"Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man take up a lamentation upon the King of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God: * * * I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before Kings that they may behold thee. * * * All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee, thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." [xxviii.]
The two last quotations from Ezekiel belong to the first Tyrian Siege. [485—472 B. C.] Isaiah prophesied that after that destruction, the remaining People should be forgotten as a Nation for 70 years,—they were so; that they should then recover their strength, and have commerce with every Country, and even Jerusalem should be benefited by their merchandise. This latter part is proved by the Judæan Prophet, Nehemiah [xxiii.], to have been fulfilled, while the former portion is firmly established by authenticated history.
If the patriotic King, Azelmic, had been ordained to die at the last Siege of Tyrus, it is almost certain that the manner of the Prophets would have been adhered to by Isaiah, as it was subsequently by Ezekiel, who mentions that both "King" and "Prince" at the first Siege should be destroyed, and they were so:—therefore, the silence of Isaiah upon the subject of Azelmic's death, may certainly be viewed as prophetical of its not taking place at, or during, the final Siege;—but, rather that he should survive his country's fall,—a doom, to a pure patriot, more terrible than death. Truly to feel that curse, the reader must peruse—if the tearful eye will permit him—the Lamentations of Jeremiah upon the Destruction of Jerusalem. The same curse was endured by Azelmic.
The most sceptical upon the truths of Sacred Prophecy, will be enforced to cast their doubts aside upon contemplating the fulfilment of those by Isaiah, and especially in regard to Tyrus,—for History has recorded the fact that the King, Azelmic, was the only being not slain, or sold to slavery (with the exception stated), and even that "remnant" will be found to be contemplated by Isaiah, upon a full investigation of the great prediction. Every Christian reader, therefore, will not doubt that any portion of the entire Prophecy respecting Tyrus was fulfilled. The first two parts of this newly-applied prediction have been given,—viz., that the Metropolis should, at the second Siege "be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled," but that the King should not perish. In the next chapter, the Prophecy will be followed out to its full accomplishment, and the Refugees in the Sidonian Galleys traced to their final resting-place.
The history of Tyrus, as a nation of its own people, in Asia, ceased upon the annihilation by Alexander. He repopulated the site from the surrounding and Grecian countries, and constituted as tributary monarch the brave but unfortunate Azelmic. The Macedonian having commanded that the Statue of Apollo should be unchained from the Altar, he thereupon expressed his gratitude to the golden Idol, for having sided with him in his Conquest, by making the walls defenceless upon the day of festival! After kneeling to the Statue of the Tyrian Deity, he styled himself the Founder of Tyrus! From thence he continued his march towards Judæa, to punish the Jews for a supposed assistance to the Tyrians; but, being flattered by his reception as he approached the Capital, he at once spared the city. He then received the celebrated Prophecy of Daniel concerning the "King of Grecia," from Jaddus, the High Priest of Jerusalem, upon whose suggestion he offered a sacrifice in The Temple to the Living God! From the Holy-House of Judæa he entered Egypt, and worshipped Jupiter-Ammon both as Father and Deity! Such were the Religious inconsistencies of the "Macedonian Madman," and nothing but actual Insanity can reconcile such contrarieties, and cruelties, in human character.
In the Nation of the Nile he was truly the Founder of Alexandria (the name and site preserved to this day), which city in progress of time outrivalled in commercial prosperity the antecedent Capitals of Sidon, Tyrus, and Carthage,—the triple and ill-fated sisters from the Parent house of Canaan.
After his invasions and victories in India Alexander was so much the victim of flattery, that he could even deceive himself,—for it is recorded that he sighed or wept for another world to conquer!—yet his torch and war-spear were never thrown into the land of Italy,—and the gates of Rome remained unseen and untouched by the Macedonian Phalanx!
From that Circean goblet,—flattery,—when presented by Cassander, the Conqueror little dreamed that it could contain the subtle and his deadly poison;—but the agony of his own death-struggle was but the emblem of that which he had caused millions of human beings to endure,—and whose only crime in the eyes of the invader was, that they had defended their native lands!
Why should Historians condemn an Attila or a Cortez, and yet applaud their great Original? They pass by the Tyrian Hiram or Azelmic unhonoured, yet style an Alexander,—"the Great!" One Mediator for Peace must be, in the eyes of God,—upon His great principle of love and good-will to all,—more acceptable at the Final Day, than all the Legions of unrepenting Conquerors of the past, the present, or the future.
The false fame of Alexander, or of Cortez will not, in the estimation of posterity, be even compared in true value with the practical disciples of Peace; who, like an Ashburton and Daniel Webster, have created a new æra in policy and civilization, and that too without tarnishing their radiant National honour,—but rather increasing its already dazzling splendour, and with it—elevating the Religious and moral dignity of humanity!