On account of Tyre’s treachery, Jehovah, by means of his prophets, declared calamity for the city and her inhabitants. We read: “I shall pay back your treatment upon your heads.

These prophetic words were progressively fulfilled with the passing of centuries.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S SIEGE

Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Tyre sometime after destroying Jerusalem and her glorious temple. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, the siege dragged on for thirteen years. During the long, exhausting siege, the heads of the soldiers were “made bald” from the chafing of their helmets, and their shoulders were “rubbed bare” from carrying materials used in constructing siegeworks. Yet, despite all this effort, Ezekiel 29:18 reports: “As for wages, there proved to be none for [Nebuchadnezzar] and his military force from Tyre for the service that he had performed against her.”

Secular history gives no indication as to how thorough or effective the Babylonian siege proved to be. From the prophetic description contained in the book of Ezekiel, however, we learn that the Tyrians sustained great loss in lives and property. (Ezek. 26:7-12)

ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S SIEGE

But the prophetic word directed against Tyre was not dead. The city was yet to be stripped of all her glory. Emphasizing that Tyre had not experienced the final fulfillment of the prophecies directed against her, Jehovah God moved his prophet Zechariah to declare: “Jehovah himself will dispossess [Tyre], and into the sea he will certainly strike down her military force; and in the fire she herself will be devoured.” (Zech. 9:4) This and earlier prophecies witnessed a startling fulfillment in the year 332 B.C.E.

It was then that Alexander the Great of Macedonia, invading the Middle East, demanded that the cities of Phoenicia, including Tyre, submit to him. While the other cities gave their allegiance to Alexander, Tyre refused to open her gates to him. At the time the city was located on an island about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) from the mainland and protected by massive fortifications. The portion of the wall facing the mainland reached a height of not less than 150 feet (46 meters).

Faced with Tyre’s stubborn refusal to submit to him, Alexander began his siege of the city. Having no fleet, he ordered that old mainland Tyre be torn down and the debris used for building a mole or causeway to the island city. At the farther end of the causeway, measuring some 200 feet (61 meters) in width, he set up war engines and erected towers. Using fire ships, the Tyrians managed to destroy these towers and also damaged the mole. Undaunted, Alexander had the towers rebuilt and widened the mole. Realizing that he could not attain certain success without ships, Alexander got together a tremendous fleet from Sidon, Rhodes, Mallus, Soli, Lycia, Macedonia and Cyprus. Thus the inhabitants of Tyre lost free access to the sea. The fall of the city was sure.

Not wanting to drag out the siege, Alexander ordered the construction of floating siege equipment on which battering rams were mounted. His forces then pushed their way into Tyre’s two harbors and scaled her fortifications.

After having been besieged for seven months, Tyre fell. Confronted with desperate resistance even after the city was taken, Alexander’s men put Tyre to the flames. Besides the 8,000 Tyrians who were slaughtered in battle, 2,000 were later killed as a reprisal, and 30,000 were sold into slavery.

END OF TYRE’S GLORY

While Tyre experienced a number of revivals thereafter, Bible prophecy was fulfilled upon her. Today the former glory of Tyre is no more. Ruins and a small seaport, called Souro, mark the site. Regarding the place, the Encyclopædia Britannica (1971) notes that it “is of no particular significance; it had an estimated population of 16,483 in 1961.” (Vol. 22, p. 452)