And Tyre hath built herself a stronghold, and hath heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.
Zechariah 9 opens a new section of the book. It begins with a weight of judgment on the cities north and west of Israel — Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, Sidon, and the Philistine towns. Verse 3 stops at Tyre, the richest of them. It weighs what her walls and her treasure are worth in God's sight.
One writer explains the word that heads this whole section:
Zechariah 9:1 gives the emphasis of all the remaining chapters: "the burden of the Word of the Lord." The word burden carries the thought of a weight that is heavy to bear. God is bringing His displeasure to bear on mankind, and He intends people to feel it.
Tyre's two defences stand together — what she built, and what she piled up. Both show up earlier in Scripture:
God watched Tyre not only building a secure stronghold, but making herself wealthy. Joshua 19:29 calls her "the fortified city of Tyre," and Isaiah 23 shows both Tyre and Sidon as centers of trade and commerce.
The city's name matched what she stood on. Another writer traces that name through to God's verdict:
Tyre means "a rock." This island city was built on a rock. What it needed for its own purposes was not the power to produce in the place where it stood, but a good gathering point where the products of other places could come and be traded. With such vast resources, Tyre could well see 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 what its character comes to in the end, and declares that it will be a rock — a rock and nothing more. The word He uses means "a bare rock," or "cliff."
Verse 2 credits Tyre with wisdom; verse 3 adds her fortress and her hoard. One commentator places this judgment in a larger story, then weighs all three:
What we have here is God's judgment on these cities, tied to the final deliverance of Jerusalem and Israel from their enemies... Tyre and Sidon are described in more detail. We are taught that neither wisdom (v. 2), nor strength, nor riches can turn aside the sure judgments of God (vv. 3, 4). These are the three things in which man puts his confidence and boasts. The language about Tyre (compare Ezekiel 28) is both striking and majestic... Truly man and all his resources are only vanity in the day of the Lord's anger.
One writer reads Tyre's trading empire as Satan's move to hide the ground God had cursed:
As the civilized world came up out of the mire of image-worship, it was caught in the net of trade, and became aware of the riches commerce would pile up. Satan uses Tyre — at first envious of Jerusalem, later her rival — to display the glory and riches of the world, so she becomes an instrument against God. Through commerce Satan tries to make the curse ineffective. The earth was to bring forth thorns and thistles, and man was to eat bread by the sweat of his brow. Satan would set that sentence aside by gathering the different products of the earth and filling the eye and mind with them. He would try to hide the thorns by spreading a carpet of Tyre's goods over them... Trade in itself was not sin, for we read that in the coming day the Lord will use her merchandise (Isaiah 23:17-18).
Two writers point to the same conqueror. Zechariah spoke after one siege had already driven Tyre offshore:
This was after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Tyre on the mainland, and she had become the great island city... Alexander did it: he laid proud Tyre in ashes. What proof that all these words are divine!
Another writer adds what Alexander's siege cost, and where the prophecy still points:
His armies besieged the city for seven months, then took it and slaughtered ten thousand of its people. However secure or wealthy people make themselves, God will break it down to nothing. There is no true security and no true wealth except in a genuine, dependent faith in the living God. These cities have been partly rebuilt today, but the future judgments of the tribulation will fulfill the prophecy of their destruction in full.
- Burden — The chapter opens with a word that means weight. God brings His displeasure to bear, and He means people to feel it.
- Rock — Tyre's name meant "rock," and her island fortress felt unshakeable. God's verdict: she will be a bare rock and nothing more.
- Heap — Silver like dust and gold like street mud picture wealth beyond counting. One writer sees a carpet spread to hide the curse on the ground.
- Vanity — Wisdom, strength, and riches are the three things people boast in. Not one of them can turn aside the judgment of God.
- Faith — Tyre fell to Nebuchadnezzar and then to Alexander. The only real security and the only real wealth is dependent faith in the living God.
Behold, the Lord will take possession of her, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
Zechariah's opening burden moves across the nations around Israel, and here it stops at Tyre. Tyre was a rich trading city with a stronghold and silver piled up like dust, and this verse asks whether such wealth can hold when God moves against it.
Verse 3 listed Tyre's wealth and her stronghold. This verse takes both away, and history records how:
This devastating judgment was later carried out on Tyre by Alexander the Great. His armies besieged the city for seven months before finally taking it and massacring ten thousand inhabitants. However secure or wealthy people make themselves, God will break it down to nothing. There is no true security and no true wealth except in a genuine, dependent faith in the living God. These cities have been partly rebuilt today, but the future judgments of the tribulation will completely fulfil the prophecy of their destruction.
Tyre's power lay in the sea because an earlier enemy had driven her off the mainland. Here are both blows, the first and the last:
This was after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Tyre on the mainland, and she had become the great island city. So Zechariah said: "But behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions and strike down her power on the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire." Alexander did this: he laid proud Tyre in ashes. What an evidence that all these words are divine!
The order of events in the campaign matches the order of the prophecy:
The battle at Issos (333 BC) opened the land of Hadrach, it probably refers to Syria. The city of Damascus was mentioned as the first "dwelling place" on which the burden of the Lord "rested." It "rested" because the word pronounced against Damascus received its final fulfilment. Tyre resisted with might and main, but it was finally conquered, destroyed and burned.
Riches were not Tyre's only problem. Her heart rose with them:
"By your great wisdom and by your trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches."… The prince was the head and centre of the pride and wealth found in Tyre as a whole. He was that pride in person. No kind of pride is lower, more blinding, or more corrupting. It lives on selfishness, appeals to selfishness, and selfishness lifts it up in its crudest form. No wonder the New Testament calls greed idolatry, and calls the love of money a root of all evil.
Tyre also stands for something bigger than herself:
In Scripture, Tyre is a picture of the world with all its riches and all the things people want… Everything the human heart could want on earth could be found there.
So the warning reaches our own cities too:
The trade that made that city famous has spread its wings over the cities of our own day. They follow in the steps of Tyre. With the same unrighteousness, they wait for the same doom… The spirit of money rules this age. Under its influence the truth is twisted. It becomes the religion of greedy men who suppose that gain is godliness. We turn away from such people. We look at the testimony of our Lord, and we find that the cares and riches of this world, which trade increases, are weeds that choke the good seed.
The fall of Tyre is not the end of the story. Judgment on the nearby nations leads on to the coming of the King:
So we find the judgment of the nations that were close at hand. But there is more. Tyre and Sidon would be overthrown. Ashkelon and Gaza would grieve because of it. And it is written that Judah would be in confusion. But Jehovah would take up the cause of the people… This brings in the Messiah. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion… behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey."
- Boast. Tyre answered danger with a stronghold and heaped-up silver. God breaks that answer down to nothing.
- Blow. Nebuchadnezzar drove Tyre onto her island. Alexander burned the island. The words came true exactly, which shows they are divine.
- Cause. The root was a heart lifted up because of riches — and greed, the New Testament says, is idolatry.
- Reach. Tyre pictures the world with everything the human heart could want. Cities that follow her steps wait for the same doom.
- Result. The burden is not the last word. God takes up His people's cause, and judgment on the nations opens the way for the King who is righteous and has salvation.