen years, when Ithobal was king there, and began the siege in the seventh year of Ithobal’s reign, and that he subdued Syria and all Phenicia. It further appears from the Phenician Annals, quoted by the same historian, that the Tyrians received their kings afterward from Babylon. These Annals too, as Dr. Prideaux hath clearly shown, agree exactly with Ezekiel’s account of the time and year wherein the city was taken.” — Bishop Newton. Nebuchadnezzar is here called king of kings, because he had several other kings under him as his vassals and tributaries. With horses and with chariots, &c. — With a vast army, but all land forces; for we do not find that he had any naval force, or any means of attacking the place by sea, which made his undertaking the more difficult. He shall make a fort against thee, &c. — The various operations and actions of a siege are here set forth, all which it is said Nebuchadnezzar should employ against Tyre. And in a siege of so long continuance as thirteen years, undoubtedly every method and art of annoying and injuring the city was made use of. By reason of the abundance of horses, &c. — This is a lively description of the tumult and desolation that attend a conquering army making themselves masters of a great city. When he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter, &c. — Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, had besieged Tyre, but without success: the Tyrians with a few ships had beaten his large fleet; (Josephus’s Antiq.; ) but yet, it is here foretold, Nebuchadnezzar should prevail. Thy strong garrisons — Or, thy strong fortresses, or, the fortresses of thy strength, as ????? ??? rather signifies; shall go down to the ground — Shall be entirely demolished, The LXX., however, render the clause, ??? ????????? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????? , He shall bring down the station of thy strength, or, thy strong (that is, military) station to the ground. The Vulgate understands the expression of their images, or tutelary gods, rendering the words, Et statuæ nobiles in terram corruent, Thy famous statues shall fall to the ground. Ezekiel 26:8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. Ezekiel 26:9 And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. Ezekiel 26:10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. Ezekiel 26:11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. Ezekiel 26:12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. Ezekiel 26:12-14 . And they shall make a spoil of thy riches — The Chaldean army shall hinder thy trade during the war, and plunder thee in the end of it. And make a prey of thy merchandise — Of the fruit, or gains, of thy merchandise. And destroy thy pleasant houses — The houses of thy desire, as the margin reads it, or, Thy desirable houses. And shall lay thy stones, &c ., in the midst of the water — Shall cast thy ruins into the midst of the sea. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease — All signs or indications of mirth shall cease from the midst of thee. Great cities are full of all kinds of gayety and luxury: this had been the case with Tyre, but it is here foretold that all this should be turned into a melancholy silence. I will make thee like the top of a rock — See note on Ezekiel 26:4 . Thou shalt be built no more — This was fulfilled; for though the inhabitants built a new city, and called it New Tyre, yet it was situated in a quite different place, namely, on an island, at some distance from the continent on which the former city stood: see note on Isaiah 23:1 . It was also fulfilled with respect to the new city, which “received a great blow from Alexander, not only by his taking and burning it, but much more by his building of Alexandria in Egypt, which in time deprived it of much of its trade, and thereby contributed more effectually to its ruin. It had the misfortune afterward of changing its masters often, being sometimes in the hands of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, and sometimes of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria, till at length it fell under the dominion of the Romans. It was taken by the Saracens about the year of Christ 639, in the reign of Omar, their third emperor. It was retaken by the Christians, during the time of the holy war, in the year 1124: Baldwin, the second of that name, being then king of Jerusalem, and assisted by a fleet of the Venetians. From the Christians it was taken again, in the year 1289, by the Mamelukes of Egypt, under their sultan, Alphix, who sacked and razed this, and Zidon, and other strong towns, that they might not ever again afford any harbour or shelter to the Christians. From the Mamelukes it was again taken, in the year 1516, by Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, and under their dominion it continues at present. But, alas! how fallen! how changed from what it was formerly! for, from being the centre of trade, frequented by all the merchant ships of the east and west, it is now become a heap of ruins, visited only by the boats of a few poor fisher-men: see note on Ezekiel 26:4 . So that as to this New Tyre, or this part of Tyre, the prophecy hath likewise been literally fulfilled: I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon.” — Bishop Newton. Ezekiel 26:13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. Ezekiel 26:14 And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it , saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 26:15 Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? Ezekiel 26:15-18 . Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall? — All those that dwell upon the sea-coast near thee shall be thrown into a consternation at the news of thy being taken and destroyed. All the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones — All the princes and rich merchants (or the merchants who are as princes, as Isaiah speaks) of Zidon, Carthage, and other maritime cities that maintained a trade with Tyre, and got great wealth by that means, shall express a deep grief and concern for the fall of it. They shall clothe themselves with trembling — With fear productive of trembling; or, they shall be afraid on every side, and full of fear and trembling. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee — Shall bitterly bewail thy fall. Compare Revelation 18:9 . And say, How art thou destroyed — How totally and irrecoverably, thou who wast such a great, rich, splendid, and well-fortified city! The renowned city, which was strong in the sea — Tyre is called the strength of the sea, ( Isaiah 23:4 ,) being strong at sea, both by its situation and its great naval forces, upon which account it was formidable to all that had trading upon the sea. Now shall the isles tremble — The Vulgate reads, Nunc stupebunt naves, Now shall the ships tremble, &c., that is, all seafaring men. Yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled, &c. — The description given here, and in the foregoing verses, of the lamentation of the neighbouring places, and of the merchants and seafaring people, at the fall of Tyre, is extremely pathetical. By thy departure here, the Chaldee understands the removal of the inhabitants of Tyre into captivity. But Houbigant and others explain it of their forsaking the city, and fleeing away in ships to Carthage, and other distant places. Ezekiel 26:16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee. Ezekiel 26:17 And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! Ezekiel 26:18 Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. Ezekiel 26:19 For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; Ezekiel 26:19-21 . Thus saith the Lord, When I shall make thee a desolate city — When I shall fulfil these predictions, and make thee what I now threaten to make thee; like the cities that are not inhabited — Whose walls are broken down, and whose streets are all solitary. When I shall bring up the deep upon thee — This may be understood either figuratively of Nebuchadnezzar’s army, or literally of the sea overflowing and covering a great part of the ancient seat of the city, in consequence of the walls and outworks thereof being demolished. And great waters shall cover thee — Either, literally, the waters of the sea, or, metaphorically, great afflictions. When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit — When thou shalt be brought to utter desolation, like the cities which have been long buried in ruin and oblivion. The phrase of going down into the pit, (by which term is often signified the grave,) is frequently made use of in Scripture, to express the destruction of a person or place. Thus our Saviour says of Capernaum, ( Luke 10:15 ,) Thou shall be thrust down to hell, or, rather, as it ought to be translated, into the state of the dead, that is, thou shall become desolate, or be no longer a city. With the people of old time — With those who are now in entire oblivion, as those who lived in the first ages of the world now are. And shall set thee in the low parts of the earth — Another description of the grave, from the situation and solitude of it; in places desolate of old — Desolate from the beginning. And I shall set glory in the land of the living — That is, when I shall reinstate Judea in glory again. Judea is called the land of the living, (which signifies, according to the genius of the Hebrew language, the land of happy men ,) because that the inhabitants were assured of all blessings so long as they served God faithfully. The prophet here foretels that the city of Jerusalem, at whose destruction the inhabitants of Tyre had so greatly exulted, should be again rebuilt in the same place, and even attain to a height of reputation and glory, while the city of Tyre should remain a desolation. I will make thee a terror, and thou shall be no more — Thou shall be left in the ruins of desolation, a terrible example of my vengeance. Though thou be sought for, yet shall thou never be found again — A mode of expression this, which denotes an entire destruction: see notes on Ezekiel 26:4-5 ; Ezekiel 26:14 . Ezekiel 26:20 When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; Ezekiel 26:21 I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more : though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Ezekiel 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, TYRE Ezekiel 26:1-21 , Ezekiel 29:17-21 IN the time of Ezekiel Tyre was still at the height of her commercial prosperity. Although not the oldest of the Phoenician cities, she held a supremacy among them which dated from the thirteenth century B.C., and she had long been regarded as the typical embodiment of the genius of the remarkable race to which she belonged. The Phoenicians were renowned in antiquity for a combination of all the qualities on which commercial greatness depends. Their absorbing devotion to the material interests of civilisation, their amazing industry and perseverance, their resourcefulness in assimilating and improving the inventions of other peoples, the technical skill of their artists and craftsmen, but above all their adventurous and daring seamanship, conspired to give them a position in the old world such as has never been quite rivalled by any other nation of ancient or modern