An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon
Isa 23:1 A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.
Isa 23:2 Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.
Isa 23:3 On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.
Isa 23:4 Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”
Isa 23:5 When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.
Isa 23:6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.
Isa 23:7 Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?
Isa 23:8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?
Isa 23:9 The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.
Isa 23:10 Till your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.
Isa 23:11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.
Isa 23:12 He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”
Isa 23:13 Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.
Isa 23:14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!
Isa 23:15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, 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:
Isa 23:16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”
Isa 23:17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
Isa 23:18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.
1 The miserable overthrow of Tyre. 17 Their unhappy return.
An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon
Isa 23:1 A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbour. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.
Tyre and Sidon were the chief cities of the great maritime nation of Phoenicia, and this prophecy this message is, therefore, one of divine judgment against Phoenicia.
Tyre and Sidon were frequently the target of attack by great nations of the Near East, including Assyria and Babylon, and later by Alexander the Great. To which of these attacks does Isaiah refer? Probably all of them. Certainly the Lord had a message for Phoenicia in Isaiah’s time, and the prophecy, include measures taken by Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, and Sennacherib against Tyre.
But the prophecy is doubtless of a more comprehensive nature, and refers also to later times, when the judgment predicted became even more extensive, as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and of Alexander the Great. For Ezekiel’s parallel prophecy, see Eze. 26 to 28. For parallel imagery in the book of Revelation, compare Isa. 23:2, 8, 11, 15, 17 with Rev. 17:2, 5; 18:2, 3, 5, 11, 23. See also on Isa. 47:1; Jer. 25:12; 50:1; Eze. 26:13.
Ships of Tarshish. Here, ships on their return voyage from Tarshish are meant. Isaiah’s prophecy pictures the great ships of Tarshish laden with wealth, making their way around the Mediterranean to their home port of Tyre, and just before arriving there, finding that the city had been taken.
The ships now had no home port to which they might go.
Here would be the last port of call on the voyage from Spain to Tyre, and here the crews of the homeward-bound ships would learn of the disaster that had befallen their home port.
Isa 23:2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon, Whom those who cross the sea have filled.
Sidon. The term Sidon frequently represents all Phoenicia. In earlier times the city of Sidon was more prominent than Tyre. The Homeric Greeks and the Assyrians at times used the term Sidon in this sense. Tyre was known as the metropolis of the Sidonians, and the Tyrian king, the “king of the Sidonians” (see on 1 Kings 16:31).
Isa 23:3 And on great waters the grain of Shihor, The harvest of the River, is her revenue; And she is a marketplace for the nations.
Sihor. The “seed of Sihor” evidently means the grain of Egypt. Phoenician imported grain from Egypt, and Phoenician vessels undoubtedly carried it in an extensive trade.
Isa 23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; For the sea has spoken, The strength of the sea, saying, “I do not labor, nor bring forth children; Neither do I rear young men, Nor bring up virgins.”
Be ashamed. To be without offspring was regarded as a disgrace (see on Gen. 16:4; 20:18; 30:23; 38:25). Sidon is here pictured as bemoaning the fact that she is without children. She sits alone, desolate and forsaken, weeping over her forlorn and helpless condition (see Isa. 47:7–9; Rev. 18:7)
Isa 23:5 When the report reaches Egypt, They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.
Upon receiving the report of the doom of Phoenicia, Egypt would be stricken with anguish. When the Assyrians wreaked their vengeance on Tyre and Sidon they were in a position to attack Egypt. In the days of Nebuchadnezzar and of Alexander the Great the capture of Tyre was preliminary to an invasion of Egypt (see Eze. 29:18–20).
Isa 23:6 Cross over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
The doom of Tyre was to bring distress to all the coast line of Phoenicia (see on v. 2) and to other areas that depended upon Phoenician commerce. Those inhabitants of Tyre,
who were able to escape from the city would flee to such distant places as Tarshish.
Isa 23:7 Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?
The prophet taunts Tyre because of her coming doom. Compare this with his taunting song against Babylon (ch. 14:4–23). Phoenician colonies dotted the shores of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic coast of Europe.
Isa 23:8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?
Who is responsible for the doom that will lay Tyre low? Tyre stands in her might and glory, but a power far greater than she has pronounced judgment against her.
