Tyre, Tyrus

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 4min
 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 9
Ruins at Tyre
Seaport in Syria, about midway between Sidon and Accho. It was a place of great commerce, sending to the East by land and to the West by the sea. This is shown to have been the case in several of the prophets. It was not conquered by the Israelites, and is first spoken of when its king Hiram sent to David cedar trees with carpenters and masons to build David a house (2 Sam. 5:1111And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house. (2 Samuel 5:11); 1 Chron. 14:11Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house. (1 Chronicles 14:1)). He also materially assisted Solomon by sending timber and workmen for the temple (1 Kings 5:11And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David. (1 Kings 5:1); 2 Chron. 2:33And Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me. (2 Chronicles 2:3)). The seamen of Tyre also aided in navigating the ships of Solomon.
Ezekiel 26:22Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: (Ezekiel 26:2) shows that Tyre, the merchant city of the world, was the rival of Jerusalem, the city of God: “I shall be replenished now she is laid waste.” So Babylon (compare Ezekiel 27 with Revelation 18) is the rival of the new Jerusalem. God was known in the palaces of Jerusalem—the god of this world in Tyre, there could be gratified the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Hence the destruction of Tyre (Ezek. 28:12-1912Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. (Ezekiel 28:12‑19)), shows the king of Tyre to be intimately connected with the abuse of creatorial wisdom and beauty through Satan.
Tyre was to be forgotten seventy years (Isa. 23:1515And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. (Isaiah 23:15)). It is not clear to what time this refers. When it was prophesied that Jerusalem should be destroyed for seventy years “the nations round about” are also included (Jer. 25:9-119Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. 11And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:9‑11)); and Tyre is mentioned as one of the nations that should serve Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his son’s son (Jer. 27:2-72Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; 4And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters; 5I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. 6And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. (Jeremiah 27:2‑7)). So that the seventy years of Jerusalem’s captivity and the seventy years of Tyre may have been concurrent or nearly so. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years. Tyre was built partly on the main land and partly on an island. It is not recorded how far Nebuchadnezzar succeeded, but we read that he “got no wages” for his toil; the riches being removed by ships before the city fell (Ezek. 29:18-1918Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: 19Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. (Ezekiel 29:18‑19)). After the seventy years of Tyre being forgotten, we read that “her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord” (Isa. 23:17-1817And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. 18And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing. (Isaiah 23:17‑18)). This may possibly refer to the fact that Tyre forwarded cedar trees from Lebanon for the building of the second temple (Ezra 3:77They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. (Ezra 3:7)), but we must look to a day yet future for the fulfillment of the prophecy (compare Psa. 45:1212And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. (Psalm 45:12); see also Isa. 23; Jer. 47:44Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the Lord will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor. (Jeremiah 47:4); Ezek. 26-28; Hos. 9:1313Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. (Hosea 9:13); Joel 3:44Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; (Joel 3:4); Zech. 9:2-32And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise. 3And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. (Zechariah 9:2‑3)).
Alexander the Great formed a causeway from the main land to the island, and conquered all.
The borders of Tyre were visited by the Lord, and He declared that if the mighty works which had been done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented (Matt. 11:21-2221Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. (Matthew 11:21‑22)). It is now called es Sur, 33° 16' N, with about 5000 inhabitants; but ancient Tyre has disappeared, and is no more.
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