his reign, and in the year 573 before Christ.* Seventy years from thence will bring us down to the year 503 before Christ, and the nineteenth of Darius Hystaspis. At that time, it appears from history that the Ionians had rebelled against Darius, and the Phonicians assisted him with their fleets :† and consequently it is reasonable to conclude that they were now restored to their former privileges. In the succeeding reign we find that they together with the Sidonians furnished Xerxes with several ships for his expedition into Greece. And by the time of Alexander the Tyrians were grown to such power and greatness, that they stopped the progress of that rapid conqueror longer than any part of the Persian empire besides. But all this is to be understood of the insular Tyre; for as the old city flourished most before the time of Nebuchadnezzar, so the new city flourished most afterwards, and this is the Tyre that henceforth is so much celebrated in history. IV. The city should be taken and destroyed again. For when it is said by the prophets, Is. xxiii. 6,- Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle;' Ezek. xxvii. 32,- What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?' xxviii. 8,-'They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas:' these expressions can imply no less than that the insular Tyre should be destroyed as well as that upon the continent; and as the one was accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar, so was the other by Alexander the Great. But the same thing may be inferred more directly from the words of Zechariah, who prophesied in the reign of Darius, Zech. i. 1, vii. 1. probably Darius Hystaspis, many years after the former destruction of the city, and consequently he must be understood to speak of this latter. His words are these, ix. 3, 4,- And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.' It is very true that Tyrus did build herself a strong hold:' for her situation was very strong in an island, and besides the sea to defend her she was fortified with a wall of “one hundred and fifty feet in height, and of a proportionable thickness."§ . She heaped * See Prideaux Connect. part. 1, book 2, and book 4. Herod. lib. 5, cap. 108, &c. p. 330, edit Gale. ♦ Herod. lib. 7, cap. 89, &c. p. 412, edit. Gale. Diod. Sic. lib. 11, p. 244. edit. Steph. p. 3, tom. 2, edit. Rhod. Arrian. de Exped. Alex. lib. 2, cap. 21. p. 96, edit. Gronov. Το το ύψος εις πες της κοντα και έκατον μάλιςα ποδις, και ἐς πλατος ξυμμετρον. CL. admodum pedes altas, latitu dine alitudini respondente. Translated in the text] up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets,' being the most celebrated place in the world for trade and riches, 'the mart of nations,' as she is called, conveying the commodities of the east to the west, and of the west to the east. But yet, 'Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.' Ezekiel had likewise foretold that the city should be consumed with fire, xxviii. 18,'I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all them that behold thee.' And accordingly Alexander besieged, and took, and set the city on fire.* The ruins of old Tyre contributed much to the taking of the new city; for with the stones and timber and rubbish of the old city Alexander built a bank or causey+ from the continent to the island, thereby literally fulfilling the words of the prophet Ezekiel, xxvi. 12,--- They shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the water.' He was seven months in completing this work, but the time and labour were well employed, for by means hereof he was enabled to storm and take the city. As in the former siege the inhabitants, according to the prophecies, fled over the Mediterranean to the islands and countries adjoining, so they did likewise in this latter siege; for Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius both testify that they sent their wives and children to Carthage; and upon the taking of the place, the Sidonians secretly conveyed away fifteen thousand more in their ships. Happy were they who thus escaped, for of those who remained behind, the conqueror slew eight thousand in the storming and taking of the city, he caused two thousand afterwards cruelly to be crucified, and thirty thousand he sold for slaves. They had * Quint. Curt. lib. 4, cap. 4.