A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them. - Isaiah 23:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 14, 2017): Isaiah 23

Alexander the Great attacked Tyre in 332 B.C.E. The city had never actually been conquered before. It had been attacked. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon had attacked the mainland city (Tyre existed in two parts, a mainland city and an island city) and took control of it during the short reign of his empire. Isaiah describes this in verse fifteen as he pronounces a Tyre that would be forgotten for seventy years, the span of one king’s life – that King would have been Nebuchadnezzar. But the people of Tyre were rich, and they were usually able to buy their way out of any problem. By paying tribute to the powers that ruled the world, life in Tyre continued as it always had. But Alexander wanted to change that. He wanted to defeat and take control of both Tyre’s – the one on the mainland and the one on the island.

Isaiah’s prophecy here is clearly of a description of Alexander’s attack on Tyre, and it is remarkably accurate. The words were prophesied 350 to 400 years before the time of Alexander, and yet they describe the events of Alexander’s defeat of Tyre perfectly.

First, Alexander attacked the mainland city much as Nebuchadnezzar had done a couple of generations before him. The mainland city fell to Alexander and then he turned his sight to the Island. According to historians, Alexander tore down the houses (Tyre is left without house) on the mainland, combined them with other rocks and built an artificial causeway, about a kilometre in length, out to the Island city. This artificial causeway was constructed on top of a natural land bridge that made the water shallower in this one area. The causeway allowed Alexander to get his artillery closer so that it could be used against the Island city.

But Alexander knew that he also needed a navy to take the Island. His earlier conquests had given him control of the Persian navy. But on top of that, the king of Cyprus had heard of Alexander’s success, and in an effort to get on Alexander’s good side, sent his ships to assist in the taking of Tyre (From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.) Once the Island had fallen, the defeat of Tyre was complete – and they no longer had a harbor with which to make their money and buy themselves out of trouble.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 24