times. In the grey dawn of European history we find them acting as pioneers of art and culture along the shores of the Mediterranean, although even then they had been displaced from their earliest settlements in the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor by the rising commerce of Greece. Matthew Arnold has drawn a brilliant imaginative picture of this collision between the two races, and the effect it had on the dauntless and enterprising spirit of Phoenicia:- "As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea, Descried at sunrise an emerging prow Lifting the cool-hair’d creepers stealthily, The fringes of a southward-facing brow Among the Aegaean isles; And saw the merry Grecian coaster come, Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine, Green, bursting figs, and tunnies steep’d in brine- And knew the intruders on his ancient home, The young light-hearted masters of the waves- And snateh’d his rudder and shook out more sail; And day and night held on indignantly O’er the blue Midland waters with the gale, Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily, To where the Atlantic raves Outside the western straits; and unbent sails There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam, Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come; And on the beach undid his corded bales." It is that spirit of masterful and untiring ambition kept up for so many centuries that throws a halo of romance round the story of Tyre. In the oldest Greek literature, however, Tyre is not mentioned, the place which she afterwards held being then occupied by Sidon. But after the decay of Sidon the rich harvest of her labours fell into the lap of Tyre, which thenceforth stands out as the foremost city of Phoenicia. She owed her pre-eminence partly to the wisdom and energy with which her affairs were administered, but partly also to the strength of her natural situation. The city was built both on the mainland and on a row of islets about half a mile from the shore. This latter portion contained the principal buildings (temples and palaces), the open place where business was transacted, and the two harbours. It was no doubt from it that the city derived its name (Rock); and it always was looked on as the central part of Tyre. There was something in the appearance of the island city-the Venice of antiquity, rising from mid-ocean with her "tiara of proud towers"-which seemed to mark her out as destined to be mistress of the sea. It also made a siege of Tyre an arduous and a tedious undertaking, as many a conqueror found to his cost. Favoured then by these advantages, Tyre speedily gathered the traffic of Phoenicia into her own hands, and her wealth and luxury were the wonder of the nations. She was known as "the crowning city, whose merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth". { Isaiah 23:8 } She became the great commercial emporium of the world. Her colonies were planted all over the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and the one most frequently mentioned in the Bible, Tarshish, was in Spain, beyond Gibraltar. Her seamen had ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and undertook distant Atlantic voyages to the Canary Islands on the south and the coasts of Britain on the north. The most barbarous and inhospitable regions were ransacked for the metals and other products needed to supply the requirements of civilisation, and everywhere she found a market for her own wares and manufactures. The carrying trade of the Mediterranean was almost entirely conducted in her ships, while her richly laden caravans traversed all the great routes that led into the heart of Asia and Africa. It so happens that the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel is one of the best sources of information we possess as to the varied and extensive commercial relations of Tyre in the sixth century B.C. It will therefore be better to glance shortly at its contents here rather than in its proper connection in the development of the prophet’s thought. It will easily be seen that the description is somewhat idealised; no details are given of the commodities which Tyre sold to the nations-only as an afterthought ( Ezekiel 27:33 ) is it intimated that by sending forth her wares she has enriched and satisfied many nations. So the goods she bought of them are not represented as given in exchange for anything else; Tyre is poetically conceived as an empress ruling the peoples by the potent spell of her influence, compelling them to drudge for her and bring to her feet the gains they have acquired by their heavy labour. Nor can the list of nations or their gifts be meant as exhaustive; it only includes such things as served to exhibit the immense variety of useful and costly articles which ministered to the wealth and luxury of Tyre. But making allowance for this, and for the numerous difficulties which the text presents, the passage has evidently been compiled with great care; it shows a minuteness of detail and fulness of knowledge which could not have been got from books, but displays a lively personal interest in the affairs of the world which is surprising in a man like Ezekiel. The order followed in the enumeration of nations is not quite clear, but is on the whole geographical. Starting from Tarshish in the extreme west ( Ezekiel 27:12 ), the prophet mentions in succession Javan (Ionia), Tubal, and Meshech (two tribes to the southeast of the Black Sea), and Togarmah (usually identified with Armenia) ( Ezekiel 27:13-14 ). These represent the northern limit of the Phoenician markets. The reference in the next verse ( Ezekiel 