And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water - referring to the insular New Tyre (Ezekiel 26:3; Ezekiel 26:5; Ezekiel 27:4; Ezekiel 27:25-26). When its lofty building and towers fall, surrounded as it was with the sea, which entered its double harbour and washed its ramparts, the "stones ... timbers ... and dust" appropriately are described as thrown down "in the midst of the water." Though Ezekiel attributes the capture of Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar (note, Ezekiel 29:18), yet it does not follow that the final destruction of it described is attributed by him to the same monarch. The overthrow of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar was the first link in the long chain of evil-the first deadly blow which prepared for, and was the earnest of the final doom. The change in this verse from the individual conqueror, "he," to the general, "they," marks that what he did was not the whole, but only paved the way for others to complete the work begun by him. It was to be a progressive work until she was utterly destroyed. Thus, the words here answer exactly to what Alexander did. With the "stones, timber," and rubbish of Old Tyre he built a causeway in seven months to New Tyre on the island, and so took it (Quintus Curtius, 4: 2), 322 BC