Tyre, the fourth largest city in Lebanon, is one of the oldest populated cities in the world, settled since the first half of the third millennium BCE. It has been built and rebuilt again and again, originally as an island of rocks off the Phoenician shore, giving it its name - Sur - Rock. The historian Ernest Renan noted that "One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins.”
By the time Ezekiel is exiles to Tel Aviv - also knows as the city built of ruins, Tyre is already an ancient and wealthy metropolis, the jewel of the Phoenician crown. Its’ wealth came from control of local maritime trade, including the exclusive production of the “Tyrian purple”, a dye produced from the Murex snail, reserved for royalty. Even the Torah included this “thread of blue” as one of the tassels of the original prayer shawl. For centuries, during the Davidic and Solomonic empires, Tyre maintained close commercial relationships with both the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Jezebel, famed queen of the north - was the Princess of Tyre, and introduced many of its gods and goddesses to Israelite culture.
How and why did Tyre become such an enemy of Judah and provoked Ezekiel’s prophetic rage against it - for three consecutive chapters?
Like other nations who stood by as Judah fell, gloating or silent, Tyre was accused by the prophet of glee - and worse -- using the momentum for commercial advantage.
Ezekiel imagines Tyre’s statement as he begins his prophecy on Tyre: “Aha! Now that the gateway of the peoples is broken, it will become mine; I shall be filled, now that it is laid in ruins.''
But Tyre is one among many local neighbors who said or did the same -- that’s not enough to merit the detailed description of Tyre’s future devastation. A day will come, Ezekiel projects, when Tyre will be lose its pride, be in ruins, fall silent:
וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֖י הֲמ֣וֹן שִׁירָ֑יִךְ וְק֣וֹל כִּנּוֹרַ֔יִךְ לֹ֥א יִשָּׁמַ֖ע עֽוֹד׃
I will put an end to the murmur of your songs,
And the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.
Ezekiel 26:12
According to some scholars it was precisely this city’s superior strength and fortitude that provoked the prophet’s wrath.
While Judah only lasted two years under the Babylonian siege - Tyre held on for thirteen years before Babylon’s triumph. Historical records show that Nebuchadnezzar began the siege in 584 BCE - two years after Jerusalem had fallen. Why was it even a target since it did not rebel against the empire as Jerusalem did?
Moshe Greenberg suggests that:
“Nebuchadnezzar sought to secure his hold on Syria-Palestine by subjugating Egypt. To do this, he needed to control the coastal approach to Egypt, and perhaps even to possess a fleet and a base for it. Such considerations may be supposed to explain his starting a campaign in Phoenicia soon after Jerusalem’s fall.”
Tyre’s astonishing resistance was seen by all as a sign of both its military might - and spiritual superiority. For the exiled Judeans in Tel Aviv, humiliated by their own deity’s defeat and their national disgrace - Tyre’s resistance was a bitter provocation: Our gods and generals are much stronger than yours.
Tova Ganzel elaborates that
“this religious challenge, and the desecration of God’s Name among the nations, are apparently the reason for the length and vehemence of the prophecy regarding Tyre.”
Ezekiel’s detailed description of Tyre’s future fall - and the eventual return of the exiles of Judah back home -- will continue for two more chapters - with curious details and cultural references that help us relate to this complex moment in its political, historical and cultural context.
Tyre is still around today, although it was captured by Babylon and had become a vassal state, and since has gone through multiple transitions. It has been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
Perhaps the prophet’s rant, as modern day tensions between Lebanon and Israel continue right now- can offer a helpful and hopeful reminder that nothing lasts forever -- no war, no political situation, siege or strong city -- and even empires as strong as Tyre or Babylon, will eventually be swept by the sands or the sea, their lyres heard no more. A new reality emerges. New alliances and maybe better ones?
Ancient-new songs will be heard again, rising from the sea, or from ruins of history. A new chapter will, the prophet tells us, one day, begin.
Ezekiel & The Eternal Flame
Join me on December 6 2023, 5pm ET to prepare for Hanukkah as we explore the surprising links between Ezekiel’s prophetic parables, this political moment and a children’s toy that hides the secret to what Hanukkah is all about.
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