Ezekiel 27:32

"And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the seas? When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise. In the time when thou wast broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, thy merchandise and all thy company did fall in the midst of thee. All the inhabitants of the isles are astonished at thee, and their kings are horribly afraid; they are troubled in their countenance. The merchants among the peoples hiss at thee; thou art become a terror, and thou shalt never more have any being."

All lamentation and weeping eventually give way to the spoken word; and "What city is like Tyre? What parallel in history can be found, either for her magnificence or her dramatic fall."[26]

The fall of every great wicked city in the history of mankind always came at the very height of the city's power and glory; all such events were usually considered to be impossible, and they all came suddenly and dramatically.

"The record of Tyre has a peculiar relevance for our day. The areas in which Tyre excelled were the very areas where all the nations of our own times are striving for superiority. The message of Tyre for us is: that riches without God are unable to satisfy the heart."[27]

The type of material prosperity that Tyre achieved led them to develop an arrogant and conceited pride, of which God Himself has said, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). Pride also interferes with men's depending upon and trusting in God. "Has not this spirit invaded the church, and does it not appear in the lives of many Christians?"[28]

Speaking of the shock which the fall of Tyre brought to the ancient world, Howie said that, "The psychological shock was almost too much for the ancient world to bear."[29]

"The merchants of the peoples hiss at thee ..." (Ezekiel 27:36). How fickle are the people of mankind! The same mob that shouted Hosannas for Jesus on Sunday, also shouted `Let him be crucified' on Friday! Tyre was the most popular nation on earth; but the very merchants who were delighted to be "her traffickers" are here revealed as "hissing at their former leader." "They totally disowned her; they hissed at her in a derogatory manner, perhaps thinking thereby to gain favor with the Babylonians."[30]

Some have misunderstood the prophecy as claiming that the fall of Tyre would come in the near future from the times of Ezekiel, pointing out that Tyre was still an important city centuries later during the times of Alexander the Great. See our discussion of this earlier in the chapter. We wish to observe here that, as regards that world-wide network of commercial subordinates, the 13-year siege of Nebuchadnezzar ended that in the matter of only a few weeks after these lines were written by Ezekiel. No world commerce whatever went on with Tyre during the siege! The glory of that indeed "nevermore returned."