Isaiah 23

English Standard Version

1 The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus[1] it is revealed to them. (Ge 10:4; 1Ki 10:22; 1Ki 22:48; Isa 13:1; Isa 23:14; Isa 24:10; Jer 2:10; Jer 25:22; Jer 27:2; Eze 26:2; Joe 3:4; Am 1:9; Zec 9:2)2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you. (Ge 10:15; Jos 19:28; Isa 23:4; Isa 23:12; Jer 25:22; Jer 27:3; Eze 27:8; Eze 32:30; Joe 3:4; Zec 9:2)3 And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations. (Eze 27:3)4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.” (Isa 23:2)5 When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish[2] over the report about Tyre.6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast! (Isa 23:12)7 Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? (Ge 10:15)8 Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?9 The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory,[3] to dishonor all the honored of the earth. (Eze 28:7)10 Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint anymore.11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. (Ex 14:21)12 And he said: “You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest.” (Isa 23:1; Isa 23:2; Isa 23:6)13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;[4] Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin. (2Ki 25:1; Isa 47:1; Isa 48:14)14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. (Isa 23:1)15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days[5] of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: (Jer 25:11; Jer 25:22)16 “Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered.”17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. (Jer 25:11; Jer 25:22; Re 17:1)18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.