tyre Summary and Overview

a rock, now es-Sur; an ancient Phoenician city, about 23 miles, in a direct line, north of Acre, and 20 south of Sidon. Sidon was the oldest Phoenician city, but Tyre had a longer and more illustrious history. The commerce of the whole world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre. "Tyrian merchants were the first who ventured to navigate the Mediterranean waters; and they founded their colonies on the coasts and neighbouring islands of the AEgean Sea, in Greece, on the northern coast of Africa, at Carthage and other places, in Sicily and Corsica, in Spain at Tartessus, and even beyond the pillars of Hercules at Gadeira (Cadiz)" (Driver's Isaiah). In the time of David a friendly alliance was entered into between the Hebrews and the Tyrians, who were long ruled over by their native kings (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1; 2 Chr. 2:3). Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre," and the city, built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore. It was a place of great strength. It was besieged by Shalmaneser, who was assisted by the Phoenicians of the mainland, for five years, and by Nebuchadnezzar (B.C. 586-573) for thirteen years, apparently without success. It afterwards fell under the power of Alexander the Great, after a siege of seven months, but continued to maintain much of its commercial importance till the Christian era. It is referred to in Matt. 11:21 and Acts 12:20. In A.D. 1291 it was taken by the Saracens, and has remained a desolate ruin ever since. "The purple dye of Tyre had a worldwide celebrity on account of the durability of its beautiful tints, and its manufacture proved a source of abundant wealth to the inhabitants of that city." Both Tyre and Sidon "were crowded with glass-shops, dyeing and weaving establishments; and among their cunning workmen not the least important class were those who were celebrated for the engraving of precious stones." (2 Chr. 2:7,14). The wickedness and idolatry of this city are frequently denounced by the prophets, and its final destruction predicted (Isa. 23:1; Jer. 25:22; Ezek. 26; 28:1-19; Amos 1:9, 10; Zech. 9:2-4). Here a church was founded soon after the death of Stephen, and Paul, on his return from his third missionary journey spent a week in intercourse with the disciples there (Acts 21:4). Here the scene at Miletus was repeated on his leaving them. They all, with their wives and children, accompanied him to the sea-shore. The sea-voyage of the apostle terminated at Ptolemais, about 38 miles from Tyre. Thence he proceeded to Caesarea (Acts 21:5-8). "It is noticed on monuments as early as B.C. 1500, and claiming, according to Herodotus, to have been founded about B.C. 2700. It had two ports still existing, and was of commercial importance in all ages, with colonies at Carthage (about B.C. 850) and all over the Mediterranean. It was often attacked by Egypt and Assyria, and taken by Alexander the Great after a terrible siege in B.C. 332. It is now a town of 3,000 inhabitants, with ancient tombs and a ruined cathedral. A short Phoenician text of the fourth century B.C. is the only monument yet recovered."

(a rock), a celebrated commercial city of Phoenicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Its Hebrew name, Tzor, signifies a rock; which well agrees with the site of Sur, the modern town, on a rocky peninsula, formerly an island. There is no doubt that, previous to the siege of the city by Alexander the Great, Tyre was situated on an island; but, according to the tradition of the inhabitants, there was a city on the mainland before there was a city on the island; and the tradition receives some color from the name of Palaetyrus, or Old Tyre, which was borne in Greek times by a city on the continent, thirty stadia to the south. Notices in the Bible. --In the Bible Tyre is named for the first time in the of Joshua, ch. #Jos 19:29| where it is adverted to as a fortified city (in the Authorized Version "the strong city") in reference to the boundaries of the tribe of Asher, But the first passages in the Hebrew historical writings, or in ancient history generally, which actual glimpses of the actual condition of Tyre are in the book of Samuel, #2Sa 6:11| in connection with Hiram king of Tyre sending cedar wood and workmen to David, for building him a palace; and subsequently in the book of Kings, in connection with the building of Solomon's temple. It is evident that under Solomon there was a close alliance between the Hebrews and the Tyrians. Hiram supplied Solomon with cedar wood, precious metals and workmen, and gave him sailors for the voyage to Ophir and India, while on the other hand Solomon gave Hiram supplies of corn and oil, ceded to him some cities, and permitted him to make use of some havens on the Red Sea. #1Ki 9:11-14, 26-28; 10:22| These friendly relations survived for a time the