> I would like to take a moment here to play Yahweh's advocate and offer
> a possible fundamentalist explanation of this apparently failed prophecy:
>
> The function of a prophet was not just to predict future events, but
> to bring people to moral submission to God. Is it not possible that
> this prophesied destruction would come to pass only if the people of
> Tyre did not repent, and that they did indeed repent, and so, the
> destruction of Tyre was delayed?
There are two immediate problems with this line of thinking. Because I am requiring him to present only positive evidence that the contradiction is not a contradiction, he cannot rely on conjecture or inference like you have done above. He would be required to first demonstrate from the text where this prophecy mentions "mercy to the people of Tyre for their repentance" and second, to show where they repented, neither of which can be defended from a reading of the Bible.
-Brian