Ezekiel 26:12-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And they shall make a spoil of thy riches The Chaldean army shall hinder thy trade during the war, and plunder thee in the end of it. And make a prey of thy merchandise Of the fruit, or gains, of thy merchandise. And destroy thy pleasant houses The houses of thy desire, as the margin reads it, or, Thy desirable houses. And shall lay thy stones, &c ., in the midst of the water Shall cast thy ruins into the midst of the sea. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease All signs or indications of mirth shall cease from the midst of thee. Great cities are full of all kinds of gayety and luxury: this had been the case with Tyre, but it is here foretold that all this should be turned into a melancholy silence. I will make thee like the top of a rock See note on Ezekiel 26:4. Thou shalt be built no more This was fulfilled; for though the inhabitants built a new city, and called it New Tyre, yet it was situated in a quite different place, namely, on an island, at some distance from the continent on which the former city stood: see note on Isaiah 23:1. It was also fulfilled with respect to the new city, which “received a great blow from Alexander, not only by his taking and burning it, but much more by his building of Alexandria in Egypt, which in time deprived it of much of its trade, and thereby contributed more effectually to its ruin. It had the misfortune afterward of changing its masters often, being sometimes in the hands of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, and sometimes of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria, till at length it fell under the dominion of the Romans. It was taken by the Saracens about the year of Christ 639, in the reign of Omar, their third emperor. It was retaken by the Christians, during the time of the holy war, in the year 1124: Baldwin, the second of that name, being then king of Jerusalem, and assisted by a fleet of the Venetians. From the Christians it was taken again, in the year 1289, by the Mamelukes of Egypt, under their sultan, Alphix, who sacked and razed this, and Zidon, and other strong towns, that they might not ever again afford any harbour or shelter to the Christians. From the Mamelukes it was again taken, in the year 1516, by Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, and under their dominion it continues at present. But, alas! how fallen! how changed from what it was formerly! for, from being the centre of trade, frequented by all the merchant ships of the east and west, it is now become a heap of ruins, visited only by the boats of a few poor fisher-men: see note on Ezekiel 26:4. So that as to this New Tyre, or this part of Tyre, the prophecy hath likewise been literally fulfilled: I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon.” Bishop Newton.