disastrous secession of the ten tribes, and a century later Ahab married a daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, #1Ki 16:31| who, according to Menander, was daughter of Ithobal king of Tyre. When mercantile cupidity induced the Tyrians and the neighboring Phoenicians to buy Hebrew captives from their enemies, and to sell them as slaves to the Greeks and Edomites, there commenced denunciations, and at first threats of retaliation. #Joe 3:4-8; Am 1:9,10| When Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, had taken the city of Samaria, had conquered the kingdom of Israel, and carried its inhabitants into captivity, he laid siege to Tyre, which, however, successfully resisted his arms. It is in reference to this siege that the prophecy against Tyre in Isaiah, #Isa 23:1| ... was uttered. After the siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser (which must have taken place not long after 721 B.C.). Tyre remained a powerful state, with its own kings, #Jer 25:22; 27:3; Eze 28:2-12| remarkable for its wealth, with territory on the mainland, and protected by strong fortifications. #Eze 26:4,6,8,10,12; 27:11; 28:5; Zec 9:3| Our knowledge of its condition thenceforward until the siege by Nebuchadnezzar depends entirely on various notices of it by the Hebrew prophets; but some of these notices are singularly full, and especially the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel furnishes us, on some points, with details such as have scarcely come down to us respecting any one city of antiquity excepting Rome and Athens. Siege by Nebuchadnezzar. --In the midst of great prosperity and wealth, which was the natural result of extensive trade, #Eze 28:4| Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of an army of the Chaldees, invaded Judea and captured Jerusalem. As Tyre was so near to Jerusalem, and as the conquerors were a fierce and formidable race, #Hab 1:6| It would naturally he supposed that this event would have excited alarm and terror amongst the Tyrians. Instead of this, we may infer from Ezekiel's statement, #Eze 26:2| that their predominant feeling was one of exultation. At first sight this appears strange and almost inconceivable; but it is rendered intelligible by some previous events in Jewish history. Only 34 years before the destruction of Jerusalem commenced the celebrated reformation of Josiah, B.C. 622. This momentous religious revolution, #2Ki 22:1 ..., 23:1| ... fully explains the exultation and malevolence of the Tyrians. In that reformation Josiah had heaped insults on the gods who were the objects of Tyrian veneration and love. Indeed, he seemed to have endeavored to exterminate their religion. #2Ki 23:20| These acts must have been regarded by the Tyrians as a series of sacrilegious and abominable outrages; and we can scarcely doubt that the death in battle of Josiah at Megiddo and the subsequent destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, were hailed by them with triumph and retribution in human affairs. This joy, as instances of divine retribution in human affairs. This joy, however, must soon have given way to other feelings, when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Phoenicia and laid siege to Tyre. That siege lasted thirteen years, and it is still a disputed point whether Tyre was actually taken by Nebuchadnezzar on this occasion. However this may be, it is probable that, on some terms or other, Tyre submitted to the Chaldees. The rule of Nebuchadnezzar over Tyre, though real, may have been light, and in the nature of an alliance. Attack by the Persians; Capture by Alexander. --During the Persian domination the Tyrians were subject in name to the Persian king and may have given him tribute. With the rest of Phoenicia they had submitted to the Persians without striking a blow. Toward the close of the following century, B.C. 332, Tyre was assailed for the third time by a great conqueror. At that time Tyre was situated on an island nearly half a mile from the mainland; it was completely surrounded by prodigious walls, the loftiest portion of which on the side fronting the mainland reached a height of not less than 150 feet; and notwithstanding the persevering efforts of Alexander, he could not have succeeded in his attempt if the harbor of Tyre to the north had not been blockaded by the Cyprians and that to the south by the Phoenicians, thus affording an opportunity to Alexander for uniting the Island to the mainland by an; enormous artificial mole. (The materials for this he obtained from the remains of old Tyre scraping the very dust from her rocks into the sea, as prophesied by Ezekiel, #Eze 26:3,4,12,21| more than 250 years before.) The immediate results of the capture by Alexander were most disastrous to Tyre, as its brave defenders were put to death; and in accordance with the barbarous policy of ancient times, 30,000 of its inhabitants, including slaves, free