Ezekiel 26:5, commentary and pictures

It foretells that Tyre would be stripped to bare rock in the midst of the sea for the spreading of fishermen's nets, and plundered to become a spoil to the nations, made certain because the Lord God has spoken it. It concerns Tyre the great merchant city of the ancient world, whose extensive commerce made her the London and New York of the Orient. Her doom was declared because she rejoiced at Jerusalem's destruction, and came upon proud and opulent Tyre for open God-defying wickedness as an example of judgment on guilty nations and cities. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city and Alexander scraped its stones and dust into the sea to reach the island city, leaving the old site bare, and travelers still found it unoccupied except for fishing and the spreading of nets upon its rocks. The exact fulfillment of so particular a fate, different from Babylon and other cities, exhibits divine omniscience and stands as warning not to San Francisco alone but to New York, Chicago and every place forgetting God.

Words and Setting

Ezekiel 26:5 foretells that Tyre would be stripped bare and reduced to rock in the midst of the sea, becoming a place where fishermen spread and dry their nets. The site of the once-magnificent city is described literally and exactly as it then appeared, a rocky fishing ground by the sea. Its wealth would be plundered and taken, and the city itself would become a spoil to other nations.

This outcome is declared certain because the Lord GOD, the Lord Jehovah, has spoken it. The certainty rests on the spoken word of God, making the desolation and plundering sure. The verse belongs to the stirring prophecies against the nations, with chapters 26 to 28 giving both the ruin of Tyre and Sidon and the lamentation over her destruction. That prophecy concerning Tyre among the prophecies against other nations has its fulfillment described as evident in the present day.

The verse concerns Tyre the great commercial merchant city of the ancient world, the merchant city of the Mediterranean and once a great center of world commerce. She was the London, Liverpool and New York of the Orient, whose extensive commerce is described in Ezekiel 27, yet she would be utterly wiped out and her very ground left bare in the midst of the sea as a place for fishermen to spread nets. Tyre means rock, named from its foundation, yet its foretold end as a bare rock for nets was different from Damascus becoming a ruinous heap, the cities of Aroer becoming a place for flocks, and Babylon becoming an utter desolation for wild beasts. For proud, opulent Tyre the prediction was utter removal till her site would become a bare rock in the sea, to be built no more and to become a spoil to the nations.

Reason for Judgment

Tyre's doom was declared because the city rejoiced at Jerusalem's destruction. Its destruction belongs to the judgment upon the nations that rejoiced over Judah's humiliation. That judgment upon the merchant city of the Mediterranean was to come through Nebuchadnezzar's power.

The judgment fell upon proud, opulent Tyre for its open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness. Ruin came as the fruit such wickedness invites, and the catastrophe carried both judgment and mercy. Once a great center of world commerce, Tyre was reduced to a bare rock where fishermen spread their nets and became spoil for other nations, as an example of God's judgment on a guilty nation and proof that God judges cities.

The prophecy particularly describes Nebuchadnezzar's work against the city. God dealt in this way with the kingdoms on all sides of Israel to bring down their pride, and Tyre, the great commercial city of the world, would be utterly wiped out, leaving the very ground where she stood bare in the midst of the sea as a place for fishermen to spread nets. Nebuchadnezzar was to capture Tyre and from Tyre go on to conquer Jerusalem.

God declared that the walls of Tyre would be destroyed and her towers broken down, her dust scraped from her, and she made a bare rock for spreading nets and built no more, because the Lord had spoken it. The destruction of Tyre's walls and towers and the trampling of its streets by horses were fulfilled through Nebuchadnezzar. The further predictions that its dust would be scraped away and its stones, timber, and dust cast into the water remained unfulfilled at that point, to be connected afterward with Alexander's later destruction of Tyre when he used the stones and rubbish of the old city to build a causeway to the island city.

Fulfillment in History

Nebuchadnezzar's siege destroyed the mainland city, and Alexander afterward scraped the old site bare by casting its stones and timber and dust and rubbish into the water to build a mole and causeway to the island city. The destruction of walls and towers and the trampling of streets by horses belonged to Nebuchadnezzar's work, while the scraping away of dust and the casting of stones and timber and dust into the water remained for the later work with Alexander. Through that later work Tyre lost its former greatness and never regained its importance. The prophecy concerns the island city as well as the mainland city, for though the city was rebuilt on an island the island city itself later lay in ruins and served as a fishing place.

