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An Examination of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Tyre: Part 1

Nate

In the last few weeks, I’ve had to delve back into a subject that I haven’t spent much time researching since my initial deconversion. Ezekiel’s prophecy of Tyre, which can be found in Ezekiel 26-28, was a major piece of evidence for me in showing that the Bible was not as accurate as I had always thought. I’ve written about it twice before: first in a rather matter-of-fact manner, and later with a touch of sarcasm. The blog Thomistic Bent has recently done a 3-part series on Ezekiel’s prophecy of Tyre (1, 2, and 3), and my own posts on the subject have seen a lot of recent activity as well, so I think it’s time that I do a new series on the prophecy in as thorough a fashion as I know how. This will be a lengthy study, so I’ve decided to break it up into several parts.

At Face Value

I think it’s important to state up front that this prophecy simply fails at face value. To me, that’s significant, since God would be powerful enough to ensure that no matter what the prophecy stated, events would unfold exactly as predicted. In the prophecy, Ezekiel states that Tyre would be destroyed:

3 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock. 5 She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. And she shall become plunder for the nations, 6 and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
— Ezek 26:3-6

13 And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more. 14 I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the Lord; I have spoken, declares the Lord God.
— Ezek 26:13-14

21 I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord God.”
— Ezek 26:21

And as you can see, in addition to being destroyed, it’s prophesied that Tyre will never be rebuilt or found again. But this is simply not true. We’ll get into the details later, but the simple fact is that once Tyre was finally destroyed, it was immediately rebuilt. Instead of being a bare rock, or even a ruin, it remained an extremely important trade hub in the region for centuries. And it’s the 4th largest city in Lebanon today.

So the events haven’t worked out exactly as the prophecy claimed they would. And for many people, myself included, that’s enough. I view this prophecy as a failure. Nevertheless, there’s much more that can be said by digging into the details of this prophecy, as well as the geography and history of Tyre and its surroundings. A number of people have found ways to claim that this prophecy has been fulfilled by focusing on the minutiae. I don’t find their arguments persuasive, however, and the next several posts will go into my reasons why.

Part 2

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Published by Nate

165 thoughts on “An Examination of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Tyre: Part 1”

  1. There are different ideas about it, but I tend to think it’s used in an effort to tie Jesus to some of the writings in Daniel.

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  2. What was Jesus referring to when he said, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” John 3:13

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  3. I’m not really sure, Charles. Does it tie into this discussion about Tyre, though? I don’t necessarily mind going into a tangent, but could you go ahead and lay out the point that you’re driving toward?

    Thanks

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  4. John 6:62 “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” and MarK 14:62 “And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The Bible states in Ezekiel 3:26-27 26 “And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.” 27 “But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.” Does not this sound like, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” which is stated 7 times in chapters 2 & 3, in the Book of Revelation.

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  5. Is not this what Jesus was speaking about when he said, Rev 22:11 “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” The Word of God is the Son of man. And that is why it pertains to Ezekiel speaking about Tyrus in Ezekiel chapters 26-28.

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  6. I don’t know… that seems like a stretch to me. And I guess it seems a little irrelevant, too. I think the more pertinent question is “Did Ezekiel’s prophecies come true?”

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  7. When Ezekiel speaks of Tyrus in Chapter 26 and says that Nebuchadnezzar would come and destroy them, this was speaking of that time 550 years BC. But when he speaks of Tyrus in chapter 27 he may be speaking of a future time. And in chapter 28, he is definitely speaking of a future time. A time of the antichrist and of satan himself being judged by God. This is where Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27-28 come together speaking about Tyrus or Tyre.

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  8. What I’m saying is that Ezekiel was speaking the word of God and what he said came true in the past as well as in “our near future.” That is why Ezekiel was a prophet.

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  9. It’s just that it’s little too convenient when the parts that came true were vague and/or obvious, while the parts that haven’t come true, just “haven’t come true yet,” with no specified timeline.

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  10. Also, I feel like we’ve shown pretty clearly that even most of the immediate things Ezekiel was prophesying about didn’t come true. It’s possible that Ezek 28 is talking about something beyond just the king of Tyre, but it would be very difficult to pinpoint exactly what else it might be referring to, considering its poetic language.

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  11. “And in chapter 28, he is definitely speaking of a future time.”

    And you know this how?

    I’m most definitely not the bible scholar that Nate (and others who contribute to this blog) is, but what I see in your comments, Charles, is nothing more than what the church teaches — and which you’ve swallowed hook, line, and sinker. I can’t help but wonder how much actual studying you’ve done on your own. Take a look at Nate’s “Books I’ve Read” page and you’ll see why his perspectives are evidence of intense reading and studying over the years. He is most definitely not speaking off the top of his head.

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  12. William said:

    >>>I’ve lost interest. Tyre is there. despite what Ezekiel said.<<<

    If you want to disagree with something, you have to do some work to understand it in the first place. This conversation is beginning to remind me of climate deniers that rant about CO2 levels not quite correlating with ice ages (having that famous 700 year lag) and yet not wanting to hear what the climatologists actually have to say! If you can't get your head around *the* most pertinent metaphor in the passage (the personification of Tyre) then you're not going to have a clue what the passage is actually saying.

    But not only that, the patronising tone of your last post reveals that your atheism's sneering disdain towards notions of God is also rubbing off on your attitude to all ancient literature. Your lack of respect for hermeneutics and literary forms almost sounds anti-semitic! Try to lift your game and post something a little more intelligent than a sneer. If you want to disagree with something, try understanding the terms of the debate first.

