(4) Old Testament Prophecies. It was against a city such as this, so confident, and to all ap pearance so justifiably confident, of sitting a queen forever, that several prophets, particularly Isaiah and Ezekiel, fulminated the denunciations which Jehovah dictated (Is. xxiii ; Jer. XXV :22 ; Ezek. xxvi; xxvii; xxviii; Amos i:9, to; Zech. ix :2, 4). They prophesied that it should be overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar, that it should revive, but at length be destroyed and never rebuilt.
(5) Fulfillment of Prophecy. Before a gen eration had passed away, according to Josephus, Philostratus, and Seder Olam, Nebuchadnezzar came up, as had been predicted (Ezek. xxvi: 7-15). making a fort, casting a mount, and lifting up the buckler. At the end of thirteen years (about A. M. 3422) he took the city, at least that on the mainland, and Tyre was forgotten sev enty years, as had been foretold by Isaiah (xxiii: IS). In the year B. C. 332 Tyre, which had again returned to find that city razed to the ground which they had left and looked to find once more in the perfection of beauty, there is a significance in the prophecy of Isaiah not at first obvious (xxiii:/, 14) : 'Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no en tering in. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste.
The mole of Alexander has prevented Tyre from becoming insulated again. The revival of the city was long retarded by the rivalship of the newly-founded Alexandria, and by other causes, but it was at length partially restored, and was often the subject of contest during the crusades.
It was in the hands of the Europeans till when it was finally yielded to the Moslems. Its fortifications, which were almost impregnable, were demolished, and it has never since been a place of consequence. Travelers of every succeed ing century describe it as a heap of ruins, broken arches and vaults, tottering walls and towers, with a few starveling wretches housing amid the rub bish.
(6) Present Condition. It was half ruined by an earthquake in 1837. One of the best accounts of its present appearance is given by the Ameri can traveler Robinson, who spent a Sabbath there in 1838 (Biblical Researches, iii. 395) : 'I con tinued my walk,' says he, 'along the shore of the peninsula, part of which is now unoccupied except as "a place to spread nets upon," musing upon the pride and fall of ancient Tyre. Here was the little isle, once covered by her palaces and sur rounded by her fleets: but alas! thy riches and thy fame, thy merchandise, thy mariners and thy pilots, thy caulkers, and the occupiers of thy mer chandise that were in thee,—where are they? Tyre has indeed become like "the top of a rock." The sole tokens of her more ancient splendor —columns of red and gray granite, sometimes forty or fifty heaped together, or marble pillars —lie broken and strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the sea ; and the hovels that now nestle upon a portion of her site present no contradic tion of the dread decree, "Thou shalt be built no more." J. D. B.