In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, 'Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,' therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations, and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord. They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters. I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God. I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord God."
We see here that there are seven prophecy's made against Tyre, one, that many nations would rise up against Tyre, two, the island would turn out flat like the top of a bare rock, three, fisherman would spread their nets over the island, which requires a very flat surface. Four, it would never be rebuilt, and five, never found again. Six, Concerning the mainland, it would be destroyed, and seven, the debris would be thrown in the water.
But why all this destruction? What did Tyre do to deserve this? Well as it says in the Bible, the city of Tyre was feeling pretty happy because of the of the downfall of Jerusalem. Tyre is rejoicing over over that fact, and feeling that they will be the greatest city in the world. Now that Jerusalem is out of the way, they will be the biggest, richest, most powerful trading city ever. Everybody's happy, especially the prince of Tyre.
(Read Ezekiel 28:2) Wow! The prince of Tyre has got a lot of pride!
And because of this excessive pride of both the people and the prince of Tyre, they will be destroyed. Remember, pride comes before a fall, and a lofty spirit before destruction.
The first of the “many nations” brought against Tyre was Nebuchadnezzar, who made a thirteen-year siege on the Tyrian city through the years 585 and 573 B.C. First destroying all the city's that provided Tyre with food, the daughter villages. When Nebuchadnezzar finally broke through the gates of the mainland city, he found that nearly all of the people had moved by boat to the island for safety. So Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland citys, left it in a pile, and moved on, not bothering with the island. Leaving Tyre just as proud as ever. Then Tyre set about fortifying their island, they made walls one hundred and fifty feet high, extending to the very edge of the island, They made underwater obstacles that would pierce any unwary ships, and over the next two hundred years they built ships like crazy until they had a first class navy.
The next of the many nations was Alexander the Great. And he had an odd habit. Every time Alexander would destroy a city, he would throw the rubble of that city into the nearest body of water. He would do that with every city he conquered, as a testimony to his power. When he came upon Tyre in 333 B.C., he had no fleet of ships like Tyre's, so he took the rubble from the old Tyre, and cast it into the water, with the intention of making a mole, or a causeway, 200 feet wide, as a passageway to the island. During this process, he even scraped the dirt off of the island to use it in the construction! But about halfway there, both the depth of the sea, and the attacks from Tyre increased. The Tyrians were so greatly hindering the progress that eventually Alexander realized that to take the fortress, he would need ships. Since he had no navy with him, he told the nations he had conquered to build him some ships. Byblus gave about 80, a big one came from Macedon, 120 from Cyprus, and they came from many other places. With this now very large naval force at Alexander's command, the conquest of Tyre was now just a question of time. After a gruesome year of battles, Tyre fell. Alexander then scraped the rubble of the island into the sea and walked away victorious. Most of the site is now flat, and bare like the top of a rock, a place where fishermen still spread their nets to dry.
Eighteen years later, when Antigonus came, the city of Tyre had recovered significantly, but after fifteen months of battles, they were again destroyed.
About thirty years later, Ptolemy Philadelphus built the harbor of Berenice on the Red Sea and made a road to Coptos with rest stops and everything. He also reopened the canal that went from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Gulf of Suez. Because the traffic of the Red Sea had originally passed by Tyre, but it now flowed to Alexandria instead, Tyre took a great hit.
About fifteen hundred years later the Muslims easily took Tyre, and held it until the crusaders came, and then the crusaders destroyed it. Now the only remnants of the city are some broken down pillars and walls that remain from the crusaders time period. All that remains is the standard rubble.
The Bible also says that the island would not be built upon any more. Now, if you visit the modern day island of Tyre, you will not be able to tell where the old city was! Even though it covered the whole island. You can't see any remains there. There are freshwater springs supplying the island with thousands of gallons of water per day, but they are just running into the sea. The island would be a great place to build a city, but this prophecy has stood true, and no one is there today, Except for the occasional fisherman, because if you are going to spread your nets on an island, you are not going to live ten miles up the coast are you?
The Bible also says that the city would never be found again, as in, the riches that the city knew before will never be found again.
If Ezekiel had looked at Tyre in his day, he would have seen that there was only one chance in every 75,000,000 that all seven of these prophecy's would come true. But they all came true to the smallest detail.
So we see that because of the pride and gloating of Tyre, they were brought low, and humiliated through the men and nations that God said He would send against them. We also see that God will bring everything to pass that He says will come to pass. So when He says that some rich city is going to turn out flat, and scraped clean into the sea, it will happen!
I like your site. It is important to know how science and history support the Bible's teachings, when looked at honestly.
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