27:15 ) is doubtful, on account of a difference between the Septuagint and the Hebrew text. If with the former we read "Rhodes" instead of "Dedan," it embraces the nearer coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, and this is perhaps on the whole the more natural sense. In this case it is possible that up to this point the description has been confined to the sea trade of Phoenicia, if we may suppose that the products of Armenia reached Tyre by way of the Black Sea. At all events the overland traffic occupies a space in the list out of proportion to its actual importance, a fact which is easily explained from the prophet’s standpoint. First, in a line from south to north, we have the nearer neighbours of Phoenicia-Edom, Judah, Israel, and Damascus ( Ezekiel 27:16-18 ). Then the remoter tribes and districts of Arabia - Uzal (the chief city of Yemen), Dedan (on the eastern side of the Gulf of Akaba), Arabia and Kedar (nomads of the eastern desert), Havilaho Sheba, and Raamah (in the extreme south of the Arabian peninsula) ( Ezekiel 27:19-22 ). Finally the countries tapped by the eastern caravan route-Haran (the great trade centre in Mesopotamia), Canneh (Calneh, unknown), Eden (differently spelt from the garden of Eden, also unknown), Assyria, and Chilmad (unknown) ( Ezekiel 27:23 ). These were the "merchants" and "traders" of Tyre, who are represented as thronging her marketplace with the produce of their respective countries. The imports, so far as we can follow the prophet’s enumeration, are in nearly all cases characteristic products of the regions to which they are assigned. Spain is known to have furnished all the metals here mentioned - silver, iron, lead, and tin. Greece and Asia Minor were centres of the slave traffic (one of the darkest blots on the commerce of Phoenicia), and also supplied hardware. Armenia was famous as a horse-breeding country, and thence Tyre procured her supply of horses and mules. The ebony and tusks of ivory must have come from Africa; and if the Septuagint is right in reading "Rhodes" in Ezekiel 27:15 . these articles can only have been collected there for shipment to Tyre. Through Edom come pearls and precious stones. Judah and Israel furnished Tyre with agricultural and natural produce, as they had done from the days of David and Solomon-wheat and oil, wax and honey, balm and spices. Damascus yields the famous "wine of Helbon"-said to be the only vintage that the Persian kings would drink-perhaps also other choice wines. A rich variety of miscellaneous articles, both natural and manufactured, is contributed by Arabia, -wrought iron (perhaps sword-blades) from Yemen; saddle-cloths from Dedan; sheep and goats from the Bedouin tribes; gold, precious stones, and aromatic spices from the caravans of Sheba. Lastly, the Mesopotamian countries provide the costly textile fabrics from the looms of Babylon so highly prized in antiquity-"costly garments, mantles of blue, purple, and broidered work," "many-coloured carpets," and "cords twisted and durable." This survey of the ramifications of Tyrian commerce will have served its purpose if it enables us to realise in some measure the conception which Ezekiel had formed of the power and prestige of the maritime city, whose destruction he so confidently announced. He knew, as did Isaiah before him, how deeply Tyre had struck her roots in the life of the old world, how indispensable her existence seemed to be to the whole fabric of civilisation as then constituted. Both prophets represent the nations as lamenting the downfall of the city which had so long ministered to their material welfare. The overthrow of Tyre would be felt as a worldwide calamity; it could hardly be contemplated except as part of a radical subversion of the established order of things. This is what Ezekiel has in view, and his attitude towards Tyre is governed by his expectation of a great shaking of the nations which is to usher in the perfect kingdom of God. In the new world to which he looks forward no place will be found for Tyre, not even the subordinate position of a handmaid to the people of God which Isaiah’s vision of the future had assigned to her. Beneath all her opulence and refinement the prophet’s eye detected that which was opposed to the mind of Jehovah-the irreligious spirit which is the temptation of a mercantile community, manifesting itself in overweening pride and self-exaltation, and in sordid devotion to gain as the highest end of a nation’s existence. The twenty-sixth chapter is in the main a literal prediction of the siege and destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It is dated from the year in which Jerusalem was captured, and was certainly written after that event. The number of the month has accidentally dropped out of the text, so that we cannot tell whether at the time of writing the prophet had received actual intelligence of the fall of the city. At all events it is assumed that the fate of Jerusalem is already known in Tyre, and the manner in which the tidings were sure to have been received there is the immediate occasion of the prophecy. Like many other peoples, Tyre had rejoiced over the disaster which had befallen the Jewish state; but her exultation had a peculiar note of selfish calculation, which did not escape the notice of the prophet. Ever mindful of her own interest, she sees that a barrier to the free development of her commerce has been removed, and she congratulates herself on the fortunate turn which events have taken: "Aha! the door of the peoples is broken, it is turned towards me; she that was full hath been laid waste!" ( Ezekiel 26:2 ). Although