Tyre
Tyre stands on the Phoenician coast as a fortified harbor-city, a friend of David and Solomon under Hiram, and the long-running target of prophetic oracles from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. The earliest geographic placement is in the Asher allotment, where the line "turned to Ramah, and to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah, and the goings out of it were at the sea" (Jos 19:29). The same fortified city marks the far northern reach of the David-ordered census, "and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beer-sheba" (2 Sam 24:7).
Hiram's Friendship with David
Hiram of Tyre opens the relationship by furnishing materials and craftsmen for David's palace: "And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house" (2 Sam 5:11). The same David-friendship is named again at the start of Solomon's reign as the ground of continued envoy-relations.
Hiram and Solomon
When Solomon is anointed, Hiram opens his envoy-channel to the new throne. "And Hiram king of Tyre sent his slaves to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father: for Hiram was ever a friend of David" (1 Kgs 5:1). Solomon answers with a temple-requisition, and the Chronicler's account preserves the correspondence in full. Solomon writes, "As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house to dwell in it, [even so deal with me]" (2 Chr 2:3), and asks for "a skillful man to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue" (2 Chr 2:7), along with "cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon" (2 Chr 2:8). Huram answers in writing, "Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them" (2 Chr 2:11), and pledges, "we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you will need; and we will bring it to you in floats by sea to Joppa; and you will carry it up to Jerusalem" (2 Chr 2:16).
The skillful-man clause is fulfilled. "And now I have sent a skillful man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's" (2 Chr 2:13). The same craftsman is the bronze-worker Solomon "sent and fetched" out of Tyre (1 Kgs 7:13).
After twenty years of building, the supply-account is closed with a land-payment that Hiram receives without satisfaction. "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 9:11). "And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they were not right in his eyes... he called them the land of Cabul to this day. And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold" (1 Kgs 9:12-14).
The trade-partnership extends from timber to ships. Solomon "made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his slaves, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the slaves of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents" (1 Kgs 9:26-28). The Ophir-runs continue: "the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones" (1 Kgs 10:11), and on the longer Tarshish-circuit, "the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years the navy of Tarshish came, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (1 Kgs 10:22). The Chronicler's parallel records the same Ophir-haul: "the slaves also of Huram, and the slaves of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum-trees and precious stones" (2 Chr 9:10).
Tyre Among the Nations
The Psalter places Tyre among the foreign nations whose tribute and Zion-enrollment are sung. "And the daughter of Tyre [will be there] with a gift; The rich among the people will entreat your favor" (Ps 45:12). And, "I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among those who know me: Look, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia: This [man] was born there" (Ps 87:4).
The Burden of Tyre
Isaiah opens with the oracle as a single superscription. "The burden of Tyre. Howl, you⁺ ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no access: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them" (Isa 23:1). The address widens to the coastal merchants of Sidon (Isa 23:2-4) and to Egypt — "When the report comes to Egypt, they will be very pained at the report of Tyre" (Isa 23:5). The taunt-questions name Tyre's antiquity and her merchant rank. "Is this your⁺ joyous [city], whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to sojourn?" (Isa 23:7). "Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?" (Isa 23:8). The verdict and the agent are named in the same breath: "Yahweh of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth" (Isa 23:9). The horizon closes with a seventy-year erasure and an eventual return: "And it will come to pass in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years... after the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre as in the song of the whore" (Isa 23:15). After the seventy years, "Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages" (Isa 23:17), and "her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh: it will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (Isa 23:18).
Jeremiah's Wrath-Cup and Yoke-Bonds
Jeremiah names Tyre's kings on the wrath-cup nation-roll: "and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea" (Jer 25:22). The neck-bonds oracle of Jeremiah 27 sends the same word to a council of coastal monarchs through Zedekiah's envoys: the message goes "to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah" (Jer 27:3), and the verdict is the same — "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my slave" (Jer 27:6). At the close of the Philistia oracle Tyre is caught up again in the coastal-helper sweep. "Because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains: for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor" (Jer 47:4).
Ezekiel's Tyre-Cycle
Ezekiel runs the longest Tyre-oracle in the canon, a three-chapter cycle triggered by Tyre's gloating speech against Jerusalem. "Son of Man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken [that was] the gate of the peoples; she has turned to me; I will be replenished, now that she is laid waste" (Eze 26:2). The first-named agent against the city is Nebuchadrezzar. "Look, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and many people" (Eze 26:7).
The lament of Ezekiel 27 catalogues Tyre as a great trading-ship. "Take up a lamentation over Tyre; and say to Tyre, O you that dwell at the entry of the sea, that are the merchant of the peoples to many isles, thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: You, O Tyre, have said, I am perfect in beauty" (Eze 27:2-3). The shipwrights, oarsmen, mariners, and pilots are listed by name — Senir, Lebanon, Bashan, Kittim, Egypt, Elishah, Sidon and Arvad, Gebal (Eze 27:5-9). The trading-partner roll spans Tarshish, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Togarmah, Rodan, Syria, Judah, Damascus, Dedan, Arabia, Kedar, Sheba, Raamah, Haran, Canneh, Eden, Asshur, and Chilmad (Eze 27:12-23). The verdict closes the lament. "Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your caulkers, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you... will fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin" (Eze 27:27). And, "Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?" (Eze 27:32). "The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you have become a terror, and you will nevermore have any being" (Eze 27:36).
The leader-of-Tyre and king-of-Tyre oracles of Ezekiel 28 raise the indictment to a self-deification charge. "Son of Man, say to the leader of Tyre, Thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not God" (Eze 28:2). The pay-out is by stranger-hand. "I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will defile your brightness" (Eze 28:7). The lamentation over the king of Tyre then recasts him in Edenic-cherub language. "You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering" (Eze 28:12-13). "You were the anointed cherub that covers; I set you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire" (Eze 28:14). "By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore I have brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who look at you" (Eze 28:18).
A later word qualifies the Nebuchadrezzar-against-Tyre campaign. "Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet he had no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it" (Eze 29:18).
Zechariah's Stronghold-and-Stockpile Verdict
Zechariah pulls Tyre into the Hadrach-and-coast oracle alongside Sidon. "And Hamath, also, which borders on it; Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise. And Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Look, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will strike her power in the sea; and she will be devoured with fire" (Zec 9:2-4).
Jesus and the Borders of Tyre
The post-Acts NT places Tyre at the edge of the Galilean ministry. The multitude that comes to hear Jesus is drawn "from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him" (Mark 3:8). Luke's parallel names "the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon" (Lu 6:17) among the same crowd.
The Syrophoenician healing happens inside Tyrian territory. "From there he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it; and he could not be hid" (Mark 7:24). "Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. And she implored him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter" (Mark 7:26). After the exchange about the children's bread and the dogs' crumbs, the demon goes out (Mark 7:27-30), and Jesus leaves: "And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the middle of the borders of Decapolis" (Mark 7:31).
The same Tyre-and-Sidon pair returns in the woe over the unrepentant Galilean towns. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which were done in you⁺, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you⁺" (Lu 10:13-14).
Tyre in the Galilee Crisis
In the Maccabean account of the Galilee-crisis muster, Tyre stands in the southern-Phoenician coastal triad alongside Ptolemais and Sidon. Messengers from Galilee report "that those of Ptolemais, and of Tyre, and of Sidon, were assembled against them, and all Galilee of strangers, in order to consume us" (1Ma 5:15).