as the greatest maritime city of antiquity. Its inhabitants, the
Phoenicians, traded in the ports of all the known world. Ezekiel
describes the heart of the seas as its borders. "Thy builders have
perfected thy beauty," he says. He tells how all countries traded in its
marts and contributed to its wealth. And then, obeying the word of the
Lord, the prophet bears a message of rebuke and warning,--"the burden of
Tyre,"--and pronounces the coming judgment:

"Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will
cause many nations to come up against thee.... And they shall destroy
the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her
dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place
for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it,
saith the Lord God." Eze. 26:3-5.

The accounts of travelers bear witness that the prophecy has been
fulfilled. As to the site of the island city of Ezekiel's day, Bruce,
nearly a century ago, said that he found it a "rock whereon fishers dry
their nets." (See "Keith on the Prophecies," p. 329.)

In more recent times, Dr. W.M. Thomson found the whole region of Tyre
suggestive only of departed glory:

"There is nothing here, certainly, of that which led Joshua to
call it 'the strong city' more than three thousand years ago
(Joshua 19:29),--nothing of that mighty metropolis which
baffled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and all his power for thirteen
years, until 'every head' in his army 'was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled,' in the hard service against Tyrus (Eze.
29:18),--nothing in this wretched roadstead and empty harbor to
remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing in her
markets--no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so
long resisted the utmost efforts of the great Alexander. All
have vanished utterly like a troubled dream, and Tyre has sunk
under the burden of prophecy.... As she is now, and has long
been, Tyre is God's witness; but great, powerful, and populous,
she would be the infidel's boast. This, however, she cannot be.
Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of
prophecy.

"Dim is her glory, gone her fame,
Her boasted wealth has fled;
On her proud rock, alas! her shame,
The fisher's net is spread.
The Tyrian harp has slumbered long,
And Tyria's mirth is lo