females and free children, were sold as slaves. It gradually, how ever, recovered its prosperity through the immigration of fresh settlers, though its trade is said to have suffered by the vicinity and rivalry of Alexandria. Under the Macedonian successors of Alexander it shared the fortunes of the Seleucidae. Under the Romans, at first it enjoyed a kind of freedom. Subsequently, however, on the arrival of Augustus in the East, he is said to have deprived both Tyre and Sidon of their liberties for seditious conduct. Still the prosperity of Tyre in the time of Augustus was undeniably great. Strabo gives an account of it at that period, speaks of the great wealth which it derived from the dyes of the celebrated Tyrian purple which, as is well known were extracted from shell-fish found on the coast, belonging to a species of the genus Murex. Tyre in the time of Christ and since. --When visited by Christ, #Mt 15:21; Mr 7:24| Tyre was perhaps more populous than Jerusalem, and if so, it was undoubtedly the largest city which the saviour is known to have visited. At the time of the crusades it was still a flourishing; city, when if surrendered to the Christians on the 27th of June 1144. It continued more than a century and a half in the hands of Christians, but was deserted by its inhabitants in A.D. 1291 upon the conquest of Acre (Ptolemais) by the sultan of Egypt and Damascus. This was the turning-point in the history of Tyre, which has never recovered from the blow. Its present condition is a fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy #Eze 28:5| It contains, according to Volney, 50 or 60 poor families, who live in part by fishing; and is, as Bruce describes it, "rock whereon fishers dry their nets."

TYRE and TY'RUS (Heb. Tsor, "rock;" Arabic Sur), a celebrated city of Phoenicia, on the eastern coast of the Modern Tyre (After a Photograph) Mediterranean Sea, 21 miles south of Sidon, in lat. 33? 17' N. Situation and Extent. - Tyre was situated upon what was originally an island, or perhaps two islands, about 1 mile long, and lying parallel to the shore at the distance of half a mile. There was also a city called "Palaetyrus" ("Old Tyre") upon the mainland. Pliny gives the circumference of the island Tyre at 2 1/2 miles, and of the whole city, including Palaetyrus, at 17 miles. History. - Phoenician and Greek traditions make Tyre a very ancient city. According to Herodotus, the priests at Tyre told him the city was founded b.c. 2750. The first Scripture mention is in the time of Joshua, b.c. 1-144, and it was then "a strong city." Josh 19:29. It was coupled with the Zidonians. Jer 47:4; Isa 23:2, Ex 6:4, Jud 4:12; Josh 13:6; Eze 32:30. The two cities Tyre and Sidon, being only 21 miles apart, were intimately associated. Indeed, Tyre must have included not only the city proper, but some of the adjacent country. See Phoenicia. Tyre, under King Hiram, held friendly relations with Israel, under David and Solomon. David's census extended thither to embrace the Jews. 2 Sam 24:7. The Tyrians furnished the timber for the temple and great buildings of Jerusalem. The cedars of Lebanon were floated from Tyre to Joppa, some 85 miles, and thence taken to Jerusalem. Tyrian artists also were skilful in the fine work required. As a reward for his services, Hiram was presented with twenty cities in Northern Galilee, but he was not well pleased with them and called them "Cabul" ("displeasing" or "despicable"). 2 Sam 5:11; 1 Kgs 5:1; 1 Kgs 7:13; 1 Kgs 9:11-12; 1 Chr 14:1; 2 Chr 2:2-3, 2 Chr 2:11. Hiram and Solomon were also associated in commercial enterprises. 1 Kgs 9:27; 1 Kgs 10:11-22; 2 Chr 8:17, 2 Chr 8:18; 2 Chr 9:21. From Tyre came the many fatal influences toward idolatry which corrupted the chosen people. See Zidon and Phoenicia. At a later period the friendly relations were changed to hostility. Tyre rejoiced in the distress of Israel, and God's prophet predicted the terrible overthrow of the proud heathen citv. Isa 23:1, 1 Chr 6:5, 1 Kgs 15:8, Gen 5:15-17; Jer 25:22; 1 Sam 27:3; Jer 47:4; Eze 26:2-15; Eze 27:2-8, Matt 27:32; Eze 29:18; Hos 9:13; Joel 3:4; Am 1:9-10; Zech 9:2-3; comp. Ps 45:12; Ps 83:7; Ps 87:4. The prophecies were notably fulfilled. