◄ Zechariah 9:3 ►
Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.
Study Bible
Tyre has built herself a fortress;
Tyre was a prominent Phoenician city known for its strong fortifications and strategic coastal location. Historically, Tyre was divided into two parts: the mainland city and the island city, which was heavily fortified. The phrase highlights Tyre's self-reliance and pride in its defenses. The city's fortifications were considered nearly impregnable, which is significant in understanding the prophecy against it. This reflects the broader biblical theme of human pride and reliance on earthly strength, which is often contrasted with reliance on God (Isaiah 2:11-12).

she has heaped up silver like dust,
Tyre was renowned for its wealth, largely due to its extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean. The imagery of silver being as common as dust emphasizes the immense wealth and prosperity of the city. This accumulation of wealth is often seen in the Bible as a potential source of corruption and idolatry (Ezekiel 28:4-5). The wealth of Tyre is also a reminder of the transient nature of earthly riches, as seen in the eventual downfall of the city.

and gold like the dirt of the streets.
The comparison of gold to dirt underscores the abundance of wealth in Tyre, suggesting that gold was as plentiful as the very ground people walked on. This hyperbolic expression serves to illustrate the city's opulence and the potential moral decay that can accompany such material excess. In biblical literature, gold often symbolizes purity and value, but here it is depicted as commonplace, indicating a devaluation of what is truly precious. This can be connected to Jesus' teachings on the dangers of wealth and the importance of storing up treasures in heaven rather than on earth (Matthew 6:19-21).

Persons / Places / Events
1. Tyre
An ancient Phoenician city known for its wealth and strong fortifications. It was a major trading hub in the ancient world, often associated with pride and self-reliance due to its economic prosperity and strategic location.

2. Zechariah
A prophet in the Old Testament who ministered to the people of Judah after their return from Babylonian exile. His prophecies often contain visions of hope and restoration, as well as warnings against pride and self-sufficiency.

3. Fortress
Represents the physical and metaphorical defenses that Tyre built to protect itself. It symbolizes human efforts to secure safety and prosperity apart from reliance on God.

4. Silver and Gold
Symbols of wealth and material prosperity. In the context of Tyre, they represent the city's accumulation of riches and the false sense of security that comes from material abundance.

5. Dust and Dirt
These elements emphasize the abundance of wealth in Tyre, suggesting that silver and gold were as common as dust and dirt. This imagery highlights the city's excessive focus on material wealth.
Teaching Points
The Danger of Pride and Self-Reliance
Tyre's downfall serves as a warning against pride and self-reliance. Trusting in material wealth and human fortifications can lead to spiritual complacency and eventual ruin.

The Temporary Nature of Earthly Wealth
The imagery of silver and gold being like dust and dirt reminds us that material wealth is fleeting. True security and value are found in a relationship with God, not in earthly possessions.

God's Sovereignty Over Nations
Despite Tyre's wealth and defenses, it could not withstand God's judgment. This underscores God's ultimate authority over nations and individuals, reminding us to place our trust in Him.

The Call to Humility and Dependence on God
Believers are encouraged to cultivate humility and dependence on God rather than relying on their own resources or abilities. This involves seeking God's guidance and provision in all aspects of life.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the example of Tyre challenge our understanding of security and success in today's world?

2. In what ways can we guard against the pride and self-reliance that led to Tyre's downfall?

3. How can we apply the principle of storing treasures in heaven to our daily financial decisions?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure our trust is in God rather than in material wealth?

5. How does understanding God's sovereignty over nations and individuals impact our perspective on current global events?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Ezekiel 28
This chapter provides a detailed prophecy against Tyre, highlighting its pride and eventual downfall. It serves as a parallel to Zechariah's warning, emphasizing the consequences of relying on wealth and human strength.

Proverbs 18:11
This verse speaks about the rich man's wealth being his strong city, illustrating the false security that wealth can provide, similar to Tyre's reliance on its riches.

