(1) because Tyre said – Tyre had a covenant with Jerusalem all the days of David and Shlomo and was not rejoicing over its fall out of hatred, rather they rejoiced because they thought that they would derive benefit from it. This is why the verse says ‘Aha! The doors of the peoples have been broken,’ because Jerusalem was the market city and all the peoples brought their wares there. It was called ‘the doors of the peoples’ because they all entered this door. Through this breaking ‘it has turned to me,’ and all the commerce will be in Tyre. One can also say that Jerusalem was called ‘the doors of the peoples’ because it stood before the peoples who lived in the south, east and north, whose path to Tyre was via the land of Israel and its surroundings. It was like a closed door, through which one cannot enter until it is opened. Now that the door has been opened through its destruction ‘it has turned to me.’ This second explanation fits the end of the verse ‘I shall become full from the destroyed city,’ that their houses were filled from the destruction of Jerusalem. This is as it is written “And also, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia… For My silver and My gold you took, and My goodly treasures you have brought into your temples. And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have sold…” (Joel 4:4-6) They despoiled, plundered and gathered silver and slaves and filled themselves from the destruction and the spoils.
Questions:
- Consider the Malbim's commentary: "Tyre...was not rejoicing over its fall out of hatred, rather they rejoiced because they thought that they would derive benefit from it." How else could Tyre have reacted to Jerusalem's fall? What kind of response (if any) would have been blameless?
- Consider Robert Alter's commentary on v. 19-20: "There is a pointed antithesis between bringing up the deep in the previous clause and bringing down the inhabitants of the city to the netherworld." Are these two distinctly different stages of punishment, or are they two aspects of the same event?
- Do you find any connection(s) between Tyre's behavior and its punishment?