The spreading of nets was not fulfilled when Alexander captured the city, because he did not destroy it and it was soon repopulated and prosperous. Its desolation came later, declining rapidly after Selim I conquered Syria in 1516 until it lay in complete ruin fit for spreading nets. By 1610 Tyre was only a heap of ruins, and by 1697 nothing remained but broken walls and pillars and vaults with not one entire house left. It remained so in 1887, with its ancient red and gray granite columns and marble pillars broken and strewn beneath the waves and its bare unoccupied shoreline used only by fishermen for their nets. That bare shoreline is the site of the island city, once covered with palaces and surrounded by fleets, with riches and fame and merchandise and mariners and pilots and calkers and traders, now stripped bare.

Travelers found its inhabitants few and living chiefly by fishing amid magnificent ruins and a few fishers' huts where the crowning city once stood. Robinson found part of the peninsula unoccupied and used for spreading nets, and the bare rocks and stones where fishermen now spread their nets to dry are the later city built on the mainland from the ruins of old Tyre left desolate. When the destruction carried out over time by many nations beginning with Nebuchadnezzar was complete, only a few fishermen were found spreading nets there. Travelers found the island city reduced to bare rock used for drying nets, its former strength and glory vanished. The old city is now reduced to a few huts, and New Tyre is not built on its site.

After its remains were cast into the sea Tyre never regained its former importance, and fishermen dried their nets on the nearby rocks. The city was never restored despite its natural advantages, was built no more, and will not rise again to disprove the prophecy. The word spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, written 2,400 years before, has been literally and exactly fulfilled as the site appeared at the time. The place where old Tyre stood is now a place for spreading nets, the very stones of its buildings having been removed elsewhere.

Proof of Inspiration

The exactness of the detail gives conviction, for a different end was foretold for proud, opulent Tyre than for Babylon, that she would be utterly taken away till her site would become bare rock in the midst of the sea, a place for the spreading of nets, to be built no more and to become a spoil to the nations, and such particularity is evidence of God's omniscience, that He declares the end from the beginning and His counsel shall stand. Though Tyre means rock from its foundation, its foretold end was not to become a ruinous heap like Damascus, nor a place for flocks like the cities of Aroer, nor an utter desolation for wild beasts like Babylon, but to have its walls destroyed and towers broken down, its dust scraped from it, and to be made a bare rock for spreading nets because the Lord had spoken it. What was written 2,400 years before can now be read in the ruins, where fishermen spread their nets to dry amid magnificent ruins and a few fishers' huts where the crowning city once stood, and prophecy with fulfillment together witness that Jehovah is God and there is none else, giving assurance that the God who declared Tyre's doom will also save every trusting soul. The existing facts of Tyre today stand as words long since spoken now fulfilled and confronting men, and joined with the fulfilled histories of the world empires and of Babylon, Egypt, Nineveh and the dispersion of the Jews, they furnish a colossal and still accumulating and growing argument for the divine origin of the prophetic Scriptures.

Tyre's reduction to a bare place in the sea used by fishermen for spreading nets, and its continuance in that desolate condition, is a visible fact exhibiting divine omniscience. So long as Tyre remains in that state it stands as proof that one Omniscient Mind dictated the predictions of the Bible, which no human or spirit power can do. Prophecy came not by the will of man but holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and its fulfillment stands as ongoing evidence that the Bible foretells the future, which men cannot do.

Its fulfillment is an object lesson of prophecy, showing that the site of the once-great commercial metropolis became ruins, a place where fishermen spread their nets and a spoil for other nations, made certain because the Lord had spoken it. Tyre's ruin and its use by fishermen for spreading and drying nets on the rocky place show the fulfillment and endurance of God's spoken word.

Warning to Cities

Tyre's preliminary punishment for open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness shows that ruin comes as the fruit that such wickedness invites, and that catastrophe carries both judgment and mercy. San Francisco meets the same fate as a modern thrifty Tyre, just as a modern proud and beautiful Babylon meets Babylon's fate. The spoken doom against proud, thrifty Tyre to become a spoil to the nations and a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea lays the city waste where fishermen spread their nets and has its wealth taken by other nations.

That judgment stands as a warning not to San Francisco alone in its catastrophe but to New York, Chicago, and every other place and American city forgetting and defying God, and to people who forget and defy Him. It is a lesson for other cities that defy God, comparing the modern thrifty Tyre and the modern proud Babylon to their ancient fates. The call is for a lasting principle to do right rather than only a passing impulse to do better.

The verse shows that God judges cities, with Tyre named among examples of divine judgments on nations and cities and of a guilty nation subject to His judgment. Once a great center of world commerce, Tyre would be plundered by other nations and reduced to a bare rock where fishermen spread and dry their nets.