What is the meaning of Ezekiel 26:14? I will make you a bare rock - The Lord announces that the proud island–city of Tyre will be stripped down to nothing but exposed stone. - Earlier in the chapter the same image appears: “They will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses. Then they will throw your stones, timber, and soil into the water” (Ezekiel 26:12). The picture is total dismantling—no shelter, no defenses, no ornamentation. - History confirms successive waves of conquerors (first Nebuchadnezzar, later Alexander) who literally scraped the city’s ruins into the sea to build causeways, leaving a barren rock behind. - Scripture often records God reducing proud strongholds to rubble (Isaiah 23:1; Jeremiah 25:22). Those precedents remind us that no earthly power can withstand the judgment of the Almighty. …and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets - The site that once bustled with international commerce is reduced to a quiet shoreline where fishermen dry their nets. The contrast is striking: from global emporium to humble workspace. - Fishermen using the ruined site is specifically fulfilled; travelers through the centuries noted locals drying nets on the rocky promontory. - Cross references reinforce the image: in Ezekiel 47:10 fishermen stand “from En-gedi to En-eglaim,” and Jesus later called fishermen along Galilee’s shore (Matthew 4:18)—ordinary scenes that highlight how utterly Tyre’s glory is gone. - God loves to exalt the humble and humble the exalted (1 Peter 5:5; Luke 1:52). Tyre’s fall underlines that truth. You will never be rebuilt - Unlike cities such as Jerusalem, which was promised restoration (Nehemiah 1–2), Tyre receives no hope of recovery. - Jeremiah used similar language for Babylon: “They will not take from you a stone for a cornerstone…for you will be desolate forever” (Jeremiah 51:26). - Modern Tyre exists on a different site and on a vastly smaller scale; the original island fortress and its maritime supremacy have never been restored, exactly as foretold. - The permanence of this judgment shows that when God closes a chapter, no human power can reopen it (Revelation 3:7). for I, the LORD, have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. - The prophecy rests on God’s own character: “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Numbers 23:19). - Throughout Ezekiel the same signature appears: “I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it” (Ezekiel 17:24; 22:14). - Isaiah echoes the certainty: “My word…it shall accomplish what I please” (Isaiah 55:11). - Because the Lord’s word is infallible, fulfilled judgment on Tyre bolsters our confidence that every promise—including those of salvation and Christ’s return—will likewise stand (Matthew 24:35). summary God’s solemn verdict on Tyre unfolds in four vivid strokes: stripped to bare rock, reduced to a fishermen’s drying rack, denied any future rebuilding, and guaranteed by the unbreakable word of the Lord. History has already verified the accuracy of each detail, reminding us that God’s judgments are real, His sovereignty absolute, and His promises sure. |
    |