The miracle seems not to have been
witnessed by a heart hardened against belief Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed
the glory of the God who could work such miracles, and whose instrument
of vengeance he himself was. Edom was soon after conquered by
Nebuchadnezzar, thus fulfilling many prophecies.
Another great work which was set for him to do, was to give the first
great overthrow to the Phoenicians, and fulfil the prophecies of Isaiah
and Ezekiel, by destroying Tyre. The siege lasted thirteen years, and
the besiegers suffered as much as the besieged, till, as Ezekiel had
foretold, every head was bald, every shoulder peeled with the burdens
that were carried; but at last it was taken in the year 573, and so
utterly destroyed, that not a trace was left of it. It had been said
by Isaiah, that after seventy years Tyre should take her harp and sing
again, and return for a time to her former splendour and corruption;
and thus it happened, for a new Tyre arose upon a little island at some
little distance from the shore.
Ezekiel had promised the Chaldeans that the toils of Tyre should be
repaid by the spoil of Egypt, the land that was henceforth to be a slave
for ever; and in 574, Nebuchadnezzar marched thither, and conquered
it with the utmost ease, there being at that time a quarrel among the
Egyptians, which weakened their hands; Hophra, the last of the Pharaohs,
was slain by a rebel, and Egypt has never more been free, or
under native rulers.
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