Isaiah 23

23RD CHAPTER

Tyre Will Be Punished

¹This is the divine revelation about Tyre. 

Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish! 

Your port at Tyre is destroyed. 

Word has come to the ships from Cyprus. 

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants from Sidon. 

Your messengers have crossed the sea. 

³The grain of Shihor is on the Mediterranean. 

The harvest of the Nile River is brought to Tyre. 

Tyre became the marketplace for the nations. 

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, because the stronghold by the sea has spoken, 

“I’ve never been in labor or given birth. 

I’ve raised no sons. 

I’ve brought up no daughters.” 

⁵When the news reaches Egypt, 

the Egyptians will shudder over the news about Tyre. 

⁶Travel to Tarshish! 

Cry loudly, you inhabitants of the seacoast! 

⁷Is this your bustling city founded in the distant past? 

Is this the city that sent its people to settle in distant lands? 

⁸Who planned such a thing against Tyre, the city that produced kings? 

Its merchants are princes. 

Its traders are among the honored people of the world. 

⁹The Lord of Armies planned this 

in order to dishonor all arrogant people 

and to humiliate all the honored people of the world. 

¹⁰Travel through your country like the Nile, people of Tarshish. 

You no longer have a harbor. 

¹¹The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea to shake kingdoms. 

He has commanded that Canaan’s fortifications be destroyed. 

¹²He says, “You will no longer be joyful, 

my dear abused people Sidon.” 

Get up, and travel to Cyprus. 

Even there you will find no rest. 

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians. 

These people will be gone. 

Assyria gave this land to the desert animals. 

Assyria set up battle towers, 

stripped palaces bare, 

and turned these places into ruins. 

¹⁴Cry loudly, you ships of Tarshish, because your fortress will be destroyed. ¹⁵When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of the 70 years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in this song: 

¹⁶“Take your lyre. 

Go around in the city, you forgotten prostitute. 

Make sweet music. 

Sing many songs so that you’ll be remembered.” 

¹⁷At the end of 70 years the Lord will come to help Tyre. Then she will go back to earning money as a prostitute. She will become a prostitute for all the world’s kingdoms. ¹⁸Her profits and her earnings will be turned over to the Lord for his holy purpose. It won’t be stored or hoarded. Her merchandise will belong to those who live in the presence of the Lord so that they will have plenty of food and expensive clothing.