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, besieged Tyre in b.c. 721. The siege lasted for five years, but the city was not taken. Nebuchadnezzar besieged it for thirteen years, ending with b.c. 592; whether he captured and destroyed this city is, strange to say, a matter which history does not enable us to determine. Josephus does not make it clear, and the passage in Eze 29:18, "Yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus," is differently interpreted, some understanding that he did not take the city at all, and others that he took it, but found no adequate booty to compensate for the long siege. At any rate. Tyre came under the Persian dominion and furnished that power with a large fleet. This excited the hostility of Alexander the Great, who determined to destroy the power of the city. Not being able to reach the walls with his engines, he collected together all the remains of the ancient city Palaetyrus - stones, timber, rubbish - and threw them into the narrow channel. Thus was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner the prophecy of Ezekiel. Eze 28:3-4, Jud 4:12, 2 Chr 11:21. After a siege of seven months the city was taken. Some 8000 men were slain in the massacre which followed; 2000 were crucified, and 30,000 men, women, and children were sold into slavery. The city was also set on fire by the victors. Zech 9:4; Joel 3:7. After Alexander's death Tyre fell under the dominion of the Seleucidse, having been besieged for fourteen months by Antigonus; at a later period the Romans possessed it. In N.T. times Tyre was a populous and thriving city. Christ referred to it and visited its "borders." Matt 11:21-22; Acts 15:21;Mark 7:24. Whether he went into the city itself cannot be determined. The borders of the territory of Tyre ("its coasts") reached southward to Carmel and eastward to Ituraea, according to Josephus. Paul spent seven days at Tyre. Acts 21:3-4, which early became the seat of a Christian bishopric. In the fourth century Jerome speaks of it as the most noble and beautiful city of Phoenicia, and as still trading with all the world. During the Middle Ages it was a place of some consequence, and was regarded as well nigh impregnable. On the side next the sea it had a double, and on the land side a triple, wall. After being subject to the Romans for four hundred years, Tyre came under the dominion of the Saracens in the seventh century. In a.d. 1124 the Crusaders captured it. In 1291 the Muslims gained possession of the city, which was destroyed by them, and has never since regained its prosperity. There is an interesting description of the siege of Acra (Ptolemais) and the possession of Tyre by the army of the sultan of Egypt and Damascus. It is given by Marinus Sanutus, a Venetian, in the century following the capture: "On the same day on which Ptolemais was taken, the Tyrians, at vespers, leaving the city empty, without the stroke of a sword, without the tumult of war, embarked on board their vessels, and abandoned the city to be occupied freely by their conquerors. On the morrow the Saracens entered, no one attempting to prevent them, and they did what they pleased." About a.d. 1610-11 it was visited by Sandys, who said of it: "But this once famous Tyre is now no other than a heap of ruins; yet have they a reverent aspect, and do instruct the pensive beholder with their exemplary frailty. It hath two harbors, that on the north side the fairest and best throughout all the Levant (which the cursours enter at their pleasure), the other choked with the decayes of the city." Maundrell (1697) says of Tyre: "On the north side it has an old Turkish castle, besides which there is nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc., there being not so much as an entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches that harbor in vaults and subsist on fishing." - Smith's Bible Dictionary, vol. iv., p. 3337. Present Condition. - The present town lies at the north-west end of the former island, which has an area of about 125 acres. The large embankment or causeway thrown up by Alexander the Great was 60 yards wide and one-fourth of a mile long. But this has been widened, by the gradual deposit of sand, to a mile on the main land and 600 yards where it reaches the old ramparts. The west and south sides of the island are now used for gardens and burial-grounds. Traces of the ancient wall are found. One stone is 17 feet long and 6 1/2 feet thick. There are huge stones and fragments of marble columns along the shore and beneath the water. They are bare as the top of a rock, and there the fishermen spread their nets - a wonderful fulfilment of a prophecy uttered nearly twenty-four hundred years ago: "I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon." Eze 26:11. The most interesting of the old buildings yet remaining is the church of the Crusaders, which probably occupies the site of a church consecrated a.d. 323, when Eusebius preached the sermon. The modern city has miserable streets and dilapidated houses. Its shipping consists of a few fishing-boats. Cotton, tobacco, and millstones from the Hauran are exported. The population numbers about 5000, nearly half of whom are Muslims, while the other half consists of Christians and a few Jews. A Franciscan monastery and a convent of the French order of the Sisters of St. Joseph are established here, and schools have been founded by an English mission. A short distance from the city, on the main land, is the traditional tomb of Hiram; the remains of the ancient aqueduct by which the city was supplied with water from Ras el 'Ain can be traced.

