THE DESTRUCTION OF TYRE.

"THUS saith the Lord God to Tyrus: shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of them. Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee *." In this chapter the prophet foretells the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, who took it after a siege of thirteen years, in the thirty-second year of his reign. This siege forced the inhabitants upon a rocky island in the immediate neighbourhood, about half a mile from the main land. Here they built another city, afterwards called new Tyre, which in process of time became a place of immense wealth. Old Tyre was built by a company of Zidonians, and Isaiah therefore calls it the daughter of Zidon. It was situated upon a considerable eminence on the continent, and bore originally the name of Palætyrus. As there are some expressions in Ezekiel's prophecy which are admitted by Dr. Prideaux, in his "Connection of the History of the Old and New Testament," to be applicable only to the destruction of the new city of Tyre by Alexander the Great, the artist has attempted to represent the latter celebrated siege in the accompanying illustration. It was with the greatest difficulty that this mighty conqueror was able to obtain possession of this wealthy capital. The siege was continued for seven months with the most determined perseverance on the part of the Macedonians, and was as obstinately protracted by the spirited efforts of the Tyrians. The city was at length carried by Alexander's troops, constructing through the sea, with incredible labour, a causeway from the continent to the island on which the city stood, a distance of four furlongs. In storming this celebrated capital, the carnage was prodigious: eight thousand of the inhabitants were slain, two thousand crucified, and thirty thousand sold as slaves. The wealth which fell to the conqueror was immense.

SHADRACH, MESHACH AND ABED-NEGO.

SHORTLY after Nebuchadnezzar's return from Jerusalem, having reduced the wretched inhabitants to a degrading captivity with the spoils which he brought from their capital, he constructed a gigantic image, ninety feet high, and of proportionable bulk. This large statue, entirely composed of pure gold, he set up in the plains of Dura, just without the walls of Babylon. In the pride of his heart at having obtained so splendid a conquest as the entire subjugation of the Jews, and probably with a view to humble them, he caused proclamation to be made through his capital, that every order of his subjects, whether bond or free, should be present at the dedication of this image, and, upon a certain signal, fall down and worship it. Now it happened that among the captive Israelites were three men of some distinction, friends of the prophet Daniel, who refused to obey this tyrannical order, upon which the incensed monarch commanded a furnace to be heated seven times hotter than it was usual to heat it upon similar occasions, and the three offenders to be cast into it. The furnace was no doubt constructed for the imposition of capital punishment upon violators of the laws, burning criminals alive being practised by the Babylonian government. Immediately upon the king's order, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, were thrown, bound, into the flaming furnace, and so intense was the heat, that the persons who threw them in were scorched to death, but, to the astonishment of all the assembled host, the condemned Jews appeared walking in the midst of the flames, accompanied by a fourth person. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God*."