CHAPTER XI.
THE UNFOLDING OF THE NEWLY-APPLIED PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH, AND THE PROOFS OF THEIR FULFILMENT.
THE END OF CANAAN-TYRUS AS A NATION IN ASIA—CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER—REFLECTIONS UPON CONQUERORS AND PEACEMAKERS.
Upon the accomplishment of the horrid massacre by Alexander, Tyrus was indeed "utterly emptied and utterly spoiled,"—for the King, Azelmic, was the only human being having life and liberty of all the Tyrian Kingdom,—excepting the "remnant" rescued by the Sidonians. Isaiah in his Prophecy foretold those two facts; and although we are aware that these new truths of ancient history have never been applied to that celebrated Prophecy, yet they are brought forward—even if for the first time—with full and assured conviction of the correctness of the present application. We write with conscientious humility, yet with that boldness arising from truth, founded upon a newly-discovered fulfilment of a Scriptural Prophecy.
Isaiah distinctly infers from the wording of his vision, concerning the second, and final fall of Tyrus, that the King should not be slain, or even be a prisoner,—but that all the rest of the Nation (except the "gleanings") should be swept away. These predictions were actually accomplished, as shewn in the previous chapter. Of the first two points, The Prophet says,—
"And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest [KING, is not mentioned]; as with the servant, so with the master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." [xxiv.]
Now in Ezekiel's Prophecy of the Siege of Tyrus by Nebuchadnezzar, he not only foretels the fall of the mainland City, but, also, of the "Prince" and "King of Tyrus." Of, and to, the impious heir-apparent he is authorized to exclaim,—
"Son of Man say unto the Prince of Tyrus, &c. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, 'I am a God?' but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it saith the Lord God."
Of the reigning Monarch, Ithobalus the Second, he uttered as follows: viz.—