Was the prophecy against Tyre in Ezekiel 26 fulfilled?

  • What you need to know about the city of Tyre

    In April of 587 B.C. Ezekiel's prophecy foretold the demise of what is widely considered to be the greatest sea empire in ancient history.1 (Read the full Biblical prophecy here in Ezekiel 26.)

    Tyre was the Phoenician equivalent of New York City and, at the time Ezekiel prophesied her doom, the city “had reached the summit of its greatness as mistress of the sea and the centre of the commerce of the world.”2 Further like New York, which exists as five boroughs (Brooklyn, Staten Island, etc.), “Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called ‘Ushu’ or ‘Old Tyre,’ and the city proper, built on a small, rocky island about half a mile distant from the shore.”3 One could say she figuratively consisted of both a head and a body:


    1) The small head ― an opulent island, called ‘New Tyre’: This is the renowned and popular hub with which the city was primarily identified with. It was no more than a mile and a half in circumference and about three quarters of a mile from the shore.

    Pierre Bikai (Tyre scholar): “The majority of the population must have lived on the mainland, while the island area was an administrative and religious center.”4

    2) The long body spanning the coast, called ‘Palaetyrus’/‘Ushu’: This was a large cluster of suburbs on the coast (or “daughters on the mainland” [v.6]).

    George Rawlinson (Ancient history professor at Camden): “It was strongly fortified by massive walls and towers, and by degrees extended itself over the plain, until it attained a circumference of about fifteen miles.”5

    Encyclopedia Brittanica: “…an extensive line of suburbs rather than one mainland city that can be identified with Palaetyrus.”

    The most celebrated and miraculous element of this prophecy comes from…

    Ezekiel 26:4 -- “[I will] destroy the the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from her…”; 26:12 -- “throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water.”

    This is precisely what Alexander the Great did centuries later:

    “The refusal of the Tyrians to surrender led Alexander to connect the isle to the mainland with the construction of a causeway, one of the most difficult marine engineering tasks of that era… The stones of the fresh ruins of ancient Tyre [previously destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar], together with trees limbs, were drawn into the water, and stones and sand were placed on top of them in order to build the mole.” [Yaacov Nir, “The City of Tyre, Lebanon and its Semi-artificial Tombolo” Geoarchaeology 11 (1996): 235.]

    1. The dating is given by the author of Ezekiel in verse 1 (“Now in the eleventh year, on the first of the month”), but regardless of the specifics, no dates proposed by non-Christian scholars place the prophecy before its major fulfillment. On the prestige of the city, it was…

      H. J. Katzenstein: “…the great Tyrian Sea Empire that knew no equal in ancient history.” [The History of Tyre (Schocken Institute, 1973)]

    2. Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Ez 26)
    3. Matthew George Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (T. Nelson, 1894), 677.
    4. “The Heritage of Tyre” in The Land of Tyre (Kendall Hunt Pub Co, 1992), 13-15
    5. Phoenicia: History of Civilization (I.B. Tauris, New edition, 2005), 41. Note: Subsequent studies have placed the circumference closer to 19 miles (Horne)]
“Yes, after all…

  • v3 says “many nations” will attack Tyre

    There are three large sea waves. Two have heads in them with different kinds of soldier helmet.

    v3 of Ezekiel's prophecy says that “many nations” will attack Tyre, “as the sea brings up its waves”. This is important because in 586 B.C. and 332 B.C. respectively, Tyre was assaulted by Babylon, and then subsequently by even more nations, united under Alexander the Great (Macedon, Cyprus, Rhodes, etc.). Neither of these facts are disputed by scholars.

    But so what? Plausibly...

  • v6-11 say Nebuchadnezzar will raze Tyre's coastal suburbs

    Verses 6-11 say Nebuchadnezzar will destroy Tyre's coastal suburbs.1 This fact is important to question of whether the Tyre prophecy was fulfilled because Nebuchadnezzar true did destroy “Ushu” (Tyre's coastal district), while leaving the island untouched.2

    But no,

    But so what?,

    • Ezekiel could have easily guessed Nebuchadnezzar would attack.[Note: This is a good objection]3
    1. v6-11 -- “Also her daughters who are on the mainland will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am the LORD.' For thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar.”
    2. That Nebuchadnezzar's forces destroyed Ushu is not disputed. For example:
      • Jacob Katzenstein (Tyre historian): “…doubts about the authenticity of Ezekiel's words concerning a siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar were shattered after Unger published a tablet which is an official receipt for provisions 'for the king and the soldiers who went with him against the land of Tyre.'” [The History of Tyre (Schkocken Inst., 1973), 324.] (The receipt is published in Unger, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 44 (1926): 316.) In addition to Ezekiel, the event is also reported in other sources:
      • Josephus: “this king [Nebuchadnezzar] besieged Tyre thirteen years, while at the same time Ethbaal reigned at Tyre” [Antiquities of the Jews 10.11.1, §228] “I will now add the records of the Phoenicians;… In them we have this enumeration of the times of their several kings: —“Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the days of Ithobal, their king; …in the seventh year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar he began to besiege Tyre;”[*Against Apion* 1.21, §155-156, §159 (trans. by Whiston, 1987)])
    3. Both sides tend to grant this. Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem (597 B.C.), and Ezekiel was a captive. So, Richard Carrier's complaint is fair (“Ezekiel could easily have intelligence about the king's plans since he would see the preparations.” [“Review of In Defense of Miracles” online at infidels.org]) Mind you, just because Ezekiel could plausibly have guessed this does not mean it is not evidence. It simply means the evidence for this part of the prophecy being supernatural is not necessarily strong.

