26:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me:
Jehovah spoke to Ezekiel once again in about 587-586 B.C. This time period was at the latter stages of the Babylonian siege upon Jerusalem. Ezekiel was prophesying to the Jews in Babylon between the second and third deportations.
26:2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,’
Ezekiel was once again addressed as “son of man,” because he was born from the human genealogy of Adam. Tyre's sin was anti-Semitism. She rejoiced when Jerusalem fell, thinking that it would make her wealthier. Tyre controlled the shipping routes of the Mediterranean Sea, while Judah controlled the caravan routes of the Middle East. Since Jerusalem no longer controlled these caravan routes, then Tyre was hoping to gain more trade by sea. Tyre was hoping to corner the market on trade. This was a violation of the Abrahamic Covenant. Tyre would receive a kind-for-kind judgment.
26:3 therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against you, O Tyre! I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.
Jehovah is sovereign over all nations and cities, including Tyre. Tyre cheered at the destruction of Jerusalem, so God was against her. God would bring up many nations against Tyre. Six of these invading nations would be Babylon. Persia, Greece, the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Seleucids of Syria, and Rome. Just as the waves of the sea crash against the walls of a seacoast city, then these six nations will crash upon the walls of Tyre.
26:4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.
King Nebuchadnezzar would break down the walls and towers of Tyre. Tyre would later rebuilt her city on a nearby island. Alexander the Great would come around 300 years later and send ambassadors to the new city of Tyre, but Tyre did not think that she could be defeated. Therefore, Tyre officials killed Alexander’s ambassadors and threw them over the wall. This was a great insult to Alexander the Great. This act of arrogant disrespect angered him greatly. Alexander took the debris from the old city of Tyre, scraped it clean, threw the rocks into the Mediterranean Sea, and built a causeway bridge from the Old coastal Tyre to the New island of Tyre.
26:5 She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations,
Tyre would no longer be a merchant naval dynasty. instead, she would become a small fishing village.
26:6 and her daughters who are in the field will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
The daughters of Tyre were the Phoenician colonies which were spread across the Mediterranean Sea. There were Phoenician colonies in Carthage, North Africa, and possibly Spain. They would all be destroyed, meaning that they were not able to procreate and establish more colonies. The price for violation of the Abrahamic Covenant was extinction.
26:7 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note that I am about to bring King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre from the north, with horses, chariots, and horsemen, an army and hordes of people.
Jehovah is sovereign over all nations and cities, including Tyre. After King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, then he marched to Tyre with his large and powerful army.
26:8 He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build a siege wall against you, erect a siege ramp against you, and raise a great shield against you.
Nebuchadnezzar laid siege on the city of Tyre for 13 years. It took this long for Babylon to defeat her, because Tyre was shipping in survival supplies from her great navy.
26:9 He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his weapons.
Nebuchadnezzar tore down all of the walls of Tyre with his battering rams.
26:10 He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls.
Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers entered through these broken walls.
26:11 With his horses’ hoofs he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will tumble down to the ground.
Nebuchadnezzar’s cavalry killed the people of Tyre in the streets of the most powerful naval city in the world.
26:12 They will steal your wealth and loot your merchandise. They will tear down your walls and destroy your luxurious homes. Your stones, your trees, and your soil he will throw into the water.
Notice that the attackers change from singular to plural pronouns. Nebuchadnezzar did not throw the stones, trees, and soil into the sea. He defeated the mainland Tyre. After Tyre rebuilt her city on the island, Alexander the Great came around 250 years later. His army threw the stones, trees, and soil of the Old Tyre into the sea in order to build a causeway bridge to the New Tyre. Skeptics do not like this prophecy, so they attempt to late date it. There reason is pure bias. They do not think a God exists who can record the future in advance in writing.
26:13 I will silence the noise of your songs; the sound of your harps will be heard no more.
Tyre will not be playing her godless music any longer. Satan controls many nations by the music in which they play. Music was created to glorify God. It was not created to glorify sin, Satan, or the satanic world system.
26:14 I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place where fishing nets are spread. You will never be built again, for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.
After Alexander the Great threw all of the debris from the Old Tyre into the sea to make a causeway to the New Tyre, then Old Tyre a bare rock . The old coastal city of Tyre and the new island city of Tyre have both been rebuilt and exist to this day. Therefore, this prophecy looks to the future.
26:15 “This is what the sovereign Lord says to Tyre: Oh, how the coastlands will shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, at the massive slaughter in your midst!
Jehovah is sovereign over all nations, including Tyre and the other coastal cities which benefited from her naval commerce. When all of the other coastland cities heard about the fall of Tyre, then they would tremble with fear. They would moan, because they would lose their commerce and trade. The destruction of Tyre destroyed the economics of most of the nations of the known world. People all over the world would hear that Jehovah destroyed Tyre. This destruction of the world economy would cause some nations to hate Jehovah and others to want to know more about Him.
26:16 All the princes of the sea will vacate their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you.
If Jehovah can judge Tyre so quickly and by so much devastation, then He can do the same to these other pagan nations as well.
26:17 They will sing this lament over you: “ ‘How you have perished—you have vanished from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror!
The other nations would sing a funeral song for Tyre. Tyre’s navy once ruled the Mediterranean Sea, but now she would drown in the sea.
26:18 Now the coastlands will tremble on the day of your fall; the coastlands by the sea will be terrified by your passing.’
The coastlands would tremble for two reasons. First, Tyre had been judged by a Sovereign Lord. They may be next. Second, the coastland cities suffered economically.
26:19 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: When I make you desolate like the uninhabited cities, when I bring up the deep over you and the surging waters overwhelm you,
Jehovah is sovereign over all nations and cities, including Tyre. Jehovah sent a warning to Tyre. He was going to drown Tyre and make her an uninhabited city, like Jerusalem. The sea would overflood the city of Tyre. This prophecy is unfulfilled at this time.
26:20 then I will bring you down to bygone people, to be with those who descend to the pit. I will make you live in the lower parts of the earth, among the primeval ruins, with those who descend to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited or stand in the land of the living.
After Jehovah kills the inhabitants of Tyre, then He will send the entire city to hell.
26:21 I will bring terrors on you, and you will be no more! Though you are sought after, you will never be found again, declares the sovereign Lord.”
Jehovah will destroy Tyre. Tyre's price for breaking the Abrahamic Covenant was that she would no longer exist as a city. All of her citizens would die. They would all be sent to hell. In Ezekiel 28, Jehovah would reveal that the King of Tyre was actually a puppet of Satan himself.
It is important to note that there still is a modern city of Tyre in this same location. The city has not been engulfed by the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, this prophecy must occur in the future. Tyre will most likely be destroyed during the Great Tribulation.