Prophecy of destruction of Tyre by Ezekiel

Many websites dismiss the prophecy of Tyre and some have stated this prophecy was never fulfilled (Ezekiel 26:1, 26:7-14) as it calls for its total destruction. Tyre did withstand the siege of Nebuchadnezzar for 13 years, ending in a compromise in which the royal family was taken into exile but the city survived intact." but lets look at the prophecy in detail

First and foremost thing to note is, the prophecy is not "one" verse. It starts in Ezekiel 26:3 and ends in verse 21. The ones from many websites argue either unknowingly or knowingly omit the rest of the  prophecy I don’t know why probably they didn’t understand it or willfully suppressed it.

Lets look at the entire prophecy now (those who are short of time can skip to the next paragraph)

Ezekiel, Chapter 26 from verse 3 (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/ezk.26.niv)

3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 5Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

7“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with horsemen and a great army. 8He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. 9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. 10His horses will be so many that they will cover you with dust. Your walls will tremble at the noise of the warhorses, wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city whose walls have been broken through. 11The hooves of his horses will trample all your streets; he will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. 12They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. 13I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more. 14I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.

15“This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Will not the coastlands tremble at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place in you? 16Then all the princes of the coast will step down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled at you. 17Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you:

“ ‘How you are destroyed, city of renown,

peopled by men of the sea!

You were a power on the seas,

you and your citizens;

you put your terror

on all who lived there.

18Now the coastlands tremble

on the day of your fall;

the islands in the sea

are terrified at your collapse.’

19“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, 20then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. 21I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Lets look at the important parts of the prophecy

1. Verse 3 :  I will bring many nations against you

The first point that I make to those arguing against this prophecy is that it doesn’t say only one nation, but many nations. The destruction of Tyre is started by Nebuchadnezzar but its only the beginning and the Lord will bring many more nations against it.

2. Verse 7 :  From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar is the one to bring about the beginning of the destruction of Tyre.

3. Verse 12 :throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea.

To those arguing against this prophecy, this verse should sound silly or irrelevant. Most destruction of cities is either by demolishing it with siege weapons and plundering it and the may be setting it on fire but who in the right might would want to carry all the huge building material and that too all the way to the sea. Let's think of the great city walls and governmental monuments built with stones that would have weighed several tons it’s a waste of effort to carry and throw them into sea and for what purpose? It just sounds crazy right, yes prophecies may sound crazy but lets see how this was fulfilled very soon.

4. Verse 14 : become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt,

Again a crazy verse "place to spread fishnets",  at the time of writing Tyre was a great city of commerce and its just totally silly to say that such a place will be used to spread fishnets. Of course since it was a harbor city some amount of fishing would have happened even then but the prophecy is clearly saying that the city will turn into a place where its only good enough to catch fish

5. Verse 19 bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you
6. Verse 20 : I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living

Next crazy verse here to the minds of critics, "ocean depths to cover you", "Tyre going down the pit and not returning to the place of the living, sounds something from "Lord of the Rings" ?

Well its not from a movie but the prophecy of the true Lord as revealed to prophet Ezekiel.

Now since the important parts of the prophecy has been covered lets look at the history and some geography of the Tyre. The City of Tyre in 1000BC when this prophecy was written isn't not the one that you see today on Google map right now. There were two parts to it, the main land City and an island city which was a harbor and held the grandeur of the city of Tyre.(Reference No.2).  You wont see the island city now in Google maps thanks to the fulfillment of the Prophecy which I will explain later as you read more below.

Here is what you will get on Tyre on Google Maps if you search for it as shown below in Figure 1

Google maps link : https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Tyre,+Lebanon/@33.273276,35.1981048,14.22z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x151e7d902f915d95:0xcf0e3fc6fb997408?hl=en

 Figure 1

This Figure 2 the original Island city of Tyre as reconstructed(Research Reference - 2, given below)

Figure 2

The ancient city Tyre was the trade capital of not only of the Phoenician empire but one the greatest of the ancient world. The empire had great naval skills and were the first to navigate the seas and establish trade routes with many nations making it the heart of the ancient trade. When wealth increases so does immorality and Tyre was no different. It had one of the biggest slave market of ancient times and the prophecy is directly related to it. Tyre was a big trading nation with Israel during the good periods of King David and his son  Solomon and both nations gained both in wealth and strength though this trade. In Bible its said that in those good times, Hiram, the king of Tyre sent to Israel, woods of cedars to built the Jewish temple and also sent his skilled naval personnel to help Solomon's ships navigate the seas to acquire gold from various nations to build the temple. But during later times when Israel had fallen to the Babylonian empire, Tyre captured people from Judah and Jerusalem and sold them off as slaves in the slave market which is why Lord revealed this prophecy to Ezekiel against it.

