Isaiah Chapter 23

From The Open Bible Project

23:1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.

• (a) See Geneva
• (b) You of Cilicia that come here for merchandise.
• (c) Tyrus is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
• (d) By Chittim they meant all the isles and countries west of Palestine.
• (e) All men know of this destruction.

23:2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

• (f) Have hunted and enriched you.

23:3 On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.

• (g) Meaning, the corn of Egypt which was fed by the overflowing of the Nile.

23:4 Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, "I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins."

• (h) That is, Tyrus, which was the chief part of the sea.
• (i) I have no people left in me, and am as a barren woman, that never had children.

23:5 When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

• (k) Because these two countries were joined in league together.

23:6 Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!

• (l) Tyrus wills other merchants to go to Cilicia, and to come no more there.

23:7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?

23:8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?

• (m) Who makes her merchants like princes.

23:9 Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

23:10 Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.

• (n) Your strength will no more serve you: therefore flee to other countries for comfort.

23:11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. Yahweh has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds.

23:12 He said, "You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest."

• (o) For Tyre was never touched nor afflicted before.
• (p) Because Tyrus was built by them of Zidon.

23:13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.

• (q) The Chaldeans who dwelt in tents in the wilderness were gathered by the Assyrians into cities.
• (r) The people of the Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrians: by which the prophet means that seeing the Chaldaeans were able to overcome the Assyrians who were so great a nation, much more will these two nations of Chaldea and Assyria be able to overthrow Tyrus.

23:14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste!

• (s) That is, Tyrus by whom you are enriched.

23:15 It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.

• (t) Tyrus will lie destroyed seventy years which he calls the reign of one king, or a man’s age.
• (u) Will use all craft and subtilty to entice men again to her.

23:16 Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

• (x) She will labour by all means to recover her first credit, as a harlot when she is long forgotten, seeks by all means to entertain her lovers.

23:17 It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

• (y) Though she has been chastised by the Lord, yet she will return to her old wicked practises and for gain will give herself to all men’s lusts like a harlot.

23:18 Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

• (z) He shows that God yet by the preaching of the gospel will call Tyre to repentance and turn her heart from evil and filthy gain, to the true worshipping of God, and liberality toward his saints.