Joshua 19:29; 2 Samuel 24:7; Isaiah 23:1; Ezekiel 26-28. In Phoenicia, E. of the Mediterranean, 20 miles S. of Sidon. Justin says the Sidonians founded Tyre after having been defeated by the king of Ascalon, 1209 B.C. according to the Parian marble. A double city, part on the mainland, part on an island nearly one mile long, and separated from the continent by a strait half a mile broad. Justin (xi. 10) records the tradition of the inhabitants that there was a city on the mainland before there was one on the island. Ezekiel represents the mainland city as besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's horses and chariots, and its walls assailed with "engines of war, forts, and mounts," and its towers broken down with axes; but the island city as sitting "in the heart of the seas" (Ezekiel 28:2, margin). The former, Old Tyre, stretched along the shore seven miles from the river Leontes on the N. to the fountain Ras el ain on the S., the water of which was brought into the city by aqueducts. Pliny (N. H., v. 17) says the circuit of both was 19 Roman miles, the island city being only 22 stadia. The difficulty is that the name "Tyre," meaning a "rock," belongs properly to the island city, there being no "rock" in the mainland city to originate the name; yet the mainland city is called "Old Tyre." Probably the Phoenician name of the mainland city resembled in sound but not sense the Greek Palaeo-Tyrus, and the latter name was given from a misunderstanding. Tyre is not mentioned in the Pentateuch, but first in Joshua 19:29 "the strong city Tyre." From tsor came its two names, Tyre, and Sara, now Sur (Arabic). Joshua implies it was on the shore, but the city and chief temple of Hercules (Melkarth, the tutelary god of Tyre) was probably on the island. Unlike other oriental cities, space being limited on the island, the houses were built in stories. The majority of the population was on the mainland. Hiram by substructures enlarged the eastern and southern sides, so as to afford room for a public place, Eurychorus. The northern or Sidonian harbour was 900 ft. long, 700 wide, protected by walls. The southern or Egyptian was formed by a great breakwater; the barbours could be closed by a boom; a canal through the city joined the harbours. "Tyre did build herself a strong hold" (Zechariah 9:3); so Diodorus Siculus (xvii. 40), "Tyre had the greatest confidence, owing to her insular position, fortifications and abundant stores." A double wall, 150 ft. high, besides the sea, secured island Tyre. "Her merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth" (Isaiah 23:7-8). Hiram, as friend and ally, supplied David with timber and workmen for his palace (2 Samuel 5:11), and Solomon with cedars of Lebaron conveyed by floats to Joppa, 74 geographical miles, after having been hewn by Hiram's Sidonian hewers unrivaled in skill (1 Kings 5:6). (See HIRAM; SOLOMON.) The Tyrian skill in copper work appears in the lilies, palms, oxen, lions, and cherubim which they executed for Solomon. Tyrian colonists founded Carthage 143 years and eight months after the founding of Solomon's temple. (Josephus, contra Apion 1:18). Asher never possessed Tyre; though commanded to exterminate the Sidonians along with the other Canaanites, Israel never had war with them (Judges 1:31-32). The census takers in going to Tyre under David seem merely to have counted the Israelites resident in Tyre (2 Samuel 24:7). Joshua (Joshua 11:8; Joshua 19:28) designates Sidon "great." In David's time Tyre assumes the greatness above Sidon. So secular history represents Sidon as mother city of Phoenicia, which see (Justin, Hist. xviii. 3; Strabo Geegr. 1:2, section 33). (See PHOENICIA.) Old Egyptian inscriptions give Sidon the first place. Homer often mentions Sidon, never Tyre. The reason for his and the Pentateuch's silence as to Tyre is, Tyre, though existing, was as yet subordinate. Secular history accords with the Bible in dating the accession of Tyre to greatness just before David's reign. Unlike other independent commercial cities Tyre was a monarchy, not a republic (Jeremiah 25:22; Jeremiah 27:3). The friendly relations between Tyre and Israel (Solomon supplying grain and oil in return for Hiram's timber, metals, and workmen) were again renewed when Ahab married the Sidonian king Ethbaal's (or Ithobal king of Tyre, according to Menander, in Josephus Ant. 8:13, section 2) daughter. Joel (Joel 