For thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I will bring from the north, against Tyre, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and an assemblage, and much people.
Tyre was a rich merchant city by the sea, and this verse is God's answer to her. He names the man He will bring against her, and that naming settles who is really behind the army.
One writer traces Tyre's judgment to the way she made her living:
Tyre is essentially the merchant; his stated aim is even to serve. No doubt his first aim is to serve himself. He does not have the true spirit of service for God. Instead he finds in man's need the opportunity for his own gain. This is what we find as the cause of his judgment here. The habit of gaining riches from the need of others hardens the heart, as hardly needs saying. So it is with Tyre here, and for this she is judged.
The verse begins with God, not with Babylon. Through this whole part of Ezekiel, one man's hand carries out what God announces:
First of all, the prophecy names the instrument of Tyre's destruction: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. But we must not confuse this with the full end that Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in the fourteenth verse. The siege by Nebuchadnezzar was the beginning of the end... Nebuchadnezzar is here, however, as all through this part of Ezekiel, the special instrument of the divine judgment.
Daniel used the same title to Nebuchadnezzar's face. One commentator explains what lay behind it:
Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was a direct gift from God. As Daniel said, "You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory." No one could say this of any of the three kingdoms that followed. They come on the scene in a providential way, as God permits, for the government of the earth and according to His ordering. But their heads were in no sense the direct holders of power, as Nebuchadnezzar was. He was nearest God in this outward sense. His responsibility was therefore all the greater.
Judah's own king had held that place before him:
It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.
Horses and chariots belong to a land attack. Tyre stood in two parts, and only one of them fell here:
This great judgment was not carried out all at once. Nebuchadnezzar came against her first, as predicted in verses 7-11. He besieged Tyre on the mainland and after thirteen years took the city. The part of Tyre built on the island in the sea escaped, protected by the fleet of Tyre. Then came seventy years for her, when she was forgotten, as Isaiah predicted (23:15). After these years had passed, Tyre saw a startling revival. The island city became more powerful and wicked than before. The mainland Tyre, however, remained in ruins.
The same campaigns that broke the nations also cleared the ground for mercy:
Nebuchadnezzar is seen as carrying out the judgment of God on Jerusalem, and he is His servant for that purpose... At the same time God sets His land free by these very judgments from all the nations that wrongfully held it... These judgments came on rebellious Jerusalem and on the nations. Their result would at the same time be the re-establishment of Israel, according to promise and by the power of God in grace.
Tyre's trade outlived her city. One writer reads this as a notice to every trading power since:
The opposition that Tyre showed has carried on into modern times. The commerce that was so famous in that city has spread its wing over the cities of our day. They follow in the steps of Tyre, and with the same unrighteousness they await the same doom.
- Cause. Tyre is judged for profiting from other people's need. That habit of gain hardens the heart.
- Sender. God brings the army. Nebuchadnezzar is the instrument, not the source.
- Servant. The title "king of kings" marks a real grant of power from God. With it, the honour of being called His servant passed from Judah's king to a pagan one.
- Stages. Nebuchadnezzar's thirteen-year siege took the mainland city only. The island part escaped, and the ruin came in stages.
- Sequel. These judgments clear God's land and point to Israel's restoration. They also warn every trading power since.
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and lift up the target against thee;
God names the siege works before a spade touches the ground: a wall, a mound, a roof of shields around the island city of Tyre. Two questions follow. Who are the "daughters" outside the walls, and why is a trading city the target?
Tyre was more than the city on the island. She had planted colonies, and one writer takes the "daughters" to mean exactly those:
God pronounces her doom. He will scrape her very dust from her and make her like the top of a rock, a place for spreading nets in the middle of the sea. Her daughters on the mainland — that is, I suppose, the colonies she planted — will be killed by the sword. So they would know that it was Jehovah.
This explains the shape of Nebuchadnezzar's campaign:
He besieged Tyre on the mainland, and after thirteen years he took the city. But the part of Tyre standing on the island in the sea escaped, protected by the fleet of Tyre.
Every tool of ancient siege craft comes to bear, and the outcome is never in doubt:
The great imperial power of the world would put an end to the offshoots of Tyre. It would surround that marketplace of the nations with every device of siege, and break down its walls and towers with axes and engines of war. His success is certain, and so is the slaughter of the Tyrians and the plunder of their wealth and merchandise.
