Isaiah 23:3
 Isaiah 23:3 
New International Version (©2011)
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.

New Living Translation (©2007)
sailing over deep waters. They brought you grain from Egypt and harvests from along the Nile. You were the marketplace of the world.

English Standard Version (©2001)
And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
And were on many waters. The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue; And she was the market of nations.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
on many waters. Tyre's revenue was the grain from Shihor-- the harvest of the Nile. She was the merchant among the nations.

International Standard Version (©2012)
and were on mighty waters. Her revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; and she became the marketplace of nations.

NET Bible (©2006)
the deep waters! Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The grain of Shihor is on the Mediterranean. The harvest of the Nile River is brought to Tyre. Tyre became the marketplace for the nations.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And by great waters the grain of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a marketplace of nations.

American King James Version
And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

American Standard Version
And on great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.

Darby Bible Translation
And on great waters, the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the market of the nations.

English Revised Version
And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.

Webster's Bible Translation
And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

World English Bible
On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.

Young's Literal Translation
And in many waters is the seed of Sihor, The harvest of the brook is her increase, And she is a mart of nations.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-14 Tyre was the mart of the nations. She was noted for mirth and diversions; and this made her loth to consider the warnings God gave by his servants. Her merchants were princes, and lived like princes. Tyre being destroyed and laid waste, the merchants should abandon her. Flee to shift for thine own safety; but those that are uneasy in one place, will be so in another; for when God's judgments pursue sinners, they will overtake them. Whence shall all this trouble come? It is a destruction from the Almighty. God designed to convince men of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly glory. Let the ruin of Tyre warn all places and persons to take heed of pride; for he who exalts himself shall be abased. God will do it, who has all power in his hand; but the Chaldeans shall be the instruments.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - By great waters; rather, on great waters; i.e. on the waters of the Mediterranean (cf. Psalm 107:23; Ezekiel 27:26). The Egyptian vessels conveyed the corn intended for exportation to the ports at the mouths of the Nile, where it was transhipped aboard Phoenician craft, which carried it on the open sea to the countries needing it. We never hear of the Egyptians disputing the trade of the Mediterranean with the Phoenicians and the Greeks, though they certainly had trading-vessels at times on the waters of the Red Sea. The seed of Sihor; i.e. the corn of the Nile valley. "Si-her," or rather "Shihor," is the only proper name by which the Nile is designated in the Hebrew Scriptures. It means "the dark," "the turbid," and may be compared with the modern "Bahr-el-azrak," used of the Eastern or Abyssinian Nile, and with the term" Nilus" itself, if that signifies "the dark blue stream." It occurs, as the name of the Nile, only in Joshua 13:3; 1 Chronicles 13:5; Jeremiah 2:18; and the present place. Is her revenue; i.e. "produces a portion of her annual income." And she is a man of nations (so Gesenius and Ewald). Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate, "It is the gain of the nations," referring "it' to the corn which the Tyrians exported.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And by great waters the seed of Sihor,.... Sihor is the river Nile in Egypt; it had its name from the black colour of its waters, as in Jeremiah 2:18 hence called by the Greeks Melas, and by the Latins Melo: the "seed" of it intends what was sown and grew upon the banks of it, or was nourished by the overflow of this river throughout the land, and includes corn, flax, paper, &c. with which Egypt abounded; and when this is said to be "by great waters", the meaning either is, that it grew by great waters, the waters of the Nile, and through the influence of them; or that it came by great waters to Tyre; that is, by the waters of the sea, the Mediterranean Sea:

the harvest of the river is her revenue; this clause is the same with the former, and serves to explain it; the river is the river Nile, the harvest is the seed that was sown and grew by it, and which at the proper season, when ripe, was gathered from it, and carried in ships to Tyre, with which that city was supplied and enriched, as if it had been its own produce:

and she is a mart of nations; Tyre was a city to which all nations traded, it was a mart for them all, and where they brought their wares to sell, and always found a market for them, here they had vent. The twenty seventh chapter of Ezekiel EZechariah 27:1 is a proper commentary on this clause.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. great waters—the wide waters of the sea.

seed—"grain," or crop, as in 1Sa 8:15; Job 39:12.

Sihor—literally, "dark-colored"; applied to the Nile, as the Egyptian Jeor, and the Greek Melas, to express the "dark, turbid" colors given to its waters by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its yearly overflow (Jer 2:18).

harvest of the river—the growth of the Delta; the produce due to the overflow of the Nile: Egypt was the great granary of corn in the ancient world (Ge 41:1-57; 42:1-38; 43:1-34).

her revenue—Tyrian vessels carried Egyptian produce obtained in exchange for wine, oil, glass, &c., into various lands, and so made large profits.

mart—(Eze 27:3). No city was more favorably situated for commerce.


Isaiah 23:3 Parallel Commentaries

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The Fall of Tyre
1The 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 Chittim it is revealed to them. 2Be still, you inhabitants of the isle; you whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. 3And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

Joshua 13:3 from the Shihor River on the east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north, all of it counted as Canaanite though held by the five Philistine rulers in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron; the territory of the Avvites
1 Chronicles 13:5 So David assembled all Israel, from the Shihor River in Egypt to Lebo Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim.
Isaiah 19:7 also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
Jeremiah 2:18 Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates?
Ezekiel 27:3 Say to Tyre, situated at the gateway to the sea, merchant of peoples on many coasts, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "'You say, Tyre, "I am perfect in beauty."