Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 4, part 7

Isaiah 23 prophesies the fall of Tyre, which was a major Phoenician seaport just north of the border of Asher. It was a great commercial center that traded merchandise across the Mediterranean Sea. Yet Tyre was used as an occasion to prophesy the fall of a greater system that was yet to come, one based on the law of the sea, maritime law, or international law.

In earlier days Tyre had been under the rule of Egypt, but it had become independent by the time of Solomon, who was allied with Hiram, king of Tyre. Craftsmen from Tyre built the temple in Jerusalem and provided the cedars for its construction. Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber at the north end of the Red Sea to go on mining expeditions around the world. Hiram provided skilled sailors to ensure success (1 Kings 9:26-28).

History of Tyre

Hiram also built a breakwater that was 820 yards long and 9 yards wide, making the harbor one of the best harbors in Phoenicia. A small island half a mile offshore was also part of the city, and when the mainland city fell, the island was the only portion of the city that remained independent until Alexander the Great conquered it some centuries later. Alexander cast the ruins of the old city into the water, making a causeway to the island, and was thus able to conquer it.

Shalmanezer tried unsuccessfully for five years to take the city of Tyre and finally made a treaty with the city in 722 (during the Assyrian siege of Samaria). Sennacherib, however, succeeded, and King Elu-eli of Tyre fled to Cyprus which he then ruled. Sennacherib replaced Elu-eli with the king of Sidon.

More than a century later, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Tyre in 572 B.C. after a 13-year siege. But he could not take the island, so the city, though greatly reduced in power and influence, remained for more than two centuries when it was finally taken by Alexander in 332 B.C. after a seven-month siege. By casting every rock and column from the old mainland city into the water to make a causeway, Alexander fulfilled the prophecy in Ezekiel 26:3, 4, 5,

³ Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. ⁴ They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock. ⁵ She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,” declares the Lord God, “and she will become spoil for the nations.”

Indeed, Alexander scraped all the debris from the mainland city to build the causeway to the island. Afterward, the causeway was used by fishermen to repair their nets. Ezekiel 26:14 says further, “I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets.” Ezekiel 26:19 says, “when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you.” Tyre was never rebuilt but has remained in “the heart of the seas” (Ezekiel 27:27).

The overthrow of Tyre prophesied the destruction of commerce and trade in our own time as well. Though the present “city” is called Mystery Babylon, John drew much of his prophecy from Ezekiel’s description of the overthrow of Tyre. John spoke of “the merchants of the earth” (Revelation 18:3) and described Babylon as a city dressed in “purple and scarlet” (Revelation 17:4; 18:16). One of the most important things Tyre produced was purple dye that was extracted from sea snails. Purple was highly valued, very expensive, and worn by royalty.

Like Tyre, Babylon was to be thrown into the sea (Revelation 18:21). In other words, it will be judged by the same maritime law that it had used to enslave others.

Isaiah prophesied of Tyre’s overthrow, but Ezekiel was given the most detailed revelation about its destruction. We ought to be aware of how Isaiah lays the foundations of revelation more than a century before Ezekiel prophesied. By connecting these prophesies to John’s description of the fall of Mystery Babylon, we can gain much understanding of what is happening today. The fall of Tyre is a depiction of the fall of Mystery Babylon, especially insofar as its commercial and legal systems are concerned.

Tyre and Cyprus

Isaiah 23:1 begins,

¹ The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is destroyed without house or harbor; it is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.

Ships themselves do not wail, but the ships refer to the sailors and captains on those ships. With the fall of Tyre, the trade in the Mediterranean Sea was interrupted. Supply lines were cut. There were sure to be food shortages, because the ships of Tyre carried wheat from Egypt and Israel to all of the Phoenician colonies on the Sea.

Phoenicia was the Greek name for Tyre, Sidon, Israel, and Judah. The alliance between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre were not the only reason for this. Centuries earlier, the tribe of Dan was unable to secure its inheritance in the plain of the Philistines, and so many of them moved to Tyre and Sidon and took to the sea. Hence, the prophetess Deborah, after Israel was set free from the captivity of the Canaanites, complained in Judges 5:17, “why did Dan stay in ships?”

The importance of the Danite sailors (and settlers) is seen in later history, for the Trojan war was fought between the Danaans and the Danai, both of whom were identified by their father Dan. They left their mark on many places all the way to Denmark (Danmark) and Sweden (Svea Dan). The Danaans were also dominant in Ireland, according to the history books.

Tarshish (a part of Spain) did not hear about the fall of Tyre directly but received the news “from the land of Cyprus.”

Maritime Law

Isaiah 23:2, 3 continues,

² Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon; your messengers crossed the sea ³ and were on many waters. The grain of the Nile [Sihor, an eastern branch of the Nile], the harvest of the River was her revenue; and she was the market [sakhar] of nations.

The prophet tells the merchants of Sidon to “shut up.” They should not rejoice over the downfall of their competitor in trade, for this disaster was to affect that city as well. The disrupted supply chains would see shortages of grain from the Sihor in Egypt, here translated “the Nile.” But the prophet probably intended to use Sihor as a homonym whose sound is similar to sakhar, “the market, profit, gain, merchandise.” The fall of Tyre was more than the destruction of a city. It was the end of world trade in those days.

This is seen also in John’s prophecy of Mystery Babylon in its commercial aspect.

Isaiah 23:4 says,

⁴ Be ashamed, O Siden; for the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have neither travailed nor given birth, I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”

This, I believe, is a prophetic reference to the law of the sea under which the entire world now lives. The prophet says that “the sea speaks.” Seas do not speak, though they might make a lot of noise. However, the law of the sea speaks loudly, and this law has been developed and refined to the point where it has almost entirely replaced the law of the land.

Casting the mainland city of Tyre into the sea was a prophetic picture of how the law of the land would be overwhelmed by the law of the sea, that is, international law. In America it is in plain sight wherever we go, for every time we see the Navy’s gold-fringed flag in the White House, in the court rooms, and even in the churches, they proclaim that they are under the law of the sea. Wherever a gold-fringed flag is present, the law of the land (constitutional law) has been overwhelmed and does not apply.

The sea thus proclaims, “I have neither travailed nor given birth,” yet it holds jurisdiction over every child that is brought forth into the world. Today, that child comes through a birth canal and is birthed (berthed) by a doc (dock). The child is the cargo being delivered to the masters of the sea—the Tyrians or Babylonian merchants.

The child is registered with a birth certificate, which is considered to be a bill of lading, and is given a number for commercial purposes, so that the slave child can be bought and sold on the open market on Wall Street. The name of the child is written in all capital letters, indicating that the living child was born dead and that a corporate fiction was replacing that child in a dead system of commerce that cannot deal directly with the living. Hence, the child is capitalized and given a certain monetary value.

Few people understand today’s slavery system that goes by the prophetic names of Tyre, Babylon, and others as well, depending on which aspect of the slave system is being referenced. Tyre did have a robust slave trade as well that is mentioned briefly in Amos 1:9 and for which the prophet condemned the city. It would be interesting to know if they commercialized every citizen of Tyre in those days as it is practiced today under Mystery Babylon.