Tyre
26
📚And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 📚“Son of man, because Tyre 📖 has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha 📖! She who was the gateway of the peoples 📖 is broken. She has opened to me. I will be filled, now that she is laid waste.’ 3 📚Therefore thus says the Lord God: See, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. 4 📚And they will destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 5 📚It will be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, says the Lord God. And it will become plunder for the nations.26:5 The riches Tyre laid up would fall into the hands of others. How much better it is to lay up treasure in heaven (Matt 6:19-21).⚜
6 📚And her daughters who are in the field will be killed by the sword; and they will know that I am the LORD.
7 📚“For thus says the Lord God: See, on Tyre I am going to bring Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north 📖, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and troops, and many people. 8 📚He will kill your daughters in the field 📖 with the sword, and he will make fortifications against you, and build up a siege mound against you, and raise the shield against you. 9 📚And he will set up battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10 📚Because of his many horses their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he enters your gates, like men enter a city where the wall is broken in. 11 📚He will trample all your streets with the hooves of his horses. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong garrisons will go down to the ground. 12 📚And they will plunder your riches, and take your merchandise as prey, and will break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses, and will hurl your stones and your timber and your dust into the water.
26:10-12 Nebuchadnezzar was able to capture the mainland part, but the island stronghold held out against him. It was finally captured by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.⚜
13 📚And I will put a stop to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will no longer be heard. 14 📚And I will make you like the top of a rock. You will be a place to spread nets on. You will not be built again; for I, the LORD, have spoken it, says the Lord God”.
26:13-14 Tyre continued as a city until the end of the 13th century AD. But God’s word against it was finally fulfilled, and the condition of the island city of Tyre today is as described in these verses. It is a heap of ruins. A long time may pass before the fulfillment of some prophecies of God’s word, but we may be sure they will be fulfilled.⚜
15 📚“Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Will not the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter occurs in the midst of you? 16 📚Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and take off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground and tremble at every moment, and be astonished at you. 17 📚And they will take up a lament for you, and say to you,
“‘How you are destroyed!
You who were inhabited
by seafaring men,
the renowned city, who was powerful
on the sea!
She and her inhabitants imposed
their terror on all who live around her.
18 📚Now the islands will tremble
on the day of your fall;
yes, the islands of the sea will be
alarmed at your passing.’
26:15-18 The fall of Tyre would cause great fear and alarm to neighboring cities along the coast. If Tyre could not stand how could they?⚜
19 📚“For thus says the Lord God: When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up the deep over you and great waters cover you;
20 📚When I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, with the people of olden times, and place you in the lower parts of the earth, like ancient ruined places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you may not be inhabited, then I will grant glory in the land of the living. 21 📚I will make you an object of terror, and you will be no more. Though you will be sought, you will never be found again, says the Lord God”.