Chaklieans, the latter instantly followed up their vic- tory by occupying Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia, and selling a great number of the inhabitants of the latter, about B.C. G05. A league having been formed between these states to throw oft" the foreign yoke, gave rise to a new ChakUean expedition against them under Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xxv, 22; xxvii.o; xlvii,4), which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem (B.C. 588) and the reduction of the sea-coast, except Tyre. For thir- teen years Nebuchadnezzar besieged it by water and by land, but with what degree of success is still a matter of debate. Hitzig, Gesenius, Heeren, Winer, Kenrick, and others hold that the siege was a failure. It is cer- tain tliat the fall of Tyre is mentioned in no ancient history — neither by Josephus, nor by the Tyrian histo- rian Mcnander. nor by Philostrafus. Bcrosiis, indeed, affirmed that Nebuchadnezzar "subdued all Syria and Phoenicia," but Tyre is not expressly mentioned. Nay, Jerome says persons who had examined Greek and I'hcenician histories, especially the writings of Nicolaus Dainascenus, tiud no mention of the siege at all, but the reply of the father is only a retort upon the perji- dia el menducia of profane writers. Jerome's own as- sertion is, " Deus priedixerat, hoc sufficit." The ques- tion then comes to be, whether the oracle of Ezekiel implies the capture of Tyre. The most graphic de- scriptions of this siege are found in Ezek. xxvi, 7- 12, 17 ; xxviii, 2 ; xxix, 18, etc. The prophet's lan- guage, " Son of'man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus : every head was made bald, and every shoukler was peeled ; yet he had no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon , and he shall take her nudtitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey^ and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor where- with he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God" (xxix, 18-20), woidd seem to imply that Nebuchadnezzar had failed', that his army had put forth all its energies, till " every head was bald" by the constant pressure of the helmet, and "every shoulder peeled" by the hard labor of tlie trenches and siege- work, but that he had been disappointed , that he got " no wages ;" that the rich booty of the cit}- did not fall into his possession, and that therefore Egypt was to af- ford him compensation " as a spoil," " a prey," " and wages for his army." But surely the author or the col- lector of these oracles could not so contradict himself and his own utterances as to affirm, as in xxvi, 7-21, and then deny, the capture of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. The narrative of Berosus and Jerome is accepted by Movers and Ewald, the latter of whom says that Je- rome's statement "quite agrees with the brief words of Ezekiel." It may also be replied, with Hitvernick, Hengstenberg, Fairbairn, and others, that the meaning- is that Nebuchadnezzar, though he took the city, yet found no litting recom|)ense, as, according to Jerome, the inhaljitants had removed all their valuable property to tlie inland. That he took Patetyrus seems certain, though there is no proof of Jerome's assertion that, in his assaidt upon the island, he had nearly completed a dam, and had erected warlike engines on it. It is plain, too, that Tyre made submission to the Chalda?an king. Manj' of the Tyrian royal family resided afterwards at Babylon, perhaps as hostages, raid several of them were asked by the Tyrians at ditferent times and crises to come and reign over them. These facts are proofs of the Chaldiean conquest, and that it was more than such a capitulation as is admitted by Niebuhr, Dunker, Ken- rick, and others (Niebuhr, Gesch. Assur's, p. 216; Dun- ker, GescJi. rfes A Uerthums, i, 172 , Kenrick, Phoenicia, p. 390; see Pusey, On Daniel, p. 288), Moreover, Isaiah, in his oracle against T_vre, specifically declared that it should be destroyed, not by the power which then threatened, but by the ChakUeans, a people "formerly
of no account" (xxiii, 13). The more detailed predic- tions of the prophet Ezekiel were delivered a hun- dred and twenty years later, B.C. 588. Tyre was not taken till the fifteenth j-ear alter the captivity, B.C. 573, more than seventeen hundred years, according to Josephus, after its foundation. Its destruction then must have been entire; all the inhabitants were put to the sword or led into ca|)tivity, the walls were razed to the ground, and it was made a " terror" and a desola- tion. It is remarkable that one reason assigned by Ezekiel for the destruction of this proud city is its ex- ultation at the destruction of Jerusaletn. " 1 shall be replenished now she is laid waste" (xvi, 2). This clearly indicates that its overthrow was posteritir to that event ; and if we take the seventy years during which it was predicted bj^ Isaiah (xxiii, 15) that Tyre should be for- gotten to denote a definite term (which seems the most natural sense), we may conclude that it was not rebuilt till the same number of years after the return of the Jews from Babjdon. That it was continental Tyre, and not insular Tyre, which Nebuchadnezzar besieged ap- pears from the description of the siege which we have given us by Ezekiel , for we find that the king cast up a mound against it, and erected engines to batter down the walls (Ezek. xxviii, 8-10). But that the city on the island then escaped this fate is manifest from the Phoenician histories. But as to the latter also, at least a show of submission, if not a subjection — leaving the native sovereigns on the throne, and their wealth and naval power untouched — was what Nebuchadnezzar gained when he ended the " wageless" siege (comp. xxix, 17). Once more Nebuchadnezzar armed, at the end of this war, against Egypt, but Pharaoh-Apries, swift- ly marching upon Phoenicia, subduing it and destroying its fleet, prevented this expedition. In this expedition Apries besieged Sidon, fought a naval battle with Tyre, and reduced the whole of the coast of Phrenicia, though this coidd not have had lasting effects (Herod, ii, Itil ; Diod. i, 68 , IMovers, Das jifiOnizische A Itert/ium, ii,451). The nde of Nebuchadnezzar over Tyre, though real, may have been light and in the nature of an alliance; and it may have been in this sense that Merbal, a subse- quent Tyrian king, was sent for to Bab\lon (Josephus, Cont. Apion. i, 21). At this time the ancient constitution of Tyre was changed. Ithobaal had been followed by Baal, but after Baal two judges (snffetes) took for a cer- tain period the place of the monarch. We hear of in- ternal commotions — natural enough in a comitry and city upon which calamity after calamity had fallen in so short a time , and the existence of two parties in the commonwealth that looked respectively to Chaldiea and to Egypt could not but foster those internal dissensions. In 538, while Eiromus stood at the head of the Tyrian or Phoenician affairs, Cyrus captured Babylon, and thus became master also of Phoenicia, which had reverted to this power. At that time Sidon, being made the royal residence, again resumed the hegemony.