c. 587 b.c.
During Ezekiel’s time, the city of Tyre had grown very wealthy due to its strategic island location in the middle of the ancient Near East. Tyre served as a sort of international commodities exchange for the surrounding nations, and Ezekiel’s extensive list of various nations who traded or collaborated with Tyre (shown here) gives a glimpse of the city’s great influence. Merchants from as far away as Persia, southern Arabia (including Sheba, etc.), and perhaps even Spain (a possible location of Tarshish) traded their goods there.
