town or village

Tyre

Open on the map →

Events

1. c. 585 BCNebuchadnezzar begins a thirteen-year siege of Tyre
2. AD 1124Tyre surrenders to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Venetians

Battles and sieges

1. 332 BCAlexander's siege of Tyre
   Alexander the Great, building a mole from the mainland, against the island city of Tyre. After seven months the city is stormed; Alexander goes on to Gaza and Egypt.

In ancient writers

• Herodotus, Histories 2.44 — Herodotus sailed to Tyre to see its temple of Heracles, rich in offerings, with pillars of gold and of emerald that shone by night; the priests said it was founded with the city 2,300 years before.
• Strabo, Geography 16.2.23 — Tyre is wholly an island, joined to the mainland by the mole Alexander raised during his siege; it has two harbours, houses of more storeys than Rome, and recovered its wealth through seafaring and purple dye.
• Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 2.18 — Tyre was an island fortified all round with lofty walls and still strong at sea, so Alexander, encouraged by a dream of Heracles leading him into the city, resolved to build a mole from the mainland.

Questions

• Where were Tyre and Sidon?

History

Tyre was built on a rocky island just off the coast of southern Phoenicia, with a town on the mainland opposite, Ushu, later called Old Tyre, that gave it water and farmland. Herodotus was told by its priests that the city had been founded about 2,300 years before his visit, that is about 2750 BC, and soundings on the island have reached levels of the Early Bronze Age. In the fourteenth century BC its ruler Abimilku wrote to Pharaoh in the Amarna letters. Joshua names it as the fortified city on the border of Asher.

Under Hiram I in the tenth century BC Tyre led Phoenician seafaring. The Bible tells how Hiram sent cedar and craftsmen for David's house and Solomon's Temple, and Josephus, citing the Tyrian annals as given by Menander, describes his reign. Tyrians founded colonies across the Mediterranean, Carthage by tradition in 814 BC, and grew rich on trade and purple dye. Jezebel, wife of Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal, whom the Bible calls king of the Sidonians and Josephus king of the Tyrians and Sidonians.

Tyre paid tribute to the Assyrian kings but kept its island. Isaiah and Ezekiel foretold its fall, and Ezekiel says that Nebuchadnezzar's army wore itself out against Tyre without reward. Josephus, citing Phoenician records, says the Babylonian siege lasted thirteen years; it is usually dated to the 580s and 570s BC. In 332 BC Alexander the Great took the island after a siege of about seven months by building a causeway from the mainland; silt gathered along it, and Tyre has been joined to the shore ever since.

Tyre won its independence from the Seleucids in 126 BC and kept a privileged status under Rome after 64 BC. Jesus went into the region of Tyre and Sidon, and Paul stayed a week with the disciples there on his way to Jerusalem. About AD 198 Septimius Severus made Tyre a Roman colony and the capital of the province of Syria Phoenice. Origen died and was buried there, Eusebius spoke at the dedication of Bishop Paulinus's great church about 315, and a church council met at Tyre in 335.

Scripture: Josh 19:29; 2 Sam 5:11; 1 Kgs 5:1–12; 1 Kgs 7:13–14; 1 Kgs 16:31; Isa 23:1–18; Ezek 26:1–21; Ezek 29:18; Matt 15:21; Mark 7:24; Acts 21:3–7

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (64)

Josh 19:29

And then the coast turneth to Ramah, and to the strong city Tyre; and the coast turneth to Hosah; and the outgoings thereof are at the sea from the coast to Achzib:

2 Sam 5:11

And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.

2 Sam 24:7

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beer-sheba.

1 Kgs 5:1

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.

1 Kgs 7:13

And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.

1 Kgs 7:14

He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.

1 Kgs 9:11

( Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

1 Kgs 9:12

And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

1 Chr 14:1

Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house.

1 Chr 22:4

Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

2 Chr 2:3

And Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me.

2 Chr 2:11

Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.

2 Chr 2:14

The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.

Ezra 3:7

They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.

Neh 13:16

There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

Ps 45:12

And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.

Ps 83:7

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

Ps 87:4

I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.

Isa 23:1

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Isa 23:3

And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

Isa 23:4

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

Isa 23:5

As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

Isa 23:8

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

Isa 23:10

Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.

Isa 23:15

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.

Isa 23:17

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

Jer 25:22

And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,

Jer 27:3

And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;

Jer 47:4

Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.

Ezek 26:2

Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:

34 more on the map

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Solomon →
• Jesus in Galilee, after Mark →
• Paul's third journey →