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23. Prophecy About Tyre

¹ A prophecy against Tyre:

   Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
   For Tyre is destroyed
   and left without house or harbor.
From the land of Cyprus
   word has come to them.

    ² Be silent, you people of the island
   and you merchants of Sidon,
   whom the seafarers have enriched.
³ On the great waters
   came the grain of the Shihor;
the harvest of the Nile Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls Sidon, / who cross over the sea; / your envoys are on the great waters. / The grain of the Shihor, / the harvest of the Nile, was the revenue of Tyre,
   and she became the marketplace of the nations.

    ⁴ Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,
   for the sea has spoken:
“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;
   I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”
⁵ When word comes to Egypt,
   they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

    ⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
   wail, you people of the island.
⁷ Is this your city of revelry,
   the old, old city,
whose feet have taken her
   to settle in far-off lands?
⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,
   the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants are princes,
   whose traders are renowned in the earth?
⁹ The LORD Almighty planned it,
   to bring down her pride in all her splendor
   and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

    ¹⁰ Till Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts; Masoretic Text Go through your land as they do along the Nile,
   Daughter Tarshish,
   for you no longer have a harbor.
¹¹ The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea
   and made its kingdoms tremble.
He has given an order concerning Phoenicia
   that her fortresses be destroyed.
¹² He said, “No more of your reveling,
   Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed!

   “Up, cross over to Cyprus;
   even there you will find no rest.”
¹³ Look at the land of the Babylonians, Or Chaldeans
   this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians have made it
   a place for desert creatures;
they raised up their siege towers,
   they stripped its fortresses bare
   and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish;
your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

    ¹⁶ “Take up a harp, walk through the city,
   you forgotten prostitute;
play the harp well, sing many a song,
   so that you will be remembered.”

¹⁷ At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸ Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

11. He stretched out his hand over the sea. It is thought that the prediction which the Prophet uttered, about the destruction of Tyre, is here confirmed by examples; namely, that the Lord has given so many examples of his power in overturning the greatest kingdoms, that we ought not to think it strange if he now overturn Tyre, however flourishing and wealthy it may be. And indeed this manner of speaking is frequently employed in Scripture, if it be not made plain by manifest examples and by actual demonstration. It is therefore believed that the Prophet here calls to remembrance the deliverance from Egypt, when the Lord divided the sea, (Exodus 14:21,22,) and again, when he drove out seven kings, and brought his people into the land of Canaan. (Joshua 6:1-27; 8:1-35; 10:1-43.) But when I take a closer view of the words of the Prophet, I am more disposed to explain them as referring to the present state of matters; for he speaks here of Tyre, whose riches covered the whole sea.

He shook the kingdoms. What he says about the kingdoms is, because she could not perish alone, but must at the same time involve many kingdoms in her ruin. Thus the whole world must have undergone some change, as appears from history; and finally, the Prophet himself draws the conclusion, that the Lord commanded that this mart of nations should be overthrown.

Jehovah hath given commandment concerning Canaan. ¹¹¹¹¹¹ {Bogus footnote} The word כנען (chĕnāăn) has led commentators to think that the Prophet here speaks of the Canaanites, and refers to the proof which God gave of his vengeance against them. But there is little force in that argument; for כנען (chĕnāăn) is often taken for a common noun, just as, a little before, (verse 8,) he used the word כנעניה (chinyāneihā) to mean her factors. The riches of Tyre having consisted of merchandise and trading, Isaiah described it by naming the principal part. By the expression, hath given commandment, he extols the providence of God, that the Jews may know that all that appears to be permanent in the world stands and falls according to the will of God, and that there is no need of the instruments of war for overturning the best fortified place, but the mere expression of the will of God is enough.