Isaiah 23

CHAPTER 23

An Oracle Concerning Tyre

¹The ¹oracle concerning ^aTyre.

Wail, O ^bships of ^cTarshish,

For Tyre is destroyed, without house or ^2dharbor;

It is revealed to them from the land of ^3eCyprus.

^2aBe silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon;

¹Your messengers crossed the sea

³And were on many waters.

^aThe ¹grain of ^2bShihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue;

And she was the nations’ ^cgain.

⁴Be ashamed, O ^aSidon;

For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying,

“I have neither travailed nor given birth;

I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt,

They will be in ^atravail at the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to ^aTarshish;

Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

⁷Is this your ^aexultant city,

Whose origin is from days of old,

Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?

⁸Who has counseled this against Tyre, ^athe bestower of crowns,

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

^9aYahweh of hosts has counseled it, to ^bdefile the pride of all beauty,

To make contemptuous all the ^chonored of the earth.

¹⁰¹Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no more ²restraint.

¹¹He has ^astretched His hand out ^bover the sea;

He has ^cmade the kingdoms tremble;

Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to ^ddemolish its strong defenses.

¹²So He said, “^aYou shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, pass over to ^1bCyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; ^aAssyria established it for ^bdesert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, ^cthey made it a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ^aships of Tarshish,

For your strong defense is destroyed.

¹⁵Now it will be in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten for ^aseventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶Take your harp, walk about the city,

O forgotten harlot;

Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs,

That you may be remembered.

¹⁷And it will be at ^athe end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will ^bplay the harlot with all the kingdoms ¹on the face of the earth.

¹⁸And her ^again and her harlot’s wages will be ^bset apart to Yahweh; it will not be treasured up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who inhabit the presence of Yahweh.