Nebuchadnezzar builds the mound, but he did not plan it:
When you read these prophecies, it is important to notice how Nebuchadnezzar is regarded. He is the servant of God, carrying out His judgment both on Jerusalem and on the nations around, and so clearing the land of Israel of them.
One writer traces the judgment back to what kind of city Tyre was. She serves, but she serves herself:
She has not the true spirit of service for God. She finds in people's need the opportunity for her own gain, and this is what we find as the cause of her judgment here... She says against Jerusalem: "Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste."... Making a habit of gathering riches out of other people's need hardens the heart — that hardly needs saying. So it was with Tyre: and for this she is judged.
The mound and the shields of this verse open a judgment that took centuries to finish:
The siege by Nebuchadnezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Greek king Alexander. This brought down her strength for good. A remnant of the city remained a long time, wasting and drying up more and more until the end came. Today, as we see, nothing is left but a bare rock, used only for spreading nets.
One writer gathers what travellers found at the site:
The town is "surrounded by rocks, on the ledges of which are scattered the fragments of ancient columns"... Its inhabitants now are only a few poor people sheltering in the vaults and living mostly by fishing. They seem to be kept there by divine Providence, as a visible argument that God has fulfilled His word about Tyre: that she should be "a bare rock" and "a place for the spreading of nets."
Tyre stands for more than herself. She is "the commercial glory of the world which passes away" (W. T. P. Wolston).
- Cause — Tyre profits from a neighbour's ruin. Gathering riches out of other people's need hardens the heart.
- Sentence — God names the siege wall, the mound and the shields before they exist. The siege is His plan.
- Servant — Nebuchadnezzar swings the axe. These prophecies regard him as the servant who carries out God's judgment.
- Stages — The colonies fall first. The mainland city falls after thirteen years. This siege is only the beginning of the end.
- Sequel — Today Tyre is a bare rock where fishermen dry nets. It is visible proof that God kept His word, and a warning to every commercial glory of the world.
and he shall set his engines of attack against thy walls, and with his spikes he shall break down thy towers.
Ezekiel 26:9 zooms in on the machinery of a siege: rams at Tyre's walls, axes at her towers. Two questions follow. Whose hand is behind the siege? And what had this rich trading city done to deserve it?
The verse names the siege equipment of the day.
Machines for discharging missiles. Engines of war were battering rams.
Tyre's quarrel with Israel did not start in plain hatred. It started in money. She watched Jerusalem fall and saw her chance.
Another city in the west has an exceptional importance: the renowned city of Tyre. It drew down on itself Jehovah's displeasure and judgment. The lesson is all the more serious because Tyre does not appear to have been driven by simple hostility against Israel. Instead it was commercial greed, which saw a chance for advantage in the disasters of the chosen people. This lured the city into opposition to Israel, and Jehovah resented it. For His chastening of His people is no licence for the selfish covetousness that would profit by their troubles or downfall.
Tyre felt safe enough to sit back and watch. The nations that kept her rich became the flood that swept over her.
The blow has fallen on Jerusalem, and Tyre is quite ready to take advantage of it. She is proud of her position and counts on her many sources of strength. So she can sit apart, hoping to profit by what she does not fear. But, as God declares to her, it is only an empty dream. She has seen many nations coming again and again to replenish her. Now those same nations have come up against her with the unstoppable force of the waves of the sea. They rise above her defences, destroy her walls, and break down her towers. She who has so often profited from the plunder of the nations shall in turn be plunder for the nations.
The rams and axes belong to a named king. But his work was not the whole of Tyre's end.
First comes the instrument of Tyre's destruction: Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. But we must not confuse this with the full end which Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in the fourteenth verse. The siege by Nebuchadrezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Greek king Alexander. This broke her strength, although the remnant of a city remained for a long time. It wasted and dried up more and more until the end came. Today nothing is left but a bare rock, used only for spreading nets.
Before any ram touched stone, the city was already open.
Meanwhile no resistance could succeed. It only made the destruction of those who opposed more complete. As the prophet speaks here, their sins had already made the breach in Tyre for him.
The rubble of the ruined city had a use waiting for it.
