26:1 An oracle concerning Tyre came to Ezekiel on the first of an unspecified month in the eleventh year of the captivity, namely, 587-586 B.C.353
26:2 Divine judgment would come on this city-state because its people rejoiced at Jerusalem's destruction (cf. 25:3; Gen. 12:3; Prov. 15:5b).354They viewed this event as advancing their commercial interests. The Tyrians controlled the sea routes, but Judah had controlled the land routes. Controlling trade routes enabled a nation to impose tolls and so obtain revenue. Now Jerusalem would cease to compete with Tyre for this income. The Babylonians thus opened Jerusalem's gates to Tyre.
"When Judah was strong and subjugated Edom, she controlled the caravan routes to the Red Sea, thus hindering the Phoenician tradesmen from gaining all the profit they hoped for."355
The prophetic perfect tense in Hebrew describes a future event as though it were past as well as past events. Jerusalem fell on the tenth day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign (2 Kings 25:8; Jer. 52:12), which was the eleventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity.356Because of the absence of reference to the month of this prophecy, it is impossible to date it definitely before or after the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel, however, gave it before news of Jerusalem's fall reached him and the other exiles (cf. 33:21).
26:3-4 The Lord would set Himself against Tyre and would bring up many nations against her, like waves against her shore. This was an apt description since both parts of ancient Tyre stood on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. These nations would destroy Tyre's defensive fortifications and would even scrape the site as clean as a rock (Heb. sela'), a play on the name of the city (Heb. sor).
"The siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar lasted for thirteen years (ca. 586-573 B.C.). Under King Ba'ali II, Tyre accepted Babylonian suzerainty and was ruled by judges.' However, when Babylonia declined in power, Tyre regained her independence once again. This brief freedom lasted till the second wave' of destruction brought her into submission to the Persians around 525 B.C. Tyre's remaining history demonstrated the continuing waves' of conquerors: the resistance to Alexander the Great, eventuating in her collapse; her initial resistance to the Seleucid kingdom of Antiochus III, terminating in her becoming part of that kingdom; her submission to Rome; and her fall to the Saracens in the fourteenth century A.D., after which she never again regained any importance. God was faithful to bring the many nations' against Tyre in successive waves' of conquest."357
Alexander the Great was the third "wave"of God's judgment that destroyed the walls of fortified Tyre in 332 B.C. He was the first to conquer both parts of the city in battle. He did so by enlarging the causeway from the mainland to the island and then attacking the island fortress by land and by sea.358
26:5-6 Fishermen would someday use the site as a place to spread their nets to dry. The picture Ezekiel presented was that of the debris of the city being pushed out into the sea where it would become a flat surface. Tyre would become spoil for the nations. Formerly she had spoiled the nations by taking their money in exchange for the commodities that she had traded. Furthermore, Tyre's daughters (her dependent villages on the mainland) would also fall in battle. The fulfillment of this prophecy would convince many of the Tyrians that Yahweh was the true God.
"Babylon is a byword for godless government, and Tyre is a byword for pride and self-sufficiency . . ."359
