5. Judgment Against Tyre

1. Brief History of Tyre

The above data is mostly from http://www.robibrad.demon.co.uk/tyre.htm.

2. Survey of the Bible

Ezekiel is not the only author of Scripture who penned judgments against Tyre.

1. Judgments and Their Fulfillments

(1) The intent is to list the first possible fulfillment.; Red highlights prophecies that are fulfilled.; Green highlights prophecies that will be fulfilled in the future.; AC = http://www.ancientcash.com/page-2/Tyre.html; BKC = Charles H. Dyer, Jeremiah, Bible Knowledge Commentary, volume 1; DT = http://loxafamosity.com/old_school/0200-02.html; EBC = G. W. Grogan, Isaiah, Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 6; EBC1 = Charles L. Feinberg, Jeremiah, Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 6; EBC2 = Kenneth L. Barker, Zechariah, Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 7; EBC3 = Ralph H. Alexander, Ezekiel, Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 6; EBD = Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties; EDV = Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, revised edition; HOG = Albert Cassel Wieand, A New Harmony of the Gospels; livius = Jona Lendering, http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander07.html; livius1 = http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t09.html; RSB = Ryrie Study Bible, NIV, expanded ed.; TTB = http://www.trustthebible.com/prophecy.htm; WVTS = http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Aegean/8830/prophecy.html. See http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/dhistorymaps/ancient_pages/ancient_map08lg.htm for a map of Alexander's attack.

2. Reasons for the Judgments

RSB = Ryrie Study Bible, NIV, expanded ed.

3. Understanding Portions of Ezekiel 26 and 29

See also Items 6 (interpretation) and 7 (application) below.

1. Ezekiel 26:2 -- Why God condemned Tyre: Tyre gloried in taking trade against ruined Jerusalem.

2. Ezekiel 26, 29 -- How God will bring nations against Tyre:

1. Ezekiel 26:3-6 -- Many national will be brought against Tyre.

• verse 3 -- "like the sea casting up waves"

• verse 4 -- scrape away her rubble an make her a bare rock

• verse 5 -- "out in the sea" -- the island portion will be made a place to spread fishnets

• verse 6 -- mainland portion to be ravaged by the sword

2. Ezekiel 26:7-11 -- Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar will attack Tyre.

• verse 8 -- mainland portion to be ravaged by the sword

3. Ezekiel 26:12-14 -- Many Nations -- Note that the subject of the actions changes from "he," Nebuchadnezzar, in verse 11 to "they," the many nations that are mentioned in verses 3-6.

• verse 12 -- rubble to be thrown into the sea

• verse 14 -- will be made a bare rock

• verse 14 -- will become a place to spread fishnets

• verse 14 -- will never be rebuilt

4. Ezekiel 29:18-19 -- Nebuchadnezzar was not as successful against Tyre as he had desired. So, God will satisfy him by giving him Egypt.

4. Apologetic Use of the Judgments and Their Fulfillments

The prophecies against Tyre are detailed and believers often use their fulfillments as an apologetic to demonstrate the supernatural nature of Scripture. See Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, revised edition, pp. 267-274. For this reason, non-believers occasionally challenge the fulfillments. Here are two arguments often used against the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecies and their answers:

1. Ezekiel 26:14 -- Tyre exists today thus the prophecy that it will never be rebuilt is false.

"The rise in the level of the Mediterranean since ancient times has covered many of the earlier remains of the great port of the Phoenicians, . . . S of Sidon. The harbor constructed on the S side of the island in the tenth century before Christ by Hiram, Solomon's associate, may be traced, its huge foundations now submerged by 15 m (50 ft.) of water (Edward Musgrave Blaiklock. Tyre, The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, page 459)."

"But as for the island city, it apparently sank below the surface of the Mediterranean, in the same subsidence that submerged the port of Caesarea that Herod had built up with such expense and care. All that remains of it is a series of black reefs offshore from Tyre, which surely could not have been there in the first and second millennia B.C., since they pose such a threat to navigation. The promontory that now juts out from the coastline probably was washed up along the barrier of Alexander's causeway, but the island itself broke off and sank away when the subsidence took place; and we have no evidence at all that it was built up again after Alexander's terrible act of vengeance (Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, page 277)."

"When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, . . . (Ezekiel 26:19-20)."

Thus it appears that the ancient island city of Type has sunk below the ocean's surface and the existing city rests on the mole and the mainland.

2. Ezekiel 29:18-19 -- Ezekiel himself indicates in chapter 29 that the prophecy in chapter 26 was never fulfilled.

But the competition of the destruction was accomplished by the many nations (e.g., Greek, Muslim). Ezekiel 26 prophecies the many nations will provide the more complete destruction, not the Babylonian nation.

5. Ezekiel's Judgment against Satan in Ezekiel 28

YHWH condemns Tyre's leader in Ezekiel 28. Tyre's ruler thinks of himself as a god (verses 2, 6, 9). The theme of a creature pridefully promoting himself as a god brings to YHWH's memory the similar situation with Satan. YHWH uses Satan's example as a greater example of the pride exhibited by Tyre's leader. Elements of verses 11-19 cannot refer to a human during the lifetime of Ezekiel because of the following descriptions:

• perfect in beauty (12)

• were in Eden (13)

• an angelic being [i.e., anointed cherub] (14, 16)

• were on the holy mount of God (14)

• was blameless during a portion of his life (15)

• thrown from God's presence to the earth (17)

Commentators often see a connection between Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Job 1:6; Isaiah 14:12-14; 1 Timothy 3:6; and Revelation 12:7-13; 20:1-3, 7-10. In some of these passages, the person is identified as Satan.

6. Interpretation

The Jews in exile contemporary to Ezekiel saw the success of King Nebuchadnezzar over Tyre as prophesied. This fulfillment should have given the exiles confidence that Ezekiel's prophecy about the restoration of the nation of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom would also come true.

7. Application

Throughout history, the additional fulfillments of prophecy against Tyre would also pass this confidence on to future generations of Jews and to all of God's people.

To return to the Ezekiel Table of Contents, click here.

© 2002, Ken Bowles -- September 20, 2002, Edition

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