Note 295 — Chapter XV
E. J. (Edward James) Chinnock translation
The Hebrew name for Tyre is Tsor (rock). In Isa. xxiii. 4 it is called the fortress of the sea; and in ver. 8, “Tsor, the crowning one,” because Tyre gave rulers to the Phoenician cities and colonies. Valuable information about the power, trade, and customs of Tyre is derived from Ezek. xxvi-xxviii.; and we learn the fact that she employed mercenaries like her colony Carthage (Ezek. xxvii. 10, 11). In the classical writers the name is corrupted into Tyrus, and sometimes into Sarra. Tyre was unsuccessfully besieged for five years by Shalmaneser. It was also besieged for thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar, and in the end an alliance was formed, by which the Tyrians retained their own king as a vassal of the king of Babylon. This arrangement was continued under the kings of Persia.