1. During 332 Alexander proceeded down the Mediterranean coast.

As along the Aegean, here one of his goals was to take the ports of the Persian navy and so to neutralize the fleet without having to build one of his own. Most towns capitulated, including Jerusalem, which threw open her gates to the conqueror. But Tyre did not.

Back in the fifth century B.C., THE PROPHET Ezekiel had predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would capture and destroy the city, and that the place would be scraped bare as the top of a rock when its stones and timbers would be dumped in the water (Ezekiel 26: 3-12, 14, 19). Tyre had once been a two-part city: one on land and the other on an island a mile-half offshore. Nebuchadnezzar did destroy the city on land and it remained in ruins.

When Alexander came along without a navy, he decided to build a road out to the island city. To get the material he used the debris of the mainland city and literally threw it into the water. After a seven-month siege he managed to take the island city, slaughtering 8,000 in the process, later executing another 2,000 and selling the remaining into slavery. The dramatic story of Alexanders siege and the determination and bravery of the defenders would fill a book. Howard F. Vos, Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Manners and Custom ( Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), pp. 356-57

2. Ezekiel prophesied the destruction of Tyre (Ezekiel 26:3-21). The first stage of this prophecy came true when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, besieged the mainland city of Tyre for 13 years (585 572 B.C.) and apparently destroyed it. However, Nebuchadnezzar had no navy; so he could not flatten the island city. But losing the mainland city was devastating to Tyre. This destroyed Tyres influence in the world and reduced her commercial activities severely.

The second stage of Ezekiels prophecy was fulfilled in 332 B.C., when Alexander the Great besieged the island city of Tyre for seven months. He finally captured it when he built a causeway from the mainland to the island. Hauling cedars from the mountains of Lebanon, he drove them as piles into the floor of the sea between the mainland and the island. Then he used the debris of the ruined mainland city as solid material for the causeway. Hence, the remarkable prophecy of Ezekiel was completely fulfilled.

Ronald F. Youngblood (Gen. ed.), Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pp. 1282 -1283

3. [Ezekiel] 26:7-14. God said He would bring from the north Nebuchadnezzar. Tyres gloating over Jerusalems would be short-lived. The king who destroyed Jerusalem would also attack Tyre. After defeating Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar moved his army north to Tyre in 585 B.C. and besieged the city for 13 years till all settlements on the mainland were destroyed. Tyre could hold out for all those years because her navy brought in supplies that would otherwise have been depleted. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed mainland Tyre (depicted graphically by Ezekiel, vv. 8-12), but not the island. Ezekiel switched from the singular he to the plural they (26:12). Probably this shift pointed to the nations (v. 3) that followed Nebuchadnezzar in attacking Tyre, completing the destruction he began. Alexander the Great devastated the city in 332 B.C. when it refused to submit to his advancing forces. Alexander destroyed the mainland city and then built a causeway out to the island fortress which he destroyed. In doing this, he threw stones, timber, and rubble into the sea. (Highlighted portions in the original) Walvoord and Zuck (eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 1983), pp. 1278 - 1279

4. .The proud city, which once boasted of possessing silver like dust and gold like the mud in the streets (Zech. 9:3), withstood Nebuchadnezzars siege for nearly thirteen long years (585 573 B.C.). but in the end the king of Babylon triumphed, demolishing the great walls and towers, leaving Tyre in ruins. The prophecy had been partially fulfilled, but the coup de grace was not to come until July 332 B.C.

Alexander the Great, whose mighty legions had conquered the world, reached Tyre and demanded that the city open its gates. Tyre refused. Alexander then devised a brilliant strategy to take the city by force. He would build a causeway from the mainland to the heavily fortified municipality.

The undertaking was immense. Alexanders army labored, taking the stones, the timber, and the very dust of the city Nebuchadnezzar had left in rubble and literally threw the debris into the water [sea]. By filling in the bay, an isthmus was formed between the mainland and the city. Seven months later the

causeway was completed, and Alexanders troops marched across. They defeated the Tyrian fleet, sacked the city, and burned it to the ground. Every detail of Gods verdict had been carried out (Zech. 9:4), even to the forecast that Tyre would never be rebuilt to its former glory. R. B. Thieme, Jr., Anti-Semitism (Houston, Texas: R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 2003), pp. 28 29

5. [Ezekiel] 26: 3-14. This prophecy of the destruction of the city of Tyre is an illustration of the gaps which are evident in many prophetic chronologies (see note on Dan. 9;24-27). God announces a program of judgment against Tyre (Ezek. 26;2) in which Tyre will end up being a place for the spreading of nets (Ezek. 26: 5). God begins with the attacks of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the city on the mainland in approximately 573 B.C. after a thirteen year siege. The city was rebuilt on an island, but it was destroyed in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. Between verses eleven and twelve there is an interval of 240 years, for it was Alexander, not Nebuchadnezzar, who laid the stones and timber in water (Ezek. 26:12) in order to build a causeway to conquer the island city. The causeway Alexander built trapped the sand carried by the tides, and to this day fishermen do indeed spread their nets on the beaches where this great city once stood. Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers), comment on Ezekiel 26:3-14.

6. [Ezekiel] 26: 7-14. The fulfillment of this prophecy of Tyres fate began with the long siege of the city by the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar (c. 580 570 B.C.). Nebuchadnezzar ruled the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire from 605 562 B.C. The second phase came with the Persian conquest in about 525 B.C., followed by the final and famous siege of 332 B.C. by the Greeks under Alexander, which completed the predictions of this passage (especially vv. 5, 14; see 47: 10). Note the switch from he to they (v. 12; see v. 4) as well as the use of the pronoun I by God, which explains His sovereign control over all nations (see 28:7; 29:8). Alexander literally fulfilled the words break down your walls (see v. 5) when his army built a causeway half a mile long between the shore and the city on its island. He tore down the defensive walls to build the causeway. (Highlighted portion in the original) Earl Radmacher (Gen ed.), Nelsons NKJV Study Bible (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), comment on Ezekiel 27: 7-14

7. Eze 26:12 . lay thy stones ... timber ... in ... midst of ... water .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. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary on the Bible, comment on Ezek. 26: 12

8. Eze 26:12. And they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water - This answers to the taking of Tyre by Alexander; he actually took the timbers, stones, rubbish, etc. of old Tyre, and filled up the space between it and new Tyre, and thus connected the latter with the main land; and this he was obliged to do before he could take it. Adam Clarkes Commentary on the Bible, comment on Ezekiel 26:12

9. [Ezekiel 26:]12 they shall lay thy stones . . . thy timber . . . thy dust in . . . the waterreferring to New Tyre (26:3, 5; 27:4, 25, 26). Although Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the capture of Tyre, its complete destruction was accomplished later by others. The switch in pronouns from he (26:7-11) to they supports the idea that Tyres destruction was progressive and would be at the hands of different conquerors. New Commentary on the Whole Bible: Old Testament, comment on Ezekiel 26: 12