In constructing this causeway, Alexander made use of the ruins of the old city. He laid the stones, the timber and the very dust of the destroyed city into the sea. That causeway accomplished the utter ruin of the wealthy city. And so Ezekiel's prophecy was fulfilled.
Tyre's story did not end with Tyre.
The opposition that Tyre showed has carried on into modern times. The commerce so famous in that city has spread its wings over the cities of our day. They follow in the steps of Tyre. With the same unrighteousness, they await the same doom. The present age may not show the same arrogance as the prince of Tyre and the king of Babylon. But the world's commerce in the hands of Satan leads to it.
The tearing down has a purpose behind it.
Man may be forced to accept the sentence of condemnation on himself. He must also accept the passing away of all the false glory which he would like to make real, but cannot. The sentence of God is on it; but, as He says here, that He may set true glory in the land of the living.
- Greed — Tyre's sin was not open hatred. She wanted profit from Jerusalem's ruin. God's chastening of His people gives no one licence to cash in on it.
- Rams — the "engines of war" were battering rams, swung at her walls by a king God Himself had named.
- Breach — the rams only finished an opening her sins had already made. Her walls were down in God's sight before they fell in fact.
- Stages — Nebuchadnezzar struck the beginning of the end. Alexander finished it later, with a causeway built from her own stones and dust.
- Glory — God tears the false splendour down so He may set true glory in the land of the living. Today's trading cities stand under the same warning.
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 through thy gates, as a city is entered into, wherein is made a breach.
Tyre watched Jerusalem fall and counted her own profit. This verse is God's answer, and it raises two questions: who rides in, and why against a trading city?
The verse never names the man riding in. Earlier verses do, and one writer marks his siege as a beginning rather than the end.
First of all, the instrument of Tyre's destruction is named: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. But we must not confuse this with the full end that Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in verse 14. His siege was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Greek king Alexander.
The walls shake under the weight of a full siege. One writer traces it from the siege works to the plunder.
The great imperial power of the world would put an end to the offshoots of Tyre. He would surround that market of the nations with all the equipment of siege works, and break down its walls and towers with his axes and engines of war. He is sure to succeed, sure to slaughter the Tyrians, and sure to plunder their wealth and merchandise.
The verse pictures men walking into a city whose wall is already broken. That breach came in the mainland city, while the island part of Tyre survived.
This great judgment was not all carried out at once. Nebuchadnezzar came against her first, as predicted in verses 7-11. He besieged Tyre on the mainland and took the city after thirteen years. The part of Tyre built on the island in the sea escaped, because Tyre's fleet protected it.
One writer looks past the broken wall to what really opened the city.
No effective resistance was possible. It only made the destruction of those who resisted more complete. As the prophet speaks here, their sins had already made the breach in Tyre for him.
One writer traces her judgment back to how Tyre made her money.
In Tyre we find no direct enmity to Israel... Tyre is a merchant at heart; his stated aim is even to serve. No doubt his aim is first of all to serve himself. He does not have the true spirit of service for God, but finds in the need of man the opportunity for his own gain, and this is what we find as the cause of his judgment here... There is little need to say that a habit of gathering riches out of other people's need hardens the heart. So it was with Tyre: and for this she is judged.
The same writer sets Tyre's hope beside God's answer to it.
The blow has fallen on Jerusalem, and Tyre is quite ready to take advantage of it. Proud of her position and counting on her many sources of strength, she can sit apart, hoping to profit from what she does not fear. But, as God declares to her, it is only an empty dream. The many nations she has seen constantly coming to replenish her have now come up against her with the unstoppable force of the waves of the sea. They come to overtop her defences, destroy her walls, and break down her towers. She who has so often profited from the spoil of the nations will in turn be a spoil for the nations.
God's sentence turned the city's own name against her.
Tyre means "a rock." This island city was built upon a rock... Its resources were so vast that Tyre might well look on itself as a rock that could not be shaken. The greater the needs of others, the more the streams of supply from every quarter served it. But God takes up its character in the result, and declares that it will be a rock — a rock and nothing more — "a bare rock."
The state of the place itself became the proof.
Its present inhabitants are only a few poor people sheltering in the vaults and living mostly by fishing. They seem to be kept there by divine Providence, as visible proof that God has fulfilled His word about Tyre: that He would make her "a bare rock," and "a place for the spreading of nets."