Matthew 6:19-21
Jesus teaches about storing treasures in heaven rather than on earth, contrasting the temporary nature of earthly wealth with eternal spiritual riches.
Sermons
God's JudgmentsW. Forsyth Zechariah 9:1-8
National JudgmentsT. V. Moore, D. D.Zechariah 9:1-8
Prophetic FulfilmentsRalph Wardlaw, D. D.Zechariah 9:1-8
The Dark and Bright Side of God's Revelation to MankindHomilistZechariah 9:1-8
The Dark and the Bright Side of God's Revelation to MankindD. Thomas Zechariah 9:1-8
People
Aram, Javan, Jebusites, Zechariah, Zidon
Places
Ashdod, Ashkelon, Damascus, Ekron, Euphrates River, Gaza, Greece, Hadrach, Hamath, Jerusalem, Philistia, Sidon, Tyre, Zion
Topics
Amassed, Best, Build, Built, Bulwark, Dirt, Dust, Fine, Fortress, Gold, Got, Heap, Heaped, Herself, Hold, Mire, Out-places, Piled, Rampart, Silver, Streets, Strong, Stronghold, Tyre, Tyrus
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Zechariah 9:3

     4333   gold
     4363   silver
     6151   dirt

Zechariah 9:3-4

     5973   unreliability

Library
Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

And the Manner of his Entry into Jerusalem, which was the Capital of Judæa...
And the manner of His entry into Jerusalem, which was the capital of Judæa, where also was His royal seat and the temple of God, the prophet Isaiah declares: Say ye to the daughter of Sion, Behold a king corneth unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass, a colt the foal of an ass. [233] (Isa. lxii. 11, Zech. ix. 9) For, sitting. on an ass's colt, so He entered into Jerusalem, the multitudes strewing and putting down for Him their garments. And by the daughter of Sion he means Jerusalem. …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Caesarea. Strato's Tower.
The Arabian interpreter thinks the first name of this city was Hazor, Joshua 11:1. The Jews, Ekron, Zephaniah 2:4. "R. Abhu saith," (he was of Caesarea,) "Ekron shall be rooted out"; this is Caesarea, the daughter of Edom, which is situated among things profane. She was a goad, sticking in Israel, in the days of the Grecians. But when the kingdom of the Asmonean family prevailed, it overcame her, &c. R. Josi Bar Chaninah saith, What is that that is written, 'And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite?' (Zech …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

History of the Interpretation.
1. AMONG THE JEWS. This History, as to its essential features, might, a priori, be sketched with tolerable certainty. From the nature of the case, we could scarcely expect that the Jews should have adopted views altogether erroneous as to the subject of the prophecy in question; for the Messiah appears in it, not in His humiliation, but in His glory--rich in gifts and blessings, and Pelagian self-delusion will, a priori, return an affirmative answer to the question as to whether one is …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Hosanna!
Assuredly, this honor paid to our Lord was passing strange; a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer-tide in a long and dreary winter. He that was, as a rule, "despised and rejected of men", was for the moment surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord. Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Christian State
Scripture references: Matthew 22:17-22; 17:24-27; Acts 23:5; John 6:15; Matthew 4:8-10; John 18:36-38; Mark 14; 61,62; John 18:33; 19:19; Isaiah 9:6,7; 60:3; Zechariah 9:10; Daniel 7:14; Matthew 26:64; 26:53,54; 16:16,17; 25:31,32. CHRIST AND THE STATE The Relation of Christ to the State.--He was an intense patriot. He loved His country. The names of His great countrymen, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua and David, were ever on His lips. He offered Himself as the national Messiah (Matthew 21:1-17), …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
(from Bethany to Jerusalem and Back, Sunday, April 2, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 1-12, 14-17; ^B Mark XI. 1-11; ^C Luke XIX. 29-44; ^D John XII. 12-19. ^c 29 And ^d 12 On the morrow [after the feast in the house of Simon the leper] ^c it came to pass, when he he drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, ^a 1 And when they came nigh unto Jerusalem, and came unto Bethphage unto { ^b at} ^a the mount of Olives [The name, Bethphage, is said to mean house of figs, but the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
[Sidenote: Israel's literature at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ] Could we have studied the scriptures of the Israelitish race about 400 B.C., we should have classified them under four great divisions: (1) The prophetic writings, represented by the combined early Judean, Ephraimite, and late prophetic or Deuteronomic narratives, and their continuation in Samuel and Kings, together with the earlier and exilic prophecies; (2) the legal, represented by the majority of the Old Testament …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Gospel of the Kingdom.
"This is He whom Seers in old time Chanted of with one accord; Whom the voices of the Prophets Promised in their faithful word." We have seen that, in the providence of God, John the Baptist was sent to proclaim to the world that "The Kingdom of Heaven" was at hand, and to point out the King. And as soon as the Herald had raised the expectation of men by the proclamation of the coming Kingdom, our Lord began His public ministry, the great object of which was the founding of His Kingdom for the salvation …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Zechariah 9:3 NIV
Zechariah 9:3 NLT
Zechariah 9:3 ESV
Zechariah 9:3 NASB
Zechariah 9:3 KJV

Zechariah 9:3 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Zechariah 9:2
Top of Page
Top of Page