  • v4,12,14 say they'll cast timber, stones, debris in sea

    Verse 4, verse 12, and verse 14 of the prophecy say that her enemies will throw her timbers, stones, and all her debris into the sea (making her a “bare rock”). 1 This impinges on our big question of whether the prophecy was fulfilled because, truly, this seems to have happened exactly as foretold.

    “The refusal of the Tyrians to surrender led Alexander to connect the isle to the mainland with the construction of a causeway, one of the most difficult marine engineering tasks of that era… The stones of the fresh ruins of ancient Tyre, together with trees limbs, were drawn into the water, and stones and sand were placed on top of them in order to build the mole.” [Yaacov Nir, “The city of Tyre, Lebanon and its semi-artificial tombolo” Geoarchaeology 11 (1996): 235.]2, 3

    1. • Ezekiel 26:4 -- “destroy the the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock”;
      • Ezekiel 26:12 -- “throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water.”
      [Note: “Tyre” translates to ‘rock’ (hence “bare rock”); the author is having fun with words.]
    2. • ancientworlds.net: “Alexander used the old city of Tyre to bridge the sea to New Tyre. As for timbers needed for shoring and pilings, he had the forests of Lebanon famous throughout antiquity for their great trees." It would end up a massive 200 foot wide causeway extending all the way the island about 3/4's a mile out to sea.” [“The Siege Of Tyre” (2005), online at ancientworlds.net]
      • Marvin W. Mikesell: “…Alexander of Macedon used timber from Mount Lebanon in the causeway that ended his siege of Tyre…” [“The Deforestation of Mount Lebanon” Geographical Review (1969): 18.]
    3. While the tiny island still had some remnant buildings and debris, it was microscopic compared to her vast body [7-20 miles along the shore], which was now stripped clean. From an historic aerial view, the entire city is very appropriately described as “bare.”

  • v4-5 say she'll become a place for drying nets

    Verses 4-5 say that Tyre will be reduced to a humble abode for fisherman, i.e. place for the drying of nets.1 This is relevant because, after Tyre (the city) was completely annihilated, Tyre (the land) was resettled by new peoples. To this day,

    “...the causeway still remains, now as a place, as Ezekiel foretold, on which fishermen dry their nets.” [Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, (eds.) Douglas, Tenney, Silva (Zondervan, 1987), 1493.]

    1. Ezekiel 26:5 -- “You will be a place for the spreading of nets [in the midst of the sea].” While Tyre was to be annihilated, her people being sent to the grave (v19-21), the area would subsequently be used by a new community of fisherman.

  • v5, 12 say her enemies will plunder her wealth

    Verses 5 and 12 say that Tyre's enemies will plunder her wealth.1(This does not require that every enemy will get to plunder her). This matters in the larger debate because it seems to have been fulfilled:

    E.L. Skip Knox: “Alexander was so furious that this one city had halted his progress for so long, that he gave the city over to plunder and his soldiers sacked it without mercy.” [“Alexander the Great: The Siege of Tyre (333)” online at europeanhistory.boisestate.edu]

    1. Ezekiel 26:5 -- [Tyre] "will become spoil for the nations”; 26:12 -- “spoil of your riches”

  • v13-14, 19-21 say Tyre will be “built no more”

    Verses 13-14 and verses 19-21 say Tyre will permanently be annihilated in virtue of the above terrors which are to be employed against her by the many nations.1 This contributes to the conclusion that the prophecy was in fact fulfilled because Alexander truly did wipe out Tyre and replaced her.2

    1. Ezekiel 26:13 -- “I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more.”; 26:19-21 -- “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit,...but I will set glory in the land of the living. I will bring terrors on you and you will be no more; though you will be sought, you will never be found again,...”
    2. That is to say, far from benefiting from Jerusalem’s fall (as she boasted; see v2), this majestic Tyrian empire would instead have its characteristic progress viciously halted, and in 332 B.C., at the hands of Alexander, we see finally that (a) her empire was erased, (b) her structures left in waste, and (c) her peoples were replaced. Some say Tyre was rebuilt, and even exists today, but they are confusing Phoenician Tyre with Alexandrian Tyre. Alexander set it to replace the city, despite giving it the same name for convenience, and did so successfully (see link above).
“No, after all…

  • “Tyre was rebuilt”

    The city of Tyre, though it was largely destroyed, recovered and was rebuilt after its structures had been razed.

    This page analyzes one evidence:

    This suggests the prophecy was not fulfilled, because verses 13-14 and verses 19-21 had said that that Tyre will be ‘built no more’, which seems to directly contradict the existence of a settlement there today.1

    But no,

    1. Ezekiel 26:13 -- “I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more.”; 26:19-21 -- “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, …but I will set glory in the land of the living. “I will bring terrors on you and you will be no more; though you will be sought, you will never be found again,”