Isaiah 23

A Prophecy Against Tyre

23A prophecy against Tyre:^s

Wail,^t you ships^u of Tarshish!^v

For Tyre is destroyed^w

and left without house or harbor.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

²Be silent,^x you people of the island

and you merchants^y of Sidon,^z

whom the seafarers have enriched.

³On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;^a

the harvest of the Nile^ab was the revenue of Tyre,^c

and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon,^d and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;^e

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

⁵When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish^f at the report from Tyre.^g

⁶Cross over to Tarshish;^h

wail, you people of the island.

⁷Is this your city of revelry,ⁱ

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants^j are princes,

whose traders^k are renowned in the earth?

⁹The Lord Almighty planned^l it,

to bring down^m her pride in all her splendor

and to humbleⁿ all who are renowned^o on the earth.

¹⁰Till^b your land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹The Lord has stretched out his hand^p over the sea

and made its kingdoms tremble.^q

He has given an order concerning Phoenicia

that her fortresses be destroyed.^r

¹²He said, “No more of your reveling,^s

Virgin Daughter^t Sidon, now crushed!

“Up, cross over to Cyprus;^u

even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians,^cv

this people that is now of no account!

The Assyrians^w have made it

a place for desert creatures;^x

they raised up their siege towers,^y

they stripped its fortresses bare

and turned it into a ruin.^z

¹⁴Wail, you ships^a of Tarshish;^b

your fortress is destroyed!^c

¹⁵At that time Tyre^d will be forgotten for seventy years,^e 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;^f

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.”

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