June 6

Old Tyre

Ezekiel 26-28

Tyre, so renowned in the history of commerce and navigation, occupies a large place in sacred prophecy. “The prophecies respecting Tyre do not, however, appear to have been always discreetly or faithfully explained. The traveller, having read these explanations, expects to find nothing more than a bare rack, washed by the sea, and covered with nets; and is surprised to see a city, and to learn that the spot has never been wholly deserted.” Note: Beldam’s Italy and the East, ii. 237. This intelligent and able traveller then proceeds to give his own view of the case. This view is not new, being almost entirely the same which has repeatedly been given by ourselves in the Pictorial Bible, The Land of Promise, etc. As, however, we prefer corroborating the testimony of an independent witness to the reproduction of our own statements, we avail ourselves, to a considerable extent, of Mr. Beldam’s observations.

The truth is, that the island on which the present Tyre stands was the subject of a part only, and that the smallest part, of the prophecies respecting Tyre.

The Tyrian colony seems always to have consisted of an island, with a territory on the shore. As a maritime state, a port must always have been essential; and that the capital was first on the coast, may be inferred from the earliest mention of it by Joshua, where it is described as “the strong city Tyre.” Note: Joshua 19:29. But from Hiram’s letter to Solomon, as given by Josephus, Note: Antiq. lib viii. cap. 2, sect. 7. and which we have no reason to suppose apocryphal, we may gather that the island was even then inhabited, and the language of Isaiah shows, that in this day the Tyrians, as might naturally be expected of the inhabitants of a maritime state, were known to the rest of the world as the “inhabitants of the island.” Note: Isaiah 23:2. The Tyrian state may then be regarded as consisting of a city and small territory on the mainland, and a port or maritime city on the island. The island bore the same relation to the capital that the port of Majermos did to Gaza, the Piraeus to Athens, the Pharos to Alexandria, Leith to Edinburgh, or Deptford to London. It is possible that the two may have been connected by fortified lines along the shore, as at the Piraeus, and by a causeway or bridge over the channel, like the modern castle of Sidon. We are indeed expressly told by Josephus, that, in the days of Hiram, a causeway did unite the city and the island. Thus, the old city, the island, and the adjacent territory, formed together the state of Tyre, and the subject of the prophecies.

If we look attentively at these prophecies, we shall perceive that they have a fourfold operation. They predict the irretrievable ruin of the then existing city, the final loss of maritime supremacy, the subversion of the royal dynasty, and a subsequent consecration to the true faith. Note: Isaiah 23. Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 47:4. Ezekiel 26; Ezekiel 27; Ezekiel 28. These all came to pass in their season; but not precisely in the way that some have imagined. It is indeed obvious that the whole of the predictions could not refer to the same spot. The question is, how to apply them; and time and history may help us through the difficulty.

The first class of predictions foretold the destruction of the city. This was to be complete and irretrievable. Not only were walls, towers, edifices, to be demolished, but also to disappear, the very dust was to be scraped away; it was to be built no more; and, though sought after, was never to be found. Note: Isaiah 23. Ezekiel 26. To what city do these predictions apply? Certainly not to Insular Tyre—for that was never totally destroyed; its edifices have never totally disappeared; and the dust has accumulated, instead of being scraped away from the rock on which it stands. It has been often rebuilt, and that with great magnificence; it has never ceased to be inhabited; and its place has always been well known. But these predictions do apply with a singular and remarkable accuracy to Old Tyre; and the incidents of the siege confirm their application to that city. There was to be a fort and mount raised against it; the city was to be covered with the dust of cavalry, and the walls to be shaken at the noise of horses and chariot-wheels. The historical particulars of the siege are not extant; but enough remains, in the statement of Josephus, to show that the city fell, as predicted, beneath the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, and was dismantled, if not entirely destroyed. Note: Josephus. Antiq. x. 6; contra Apion, i. 21. But the most remarkable part of the prophecy was suspended: It was foretold that this same city should become a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; that the stones, the timber, and the dust should be said in the midst of the water; that the deep should be brought up over it; that great waters should cover it; and that it should be set in the low parts of the earth. Note: Ezekiel 26. A portion of this prophecy may indeed apply to insular Tyre, but the most striking reference is to the old city. But how was a thing so unlikely to be accomplished, except, indeed, by an influx of the sea, which some have supposed, but of which there are no geological or historical proofs? This, indeed, the prophecy may well have suggested to those who heard; but this was not the purpose the Lord had in view: and the imagination of man could scarcely have conceived the mode of its accomplishment, much less have foreseen it, and made it the subject of a confident and authoritative prediction. It is this specialty which gives the most commanding interest to this and other prophecies, and which renders them so powerful for the conviction of gainsayers. It were a hard matter to predict, in a general way, one out of the only two or three possible circumstances; but it was something to foretell a circumstance, the like of which had never before occurred, and that could not occur at any other place.

It was thus: From the days of Nebuchadnezzar to those of Alexander the Great, the old city had lain in a dismantled condition; and during all this time the prophecy had been but half accomplished. The Tyrians had meanwhile fortified themselves in their island-city—had regained their maritime supremacy, and resumed their former arrogance and pride. Two centuries before, their ruin had been effected by a people of recent origin, and previously almost unknown; and again it was to be effected by a nation from beyond seas, and still less to be expected or feared.

The old city became, in fact, the means of destroying the new. When Alexander appeared against Tyre, he found its insular position a serious obstacle to one who had no fleet; and the resource that occurred to him is worthy of the genius of that great commander, and most undesignedly wrought out the whole purpose of God respecting Old Tyre. The presence, close by, of the abundant ruins of the old city, suggested to him the feasibility of employing them for the construction of a mole or break-water, connecting the mainland with the island, and over which his troops might march up to the walls of the beleaguered town. It was an immense work, two hundred feet broad; and the vast quantity of materials it required may easily be conceived. In constructing it, the Old Tyre was removed bodily into the sea—stones, timber, earth, even to the very dust—all was removed. There it still lies, in that immense causeway, and forms a place for the spreading of nets, as the prophet foretold. What eye but that of Omniscience could have foreseen this strange result, at a time when Old Tyre stood in all her pride and glory, and proudly said, “I shall be a queen forever.” And who but his inspired servants could have said to her, “They shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust, in the midst of the waters:” “thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again?” This last intimation is as surprising as any. The utter disappearance of all trace of an important ancient city is one of the rarest things that can happen, and is truly marvellous. Yet it is true here, as predicted—and true here only—affording another instance of that specialty which is so observable in the prophecies concerning Tyre. Not only has the town never been built again, but it is wholly extinct; and travellers look narrowly, but in vain, for any vestige of it. Of no city that history records, has there, perhaps, been so complete an obliteration—the sand now covering the greater part of the space within which it must have stood. “It is remarkable,” says Dr. Wilde, who has given by far the best account of Tyre that we possess, “how frequently this agent has been used for thus wiping out ancient cities from the face of the earth. Babylon, Thebes, Memphis, Luxor, Carthage, ancient Alexandria, Jericho, Balbec, Palmyra—have all been more or less invaded by this destroying agent, which, though slower than the flame or the torrent, is not the less sure and fatal.”