    "Juliet is NOT a star! She's not a sun! She doesn't even glow!"

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  13. I can see how William’s comment comes across as dismissive, but you should know that he’s been a commenter here for a very long time, and this is far from the first conversation we’ve had on this issue. In fact, we’ve had similar conversations about many issues surrounding the Bible.

    Just as you feel like the metaphor is clear and somehow makes Ezekiel’s predictions work out, William thinks Ezekiel’s failure is obvious, too. So I think his weariness is coming through. :/

    That being said, I don’t think his overall points are wrong. As my most recent comments have pointed out, no matter how you shake it, Ezekiel seems to have gotten a number of things wrong. Nebuchadnezzar simply didn’t do many of the things that Ezekiel said he would.

    So to William’s point: if you saw a similar prophecy in some other religion’s text, do you think you’d be trying so hard to make it work out? Not trying to be denigrating with that question — I mean, confirmation bias is something we all struggle with. Can you at least see why non-believers find this prophecy so problematic?

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  15. The just shall live by faith. I don’t think you men and women have enough faith. My 14 years as a non believer, age 13 to 27, and 43 years as a believer, age 27 to 69, gives me quite a bit of understanding.

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  16. I read where Nate said something about miracles. I have had so many miracles (God doing something outside the laws of nature) done for me I can’t even remember them all. Hundreds. I put a few of them on the internet on my web sites and Click on “Wellcome to Apostolic Fellowship” and then go down to “The making of a prophet.” I describe a few of them there.

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  18. I don’t think you men and women have enough faith.

    Ding! Ding! Ding! 😉

    That’s interesting about the miracles, Charles. Why do you suppose God needed to send you so many miracles… wasn’t he believable after the first one or two? And why do you suppose he’s never sent me any?

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  19. John 5:14* ¶ And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 5:15* And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
    Matthew 7:7* Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Hebrews 11:6* But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. John 15:7* If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

    I believe all these verses and love all these verses and therefore when I pray I get results. I have sought God, repented of my sins, been baptized in the name of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and had many of my prayers answered because I know when to pray and what to pray for. How about you?

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  21. If God doesn’t answer your prayers, what do you do about it? I fast until God gives me an answer. Many times His Answer is No. Many times His answer is Yes. But God answers all of my prayers.

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  22. And how do you know, Charles? How do you know things aren’t just happening naturally? When you get “no,” what you wanted didn’t happen. When you get “yes,” what you wanted did happen.

    I get the same results without prayer.

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  23. Little known fact: God Hates Amputees. Yep, b/c God can/does heal, God answers the prayers of the Faithful, and there are Faithful amputees, but His answer is ALWAYS “no”. http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

    How many double-blind, controlled studies on the effectiveness of prayer on sick people, or those recovering from surgery have shown no result? I grew up a believer and it was always “God answered my prayer for a new/better job”, or “God answered our prayers that the old, unreliable car didn’t break down on the way to church”, etc. But when someone did lose a job, or their car did break down (in spite of prayers), it was “this is a test of Faith from God” or “look at your life and make sure you do not have unrepented-of sin that is causing God to not bless you”. Basing everything on a list of assumptions (A Supreme Deity exists, the Holy Bible is the book inspired by that Deity and thus the Deity in question is Yahweh, he answers prayers, we are in the One True Church, etc), there was never the consideration of “or maybe it is Confirmation Bias combined with a failure to realize that Correlation is not Causation (I prayed for X, X happened, therefore Yahweh answered my prayer).
    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/15/study-concludes-intercessory-prayer-doesnt-work-christians-twist-the-results/

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  24. The focus now appears to be moving to Nebuchadnezzar’s ‘failure’ to fulfil the prophecy. I feel a bit under-qualified to comment on this next bit, because I think I would need a Phd in Hebrew and OT theology. But here’s a start.

    If the passage starts “I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves,” then where do we see the first and second waves in the passage?

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  25. Hmm, I’m not sure it really matters. Verses 7-11, which are far more clear and specific, say that Nebuchadnezzar would defeat (and at least partially destroy) Tyre itself. We know that didn’t happen — Ezekiel himself later admits it.

    Forgive me if I’m being way too presumptuous, but since I don’t really know anything about your background, let me share something with you. When I was still a devout believer, the first thing I encountered that gave me pause was a series of articles on problems in Daniel. I didn’t expect them to say anything substantial, but I was surprised to find otherwise. I didn’t really know how to react to that information at first… but I ended up setting out on my own study to examine the problems in Daniel. And that led me to studying other issues, etc.

    I get the feeling that you’re starting to see the issue with Nebuchadnezzar in this chapter… again, forgive me if I’ve misread that. But if you are, let me suggest that you put this one to the side for a moment as just a possibility: maybe Ezekiel was inspired; maybe he wasn’t. Start looking into the other criticisms people bring against the Bible and try to honestly consider them. In other words, do what John Loftis calls “The Outsider Test for Faith.” The idea is that if a particular religion is true, then people who weren’t born into that religion should be able to find it through objective study. So step back from your own faith for a bit and try to consider it as an outsider would — someone who has no real incentive to want it to be true or false. Someone who can look at it as objectively as possible. If you can do that, and you become convinced that Christianity is true, then great! But if you come to another conclusion, that’s okay, too. Because while it’s painful and disorienting to have your worldview fall apart, it’s far better to be closer to truth.

    Just my two cents. And again, if I stepped way over the line, then I apologize!

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