- Cause. Tyre was judged for appetite, not for armies. She profited from other people's ruin, so she became the spoil she once collected.
- Breach. Her sins had opened the city before any army did, so no defence could hold.
- Instrument. Nebuchadnezzar's horses and chariots were God's chosen tool. His thirteen-year siege began the end; it did not finish it.
- Reach. Babylon took the mainland; Alexander later took the island. One sentence, carried out across centuries.
- Result. The city that called itself a rock became a bare rock where nets are spread, just as God said.
With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.
In verses 7–11 God names the man who will carry out what He has announced against Tyre. Horses fill her streets, her people fall by the sword, her proudest supports crash to the ground. Why does a rich trading city, at peace with Israel, meet this?
Tyre never fought Israel. Her judgment grew out of her trade and the heart it gave her.
In Tyre we find no direct hostility to Israel… Tyre is above all the merchant. His stated aim is even to serve. No doubt his first aim is to serve himself. He does not have the true spirit of service for God. He finds in the need of man the opportunity for his own gain, and this is the cause of his judgment here… The habit of gathering riches from the need of others hardens the heart, there is little need to say. So it is with Tyre here: and for this she is judged.
The rider of those horses has a name. He acts as God's servant, carrying out God's sentence.
As we read these prophecies, it is important to notice that they treat Nebuchadnezzar as the servant of God. He carries out God's judgment both on Jerusalem and on the nations round about, and so frees the land of Israel from them.
But his siege was not the last word. Commentators separate his work from the final end God Himself announces later.
First, the prophecy names Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, as the instrument of Tyre's destruction. But we must not confuse this with the full end which Jehovah Himself makes of her, as in the 14th verse. The siege by Nebuchadrezzar was the beginning of the end. There was a revival after this, however, and another siege by the Greek king Alexander. This brought her strength down for good…
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The verse ends with the supports of her strength falling to the ground. Her name and her site both spoke of unshakable safety. God takes that very word and turns it against her.
Tyre means "a rock." This island city stood on a rock. For its own purposes it did not need land that produced things. It needed a good meeting point where goods from other places could come and change hands. With such vast resources, Tyre might indeed look on itself as a rock that could not be shaken… But God takes its character to its end, and declares that it shall be a rock — a rock and nothing more — "a bare rock," or "cliff," as the word He uses means. The word for "bare" really means "dry" — dried by the sun.
This siege struck the part of Tyre that stood on the mainland. The judgment came in stages.
This great judgment was not all carried out at once. Nebuchadnezzar came first against her as predicted in verses 7–11. He besieged Tyre on the mainland and took the city after thirteen years. The part of Tyre that stood on an island in the sea escaped, because Tyre's fleet protected it. Then came for her seventy years when she was forgotten… After these years had passed Tyre saw a startling revival. The island city became more powerful and wicked than before… The mainland Tyre, however, remained in ruins.
Travellers who came to the site much later described what they saw.
Travellers have described the town as surrounded by rocks, with the fragments of ancient columns scattered on their ledges… Another traveller says he found it a mere jumble of broken walls, pillars and vaults, with not so much as one entire house left! The people living there now are only a few poor souls sheltering in the vaults, who live mostly by fishing. Divine providence seems to keep them in the place, as visible proof that God has fulfilled His word about Tyre.
Writers read this city as a picture of something larger than one port on the coast.
This city is the picture of the world's commercial glory: wealthy, corrupt and self-confident. Nebuchadnezzar took it after a long siege, though he did not destroy it… Tyre and the Tyrians formed the centre of the trade of the ancient world… Its fall was bound to bring pain to people everywhere on earth… So Tyre and Sidon remained the best-known and most striking warning of divine judgment, as we may gather from our Lord's reference to them.
- Boast. Tyre made her money out of other people's need. That habit hardens the heart, and God judged her for it.
- Blow. The horses in her streets came through God's servant Nebuchadnezzar. His siege began the end; it was not the end itself.
- Bare rock. Her pillars fall because the rock she trusted was only a rock. God leaves her nothing more than a bare, sun-dried cliff.
- Proof. The mainland city fell after thirteen years and stayed in ruins. Later travellers found broken pillars, vaults and a few fishermen.
- Warning. Tyre pictures the world's commercial glory: rich, corrupt and sure of itself. Her fall warns anyone who builds his safety on trade.