-ignemque tectis injici jubet. [He orders the city to be burnt.] † Quint Curt. lib. 4, cap. 2, Diod. Sic. lib. 17, p. 583, edit. Steph; p. 519, tom. 2, edit. Rhod. + Τεκνα μεν και γυναίκας και τις γεγηρακότας εἰς Καρχηδόνα διακομίζειν ἐψηφίσαντο. Liberos et uxores cum senio confectis Carthaginem transportare decernunt. [They determined to send their children and wives, and aged people to Carthage.] Teλos de, των τέκνων και γυναικων μέρος μεν εφθασαν ὑπεκθεμενοι προς τις Καρχηδονιας. Tandem deponenda quadam apud Carthaginenses liberorum et uxorum parte (hostem) antevertunt. At length they disappointed the enemy by secretly sen ling away a part of their chil dren and wives to the Carthaginians.] Diod. Sic. lib. 17, ibid. Conjuges liberosque devehendos Carthaginem tradiderunt. [They delivered their wives and children to be carried to Carthage ] Quint. Curt. lib. 4, cap. 3. 6 Quint. Curt. lib. 4. cap. 4. Arrian. lib. 2, cap. 24, p. 100, edit. Gronov. Quintus Curtius, ibid. before sold some of the captive Jews, and now it was returned upon them, according to the prediction of Joel, 'The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold; Behold, I will return your recompense upon your own head, and will sell your sons and your daughters,'---iii. 6, 7, 8. This is the main of the prophecy, that as they had sold the captive Jews, so they should be sold themselves: and having seen this so punctually fulfilled, we may more easily believe that the other parts were so too, though at this distance of time, and in this scarcity of ancient historians, we are not able to prove all the particulars. When the city was taken before, the Tyrians received their kings afterwards from Babylon; and now their king held his crown by Alexander's appointment.* * The cases are parallel in many respects: but the city recovered much sooner from the calamities of this siege than from the fatal consequences of the former. For in nineteen years' time it was able to withstand the fleets and armies of Antigonus, and sustained a siege of fifteen months before it was taken :† a plain proof, as Dr. Prideaux observes, of " the great advantage of trade. For this city being the grand mart, where most of the trade both of the east and the west did then centre, by virtue hereof it was, that it so soon revived to its pristine vigour." V. It is usual with God to temper his judgments with mercy: and amidst these calamities it is also foretold, that there should come a time, when the Tyrians would forsake their idolatry, and become converts to the true religion and worship of God. The Psalmist is thought to have hinted as much, in saying, 'The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift,'-xlv. 12; and again, The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents,'lxxii. 10. Zechariah, when he foretels the calamities which the Tyrians and neighbouring nations should suffer from Alexander, ix. 1-7, at the same time predicts their conversion to the true God but he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God.' But nothing can be plainer than Isaiah's declaration, that they should consecrate the gains of their merchandise for the maintenance of those who minister to the Lord in holy things: And her merchan Της μεν * Diod. Sic. lib. 17, p. 587, edit. Steph.; p. 521, tom. 2, edit. Rhod. Τυρίων πόλεως κατέςησε βασιλεα τον ονομαζόμενον Βαλλωνυμον. Tyriorum urbi regem præfecit cui Ballonymo nomen. [He appointed one named Ballonymus, king of the tity of the Tyrians.] Diod. Sic. lib. 19, p. 704, Connect part 1, b. 8. anno 313. edit. Steph.; p. 703, tom. 2, edit. Rhod. Prideaux Alexander Egus 4 dise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be trea sured, nor laid up for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable cloth ing,'---xxiii. 18. Here particularly we must be much obliged to the learned Vitringa, who hath fully shown the completion of this article; as indeed every one who would rightly understand the prophet Isaiah, must be greatly obliged to that excellent commen tator, and will receive more light and assistance from him than from all besides him. The Tyrians were much addicted to the worship of Hercules, as he was called by the Greeks, or Baal, as he is denominated in scripture. But in process of time, by the means of some Jews and proselytes living and conversing among them, some of them also became proselytes to the Jewish religion; so that a great multitude of people from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon came to hear' our Saviour, and to be healed of their diseases,'---Luke vi. 17: and our Saviour, who