the relations of the two countries had often been friendly and sometimes highly advantageous to Tyre, she had evidently felt herself hampered by the existence of an independent state on the mountain ridge of Palestine. The kingdom of Judah, especially in days when it was strong enough to hold Edom in subjection, commanded the caravan routes to the Red Sea, and doubtless prevented the Phoenician merchants from reaping the full profit of their ventures in that direction. It is probable that at all times a certain proportion of the revenue of the kings of Judah was derived from toll levied on the Tyrian merchandise that passed through their territory; and what they thus gained represented so much loss to Tyre. It was, to be sure, a small item in the mass of business transacted on the exchange of Tyre. But nothing is too trivial to enter into the calculations of a community given over to the pursuit of gain; and the satisfaction with which the fall of Jerusalem was regarded in Tyre showed how completely she was debased by her selfish commercial policy, how oblivious she was to the spiritual interests bound up with the future of Israel. Having thus exposed the sinful cupidity and insensibility of Tyre, the prophet proceeds to describe in general terms the punishment that is to overtake her. Many nations shall be brought up against her, irresistible as the sea when it comes up with its waves; her walls and fortifications shall be raised; the very dust shall be scraped from her site, so that she is left "a naked rock" rising out of the sea, a place where fishermen spread their nets to dry, as in the days before the city was built. Then follows ( Ezekiel 26:7-14 ) a specific announcement of the manner in which judgment shall he executed on Tyre. The recent political attitude of the city left no doubt as to the quarter from which immediate danger was to be apprehended. The Phoenician states had been the most powerful members of the confederacy that was formed about 596 to throw off the yoke of the Chaldaeans, and they were in open revolt at the time when Ezekiel wrote. They had apparently thrown in their lot with Egypt, and a conflict with Nebuchadnezzar was therefore to be expected. Tyre had every reason to avoid a war with a first-rate power, which could not fail to be disastrous to her commercial interests. But her inhabitants were not destitute of martial spirit; they trusted in the strength of their position and their command of the sea, and they were in the mood to risk everything rather than again renounce their independence and their freedom. But all this avails nothing against the purpose which Jehovah has purposed concerning Tyre. It is He who brings Nebuchadnezzar, the king of kings, from the north with his army and his siege-train, and Tyre shall fall before his assault, as Jerusalem has already fallen. First of all, the Phoenician cities on the mainland shall be ravaged and laid waste, and then operations commence against the mother-city herself. The description of the siege and capture of the island fortress is given with an, abundance of graphic details, although, strangely enough, without calling attention to the peculiar method of attack that was necessary for the reduction of Tyre. The great feature of the siege would be the construction of a huge mole between the shore and the island; once the wall was reached the attack would proceed precisely as in the ease of an inland town, in the manner depicted on Assyrian monuments. When the breach is made in the fortifications the whole army pours into the city, and for the first time in her history the walls of Tyre shake with the rumbling of chariots in her streets. The conquered city is then given up to slaughter and pillage, her songs and her music are stilled for ever, her stones and timber and dust are cast into the sea, and not a trace remains of the proud mistress of the waves. In the third strophe ( Ezekiel 26:15-21 ) the prophet describes the dismay which will be caused when the crash of the destruction of Tyre resounds along the coasts of the sea. All the "princes of the sea" (perhaps the rulers of the Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean) are represented as rising from their thrones, and putting off their stately raiment, and sitting in the dust bewailing the fate of the city. The dirge in which they lift up their voices ( Ezekiel 26:17-18 ) is given by the Septuagint in a form which preserves more nearly than the Hebrew the structure as well as the beauty which we should expect in the original:- "How is perished from the sea- The city renowned! She that laid her terror- On all its inhabitants! [Now] are the isles affrighted- In the day of thy falling!" But this beautiful image is not strong enough: to express the prophet’s sense of the irretrievable ruin that hangs over Tyre. By a bold flight of imagination he turns from the mourners on earth to follow in thought the descent of the city into the under-world ( Ezekiel 26:19-21 ). The idea that Tyre might rise from her ruins after a temporary eclipse and recover her old place in the world was one that would readily suggest itself to any one who understood the real secret of her greatness. To the mind of Ezekiel the impossibility of her restoration lies in the fixed purpose of Jehovah, which includes, not only her destruction, but her perpetual desolation. "When I make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up against thee the deep, and the great waters cover thee; then I will bring thee down with them that go down to the pit, with the people of old time, and I will make thee dwell in the lowest parts of the earth, like the