June 7

Insular Tyre

Ezekiel 26-28

When Alexander, by means so remarkably fulfilling prophecies of which he had no knowledge obtained access for his forces to the island, he soon made himself master of the city. The Tyrians, indeed, made a most valorous and obstinate defence. But this served only to complete their doom: for the conqueror was so exasperated by this, as well as by the long delay occasioned to the execution of his designs against Egypt, that he treated the inhabitants with a degree of severity which has left a great stain upon his character. Besides 8000 men slain in the attack, 2000 were crucified after the city was taken, and 30,000 of the captives were sold for slaves. This also was a point of retributive judgment foreshown by the prophet. Tyre, among its other merchandise, dealt in “the persons of men,” and to its great mart numbers of the sons and daughters of Israel had been taken for sale. The merchants of Tyre made fine bargains there. They speculated largely, knowing well how to bear away in their ships to the dearest markets the commodity which they could buy so cheaply at home. But the Lord observed this; and their disgusting avidity in making gain out of the flesh and blood of their neighbors, between whom and them a friendliness of ancient date had subsisted—and who, latterly, had many interests in common, displeased Him greatly, and this doom was passed upon them: “Behold I will return your recompense upon your own head, and will sell your sons and daughters.”

The city was finally set on fire by the victors. This also had been foretold: “The Lord will cast her out; and He will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.”

But Alexander dealt her a more fatal blow than this—a blow from which she never recovered—again, accomplishing those predictions which connected this overthrow with the destruction of her maritime supremacy of such ancient date. “Up to that period Tyre still remained mistress of the seas and its commerce was universal. The epitome of its merchandise given by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27), is one of the most curious and interesting records of antiquity. But the blow which leveled insular Tyre was to terminate its maritime glory forever. What uninspired writer could have foreseen such a consequence? It had rallied once, and why not rally again? No! The commerce of the whole world must be changed; and a new port and mart be founded in a land the least accessible to strangers—the most averse to maritime affairs, and which must first be conquered, in order to complete the maritime ruin of Tyre. But all this was done. The erection of the port and city of Alexandria did, in fact, accomplish it; and henceforth the supremacy of Tyre disappeared. Pliny, in describing it a few years [centuries?] later, after extolling the ancient renown, observes: ‘But at this day all the glory and reputation thereof standeth upon the dye of purple and crimson colors.’ Note: Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ix. 36. Tyre continued still to be a frequented port; but its commerce was ever after limited and provincial.” Note: Beldam, Italy and the East, ii. 242.

It thus continued to enjoy some degree of local prosperity down to the time of the Crusades, when Benjamin of Tudela described it as “a very beautiful city, the port of which is in the very town.” But when the Christian power in Palestine declined, and the town was taken from them in 1291 by Khalil, sultan of Egypt, the conqueror razed it to the ground, that it might never more afford a stronghold or harbor to the Christians. It was never restored to any kind of importance, and has remained to this day little better than a poor village and a fishing station—for which it has been well adapted, standing, as it does, out into the sea, since it has ceased to be frequented by commercial navies. This also was foretold by Ezekiel, who declares that it should become “a place for the spreading of nets, in the midst of the sea.” The image of desolation here employed—that of fishers spreading out their nets to dry on the site of a once flourishing town—is as natural of a place situated on the sea-coast, as that of feeding and stabling cattle (as before noticed in Rabbah) is for inland desolation. And as fishermen naturally spread out their nets on any convenient spot—a beach, or a naked rock, it only becomes necessary to say that Tyre has become a fishing station, to show that this prophecy has been accomplished, without our being obliged to find—though we can do so—that some traveller has happened to say that he saw nets spread out to dry upon the strand.

Travellers of the seventeenth century notice the abundance of fish here. One of them, after alluding to the former greatness of Tyre, says: “But this once famous Tyrus is now no other than a heap of ruins; yet they have a reverent aspect, and do instruct the pensive beholder by their exemplary frailty.” Note: Sandy’s Travailes. Huet speaks of a monk who told him how strongly the prediction of Ezekiel was brought to his mind when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks stretching forth to the sea, and the large stones strewed upon the shore, made smooth by the sun, the waves, and the wind, on which the fishermen dried their nets. Note: Huet in Demonstratio Evangelica. The monk’s name was Hadrian Parvillarius. Our own Maundrell, towards the close of the same century, said: “The present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches harboring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing; who seem to be pictured in this place as a visible argument how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, that it should be as the top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on.” A century later, Volney, whose avowed unbelief in revelation renders his testimonies of special value, describes the place as still little better than “a village, containing only fifty or sixty poor families, who live but indifferently upon the produce of their little grounds and a trifling fishery.” It revived a little, especially under the rule of the Egyptian pasha; but the increasing shallowness of the harbor, and the rising prosperity of the neighboring ports, has brought it back to its previous condition, and the latest traveller “found it a wretched and deserted village though still affording a fine little harbor for boats.” Note: Neale’s Eight Years is Syria, Palestine, and Asia-Minor, 1851.

The third class of predictions concerning Tyre Note: Ezekiel 28. foretells the ruin of the ancient dynasty so often mentioned in scripture The fulfillment, though less clearly recorded, may be inferred from Josephus, who, professedly quoting from Phoenician records, gives us to understand that from the time of the destruction of old Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, the reigning family were captives in Babylon; and that the state was thenceforth governed by judges or princes delegated by the Babylonian kings, Note: Josephus contra Apion, lib. i. s. 21. until the conquest by Alexander; from which time its independence entirely ceased.

There is yet another prophecy, Note: Isaiah 23:18. speaking of a time when the merchandise and hire of Tyre should be holiness to the Lord. This may possibly refer to that assistance which Tyre was afterwards obliged to yield to the rebuilding and service of the new Temple at Jerusalem, as mentioned by Ezra. Note: Ezra 3:6-7. Or, like other predictions of a similar kind by Isaiah, it may have foretold the early conversion of this city to Christianity. Certain it is that both results did follow. Within a few years only after the publication of the gospel, a Christian church was formed at Tyre.