Isaiah 23

Isaiah

23 ¹A prophecy against Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for it is destroyed,
without house or harbor.
It is revealed to them from the land of Kittim.

²Be silent, O inhabitants of the coast,
O merchants of Sidon,

whose messengers crossed the sea
³and were on the many waters.

The grain of Sihor, the harvest of the Nile, was its revenue,
and she was the trade center of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has said,
the stronghold of the sea, saying,

Tyre

“I have not labored with child,
nor have I given birth;

I have not raised young men,
nor have I brought up virgin girls.”

Isaiah

⁵When the report reached Egypt,
they experience labor pains over the report concerning Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish.
Wail, O inhabitants of the coast.

Unnamed individual

⁷Is this your exultant {city}, founded in days of old?
On whose feet you were carried to settle far away?

⁸Who has planned this against Tyre,
the one who bestows crowns,

whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?

Isaiah

⁹The LORD of Hosts has planned it,
to defile the pride of all beauty,
to dishonor all of the honored of the earth.

¹⁰Pass through your land[1] like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

¹¹He {God} stretched out His hand over the sea.
He made the kingdoms tremble.
The LORD has commanded to Canaan, to destroy its strongholds.

¹²And He said,

The Lord

“You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin,
daughter of Sidon.

Arise, cross over to Kittim;
even there, you will have no rest.

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans.
This is the people that is not.

Assyria destined it for desert-beasts.
They erected their siege-towers.
They stripped its palaces.
They made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is destroyed.”

Isaiah

¹⁵And it will come to pass, in that day, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will be with Tyre as the song about the harlot:

Unnamed individual

¹⁶“Take a harp,
go about the city, O forgotten harlot;

play skillfully,
multiply songs, so that you will be remembered.”

Isaiah

¹⁷And it will come to pass, at the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and it will return to its hire and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. ¹⁸Its merchandise and its hire will be holiness to the LORD; it will not be stored nor hoarded. But its merchandise will be for abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.