immemorial waste places, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited nor establish thyself in the land of the living." The whole passage is steeped in weird poetic imagery. The "deep" suggests something more than the blue waters of the Mediterranean; it is the name of the great primeval Ocean, out of which the habitable world was fashioned, and which is used as an emblem of the irresistible judgments of Psalm 36:6 , cf Genesis 7:11 . The "pit" is the realm of the dead, Sheol, conceived as situated under the earth, where the shades of the departed drag out a feeble existence from which there is no deliverance. The idea of Sheol is a frequent subject of poetical embellishment in the later books of the Old Testament; and of this we have an example here when the prophet represents the once populous and thriving city as now a denizen of that dreary place. But the essential meaning he wishes to convey is that Tyre is numbered among the things that were. She "shall be sought, and shall not be found any more for ever," because she has entered the dismal abode of the dead, whence there is no return to the joys and activities of the upper world. Such then is the anticipation which Ezekiel in the year 586 had formed of the fate of Tyre. No candid reader will suppose that the prophecy is anything but what it professes to be-a bona fide prediction of the total destruction of the city in the immediate future and by the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. When Ezekiel wrote, the siege of Tyre had not begun; and however clear it may have been to observant men that the next stage in the campaign would be the reduction of the Phoenician cities, the prophet is at least free from the suspicion of having prophesied after the event. The remarkable absence of characteristic and special details from the account of the siege is the best proof that he is dealing with the future from the true prophetic standpoint and clothing a divinely imparted conviction in images supplied by a definite historical situation. Nor is there any reason to doubt that in some form the prophecy was actually published among his fellow exiles at the date to which it is assigned. On this point critical opinion is fairly unanimous. But when we come to the question of the fulfilment of the prediction we find ourselves in the region of controversy, and, it must be admitted, of uncertainty. Some expositors, determined at all hazards to vindicate Ezekiel’s prophetic authority, maintain that Tyre was actually devastated by Nebuchadnezzar in the manner described by the prophet, and seek for confirmations of their view in the few historical notices we possess of this period of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Others, reading the history differently, arrive at the conclusion that Ezekiel’s calculations were entirely at fault, that Tyre was not captured by the Babylonians at all, and that his oracle against Tyre must be reckoned amongst the unfulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament. Others again seek to reconcile an impartial historical judgment with a high conception of the function of prophecy, and find in the undoubted course of events a real though not an exact verification of the words uttered by Ezekiel. It is indeed almost by accident that we have any independent corroboration of Ezekiel’s anticipation with regard to the immediate future of Tyre. Oriental discoveries have as yet brought to light no important historical monuments of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; and outside the book of Ezekiel itself we have nothing to guide us except the statement of Josephus, based on Phoenician and Greek authorities, that Tyre underwent a thirteen years’ siege by the Babylonian conqueror. There is no reason whatever to call in question the reliability of this important information, although the accompanying statement that the siege began in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar is certainly erroneous. But unfortunately we are not told how the siege ended. Whether it was successful or unsuccessful, whether Tyre was reduced or capitulated, or was evacuated or beat off her assailants, is nowhere indicated. To argue from the silence of the historians is impossible; for if one man argues that a catastrophe that took place "before the eyes of all Asia" would not have passed unrecorded in historical books, another might urge with equal force that a repulse of Nebuchadnezzar was too uncommon an event to be ignored in the Phoenician annals. On the whole the most reasonable hypothesis is perhaps that after the thirteen years the city surrendered on not unfavourable terms; but this conclusion is based on other considerations than the data or the silence of Josephus. The chief reason for believing that Nebuchadnezzar was not altogether successful in his attack on Tyre is found in a supplementary prophecy of Ezekiel’s, given in the end of the twenty-ninth chapter ( Ezekiel 26:17-21 ). It was evidently written after the siege of Tyre was concluded, and so far as it goes it confirms the accuracy of Josephus’ sources. It is dated from the year 570, sixteen years after the fall of Jerusalem; and it is, in fact, the latest oracle in the whole book. The siege of Tyre, therefore, which had not commenced in 586, when chapter 26 was written, was finished before 570; and between these terminal dates there is just room for the thirteen years of Josephus. The invasion of Phoenicia must have been the next great enterprise of the Babylonian army in Western Asia after the destruction of Judah, and it was only the extraordinary strength of Tyre that