that of Babylon, Tyre is named after Zidon, as if it had become the second in rank, and both Tyre and Zidon appear in the train of the new lords of the world as tributary states :-all plainly implying some great work of conquest going before, and compelling the proud mistress of the seas to take this inferior place. To say that the long siege of thirteen years may have so far wasted her resources as to render it politic or necessary for her to descend to such a subordinate position, is an assumption alike gratuitous and improbable, since nothing could have contributed so much to foster the pride, and confirm the ascendancy of Tyre, as the circumstance of having so long, if she had but successfully, defied the mighty conqueror of nations. Not her successful resistance, but only her subjection, could account for so altered a turn in her affairs.'

In regard to the future fortunes of Tyre, all is matter of wellknown and ascertained history; and the result has been a remarkable verification of the words of the prophet. After the times of Nebuchadnezzar, the next great blow struck at its greatness and prosperity, was the conquest of it by Alexander, which took place about 322 years before the Christian era, and which was only gained after he had, with incredible pains, connected the mainland with the island by a mount or causeway. The stones of Old Tyre were all used in the construction of this huge

For the proof of the facts last referred to, see the passages from Menander and Philostratus in Josephus; also Ezra iii. 7; Herod. vii. 99, 100; viii. 67. In a matter of this kind, it is only the broader statements of history that should be brought into notice, especially as the historical fragments to be depended on are from the pen, not of contemporary writers, but of persons who lived two or more centuries after the events in question, and who merely wrote compends of history. In such a case, it is unwise to urge little points, as it only gives the adversary an opportunity of pressing improbabilities or inconsistencies in the accounts relied on. Hengstenberg and, in part also, Hävernick, have, in this way, laid themselves open at various points to the attacks of a sharp and unscrupulous writer like Hitzig, who has a keen eye for any small discrepance or mistake, but does not know how to estimate great and important principles. It is unwise, also, to speculate about the probable way which Nebuchadnezzar took to carry the siege of Tyre, whether by mounds, floats, or ships, or by any other means. No information has come down to us on the subject; but surely it is not to be supposed that such a monarch as Nebuchadnezzar, accustomed to such gigantic undertakings, was to conduct a thirteen years' siege without resorting to prodigious appliances of some sort.

work of art; and so well compacted had it been from the first, that it continued ever afterwards to stand, and in the course of time has grown, by the gradual accumulations of sand, to the breadth of about half a mile. The site of Tyre, therefore, ceased from the time of Alexander to be an isolated rock, and became, what it still remains, a peninsula. It again, however, endured a long siege in the time of Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, but was obliged to yield at last. Still, even in New Testament times, it had not altogether lost its prosperity. It was even then a place of considerable traffic, and was known in the first centuries as the seat of a Christian bishop. Though nothing compared with what it had been in former ages, it continued to be a place of considerable importance and great strength. The crusaders in 1124 only got possession of it after a siege of nearly five months, and were surprised at the splendour of its houses and the strength of its fortifications. Though it continued for a long period to withstand the arms of the Saracens, yet ultimately (about the beginning of the 14th century) it fell into their hands, and they appear to have soon razed its fortifications, as they did also those of Sidon and Beirût; for, shortly afterwards, Abulfeda speaks of it as being in a state of desolation and ruin. The travellers who in more recent times have been on the spot, have all delivered an unvarying testimony concerning it, describing it as a heap of ruins, "not so much as one entire house left, and only a few poor fishermen harbouring themselves in the vaults" (Maundrell). The growth and export of tobacco to Egypt has tended slightly to improve its condition during the present century; but the accumulation of sand in its harbours, which has rendered them too shallow for large vessels, and the more favourable position of Beirût at a short distance, prevent the hope of Tyre's ancient glory ever returning to her. The remains of her former magnificence lie for ever buried in the deep, and she can never again be the homestead of merchant-princes, but only at most the abode of fishermen, and a resort for the smaller craft of traders. So surely does the word of God travel on to its accomplishment, though ages may elapse in the process, and seeming impossibilities have to be vanquished before the destined result can be reached.

The remaining verses in the chapter (ver. 15-21) have respect

to the impression which the overthrow of Tyre was fitted to produce upon other maritime nations, and more especially her own colonial possessions.

Ver. 15. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Shall not the isles (or, more generally, the sea-coasts) shake at the sound of thy fall, at the cry of the wounded, and the great slaughter made in the midst of thee? 16. And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and put off their embroidered garments: with terrors they shall clothe themselves, upon the ground shall they sit, and they tremble every moment, and are astonished at thee. 17. And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, thou inhabitant of the seas, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who did put their terror upon all her inhabitants?2 18. Now shall the sea-coasts tremble in the day of thy fall, and the isles that are in the sea be terrified at thy exit (or end). 19. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because I make thee a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, because I bring up upon thee the deep and the covering of many waters; 20. And I make thee to

go down with those that go down to the pit, to the people of ancient time, and I make thee dwell in the land of deep places, an eternal desolation, with