3:4-8) denounces Tyre for selling children of Judah and Jerusalem as slaves to the Greeks, Amos threatens Tyre with devouring fire for "delivering the whole captivity (captive Israelites) to Edom, and remembering not the brotherly covenant" (Amos 1:9-10), between David and Hiram which guaranteed safety, religious privileges, and the undisturbed exercise of their faith to the Jews sojourning in Tyre. Hiram's successors were Baleazar, Abdrastatus (assassinated by his nurse's four sons, the elder of whom usurped the throne; then Hiram's line after a servile revolt was restored in), Adrastus, Aserymus, Phales (who slew his brother Aserymus and was slain by), Ithobaal, priest of Astarte and father of Jezebel, Ahab's unscrupulous, cruel, and idolatrous queen. Tyre's annals record the three years' drought of 1 Kings 17-18. Then Badezor, Matgen, Pygmalion; he slew Acerbas, Hercules' high priest, and the husband of Elissa or Dido. She fled with many of the aristocracy and founded Carthage. Her self immolation on a funeral pyre is essentially oriental. The next certain event after some interval is Elulaeus' reign and Shalmaneser's invasion. Shalmaneser, after taking Samaria, turned his arms against Tyre, then mistress of Sidon, and Cyprus with its copper mines ("copper" derives its name from Cyprus), 721 B.C. Menander, the translator of the Tyrian archives into Greek (Josephus Ant. 9:14, section 2), says Elulseus king of Tyre subdued a revolt in Cyprus. The Assyrian king then, assailed Pnoenicia; Sidon, Akko (Acre), and Palaeo-Tyrus submitted, and helped him with 60 ships and 800 rowers against 12 ships of Tyre. The Tyrians dispersed their opponent's fleet, but he besieged them for five years, apparently without success. Isaiah (Isaiah 23) refers to this siege; Sargon probably finished the siege. The reference to "the Chaldaeans" (Isaiah 23:13) implies an ulterior prophetic reference also to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar which lasted 13 years. "Behold," says the prophet, calling Tyre's attention to the humiliating fact that upstart Chaldees, subordinate then to Assyria and only in later times about to become supreme, should first as mercenaries under the Assyrian Shalmaneser, then as Nebuchadnezzar's army, besiege the ancient city Tyre. frontCHALDEES.) Alexander the Great destroyed new Tyre after a seven months' siege. Nebuchadnezzar, having no vessels to attack the island city, besieged the mainland city, but the heart of the city was on the island. To this latter God's threat applies, "I will scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock" (Ezekiel 26:2; Ezekiel 26:4, etc.); instead of her realizing her exulting expectation on Jerusalem's downfall, "I shall be replenished now she is laid waste," the very soil which Tyre brought together on the rock on which she built I will scrape so clean away as to leave no dust, but only the bore rock as it was; "it (island Tyre) shall be a place for spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:10-11) informs us that, like her daughter Carthage, Tyre employed mercenaries, "of Persia (the first mention of Persia in ancient literature), Lud, Phut, and Arvad"; a frequent occurrence and weakness in commercial cities, where artisans' wages exceed a soldier's pay. Merchants of Sheba and Raamah, i.e. Arabia. and the Persian gulf, brought Tyre gold (Ezekiel 27). (See SHEBA (1); RAAMAH.) Tarshish supplied Tyre with silver, iron, tin (from Cornwall), and lead; Israel supplied Tyre with wheat, oil, and balm (1 Kings 5:9; Acts 12:20); whence the two nations were always at peace. Tyre got the wine of Helbon (Aleppo), not Judah's wines though excellent (Genesis 49:11). (See TARSHISH.) The nomadic Bedouin Kedar supplied lambs, rams, and goats; Egypt, linen; the isles of Elishah (Greece, the Peloponnese, and Elis especially), blue and purple dyes; (latterly Tyre extracted her famous purple from her own shell fish the Murex trunculus (See SCARLET); Pliny ix. 60-61, Pausanias iii. 21, section 6; the shell fish were crushed in round holes found still by travelers in the solid sandstone there: Wilde, Voyage along Mediterr.); and Dedan on the Persian gulf, ivory and ebony. The exultation of Tyre at Jerusalem's overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar might seem strange; but Josiah's overthrow of Solomon's altars to Ashtoreth or Astarte, the Tyrian queen of heaven, which for 350 