THE CLAIM
Ezekiel 26:3-14 names specific outcomes for Tyre: "many nations" against her (v. 3), Nebuchadnezzar coming against her (v. 7), walls broken (v. 8), stones, timber, and dust cast "in the midst of the water" (v. 12), the site becoming "like the top of a rock" where nets are spread (vv. 4-5, 14), and "thou shalt be built no more" (v. 14). The grammar shifts from singular "he" (Nebuchadnezzar, vv. 7-11) to plural "they" (unnamed agents, vv. 12-14).
THE EVIDENCE
Josephus (Against Apion 1.21) preserves from Philostratus and Menander a thirteen-year siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (c. 585-573 BCE), which reduced the mainland city. Ezekiel 29:18 - internal to the book itself - notes that Nebuchadnezzar "had no wages" from Tyre, suggesting that the island fortress endured. In 332 BCE, during his southern campaign, Alexander the Great besieged island Tyre for seven months; to reach the island he constructed a causeway from the rubble of the mainland. Arrian (Anabasis 2.16-24) and Quintus Curtius (History of Alexander 4.2-4) describe the demolition of the mainland stones, timber, and soil into the sea to build the mole. Ernest Renan's Mission de Phenicie (Paris, 1864) and W. B. Fleming's The History of Tyre (Columbia University Press, 1915) document the post-Alexander fate: Tyre rebuilt on the peninsula created by the causeway but never returned to its Phoenician imperial stature. Repeated destructions (Antigonus 314 BCE; Crusader period; Mamluk conquest 1291 CE) left much of the ancient site in ruins; local fishermen drying nets on exposed rock have been reported from Volney (Travels through Syria and Egypt, 1787) onward.
THE STRONGEST OPPOSING VIEW
Walther Zimmerli (Ezekiel 2, Hermeneia, Fortress, 1983) and contemporary critics argue: (a) The prediction of Nebuchadnezzar's conquest in Ezekiel 26:7-11 is admitted within Ezekiel itself to have been at best partial (29:18). (b) "Many nations" and "bare rock" are taken as generalised prophetic formulae rather than specific forecasts. (c) Tyre was in fact rebuilt - it exists as the modern city of Sur, Lebanon, and was rebuilt under Seleucid and Roman rule. A strict reading of "thou shalt be built no more" (v. 14) is therefore on its face falsified. (d) The apologetic appeal to Alexander's agents to fulfil what Nebuchadnezzar did not appears to some critics to split "he" (v. 7) from "they" (v. 12) in a way the text does not obviously demand.
THE APOLOGETIC RESPONSE
Edwin M. Yamauchi (Foes from the Northern Frontier, Baker, 1982), Floyd E. Hamilton (The Basis of Christian Faith, Harper, 1946), and Gleason Archer (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Zondervan, 1982) offer four responses. (a) The grammatical shift in Ezekiel 26:7-12 ("he" to "they") is textually present: vv. 7-11 speak of Nebuchadnezzar alone; vv. 12-14 switch to plural agents. The apologetic reading does not invent the shift. (b) "Thou shalt be built no more" (v. 14) refers to the Phoenician city-state of Tyre as an imperial maritime power, not to the continued existence of any settlement on the site; v. 21 reinforces this ("thou shalt be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again"). (c) The literal casting of stones and dust into the sea (v. 12) is documented only in Alexander's mole. (d) The "bare rock where nets are spread" (vv. 5, 14) matches continuous traveller reports from Volney (1787) onward.
OPEN QUESTIONS
The precise authorship date of Ezekiel 26 (oracle delivered c. 586 BCE versus later editorial shaping) is debated. Whether "never built again" is meant geographically, politically, or imperially is a genuine interpretive question. The apologetic "he / they" distinction, though grammatically present, is not universally read as a multi-stage fulfilment signal in non-apologetic scholarship.
FURTHER READING
Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, Book 2 (Loeb Classical Library). Edwin M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier, Baker Book House, 1982. Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 25-48, Hermeneia, Fortress Press, 1983.
FOUNDER'S COMMENTARY
[founder: write here]