Ezekiel's oracle against Tyre

Ezekiel 26:7-14 names Nebuchadnezzar, names many nations, and says Tyre will be scraped bare like the top of a rock with her stones and her timber laid in the midst of the water. The oracle is dated by the book's own regnal formula and written down before the outcome.

In plain words

Ezekiel foretells that Nebuchadnezzar and many nations will scrape Tyre bare as a rock, its stones and timber thrown into the sea, dated by the book's own reckoning before the outcome. Sixteen years later the same book admits the campaign did not pay; the oracle and the admission stand together: a claim made in advance, and partly fulfilled.

The mechanism

REFERENCE — a dated, falsifiable claim entered into the record in advance, which is why it carries weight the seventy-years number cannot. The strongest such claim is Ezekiel 36–37; this one, partly fulfilled, counts in the same tally.

Scripture

Ezekiel 26:7–14

How it was checked

• EvidenceT3 SCRIPTURE; Status: COMMITTED
• Letter eraTHE PROPHETS AND THE ROAD 776 BC to 4 BC
• SourcesSCRIPTURE — Ezekiel 26:7-14, dated internally