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Visions of the Kingdom: Week 29
Tyre and Carthage both consisted of an island fortress, and a mainland city.
For Tyre, the island fortress was Tyre, and the mainland city Sidon.
- 26:2 "gate to the nations" - Tyre was jealous of the position of Judah.
- 26:3 "many nations against you":
- Nebucahdnezzar laid seige for 13 years and eventually conquered.
This was a financial loss, as the spoil did not cover expenses.
God promises to repay Nebuchadnezzar in Ezekiel 29, because he
was doing God's work.
- The Persians brought Tyre to submission again 50 years later.
- Alexander the Great destroyed the island fortress as described below
- Antiochus III
brings them into submission again
- Rome conquers again.
- 26:4 The Saracen Muslims finally obliterate the city in the 14th century.
"Tyre" means "rock", so this is another pun: "make her [Tyre] a bare
Tyre [rock]".
- 26:6 "Daughters on the mainland" - The colonies of Phoenicia were in
Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and Africa (Carthage). All these were destroyed, with Rome obliterating
Carthage in "The war of gods and demons".
- 26:7 Nebuchadnezzar directly attacked Sidon, the mainland city.
As this was the source of food for the island fortress, their stores
eventually ran out. "It is now known from inscriptions that
Nebuchadnezzar eventually forced its submission and put a puppet king
on the throne." J. Stafford Wright, Daily Bible Commentary, 1973
- 26:11 "mighty pillars fall to the ground" -
“The pillars spoken of were
actually obelisks, and were probably those mentioned by the historian
Herodotus as erected in the temple of Heracles at Tyre. One was of gold
and the other of emerald, which shone brilliantly at night, and were
dedicated to Melkarth, god of Tyre." Charles L. Feinberg, The Prophecy
of Ezekiel, 1969
- 26:12 "they" - We switch from "he", Nebuchadnezzar, to "they", the
succeeding waves nations. "Throw your stones and timbers and soil into
the water" - Alexander the Great had his army throw the ruins of the
costal cities into the sea to build a causeway to the island fortress.
The island is now a peninsula. “The American archaeologist Edward
Robinson saw forty or fifty marble columns beneath the water along the
shores of Tyre.” Feinberg
- 26:14 "make you a bare rock" - The Saracens destroyed Tyre so thoroughly,
that it was only located recently and with great difficult.
However, before that Jesus visited Tyre,
Matthew 15:21,
and Paul visited disciples in Tyre.
Acts 21:3-5
Many Christian martyrs came from Tyre.
Modern Tyre is not built in the same place as the ancient city,
and is namesake, not a world power.
- 26:17 "powerful on the sea" - a legendary sea power of history