26:1ffThis message came to Ezekiel in 586 B.C. Chapters 26 and 27 are a prophecy against Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, just north of Israel. Part of the city was on the coastline, and part was on a beautiful island. Tyre rejoiced when Jerusalem fell, because Tyre and Judah always competed for the lucrative trade that came through their lands from Egypt in the south and Mesopotamia to the north. Tyre dominated the sea trading routes, while Judah dominated the land caravan routes. After Judah was defeated, Tyre thought it had all the trade routes to itself. But this gloating didn’t last long. In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar attacked the city. it took him 15 years to capture Tyre (586-571) because the city’s back side iay on the sea so fresh supplies could be shipped in daily.
Life Application Study BibleEzekielChapter 26
Ezekiel 26
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1341, 1342
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
A Message for Tyre
12 On February 3, during the twelfth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,* this message came to me from the LORD: 2“Son of man, Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir! Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy’ 3“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am your enemy, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the waves of the sea crashing against your shoreline. 4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. I will scrape away its soil and make it a bare rock! 5It will be just a rock in the sea, a place for fishermen to spread their nets, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign LORD. Tyre will become the prey of many nations, and its mainland villages will be destroyed by the sword. Then they will know that J am the LORD. 7“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: From the north I will bring King Nebuchadnezzar* of Babylon against Tyre. He is king of kings and brings his horses, chariots, charioteers, and great army. ®First he will destroy your mainland villages. Then he will attack you by building a siege wall, constructing a ramp, and raising a roof of shields against you. 9He will pound your walls with battering rams and demolish your towers with sledgehammers. 10The hooves of his horses will choke the city with dust, and the noise of the charioteers and chariot wheels will shake your walls as they storm through your broken gates. 11His horsemen will trample through every street in the city. They will butcher your people, and your strong pillars will topple. 12"They will plunder all your riches and merchandise and break down your walls. They will destroy your lovely homes and dump your stones and timbers and even your dust into the sea. 131 will stop the music of your songs. No more will the sound of harps be heard among your people. #41 will make your island a bare rock, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lor, have spoken. Yes, the Sovereign LORD has spoken!
The Effect of Tyre’s Destruction
1515“This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Tyre: The whole coastline will tremble at the sound of your fall, as the screams of the wounded echo in the continuing slaughter.
16All theseaport rulers will step down from their thrones and take off their royal robes and beautifulclothing. They will sit on the ground trembling with horror at your destruction. 7 Then theywill wail for you, singing this funeral song:“O famous island city,once ruler of the sea,how you have been destroyed!Your people, with their naval power,once spread fear around the world.
18Now the coastlands tremble at your fall.The islands are dismayed as you disappear.
19"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will make Tyre an uninhabited ruin, like many others. I will bury you beneath the terrible waves of enemy attack. Great seas will swallow you. 20I will send you to the pit to join those who descended there long ago. Your city will lie in ruins, buried beneath the earth, like those in the pit who have entered the world of the dead. You will have no place of respect here in the land of the living. 2"I will bring you to a terrible end, and you will exist no more. You will be looked for, but you will never again be found. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”
Textual footnotes
- element is missing in the date formula here, scholars have reconstructed this probable reading: In the eleventh [month
- of the twelfth] year, on the first day of the month. This reading would put this message on February 3, 585 8.c.; also
- see note on 1:1.
- 26:1 Hebrew In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar year. Since an
- 26:7 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.
Life Application Notes 2 notes
26:14After a 15-year siege, Nebuchadnezzar could not conquer the part of Tyre located on the island; thus, certain aspects of the description in 26:12, 14 exceed the actual damage done to Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. But the prophecy predicted what would happen to the island settlement later during the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander threw the rubble of the mainland city into the sea until it made a bridge to the island. Then he marched across the bridge and destroyed the island (332 B.C.). Today the island city is still a pile of rubbie, a testimony to God's judgment.