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Bible Dictionaries
Tyre, Tyrus
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or Seaport in Lebanon (peviously Syria), about midway between Sidon and Accho. It was a place of great commerce, sending to the East by land and to the West by the sea. This is shown to have been the case in several of the prophets. It was not conquered by the Israelites, and is first spoken of when its king Hiram sent to David cedar trees with carpenters and masons to build David a house. 2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1 . He also materially assisted Solomon by sending timber and workmen for the temple. 1 Kings 5:1; 2 Chronicles 2:3 . The seamen of Tyre also aided in navigating the ships of Solomon.
One specific charge brought against Tyre is that "they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant." Amos 1:9 . God said of them, "Ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things;" and they had sold the children of Judah to the Grecians. Joel 3:5,6 .
Ezekiel 26:2 shows that Tyre, the merchant city of the world, was the rival of Jerusalem, the city of God: "I shall be replenished now she is laid waste." So Babylon (comp. Ezekiel 27 : with Revelation 18 .) is the rival of the new Jerusalem. God was known in the palaces of Jerusalem — the god of this world in Tyre, there could be gratified the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Hence the destruction of Tyre, Ezekiel 28:12-19 , shows the king of Tyre to be intimately connected with the abuse of creatorial wisdom and beauty through Satan.
Tyre was to be forgotten seventy years. Isaiah 23:15 . It is not clear to what time this refers. When it was prophesied that Jerusalem should be destroyed for seventy years 'the nations round about' are also included, Jeremiah 25:9-11; and Tyre is mentioned as one of the nations that should serve Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his son's son. Jeremiah 27:2-7 . So that the seventy years of Jerusalem's captivity and the seventy years of Tyre may have been concurrent or nearly so. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years. Tyre was built partly on the main land and partly on an island. It is not recorded how far Nebuchadnezzar succeeded, but we read that he 'got no wages' for his toil; the riches being removed by ships before the city fell. Ezekiel 29:18,19 . After the seventy years of Tyre being forgotten, we read that "her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord." Isaiah 23:17,18 . This may possibly refer to the fact that Tyre forwarded cedar trees from Lebanon for the building of the second temple (Ezra 3:7 ), but we must look to a day yet future for the fulfilment of the prophecy: cf. Psalm 45:12 . See also Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 47:4; Ezekiel 26 — Ezekiel 28; Hosea 9:13; Joel 3:4; Zechariah 9:2,3 .
Alexander the Great formed a causeway from the mainland to the island, and conquered all.
The borders of Tyre were visited by the Lord, and He declared that if the mighty works which had been done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented. Matthew 11:21,22 . It is now called es Sur, 33 16' N; but ancient Tyre has disappeared, and is no more.
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Morrish, George. Entry for 'Tyre, Tyrus'. Morrish Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/mbd/t/tyre-tyrus.html. 1897.