years had been a pledge of the goodwill between Jerusalem and Tyre (2 Kings 23:13), had alienated the Tyrians; the selfishness of commercial rivalry further made them regard Jerusalem's fall as an opening for Tyre to turn to herself the inland traffic of which Jerusalem had hereto been the "gate"; Tyre said against Jerusalem, "Aha, she is broken that was the gates (the commercial mart) of the people, she is turned unto me" (Ezekiel 26:2); the caravans from Petra, Palmyra and the East instead of passing through Jerusalem, will be transferred to me. Tyre is thus the world's representative in its phase of intense self seeking, which not so much opposes directly God's people as exults in their calamity when this subserves her schemes of gain, pride, and ambition, however ostensibly heretofore on friendly terms with them. But Tyre experienced the truth "he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished" (Proverbs 17:5). Nebuchadnezzar's siege of 13 years followed; "every head was made bald, and every shoulder peeled, yet had he no wages nor his army, for Tyre, for the service that he had served against it" (Ezekiel 29:18-19). Jerome states that Nebuchadnezzar took Tyre, but had no wages for his pains since the Tyrians had removed in ships from Tyre everything precious. So God gave him Egypt in compensation; his success is implied in Tyre receiving a king from Babylon, probably one of the Tyrian hostages detained there, Merbal (Josephus, Apion 1:21, on the authority of Phoenician annals). Tyre probably submitted on mild terms, for no other authors mention its capture. Josephus quotes Phoenician records as stating that "Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre 13 years under their king Ithobal." Its capture accords with Pharaoh Hophra's expedition against Tyre not long after, probably in self defense, to prevent Tyre's navy becoming Babylon's weapon against Egypt. Under Persia Tyre supplied cedar wood to the Jews for building the second temple (Ezra 3:7). Alexander the Great, in order not to have his communications with Greece cut off, wished to have the Phoenician fleet at command; the other Phoenician cities submitted. Tyre stood a "seven months'" siege, the Cyprians blockading the northern harbour, and the Phoenicians the southern harbour, so that Alexander was enabled to join the island to the mainland by a vast artificial mole constructed of the ruins of mainland Tyre remaining after Nebuchadnezzar's siege; while Carthage, through internal commotions, was unable to help the mother city. The conqueror slew 8,000 of the brave defenders, crucified 2,000 in revenge for the murder of some Macedonians, and sold into slavery 30,000 of the inhabitants. Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26:11-12) says: "Nebuchadnezzar shall slay, ... They shall break down thy walls, and shall lay thy stones and timber and dust in the midst of the water." The overthrow of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was the first link in the long chain of evil, and the earnest of its final doom. The change from "he" to "they" marks that what he did was not the whole, but paved the way for other's completing what he began. It was to be a progressive work until Tyre was utterly destroyed. Alexander did exactly as Ezekiel 26:12 foretells; with the "stones, timber," and rubbish of mainland Tyre he made the causeway to island Tyre (Q. Curtius iv. 2), 322 B.C. "Thou shalt be built (re-established as a commercial queen and fortress of the seas) no more." Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Antigonus, the crusaders in A.D. 1124, and the Saracens in the 13th century, A.D. 1291 (before whom the Tyrians vacated their city, fulfilling Isaiah 23:7), all contributed to make Tyro what she is, her harbours choked up, her palaces and fortresses in ruins and "built no more," only a few fishermen's humble abodes, Tyre only "a place to spread nets upon." In Hasselquist's day (Voyages in Levant, A.D. 1751) there were "about ten inhabitants, Turks and Christians, living by fishing." Its present population is 3,000 or 4,000. It was for long a Christian bishopric. Ithobaal was king at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's siege, and Baal his son at its close. Then the form of government changed to that of judges (Suffetes, Hebrew shophetim). Tyre is a vivid illustration of vicissitudes of fortune, so that Lucan calls her "unstable Tyre." During Tyre's existence Thebes, Nineveh, Babylon, and Jerusalem have fallen, and Carthage and Rome have risen and fallen; she "whose antiquity is, of ancient days" (Isaiah 23:7), who heaped up silver as dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets" (Zechariah 9:2), is now bore and poverty stricken. Greed of gain was her snare, to which she sacrificed every other consideration; this led her to join the wicked confederacy of seven nations constituting the main body, with three accessories, which sought to oust Jehoshaphat and God's people out of their inheritance (Psalm 83:7). Psalm 87:4 foretells that Tyre personified as an ideal man shall be in Messianic days spiritually born in Jerusalem. Her help to Solomon's temple foretypified this, and the Syrophoenician woman's faith (Mark 7:26) is the firstfruit and earnest. Isaiah's (Isaiah 23:18) prophecy that "her merchandise shall be holiness to the Lord ... it shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing," was fulfilled in the consecration by the church at Tyre of much of its wealth to God and the support of Christ's ministry (Eusebius Hist. 10:4). Paul found disciples there (Acts 21:3-6), a lively instance of the immediate and instinctive communion of saints, though previously strangers to one another. What an affecting picture of brotherly love, all bringing Paul's company on their way "with wives and children until they were out of the city, then kneeling down on the shore" under the canopy of heaven and praying! Psalm 45:12, "the daughter of Tyre shall entreat thy favor (so supply the omission) with a gift, even the rich (which Tyre was preeminently) among the people shall entreat thy favor," begging admission into the kingdom of God from Israel (Isaiah 44:5; Isaiah 60:6-14; Psalm 72:10). When Israel "hearkens" to Messiah and "forgets her own people (Jewish ritualism) and her father's house (her boast of Abrahamic descent), the King shall greatly desire her beauty," and Messiah shall become "the desire of all nations," e.g. Tyre (Haggai 2:7). On the other hand Tyre is type of (See ANTICHRIST) (Ezekiel 28) in her self deifying pride. "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas ... yet thou art a man and not God. Though thou set thine heart as the heart of God, behold thou art wiser than Daniel ... no secret, can they hide from thee; with thy wisdom thou hast gotten riches" (compare Daniel 7:1-25; Daniel 11:36-37; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:1; Revelation 13:6; 2 Timothy 3:1-9). The "seas" answer to the political disturbed sea of nations out of which antichrist emerges. Tyre's "holy island," sacred to Melkart (Sanchoniathon) answers to antichrist's mimicry of God's throne in the temple of God. Her self-vaunted wisdom (Zechariah 9:2) answers to the "eyes of a man" in the little horn (Daniel 7:8; 1 Corinthians 1:19-31) and the second beast's "great wonders." Man in our days by discoveries in science hopes to be so completely lord of the elements as to be independent of God, so that "no secret can be hidden from him" in the natural world, which is the only world that self-willed fools recognize. When just at the summit of blasphemous self glorification, God shall bring these self deceivers with their masters, antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan, "down to the pit," as. Tyre (Ezekiel 28:8; Revelation 16; 17; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10). In Tyre's king another example was given of man being put on his trial under most favorable circumstances, with all that beauty, sagacity, and wealth could do for man, like Adam and Eve in Eden (Ezekiel 28:13-14). No "precious stone" was withheld from Tyre; like the overshadowing cherubim, its king overshadowed Tyre; as the beau ideal of humanity he walked up and down "in the midst of the stones of fire" like "the paved work of sapphire" (Exodus 24:10; Exodus 24:17) under the feet of the God of Israel. But, whereas Hiram feared the God of Israel and helped forward His temple, "iniquity" even pride was found in Tyre. Therefore, God "cast her to the ground" (Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 23:9), "sacred and inviolate" (hiera kai asulos) though she calls herself on coins. The Lord Jesus entered the coasts of Tyre, but it is uncertain whether He entered Tyre itself (Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24; Mark 7:26).