Tyre Prophecy

By: Blake Giunta 

Normal interpretation of the following Prophecy:
Most interpreters believe that the following purple text refers to the work of "many nations" while the following blue text refers specifically to the Nebuchadnezzar's unique role as the first it's "waves". This is because his Babylonians are represented by a "he" while the waves of the "many nations" are represented by a "they").. 

Ezekiel 26
1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first of the month [April 23, 587], the word of the LORD came to me saying,
2 "Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, 'Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,'
3 therefore thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.
4 'They will destroy the the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock.
5 'She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,' declares the Lord GOD, 'and she will become spoil for the nations.

6 'Her daughters who are on the mainland will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am the LORD.'"
7 For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold,
I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, chariots, cavalry and a great army.
8 "He will slay your daughters on the mainland with the sword; he will make siege walls against you, cast up a ramp against you and raise up a large shield against you.
9 "The blow of his battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.
10 "Because of the multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of cavalry and wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city that is breached.
11 "With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets He will slay your people with the sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground.

12 "They will make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water.
13 "So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more.
14 "I will make you a bare rock. You will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I the LORD have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.
15 Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre, "Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter occurs in your midst?
16 "Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment and be appalled at you.'How you have perished, O inhabited one, From the seas, O renowned city, Which was mighty on the sea, She and her inhabitants, Who imposed her terror On all her inhabitants!
18 'Now the coastlands will tremble On the day of your fall; Yes, the coastlands which are by the sea Will be terrified at your passing.'"
19 For thus says the Lord GOD, "When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you,
20 then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living.
21 "I will bring terrors on you and you will be no more; though you will be sought, you will never be found again," declares the Lord GOD.


 

Introduction to Tyre:
Around April of 587 B.C., Ezekiel foretold the demise of what is widely considered to be the greatest sea empire in ancient history [1]. She was a Phoenician 'New York' and, at the time Ezekiel forecast her doom, Tyre "had reached the summit of its greatness as mistress of the sea and the centre of the commerce of the world" (Keil & Delitzsche). Further like New York, which exists as 5 boroughs (Brooklyn, Manhattan etc.), "Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre" [or "Ushu"], and the city, built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore [called 'New Tyre']".

In other words, she was a double-city (2), figuratively consisting of both:

  • 1. A long body (a coastal line of suburbs [or "daughters" (3)] "It was strongly fortified [4] by massive walls and towers, and by degrees extended itself over the plain, until it attained a circumference of about fifteen miles."[Phoenicia: History of Civilization By George Rawlinson, pg41]).
  • 2. A small but ornate head (the island; similarly fortified and about three-quarters of a mile in length).

"The majority of the population must have lived on the mainland, while the island area was an administrative and religious center." (Bikai, Pierre, The Land of Tyre)

Babylonians are to be one of multiple nations to attack:
1. As God declared through Ezekiel, "I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves."
2. Nebuchadnezzar appears to be first of these waves to expect an attack from
(verses 6-11). In this fragment of verses Ezekiel goes well out of his way to avoid attributing "they" (the "many nations") to Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonians (otherwise the entire prophecy would be referring to Nebuchadnezzar's multinational army). Instead, Ezekiel attributes Babylonian attacks to Nebuchadnezzar personally ("he will trample, he will slay, he will break"; this is done 9 times in his 4 verses). After this snippet concerning Nebuchadnezzar's role, there is not one other mention of him or what "he will" do in the prophecy. Further note that while Nebuchadnezzar is very frequently spoken of in the Bible, the phrase "many nations" (or "the nations" etc.) has never applied to his conglomerate army.
3.
While Island-Tyre must fall, all the prophetic attacks ascribed here to Nebuchadnezzar can only apply to the land-city (not a small island 3/4's a mile out to sea!). 1. "chariots" 2. "siege walls" (5), 3. "battering rams", 4. "roof of shields" (6) 5. "strong pillars"(7) 6. "wagons" 7. "multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you"In addition to all these characteristic land-only attacks, there is not one example of a "ship", "boat", or the like attacking or being sunk. As Ezekiel would have intimately known, Nebuchadnezzar had no navy. Ancient readers would have instantly assigned Nebuchadnezzar's unique role, as the first wave, to Tyre's long coastal body where most of her populous lived.
4. See more reasons we know Ezekiel refers to more than Babylon.


Babylon (586-573 b.c). Critics of the Bible had long denied the reality of such a land siege ever coming from Nebuchadnezzar. As is usually the case, however, such arguments have since been stifled. (8). Tyre historian Katzenstein, citing Ungar, explains in "The History of Tyre" on p. 324 that "The many doubts about the authenticity of Ezekiel's words concerning a siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar were shattered after Unger published a tablet which is an official receipt for provisions 'for the king and the soldiers who went with him against the land of Tyre.'" Katzenstein.
Dr. Bloom, citing Katzenstein and another Tyre historian (Dr. Bikai), writes "[he] finally subjugated Tyre even though he did not raze the island. Babylonian records refer to a new king ruling Tyre after the siege, to the royal family of Tyre living in Babylon (in exile), and to a Babylonian official who governs Tyre" (9)
While Tyre's coastal suburbs were left in ruins and permanently abandoned, her island survived and went on to prosper under Babylonian rule.


