THE RUINED CITIES OF PALESTINE, ETC. 



13 



At Zarephath we saw the churning of butter in a leather bag 

 full of milk, which is swayed backwards and forwards until 

 it is formed. 



This is the site of Sarepta, where Elijah raised the widow's 

 son to life (1 Kings xvii, 8-24) ; and near here, on the coasts of 

 Tyre and Sidon, our Lord healed the daughter of the Canaanitish 

 woman. 



We next approach Tyre, now called Sur, from which the 

 name of Syria is derived — Syria really meaning the land of the 

 Tyrians or Surians. The origin of Tyre is lost in the mist of 

 centuries, and Isaiah says its " antiquity is of ancient days " 

 (xxiii, 7). Herodotus states it was founded about 2300 years 

 before his time, i.e., 2750 b.c. William of Tyre declares it was 

 called after the name of its founder, " Tyrus, who was the 

 seventh son of Japhet, the son of Noah." Strabo spoke of it 

 as the most considerable city of all Phoenicia. Sidon was certainly 

 the more ancient city of the two, but Tyre by far the more 

 celebrated and one of the greatest cities of antiquity. It was 

 besieged by Nebuchadnezzar for thirty years. The siege of 

 the city by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. was the most 

 remarkable and disastrous episode in the history of Tyre. The 

 island city held out for seven months, but was finally captured 

 by being united to the mainland by a mole formed of the stones, 

 timber and rubbish of old Tyre on the shore, which were con- 

 veyed into position by the Grecian army. Then the island was 

 made a peninsula, in which form it exists at the present day. 

 This siege was so remarkable a fulfilment of the prophecies of 

 Ezekiel that the words of the Hebrew prophet read more like 

 a history than a prediction. " Therefore thus saith the Lord 

 God : Behold, I am against thee, 0 Tyre, and will cause many 

 nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves 

 to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break 

 down her towers : I will also scrape her dust from her and make 

 her a bare rock. She shall be a place for the spreading of nets 

 in the midst of the sea ; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord 

 God : and she shall become a spoil to the nations .... and 

 they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy 

 merchandise : and they shall break down thy walls and destroy 

 thy pleasant houses : and they shall lay thy stones and thy 

 timber and thv dust in the midst of the waters " (Ezek. xxvi, 

 3-5, 12). 



In more modern times the city was taken by the Mohammedans, 



