Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Ezekiel 26: Tyre and its destruction

 Tyre was a powerful Phoenician city renowned for its maritime trade and wealth.

1-2 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, Tyre cheered when they got the news of Jerusalem, exclaiming,
“‘Good! The gateway city is smashed!
    Now all her business comes my way.
She’s in ruins
    and I’m in clover.’

Tyre were glad  when Jerusalem - the gateway city - was smashed.

3-6 “Therefore, God, the Master, has this to say:
“‘I’m against you, Tyre,
    and I’ll bring many nations surging against you,
    as the waves of the sea surging against the shore.
They’ll smash the city walls of Tyre
    and break down her towers.
I’ll wash away the soil
    and leave nothing but bare rock.
She’ll be an island of bare rock in the ocean,
    good for nothing but drying fishnets.
Yes, I’ve said so.’ Decree of God, the Master.
    ‘She’ll be loot, free pickings for the nations!
Her surrounding villages will be butchered.
    Then they’ll realize that I am God.’

Many nations surged against Tyre mainly Babylon and Macedon by Alexander the Great.

19-21 “The Message of God, the Master: ‘When I turn you into a wasted city, a city empty of people, a ghost town, and when I bring up the great ocean deeps and cover you, then I’ll push you down among those who go to the grave, the long, long dead. I’ll make you live there, in the grave in old ruins, with the buried dead. You’ll never see the land of the living again. I’ll introduce you to the terrors of death and that’ll be the end of you. They’ll send out search parties for you, but you’ll never be found. Decree of God, the Master.’”

Tyre in Lebanon isn't a wasted city nowadays. Tyre is a small city in the Lebanon coast with 60k inhabitants. In Ezekiel 27, nations will isolate Tyre and she will become an island. The great ocean will cover Tyre. In fact, Tyre, once a great city, is now an isolated city.

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