Ezekiel 26's Tyre prophecy gets a lot of attention, but there is another, parallel prophecy in Isaiah 23. It doesn't get as much attention, because it doesn't offer as much detail as Ezekiel does, and indeed is mostly "Look out!" warnings and laments. Let's have a look at what details are offered beyond general promises of doom:
Is. 23:15-18 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: "Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered." At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.
The immediate question - "Did this actually happen?" - we find receives no definitive yes or no answer from history. The following points can be made [Watts, Isaiah commentary, 306-7]:
- The "seventy" years represent a round number signifying completion of a long period (as in Jeremiah's 70 years prophecy, where we also note a Babylonian example). In this light the "70 years" have been identified variously with a) the attack of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668 BC); b) Nebuchadnezzar's attack; c) the only real destruction of the three, by Alexander in 332 BC.
The a) and b) options regard the destruction as economic rather than physical, with excessive hyperbole typical of ancient language used to make the point.
- The "earnings" going to those who live before the Lord is linked to economic benefits enjoyed by the Jewish nation in the process of expanded trade. The c) option above links it specifically to the restoration of Tyre under the Seleucids in 274 BC, and its subsequent success as a trade center. This match is close enough that Clements [Isaiah commentary] even suggests that portions of the text are a later scribal addition based on these events.
Based on what little data is available, it can only be said that there is no convincing proof that this prophecy was either fulfilled OR not fulfilled. We can suggest candidates for the conqueror; evidence concerning the economic inter-reliance data simply is not available to us, but does reflect a plausible economic relationship among Palestinian neighbors which also corresponds with Tyre no longer being a hoarder of wealth, but an equitable trade partner.
-JPH