+ Medo-Persia (circa 525 b.c.)
"The decline of Babylon enabled Tyre to regain her independence for a short period until its submission to the Persians about 525 BC, and thenceforth it was a vassal state during the continuance of the Persian empire." (ISB Encyclopedia). As a vassal state, Tyre was subject to paying tribute and going to war for Persia. "In the 4th century Tyre, and later Sidon, revolted against the Persian king. The revolt was suppressed in 345 BC." (Encyclopedia Brittanica)

+ Macedon, Cyprus, Rhodes, & other Phoenician city states (332 b.c). Alexander and his Macedonians would be the next to set their eyes on Tyre. Since his army could not reach the island, he (in his historic military brilliance) examined the miles of ruins left by Nebuchandezzar along the coast and gave the order to literally "destroy the walls" and "scrape her debris from her and maker her a bare rock" (v4) in order to throw "all your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water."(v12) ancientworlds.net: "Alexander used the old city of Tyre to bridge the sea to New Tyre. As for timbers needed for shoring and pilings, he had the forests of Lebanon famous throughout antiquity for their great trees." It would end up a massive 200 foot wide causeway extending all the way the island about 3/4's a mile out to sea.
When complete, Alexander's Macedonians attacked via the new causeway while other nations attacked by sea from different directions as separate fleets [graphic].
The situation is summarized here by apologist J.P. Holding: "according to the ancient historian Arrian, author of "Anabasi Alexandri," (2.20.1-2), Alex got some help in attacking Tyre. Having no navy of his own to speak of, he got naval help from his friends in Macedon and from the Phoenician city-states Aradus, Byblos, and Sidon; ships also came from Enylos, Soli and Mallos, Rhodes, Lycia, and Cyprus to join in the fray and help Alex overcome Tyre [Flem.Tyre, 58]. Each, other than Macedon, was an entirely separate nation [10] from those in Alex's land forces: a sort of ancient Gulf War Coalition!".

(v4)"I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock." (v12)"make spoil of your riches.. break down your walls.. houses.. throw your stones and timbers and your debris into the water"
Here Ezekiel simply lists, as unordered trash talk, the various "terrors" (v21) that will "make you no more" (through "the many nations" of which Nebuchadnezzar was included).

(v.5) "will become spoil for the nations" (v12) "spoil of your riches"
BSU History of Western Civ.edu: "Alexander was so furious that this one city had halted his progress for so long, that he gave the city over to plunder and his soldiers sacked it without mercy."

(v12) "throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water" - (v19) "the great waters will cover you".
Self explanatory.

(v5 &v14) "You will be a place for the spreading of nets [in the midst of the sea]"
An unsurprising use of Old Tyre [the ruins], now mostly underwater and serving as a bridge between the two landmasses. Note: this could refer to the coast as well (11).

(v14) "I will make you a bare rock"
"Tyre" means rock; this is a play on words. While Tyre's small head remained, her entire body (7-20 miles along the shore) was stripped clean by Alexander. She was naked.

(v14) "You will be built no more"
The small island city (structurally) was rebuilt by new settlers shorty after Alexander's conquer so:
Option 1: Coastal Tyre would never be rebuilt. (It's still as "bare as a rock", just way Alexander left it)
Objection: Why would "you" [speaking of Tyre] refer to only Coastal Tyre alone when Tyre was more more often associated with her head, the island?

Option 2: Far from benefiting from Jerusalem's fall (as Tyre boasted; v2), her characteristic progress would be viciously halted.

Option 3: The Tyrean empire would never be rebuilt (even though the structures may). If this is true, the phrase belongs in the following explanation below.
Objection: Why would "built no more" be near the phrase "bare as a rock" unless "built no more" is structural?
Rebuttal: (a) This isn't a sufficient rebuttal. These are independant "terrors". (b) It would then be equally in the context of the community (desolation): "I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more." Tyre died when her people died; she did not recover. ("you will be no more, though you are sought after, you will never be found again")

Objection:
The existence of multiple possible explanations for "you will be built no more" detracts from this verses falsifiability (and thus potency).

(v14) "I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more." (v19)"desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited" (v21) "you will be no more, though you will be sought, you will never be found again"
In accordance with the prophecy, the Phoenician Tyre that was condemned for boasting against God was completely wiped out by Alexander. Of her 40,000 inhabitants, only a handful of women and children escaped, leaving 95% to be beheaded, crucified, or sold into slavery (12). Thus, she died; her identity and empire permanently erased in 332 b.c. at the hands of Alexander. Edward Creasy, in his book "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World" writes "Alexander did far more against Tyre than Shalmaneser or Nebuchadnezzar had done. Not content with crushing her, he took care that she never should revive; for he founded Alexandria as her substitute, and changed forever the track of the commerce of the world."

Historical Studies and Recreations By Shoshee Chunder Dutt - page 503: "After treating Tyre with the greatest atrocity, Alexander rebuilt and replanted it, that future generations might regard him as the founder of a new city."
Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition): "The most famous city of Phoenicia. It is now represented by the petty town of Sur (about 5,000 inhabitants)" Of course, this small Lebanon fishing city was never prophesied against (in fact, it existence was required: "place for spreading fishnets" [v14]).
Negligible Objections and Rebuttals here.