Amos 1:10

But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus,.... An enemy to destroy the walls of it: this was done either by Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, in the times of Eulaeus king of the Tyrians, of whose

But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof. But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus - (cf.

Amos 1:10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof.Ver. 10. Therefore I will send a fire upon the walls of Tyrus] This was fulfilled shortly after in the war that Shalmaneser waged against the Tyrians, whereof see Joseph. lib. ix. chap. 14. Or in Nebuchadnezzar’ s war with them, whereof read Ezekiel 29:18 Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 47:4. Joseph. cont. Apion, lib. 2. Or Alexander’ s, Curt. lib. 4; Justin. lib. 11. It is good for men to tremble at God’ s judgments while they hang in the threatenings, as Josiah did; and not to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, as Ananias and Sapphira did, Acts 5:9, by putting it to the proof, whether he will be dicti sui Dominus, as good as his word.

Verse 10. I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus] The destructive fire or siege by Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years, and ended in the destruction of this ancient city; see on Ezekiel, Ezekiel 26:7-14, as above. It was finally ruined by Alexander, and is now only a place for a few poor fishermen to spread their nets upon.

9–10. Tyre, the great commercial city of the North, next receives her doom from the prophet’s lips. Tyre, as the most important of the Phoenician cities, is taken as representing Phoenicia generally. For defensive purposes Tyre was strongly fortified; but the Phoenicians were not an aggressive people: they were devoted to commerce: Tyre was a ‘mart of nations’ (Isaiah 23:3), a centre of trade by land as well as by sea (see the striking picture of the variety and extent of Tyrian commerce in Ezekiel 27); hence her relations with the Hebrews, as with her neighbours generally, were peaceful. The Tyrians were also celebrated for skill in artistic work: Hiram, king of Tyre, sent Tyrian workmen to build a palace for David; a formal treaty was concluded between Hiram and Solomon; Tyrian builders prepared timber and stones for the Temple; and a Tyrian artist designed and cast the chief ornaments and vessels of metal belonging to it (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1-12; 1 Kings 5:18; 1 Kings 7:13-45). because they delivered up entire populations to Edom] The charge is similar to that brought against the Philistines, Amos 1:6; the Tyrians however are not accused of taking captives, but only of delivering them to others, i.e. of acting as agents for those who actually took them. For the Tyrians taking part in the trade of slaves, cf. Ezekiel 27:13; and see on Joe 3:6. What ‘exiled companies’ are alluded to does not appear; they need not necessarily have consisted of Israelites; the reference may be as well to gangs of slaves procured with violence from other nations. and remembered not the brotherly covenant] lit. the covenant of—i.e. between—brothers: this forgetfulness was an aggravation of the offence, which is not mentioned in the case of Gaza, Amos 1:6. The allusion is commonly supposed to be to the league, or ‘covenant,’ concluded between Hiram and Solomon, 1 Kings 5:12 (for ‘brother’ used figuratively of one joined in amity to another, see 1 Kings 9:13; 1 Kings 20:32); but it is scarcely likely that the crowning offence of Tyre should be forgetfulness of a treaty entered into nearly 300 years previously; more probably the reference is to the way in which, repudiating some alliance formed with other Phoenician towns, the Tyrians were the means of procuring slaves from them for Edom. As Amos 2:1 shews, Amos does not restrict his censure to wrongs perpetrated against Israel: it is the rights common to humanity at large, which he vindicates and defends. Isaiah (ch. 23), Jeremiah, at least incidentally (Jeremiah 25:22), Ezekiel (ch. 26–28), Zechariah (Zechariah 9:3 f.), all foretell the ruin of Tyre; but it was long before it was accomplished. The Tyrians, it seems, escaped as a rule the hostility of the Assyrians by acquiescing in a condition of dependence and by timely payment of tribute. Thus Asshurnazirpal (b.c. 885–860) boasts of marching with his army as far as the “great sea of the West,” and receiving tribute from Tyre, Sidon, Gebal, and Arvæd; but he claims no conquest by arms (K.A.T[121][122], p.

I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre - Tyre had long ere this become tributary to Assyria.

9, 10. The sin and punishment of Phoenicia. Tyrus [“Tyre”] — The most important of the cities of Phoenicia, representing here the entire nation (see on Joe 3:4; Zechariah 9:2). The crime condemned is similar to that of Philistia.