was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' yet came into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon,'---Matt. xv. 21, &c. Mark vii. 24, &c.; and the first fruits of the gospel there, was a Tyrian woman, ‘a woman of Canaan' as she is called, a ‘Syrophoenician by nation.' When St. Paul, in his way to Jerusalem, came to Tyre, he found disciples there, who were inspired by the Holy Ghost and prophesied, Acts xxi. 4, and with them he tarried seven days.' The Tyrians were such sincere converts to Christianity, that in the time of Dioclesian's persecution they exhibited several glorious examples of confessors and martyrs, as Eusebius himself saw, and hath amply testified in his book of the martyrs of Palestine. Afterwards, when the storm of persecution was blown over, the Tyrians, under their bishop Paulinus, built an oratory, or rather a temple, for the public worship of God, the most magnificent and sumptuous in all Palestine and Phoenicia; which temple Eusebius hath described, and celebrated in a handsome panegyric, whereof he hath inserted a copy of his history, but modestly concealed the name of the author. Eusebius, therefore, commenting upon this passage of Isaiah, might very well say that “it is fulfilled in our time. For since a church of God hath been founded in Tyre, as well as in other nations, many of its goods, gotten by merchandise, are consecrated to the Lord, being offered to his * Vitring. Comment. in Iesaiam, cap. 23, vol. 1, p. 704. + Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 8, cap. 7. De Martyr. Palestinæ, cap. 5 et 7. Euseb. Hist. lib. 10. cap. 4. church," as he afterwards explains himself, "for the use of the ministers of the altar or gospel, according to the institution of our Lord, that they who wait at the altar should live of the altar."* In like manner St. Jerome : "We may behold churches in Tyre built to Christ; we may see their riches, that they are not laid up, nor treasured, but given to those who dwell before the Lord. For the Lord hath appointed, that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel." And how liberally and munificently the bishops and clergy were at that time maintained, how plentifully they were furnished with every thing, 'to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing,' no man can want to be informed, who is ever so little conversant in ecclesiastical history. To these proofs we will only add, that as Tyre consecrated its merchandise and hire unto the Lord, so it had the honour of being erected into an archbishopric, and the first archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, having fourteen bishops under its primacy; and in this state it continued several years. VI. But after all, the city should be totally destroyed, and become a place only for fishers to spread their nets upon. When the prophets denounced the destruction of a city or country, it was not intended that such denunciations should take effect immediately. The sentence of condemnation, as I may say, was then passed upon it, but the execution might be respited for some time. When it was threatened that Babylon should become a desolation without an inhabitant, there were yet many ages before it was reduced to that condition: it decayed by degrees, till at last it came to nothing; and now the place is so little known, that you may look for Babylon in the midst of Babylon. In like manner Tyre was not to be ruined and desolated all at once. Other things were to happen first. It was to be restored after seventy years; it was to be destroyed and restored again, in order to its being adopted into the church. These events were to take place, before Ezekiel's prophe Ο δε και πληρεται καθ ̓ ἡμας αὐτος. Quod nostro tempore impletum videmus. Nam cum ecclesia Dei in urbe Tyro perinde ac in reliquis gentibus fundata sit, multæ ex ejus mercibus negotiatione partis Domino consecrantur, ecclesiæ ejus oblatæ : videlicet ut mox exponit, in usum ministrorum altaris sive evangelii, secundum institutum Domini, ut ministri alteris ex eo vivant. [Translated in the text.] Cernamus in Tyro exstructas Christi ecclesias, consideremus opes omnium, quod non reponantur, nec thesaurizentur, sed dentur his qui habitant coram Domino. Sic enim et Dominus constituit, ut qui evangelium prædicant, vivant de evangelio.-Hieron in Is. cap. 23, p. 146, vol. 3, edit. Benedict. [Translated in the text.] Hoffman's Lexicon, &c. Sandy's Travels, b. 3, p. 168, 6th edit 1670. |