Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyrus,.... Or Tyre, a very ancient city in Palestine; of whichSee Gill on "Isa 23:1";and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof;See Gill on "Am 1:3";because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom: such of the Israelites that fell into their hands, or fled to them for shelter, they delivered up to the Edomites, their implacable adversaries, or sold them to them, as they did to the Grecians, Joe 3:6;and remembered not the brotherly covenant; either the covenant and agreement that should be among brethren, as the Jews and Edomites were which the Tyrians should have remembered, and persuaded them to live peaceably; and not have delivered the one into the hands of the other, to be used in a cruel manner as slaves: or else the covenant made between Hiram king of Tyre, and David king of Israel, and which was renewed between Hiram and Solomon, on account of which they called each other brethren, 2Sa 5:11.
The Phoenicians, of whom, the Tyrians were the principal, are noted for being faithless and treacherous . "Punica fides" was the same as "French faith" now; the perfidy of Hannibal is well known . Cicero says the Carthaginians, which were a colony of the Tyrians, were a deceitful and lying people; and Virgil calls the Tyrians themselves "Tyrios bilingues", "double tongued Tyrians", which, Servius interprets deceitful, as referring more to the mind than to the tongue; and observes from Livy the perfidy of the Phoenicians in general, that they have nothing true nor sacred among them; no fear of God, no regard to an oath, nor any religion; and which are the three or four transgressions for which they are said here they should be punished; for, besides their ill usage of the Jews, their idolatry no doubt came into the account: the god that was worshipped at Tyre was Hercules, by whom was meant the sun, as Macrobius observes; and as there were several Heathen gods of this name, he whom the Tyrians worshipped is the fourth of the name with Cicero ; the same is the Melicarthus of Sanchoniatho , which signifies the king of the city, by which Bochart thinks Tyre is intended.
To be a priest of Hercules was the second honour to that of king, as Justin observes; and so careful were the Tyrians of this deity, that they used to chain him, that he might not depart from them; see Jer 10:4; and a most magnificent temple they had in honour of him, and which, they pretended, was exceeding ancient, as old as the city itself, the antiquity of which they speak extravagantly of Herodotus says he saw this temple, and which was greatly ornamented, and particularly had two pillars, one of gold, and another of emerald; and inquiring of the priests, they told; him it was built when their city was, ten thousand three hundred years before that time; but according to their own historians , Hiram, who lived in the days of Solomon, built the temple of Hercules, as well as that of Astarte; for though she is called the goddess of the Sidonians, she was also worshipped by the Tyrians; as he also ornamented the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and annexed it to the city, which deity also it seems had worship paid it in this place.
Alex. ab Alex. Genial Dier. l. 5. c. 10. Vid. Reinesiura de Ling. Punic. c. 2. sect. 12. Vid. Valer. Maxim. l. 9. c. 6. Contra Rullum, Orat. 16. Aeneid. l. 1. Saturnal. l. 1. c. 20. De Naturn Deorum, l.
3. Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 2. p. 38. Canaan, l. 2. col. 709. E Trogo, l. 18. c. 4. Euterp, sive l. 2. c. 44. Meander & Dius apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 8. c. 5. sect.