The Fall of Tyre and the Inheritance of Nations

The apostolic word says that fortified strongholds are being undermined by reasoning, that is, by contentious arguments. Regarding Nineveh, being taken to mean 'becoming beautified,' she was thinking greatly of those things she had constructed in defenses and unassailable garrisons, which the destroyer of such things says: 'And you will be drunken and will be seen as a wanton, and you will seek for yourself a standing against enemies. Your strongholds will have the purposes of figs, and if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of one eating.' (Nahum 3:86).

For how would not the one drunken from the wine of debauchery be overlooked by the One who knows all things, whom the Apostle speaking in Christ forbids even the drinking of its wine, writing: 'Do not get drunk with wine in which is debauchery' (Ephesians 5:18)? For how is not the one harvesting from the vine of Sodom and the branch of Gomorrah like this, which Moses interpreted as being a dragon's wrath and an unyielding viper's venom, saying: 'Our enemies are foolish; for from the vine of Sodom is their vine,' and shortly after: 'Their wine is a dragon's wrath and an unyielding viper's venom' (Numbers 23:22)?

The one partaking of this drink into drunkenness is overlooked by the Guardian of God, as if she no longer finds a standing, with invisible enemies lying in wait, preparing the judgment of strong wars. And what will happen to this branch, or its strongholds, which she considered safe and unshakable, that they will become so weak as to be moved as having the purposes of figs, on which branch the fruit will fall into the mouth of one eating?

For the opposing enemy had indeed opened his mouth as being ready to receive for eating those falling from the strongholds, having been shown to be easily shaken through much weakness by the Trophaios Great King, having been given authority to tread upon the opposing phalanx, according to what was said in the Gospel by the Savior to the known ones: 'I have given you authority to tread' (Luke 10:19) upon others and 'over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall harm you.'

That falling into the mouth of one eating signifies being defeated, as it is testified by many scriptures, and most especially by this: 'A wandering sheep of Israel, lions drove him out; the King of Assyria first devoured him, and later the King of Babylon devoured his bones.' (Ezekiel 34:5). In the same way, even if the lions were powerful, standing opposed through their ferocity as opposing forces, they shall endure judgment when Israel, having been trampled by them, is set free, having been allegorically called a sheep, as the prophet triumphantly cries out: 'The Holy One of Israel belongs to the Lord, the beginning of his offspring; all who eat him shall err, and evil shall come upon them,' says the Lord (Isaiah 19:1).

The word strikes against the one who is drunken and crazed, bringing forth: 'Take water from the region for yourself, seize your strongholds,' of which they seem to be unassailable. For even if the sophistries once seemed unloosed and the quarrelsome words unshakeable, once the truth is revealed, they shall be shaken down so as to never again be exalted according to the knowledge of God.

Similarly, forts and walls will be called to be built unshakeably by those gathering in idolatry and a polytheistic plan; these are named Tyrians by the manner of allegory, being taken as Greeks in sound for 'gathering' and 'continuing.'

And since all the evil ones are such unto themselves, with nothing bad existing in essence, Tyre becomes a divine inheritance along with all those concerning whom it is said by the Father to the Savior: 'Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance' (Psalm 2:8). Being among the inheriting nations, Tyre herself shall be made subject after having seen the immense powers of Jesus and having repented.

For if previously she was acting insolently, building strongholds, and hoarding silver as if it were dust, and gathering gold as if it were clay, her power was torn apart into the life of the...