earth.

Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there, also, shalt thou have no rest . . . Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And

it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing."— Isaiah xxiii.

"And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Therefore thus saith the Lord God! Behold I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and it shall become a

spoil to the nations. . . For thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. . . With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee; How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of sea-faring men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord God . . . I will make thee a terror, and

thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel xxvi.1

"And... the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled; yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it."-Ezekiel xxix. 18.

...

"Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon? . . . will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold... I will return your recompence upon your own head; and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans."-Joel iii. 4, &c.

"I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof."—Amos i. 10.

"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."-Zachariah ix. 3.

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". . . We sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unlade her burden. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days; who said to Paul, through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. And when we had

1 For a minute description of the glory and merchandise of Tyre, see Ezek. xxvii.; read, also, chap. xxviii.

taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again."-Acts xxi. 3.1

[1 Kings v. 1, vii. 13; 1 Chron. xxii. 4; Psalm lxxxvii. 4; Jer. xxv. 22, xxvii. 3. xlvii. 4; Matt. xi. 21, xv. 21; Mark iii 8, vii. 24. 31; Luke vi. 17, x. 13; Acts xii. 20. See also Scripture Notices for Sidon.]

Tyre is said to have been founded by a colony from Sidon, 240 years before the building of Solomon's Temple. The original city was situated upon the

main land; and we find Tyre mentioned, in the division of the land by Joshua, as a strong city, and

1 In reviewing the prophecies respecting Tyre, we must bear in mind that under this name both the old and also the island Tyre are included. Some prophecies therefore relate to the former, and some to the latter city. Old Tyre was to be utterly destroyed, never to be found again; the island Tyre was to revive after a season, and then again to fall.

afterwards, under David, as a strong-hold. In the letter of Hiram to Solomon, as given by Josephus, the Tyrians are described as already occupying the island. In the days of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, about 720 B.C., the chief city was upon the island, and the city on the land already bore the name of Old Tyre; the latter submitted to that monarch, while the former was blockaded by him for five years in vain. Nebuchadnezzar also, at a later period, laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years; whether it was at last captured by him we are not expressly informed, but we are told that the inhabitants fled with their spoils, so fulfilling the prediction, that the army of Nebuchadnezzar should serve a hard service, and yet get no wages from the wealth of Tyre. Then came the celebrated siege by Alexander the Great, (about 332 B. C.) who succeeded after seven months in taking the island-city, after having, with great labour and difficulty, built up a causeway, or mole, from the main land to the walls. For this pur pose, Old Tyre was razed, and the stones employed for the mole and other works of the besiegers. The ruins of Tyre-her stones, and her timber, and her dust, were laid in the midst of the water, her dust was scraped from her. Alexander destroyed the city by fire, and is said to have sold 30,000 Tyrians as slaves, so returning the recompense of Tyre upon her own head, by selling her sons and her daughters. Tyre continued to be a strong fortress, and at length fell under the dominion of the Romans. The mole of Alexander having remained, had now divided the strait into two harbours, and thus Tyre is described by Strabo, as a flourishing trading city, with two ports. Such it was in the times of the New Testament, when it was visited by our Lord and his Apostles, and afterwards by St. Paul. This great apostle, we are told, on one occasion, tarried there seven days. "The shores had witnessed many splendid spectacles, but none so beautiful as that which they presented upon his departure. When

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