glassware, and purple dyes and was a trading center for the overland caravans as well as a great import-export depot. Along with this industrial and commercial growth came riches, conceit, and pride. Her merchants and tradesmen boasted of being princes and honorable ones of the earth. (Isa 23:8) Tyre in time also developed an attitude of opposition to Jehovah and conspired with neighboring nations against God’s people. (Ps 83:2-8) So it was her bold defiance of Jehovah that eventually brought upon the city adverse judgment, downfall, and destruction.

In the latter part of the ninth century B.C.E., Jehovah took note of this city’s arrogant attitude. He therefore warned her that she would be paid back in kind for robbing his people of the gold, silver, and many other desirable things that she had used to beautify her temples. There was also to be an accounting for Tyre’s having sold God’s people into slavery.​—Joe 3:4-8; Am 1:9, 10.

Later the prophet Isaiah recorded a further pronouncement against Tyre, which indicated that she would be forgotten for “seventy years.” (Isa 23:1-18) Years thereafter the prophet Jeremiah included Tyre among those nations that were singled out to drink the wine of Jehovah’s rage. (Jer 25:8-17, 22, 27; 27:2-7; 47:2-4) Since the nations mentioned in the prophecy of Jeremiah were to “serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer 25:8-11), this suggests that both the prophecy of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah related to Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Tyre.

Also through Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah, Jehovah pointed to calamity for Tyre at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. (Eze 26:1–28:19) Though Tyre had been compared to a pretty ship with multicolored sails and deck coverings and a prow inlaid with ivory, she would sink in the open sea. (Eze 27:3-36) Tyre’s ‘king’ (apparently the line of Tyrian rulers) haughtily boasted: “I am a god. In the seat of god I have seated myself.” But he was to be removed as profane and destroyed by fire.​—Eze 28:2-19.

Destruction of City. In the course of Nebuchadnezzar’s long siege against Tyre, the heads of his soldiers were “made bald” from the chafing of their helmets, and their shoulders were “rubbed bare” from carrying materials used in the construction of siegeworks. Since Nebuchadnezzar received no “wages” for serving as His instrument in executing judgment upon Tyre, Jehovah promised to compensate him with the wealth of Egypt. (Eze 29:17-20) According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the siege lasted 13 years (Against Apion, I, 156 [21]), and it cost the Babylonians a great deal. Secular history does not record exactly how thorough or effective Nebuchadnezzar’s efforts were. But the loss in lives and property to the Tyrians must have been great.​—Eze 26:7-12.

When the Israelites returned from Babylonian exile, however, the Tyrians were able to assist in supplying cedar timbers from Lebanon for a second temple, and they resumed their trade with the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.​—Ezr 3:7; Ne 13:16.

Tyre’s conflict with Nebuchadnezzar, though great, was not to be the complete end for Tyre. A later prophetic pronouncement indicated that, though Tyre would build a rampart and pile up silver and gold, Jehovah himself would destroy her completely.​—Zec 9:3, 4.

Nearly 200 years after Zechariah’s prophecy was given, it was fulfilled. In 332 B.C.E. Alexander the Great marched his army across Asia Minor and, in his sweep southward, paused long enough to give his attention to Tyre. When the city refused to open its gates, Alexander in his rage had his army scrape up the ruins of the mainland city and throw it into the sea, thus building a causeway out to the island city, all of this in fulfillment of prophecy. (Eze 26:4, 12; DIAGRAM, Vol 2, p. 531) With his naval forces holding the Tyrian ships bottled up in their harbor, Alexander set about constructing the highest siege towers ever used in ancient wars. Finally, after seven months the 46-m-high (150 ft) walls were breached. In addition to the 8,000 military men killed in battle, 2,000 prominent leaders were killed as a reprisal, and 30,000 inhabitants were sold into slavery.

Mentioned in the Greek Scriptures. Despite the city’s total destruction by Alexander, it was rebuilt during the Seleucid period, and in the first century C.E. it was a prominent port of call on the Mediterranean. During Jesus’ great Galilean ministry, a number of people from around Tyre and Sidon came to hear his message and to be cured of their diseases. (Mr 3:8-10; Lu 6:17-19) Some months later Jesus personally visited the region around Tyre, on which occasion he cured the demon-possessed child of a Syrophoenician woman. (Mt 15:21-29; Mr 7:24-31) Jesus observed that, had he performed in Tyre and Sidon the powerful works that he did in Chorazin and Bethsaida, the pagans of Tyre and Sidon would have been more responsive than those Jews.​—Mt 11:20-22; Lu 10:13, 14.

See TYRE.