'Literally, Thou that art inhabited from the seas. The rendering adopted by our translators," inhabited of sea-faring men," though supported by Grotius and others, is quite untenable, as it arbitrarily substitutes sea-farers for seas, and regards such sea farers, persons merely coming for traffic to Tyre, as its proper inhabitants. The Targum and the Peschito already give the correct meaning, habitatrix marium; the Vulgate not quite so correctly, quæ habitas in mari. It denotes Tyre as a prosperous city rising out of the seas, appearing as if she had got thence her very inhabitants, being peopled so closely down to the waters. The rendering of the LXX., which gives, "destroyed out of the sea," is another specimen of the loose character of their translation of Ezekiel. They evidently mistook the verb for a part of ra

2

Hitzig, with some reason, ridicules the very forced and artificial construction adopted by Hävernick of this clause: Tyre's inhabitants (her home-people), who kept in terror all the inhabitants (namely, the inhabitants of her colonies, who might still be called her own). Understood thus, it is certainly, as Hävernick styles it, a "somewhat enigmatical sentence." Hitzig supposes, as very commonly, a corruption in the text, and would prefer the more abbreviated reading of the LXX. : "the renowned city that put her terror on all her inhabitants”—finding inhabitants only once in the passage. But there is no need for this change. When the prophet had said, that Tyre was strong in the sea, he specifies both the city itself and its inhabitants as sharing in this strength; and then adds, that they (the people and city viewed complexly—the state) put their terror upon all her inhabitants; that is, not only were, as a whole, objects of fear to others, but communicated of this to every one of her people; causing the name of a Tyrian to be everywhere dreaded.

those that go down to the pit, that thou mayest not be inhabited, nor set as an ornament in the land of the living; 21. Ruins will I make thee, and thou shalt not be; and thou shalt be sought, and shalt not be found any more for ever, saith the Lord Jehovah.

By the isles or sea-coasts, and princes of the sea, in the earlier part of this passage, are chiefly to be understood the maritime powers in different places, colonies of Tyre, with which she traded, and kept up a very close connection. Even the greatest and most influential of these, Carthage in Africa, was accustomed to send a yearly present of gifts to the temple of the Tyrian Hercules; and, as the mother-city, Tyre still had the honour of giving high-priests to her colonial dependencies. Being thus connected by the sacred tie of religion, as well as by the regular intercourse of trade, with these maritime settlements along the coasts of the Mediterranean, we can easily understand how her humiliation would send a thrill of distress through all the affiliated states, and make them fear also for their own prosperity. The description given of this, however, evidently partakes, to a considerable extent, of the ideal; and we are not to suppose, that the rulers of these states were actually to divest themselves of their royal garments, and sit as mourners upon the ground; what is meant is, that the effect produced would be of a kind that would have its just and fitting expression in such natural indications of sorrow. The prophet seems to have before his eye the account of Nineveh's repentance at the preaching of Jonah. And the feeling of trouble and dismay which then pervaded that great city, when it seemed to stand on the verge of destruction, was now, in like manner, to pervade the colonial settlements and trading associates of Tyre, when they heard the report of her overthrow.

What is said of Tyre herself, at the close, is also entirely figurative. She is described as a person going to be submerged

The negative in this verse ought undoubtedly to be applied to both clauses: not be inhabited, and not set as an ornament. The Chaldee, and those who followed it, understood the last clause to refer to Judah, and hence took it positively. But the LXX. properly understood both clauses of Tyre, and took both negatively. The because, or in that, at the beginning of the whole passage, is to be explained as a construction ad sensum. The reason is here given of what goes before.

2 For the extraordinary number and extent of these colonial possessions of Tyre, see Heeren, Phoenicians, chap. ii,

under the waters that encompassed her, and sent from the land of the living to tenant the lower regions of the dead, the land of gloom and forgetfulness, where the departed of primeval time had their abode. In plain terms, Tyre (like the king of Babylon, in the 14th chapter of Isaiah) was to take rank with the dead, and be no more numbered with the living. But, of course, it is the Tyre that then was, which is meant,-the proud, imperial mistress of the seas; as such, she was to cease to have a local habitation and a name in the earth; she was to be found only among the departed. That there should still be a Tyre on the same spot where the ancient city stood, is nothing against the description; for this poor and shrivelled thing is no longer the Tyre of the prophet,--that is gone, never to return again. And to apply such expressions-as "she shall be no more," "she shall be sought for, but not be found"-only to Old Tyre, as we find modern travellers very commonly doing, because the very site of this is not precisely known,-is to misapprehend the nature of the description,-it is to turn a figurative into a literal delineation, and to apply only to an inferior city what was plainly meant of the principal one. It is of insular Tyre the prophet speaks, and she is long since written among the dead.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE LAMENTATION UPON TYRE, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HER FORMER GREATNESS AND PROSPERITY.

It seems somewhat like a freak of fancy in Ezekiel to dwell at such length, as he does in this chapter, on the commercial greatness of Tyre, and to point out, with such elaborate minuteness, both the circumstances connected with her thriving and wide-spread merchandize, and the notes of lamentation and pity that should be raised over her coming ruin. It is the mark, certainly, of a somewhat peculiar cast of mind, and has no exact parallel in any of the other prophets, who usually present us with merely a few general and characteristic traits, when they