The island city was considered impregnable as it was protected by fortified walls, surrounded by deep sea offered it, natural defenses with steep ocean cliffs and rough weather. It can only be approached by naval ships, thus no siege warfare can be launched effectively against it from sea, as Tyre also had naval superiority. Due to this supremacy in both military, navy and wealth Tyre and the Phoenician empire flourished greatly.

Lets look at the historical events which sets of the destruction of Tyre, first Nebuchadnezzar starts off to subdue Tyre but even though he desolated the main land(the region which was separated by sea from the Island city of Tyre). The island city was never captured by Nebuchadnezzar. He tried for 13 years and finally gave up after getting a tribute from Tyre but the once great region was on its knees, though it was not completely destroyed. Its commerce still continued to generate wealth, it still had naval superiority which is why Nebuchadnezzar could never reach the Island city.

Lets look at what happens later, well here comes the hero "Great Alexander". Ancient historian Diodorus Siculus has written of about the events which brought the destruction of the Island city of Tyre on the hands of Alexander. It seems he wanted to offer a personal sacrifice to the temple of Heracles in Tyre. This was declined by Tyre, though angered by this, act Alexander knew its military strength and its naval supremacy so he was willing to focus only to conquer Egypt. Also Alexander and the Macedonian army had no fleet either. Wanting to conquer Egypt he sent messengers to Tyre, to sign a peace treaty. Trusting their naval strength and the natural defenses of the Island nation, they kill his ambassadors and threw their bodies into the sea angering Alexander which I guess was the last straw . The military master mind sets of on his quest to subdue Tyre, he quickly destroys the main land which might have been partially rebuilt after Nebuchadnezzar but it didn’t stand a chance against Alexander's army. But he too faced the same challenge faced by Nebuchadnezzar, he could not subdue the Island city as he had no navy. But the military genius sets off a great engineering innovation, he orders his army to build a land bridge to the Island city called a "Mole" in the writings of Siculus which was over 200feet wide. This was unprecedented in the ancient world as such a grand and mammoth task was never attempted or not even thought possible. Now where will the army get its stones to build the bridge? well you have the main land city with its great old monuments where else, and thus the prophecy in Verse 12 is fulfilled "throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea", Well the story goes and  even after great attempts by Tyre's navy to halt the construction of bridge Alexander's gets support from his ally's and uses their naval ships and stops them from harming the bridge. It is also recorded that a storm destroyed the bridge during construction but Alexander rebuilt it and pushed forward and on reaching the city , unlike Nebuchadnezzar he showed no mercy to Tyre. He killed all of its army with 7000 killed in battle and 2000 crucified later, sold off rest off the population of over 30,000 as slaves. Alexander achieved total annilation of Tyre in just 7 months which Nebuchadnezzar couldn't do 13 years. Alexander didn’t just stop at destroying Tyre, he knew that if left as it was, being at the heart of established trade routes it will restart its commerce. He then builds the city of Alexandria, as the city of commerce and diverts all the trade routes to the new city, thus Tyre is now destroyed, unable to gather any more wealth to regain its military strength nor commerce.

The term "rebuilt" used in the prophecy has a significant meaning. What it means is that in historical terms when a city is destroyed it can regain its strength and rebuilt itself again. This happened in bible, even when the Persian empire destroys the first temple built by Solomon it was rebuilt by Israel again but it was again destroyed by Romans later. Even in modern terms we see Germany, Japan being destroyed and now they are rebuilt to their former glory. Recently speaking it’s the twin towers of World trade center, US is rebuilding it with even greater grandeur to show their strength, if US builds a supermarket say a Walmart or say an apartment or something else its not rebuilding it. The term rebuilt means the city should regain its strength and reach its glory days or better. As history shows it never happened.

But the most amazing part of the prophecy is towards the end which is left out by the critics of this prophecy, verse 19 bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you and verse 20 : I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place in the land of the living. Its over 2500 years, as this prophecy was written around 586 B.C and the sea level then was over 6 meters below the current levels. If you want to find the island nation now you need to look below the sea as its submerged at 3 meters below sea level(Referece 2: UNESCO research on Tyre and Sidon)

Update: Initially I thought the island is completely submerged but recently I got some more information from research by Nick Marriner(Reference 4), and came to know the land bridge built by Alexander due to centuries of sedimentation has enlarged has made the island into a peninsula but the major portion of the island is submerged into sea by over 3 meters as you see in this picture

Here is an aerial photo as well, showing the current submerged island with only parts above the sea level.

Well now I guess I have put forth arguments that establishes the fulfillment of this prophecy, request readers to post their questions and I will try to answer them.

References

1.  http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1790
2. Research by UNESCO to protect the submerged ruins of Tyre and Sidon: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/228892099_Under_the_city_centre_the_ancient_harbour._Tyre_and_Sidon_Heritages_to_preserve
3. http://www.padfield.com/1994/tyre.html
4. http://archive.archaeology.org/0801/topten/alexander.html