King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire began a campaign of wars in the Near East to solidify his control over the region in the 600s BC after the fall of Assyria.

[1][12] According to accounts by Saint Jerome in his Commentary on Ezekiel, Nebuchadnezzar II was unable to attack the city with conventional methods, such as using battering rams or siege engines, since Tyre was an island city, so he ordered his soldiers to gather rocks and build a causeway from the mainland to the walls of the island, similar to Alexander the Great's strategy in his siege 250 years later.

[1] Nebuchadnezzar II was never able to take control of Tyre by military means, leaving the result of the siege as militarily inconclusive.

[1] The historicity of the siege was supported by a cuneiform tablet discovered in 1926 by German archeologist Eckhard Unger that discussed food provisions for "the king and his soldiers for their march against Tyre.

They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water.

Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: (Ezekiel 29:18)[26]The statement, "Every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw", could be interpreted to mean that the siege did not end in a decisive victory for the Babylonians and that heavy casualties may have been suffered.

[27][28] According to Block, the lament of chapter 27 is also internally structured as a diptych: Ezekiel's habit of “halving” pronouncements is evident as each of these major segments divides further into two parts.

11 and 12 as the imagery changes from a metaphoric description of Tyre as a ship, magnificently constructed and handled by the nobility of surrounding nations (vv.