Isa 23:9 The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.
Isaiah answers the question of v. 8. Tyre proudly vaunts herself against the Lord of heaven, setting herself up as greater than God (Eze. 28:2–8), but the Lord will reduce her to humiliation and shame (see Isa. 13:11; 14:24, 26, 27). The destruction of Tyre will be a demonstration to all of how the Lord humbles the pride and the haughtiness of men.
Isa 23:10 Till your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.
The one addressed is the “daughter of Tarshish,” that is, Tarshish itself, or its inhabitants. They are to leave their city like a river overflowing its banks, and go wherever they can.
No more strength. They are now free to do as they please, and Tyre can no longer restrain them. After the fall of Tyre the Phoenician colonies carried on for themselves. Some (such as Carthage)
became even more powerful than Tyre itself had been.
Isa 23:11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.
The Lord’s hand was “stretched out” over many nations, and they were shaken to their very foundations. Figuratively, God was shaking the entire world to carry out His will (see Isa. 2:19; cf. Haggai 2:6, 7; Heb. 12:26, 27). In this process many nations would be removed, and others set up in their places.
Merchant city. Heb. kena‘an, Canaan, the name by which the Phoenicians referred to themselves.
Isa 23:12 He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”
The final doom of the Phoenicians is here pictured. Whatever they might choose to do, they would not succeed. Heretofore Sidon had been undefiled—she had been able to protect herself against invasion.
Now, however, she was to be stripped of her robe of virginity and would be reduced to shame and reproach before all the world. Should the Phoenicians flee to Cyprus, they would find no rest, for there, too, the hand of the enemy would lay hold of them. There would be no escape.
Isa 23:13 Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.
In Isaiah’s time Assyria moved against Tyre, but without conquering it. Nebuchadnezzar later besieged it for 13 terrible years (see Eze. 28:18). Perhaps this campaign of Nebuchadnezzar is here foretold.
Isa 23:14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!
The prophecy of doom for Tyre concludes as it began. The Phoenician “ships of Tarshish” are to wail because Tyre, their stronghold, has been brought to ruin.
Isa 23:15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, 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:
Seventy years.
It is difficult to give a literal application of this prophecy, for the history of Tyre is not sufficiently well known. At the present it is not possible to give any specific year when the 70 years here referred to began and when they came to an end.
Some think this period was roughly parallel with the 70 years of Jewish captivity in Babylon (2 Chron. 36:21; Jer. 25:11; 29:10; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 1:12; 7:5), which began with Nebuchadnezzar’s first capture of Jerusalem and ended with the restoration and return under Cyrus and Darius of Persia. Nebuchadnezzar began his 13-year siege of Tyre shortly after his capture and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. Tyre was again an important city during the Persian period, and was again captured by Alexander in 332 b.c.
King’s life. The word “king” is probably used here for “kingdom,” as in Dan. 2:44; 7:17; 8:21. This expression may therefore denote the period of Babylonian occupation.
Prostitude. Literally, “it will be to Tyre according to the song of the harlot.” Tyre desired commercial supremacy. She would do anything for the sake of profit. In this respect she was like the prostitute Babylon, who sold herself for gain (Isa. 47:15; Rev. 17:2; 18:3).
Isa 23:16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”
Take an harp. A lyre. Tyre was to resort to her successful wiles, enticing merchants to trade with her to profit at their expense. She is compared to a lewd woman singing and playing, using these arts to seduce unwary men (see Prov. 7:7–21). Babylon also made use of “enchantments” to extend her influence (Isa. 47:9, 12; Rev. 17:4; 18:3).
Isa 23:17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
Prostitution That is, the illicit relations into which Tyre entered with the other nations of earth for the sake of gain. Honor, right, justice, and decency were all forgotten for the sake of profit. The same expression is used concerning Babylon (Rev. 17:2; 18:3). The world was no different then from what it is today. The curse of Babylon and Tyre is the curse of our modern age.
Isa 23:18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.
Her earnings. The doom of Tyre and the ultimate triumph of Zion are foretold. Despite her wiles Tyre would not continue forever, deceiving and defrauding men. She would fall, but Jerusalem would triumph. The harlot Babylon would suffer the same fate (Jer. 51:7, 8; Rev. 17:1, 5, 16; 18:2, 7–23).