The last of these local judgments here comes before us— “the burden of Tire.” This city is the type of the world's commercial glory; wealthy, corrupt, and self-confident, but taken and destroyed, after a long siege, by Nebuchadnezzar. Such historically is the destruction announced, not here only, but in Ezek. 26-28 Tire and the Tyrians were the center of the merchandize of the ancient world, the emporium of all the commodities and the luxuries of that day, the link, through “the ships of Tarshish,” between the west and the east. Its fall, therefore, could not but affect painfully and universally the dwellers on the earth; and the rather, as trading rivals were fewer than now. Yet how would not, in our day, the overthrow of the proudest seat of modern commerce make itself felt to the ends of the earth? We know from elsewhere that the siege was prolonged for a term quite unusual, thirteen years: indeed we need not travel beyond the prophetic record (Ezek. 29) to learn how severe a task it was for the Chaldean conqueror; but so much the greater was the moral effect of its fall. So that Tire and Sidon remained the proverbial and most striking warning of divine judgment, as may be gathered from our Lord's reference.
“Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.” (Ver. 1.)
There seems to be no need for departing from the ordinary sense of Chittim, either here or in verse 12, in which the learned Bochart understands the Cutheans or Babylonians and the meaning here to be “from the land of the Cutheans cloth their captivity come.” Neither is there in Chittim any necessity to refer this burden to the sack of new or insular Tire to Alexander the Great, as do Luther and others. The prophet calls the far-famed ships of Tarshish, first and repeatedly, to take up the dirge of the ruined mart for their merchandise, and intimates that though there was no house to receive them, nor haven for their ships to enter, the ill news would be revealed in the far west. “Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon that pass over the sea have replenished. And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of notions.” (Ver. 2, 3.) What a change, when silence reigned where once had thronged their neighbors, the merchants of Zidon, where the treasures of the enriching Nile were gathered, “a mart of nations,” now a waste! “Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.” (Ver. 4.) Zion was too nearly allied, too intimately bound up with Tire, not to feel and suffer keenly; and as Tire had been its boast heretofore, so now its degradation could not but darken their neighbors; since the very sea is by bold but happy figure, made to bewail her desolation: whom had she pertaining to her lineage, now that Tire was no more? “As the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tire.” (Ver. 5,) The Zidonians, though directly profited by Egypt more than all other foreign nations, would nevertheless grieve over the ruin of Tire as much as over their great southern source of wealth. Verses 6, 7, finish these addresses with a direct appeal to the Tyrians themselves, taunting their haughty merchants with the reverse that awaited them, the just recompence of their deeds. “Pass ye over to Tarshish: howl ye inhabitants of the isle. is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.” Far from being an attraction to the ships of Tarshish, they must go and howl there themselves, they the men of that sea-girt land, whose city rang with gaiety, and whose years of proud security were only less ancient than Zidon and yet more prosperous and eminent! Yes, they must go, and trudge, sadly, painfully, in quest of some asylum in a strange land.
And why was this? Who would smite and prostrate the proud city of Pocenicia? “Who hath taken this counsel against Tire, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?” (Ver. 8.) The answer follows in verse 9. “The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.” (Ver. 9-12.) Here the moral reasons are not given in full: we must search other prophets for all. But the Lord's opposition to the proud is stated, His scorn for the glory of man, His slight of all trust in earthly strongholds. Even in exile the Tyrians should find no rest. In the next verse we have the instrumental means He meant to employ: “Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.” (Ver. 13.) The Chaldeans, who, in contrast with old Tire, were nationally a people but of yesterday, are seen by the prophet bringing Tire to ruin. Such appears to be the meaning, which is confirmed by the fresh call to grief of the ships of Tarshish in verse 14.
But the conqueror himself yields to an avenger. Babylon falls; and the full term of seventy years, which beheld the returning remnant of Judah, had a revival in store for Tire, but a revival of her meretricious ways, pandering for gainful trade to all the luxurious habits and corruptions of the nations. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tire shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tire sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou wayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tire, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.” (Ver. 15-17.) Nevertheless, the last verse intimates that even this prophetic scene, though so largely accomplished in the past, is not without its bright side in the day of joy to the whole earth. “And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up [as in former days, when conscienceless tricks of avarice dictated the manner and objects of her trade]; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord. to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.” The daughter of Tire shall be there with a gift, when the King shall greatly desire the beauty of His earthly Bride. (Psa. 45)