enabled it to protract the struggle so long. Now what light does Ezekiel throw on the issue of the siege? His words are: "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has made his army to serve a great service against Tyre; every head made bald and every shoulder peeled, yet he and his army got no wages out of Tyre for the service which he served against her." The prophet then goes on to announce that the spoils of Egypt should be the recompense to the army for their unrequited labour against Tyre, inasmuch as it was work done for Jehovah. Here then, we have evidence first of all that the long siege of Tyre had taxed the resources of the besiegers to the utmost. The "peeled shoulders" and the "heads made bald" is a graphic detail which alludes not obscurely to the monotonous heavy work of carrying loads of stones and earth to fill up the narrow channel between the mainland and the island, so as to allow the engines to be brought up to the walls. Ezekiel was well aware of the arduous nature of the undertaking, the expenditure of human effort and life which was involved, in the struggle with natural obstacles; and his striking conception of these obscure and toiling soldiers as unconscious servants of the Almighty shows how steadfast was his faith in the word he proclaimed against Tyre. But the important point is that they obtained from Tyre no reward-at least no adequate reward-for their herculean labours. The expression used is no doubt capable of various interpretations. It might mean that the siege had to be abandoned, or that the city was able to make extremely easy terms of capitulation, or, as Jerome suggests, that the Tyrians had carried off their treasures by sea and escaped to one of their colonies. In any case it shows that the historical event was not in accordance with the details of the earlier prophecy. That the wealth of Tyre would fall to the conquerors is there assumed as a natural consequence of the capture of the city. But whether the city was actually captured or not, the victors were somehow disappointed in their expectation of plunder. The rich spoil of Tyre, which was the legitimate reward of their exhausting toil, had slipped from their eager grasp; to this extent at least the reality fell short of the prediction, and Nebuchadnezzar had to be. compensated for his losses at Tyre by the promise of an easy conquest of Egypt. But if this had been all it is not probable that Ezekiel would have deemed it necessary to supplement his earlier prediction in the way we have seen after an interval of sixteen years. The mere circumstance that the sack of Tyre had failed to yield the booty that the besiegers counted on was not of a nature to attract attention amongst the prophet’s auditors, or to throw doubt on the genuineness of his inspiration. And we know that there was a much more serious difference between the prophecy and the event than this. It is, from what has just been said, extremely doubtful whether Nebuchadnezzar actually destroyed Tyre, but even if he did, she very quickly recovered much of her former prosperity and glory. That her commerce was seriously crippled during the struggle with Babylonia we may well believe, and it is possible that she never again was what she had been before this humiliation came upon her. But for all that the enterprise and prosperity of Tyre continued for many ages to excite the admiration of the most enlightened nations of antiquity. The destruction of the city, therefore, if it took place, had not the finality which Ezekiel had anticipated. Not till after the lapse of eighteen centuries could it be said with approximate truth that she was like "a bare rock in the midst of the sea." The most instructive fact for us, however, is that Ezekiel reissued his original prophecy, knowing that it had not been literally fulfilled. In the minds of his hearers the apparent falsification of his predictions had revived old prejudices against him, which interfered with the prosecution of his work. They reasoned that a prophecy so much out of joint with the reality was sufficient to discredit his claim to be an authoritative exponent of the mind of Jehovah; and so the prophet found himself embarrassed by a recurrence of the old unbelieving attitude which had hindered his public activity before the destruction of Jerusalem. He has not for the present "an open mouth" amongst them, and he feels that his words will not be fully received until they are verified by the restoration of Israel to its own land. But it is evident that he himself did not share the view of his audience, otherwise he would certainly have suppressed prophecy which lacked the mark of authenticity. On the contrary he published it for the perusal of a wider circle of readers, in the conviction that what he had spoken was a true word of God, and that its essential truth did not depend on its exact correspondence with the facts of history. In other words, he believed in it as a true reading of the principles revealed in God’s moral government of the world-a reading which had received a partial verification in the blow which had been dealt at the pride of Tyre, and which would receive a still more signal fulfilment in the final convulsions which were to introduce the day of Israel’s restoration and glory. Only we must remember that the prophet’s horizon was necessarily limited; and as he did not contemplate the slow development and extension of the kingdom of God through long ages, so he could not have taken into account the secular operation of historic causes which eventually brought about the ruin of Tyre. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.