Ezekiel 26:4, commentary and pictures

The verse foretells that Tyre's walls would be torn down, its towers demolished, and even its dust scraped away until its site was left bare as a rock, a ruin appointed to be built no more and to become a place for spreading nets.
Its fulfillment came in stages, with Nebuchadnezzar breaking down the walls and towers and Alexander completing the work by casting the stones, timber and dust of old mainland Tyre into the sea to build his causeway to the island city.
Once a magnificent commercial capital, the site now lies as bare rocks and stones with fishermen's huts, where nets are spread and dried on the rocky shore.
That exact fulfillment after nearly twenty-five hundred years proves that Jehovah declares the end from the beginning and gives a growing argument for the divine origin of the prophetic Scriptures.
Its ruin stands as a lesson that cities and their governments are judged by the God of Heaven, warning proud God-defying cities today that only genuine repentance and purification of life can save them from like judgment.

Tyre's Destruction Foretold

The prophecy declares that the walls of Tyre would be destroyed and its towers broken down, its very dust scraped away until the site was left bare like the top of a rock. It predicts the tearing down of walls and towers and the making of the city bare, with the rocky site becoming a place for the spreading of nets in the sea. The ruined remains of Tyre illustrate this desolation foretold for the great commercial city.

The prediction stands as part of the prophecies against the nations in Ezekiel 26 to 28, which set forth both the ruin of earthly Tyre and lamentation over her. Those chapters rise from earthly Tyre to Satan, the instigator of all her wickedness and the true king of Tyre, whose own utter destruction to ashes so as nevermore to have any being is likewise predicted. The doom was announced after Tyre rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem, declaring that Tyre would in turn be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

Tyre was the great ancient commercial and maritime city, the London, Liverpool, and New York of the Orient, whose extensive commerce is described in Ezekiel 27. Its name means a rock, and she was the ancient mistress of the seas, the wealthy merchant city whose merchants were princes. Lifted up in the height of her power, wealth, pride, and idolatry, her prince said he was a god, corrupting the kingdoms of earth. Against her many nations were to come up as the sea causes its waves to come up, in judgment spoken in the height of her power.

God foretold for proud, opulent Tyre an exact kind of doom different from the doom of Babylon and other cities. It was utter removal until the site becomes bare rock, a place for the spreading of nets, to be built no more. The walls and towers would be demolished, the dust scraped away, and the city made bare rock.

Fulfilled to the Letter

Fulfillment came in stages through Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great. Nebuchadnezzar's siege broke down the walls and towers and trod down all the streets with the hoofs of horses. The scraping of her dust from her to make her like the top of a rock was not fulfilled by him, nor was the laying of her stones and her timber and her dust in the midst of the water. That later work was fulfilled when Alexander used the ruins of old mainland Tyre to build a causeway to the island city which he besieged and destroyed, leaving the ancient mainland site bare.

Alexander's troops took the stones, timber, and dust of the old city and cast the material into the sea to build a causeway or mole or artificial approaches from the mainland to the island city for his troops. The walls were broken down about fifteen years after the prophecy was spoken, and about 255 years later the stones, timber, and dust were cast into the sea and the island site was scraped bare. Repeated destruction and rebuilding of the causeway required still more material, leaving both the old mainland site and the island site scraped bare. The ancient city stood on the mainland site that Alexander scraped bare when he built the mole to connect the island city to the shore.

Tyre never regained its former importance after Alexander used its remains for his approaches. When the work of many nations against this leading maritime and commercial city was completed, Tyre was left desolate and was never restored. Its former strength and wealth have vanished, and it will not rise again to contradict the prophecy.

Once a magnificent capital, the site now matches the prediction exactly as bare rocks and stones with a few ruins and fishers' huts marking where the crowning city stood. Broken columns are scattered beneath the sea, and on the rocky shore, both on the ancient mainland site and the island site, fishermen spread and dry or bleach their nets. A later city was built on the mainland from her ruins and the place was rebuilt in another form, yet by 1697 and again in 1887 it was observed by travelers to be a place for the spreading of nets. Its stones, timber, and dust were thrown into the sea, and its rocky ruins became a place where fishermen dried their nets.

Spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years ago concerning Tyre, the prophecy has been literally fulfilled. It belongs to the prophecy concerning Tyre as one of the nations under judgment, and its fulfillment is evident today. The prophecy of 2,400 years ago can be read in the ruins.

Proof and Warning Today

The exactness of the doom foretold for Tyre, so different from that appointed to other cities, can still be read in the ruins after twenty-four hundred years. The prediction was given with a particularity that carries conviction, declaring that the proud, opulent merchant city would be utterly taken away until its site became bare rock, a place for the spreading of nets, to be built no more. That long-foretold fulfillment confronts the present as evidence of omniscience and all-knowledge, proving Jehovah to be God who declares the end from the beginning. With the histories of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman powers, of Babylon, Egypt and Nineveh, and of the dispersion of the Jews, it furnishes a colossal argument for the divine origin of the prophetic Scriptures, an argument whose power and weight are still growing.

The ruined condition of Tyre stands as an object lesson of the reward of transgression and of the certainty of God's word. Its walls and towers were to be demolished, its very dust scraped away, and its site left like bare rock, and the island site where fishers dry their nets now bears witness that it was so. Its former strength and wealth have vanished, illustrating the passing away of human power, and it will not rise again to contradict the prophecy.

Cities are judged and punished or rewarded by the God of heaven, and a city and its government are responsible to Him. Tyre was so judged, its walls destroyed and its towers broken down until scraped bare like the top of a rock. Only deep and genuine repentance toward God, with firm determination to purify private, social and political life according to the standard of His revealed will, can save a city from such judgment.

Tyre's punishment was invited by open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness, and such ruin is the fruit of awful wickedness joined with the mercy of God, not of an avenging God. Its destruction of walls and towers stands as a lesson for today, a warning that belongs not to San Francisco alone but to New York, Chicago and every place forgetting and defying God, that proud cities defying God may meet a similar fate. San Francisco met the same fate as a modern proud and beautiful Babylon and modern thrifty Tyre, its earthquake ruin answering the same open wickedness. Warning was sent through godly men and must not be laughed at or left unheeded, for some left the city weeks before the shock came. The fear it brings must awaken not mere impulse to do better but principle to do right. The same God who surely punished wickedness will surely save every trusting soul.