Isaiah 23
The Scriptures (ISR 1998)

1The message concerning Tsor. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it has been destroyed, without house, without harbour. From the land of Kittim it has been revealed to them.

2Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Tsiḏon, who passed over the sea, they filled you.

3And on great waters the grain of Shiḥor, the harvest of the River, was her increase. And she was a market-place for the nations.

4Be ashamed, O Tsiḏon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not laboured, nor brought forth children; neither have I reared young men, brought up maidens.”

5Like the report of Mitsrayim, they too are grieved at the report of Tsor.

6Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!

7Is this your city of revelry, whose antiquity is from days of old, whose feet carried her far off to sojourn?

8Who has counselled this against Tsor, the crowning city, whose merchants are chiefs, whose traders are the esteemed of the earth?

9יהוה of hosts has counselled it, to defile the pride of all splendour, and to shame all the esteemed of the earth.

10Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more strength.

11He has stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the reigns; יהוה has given a command against Kena‛an to destroy its strongholds.

12And He said, “Never again shall you exult, O you oppressed maiden daughter of Tsiḏon. Arise, pass over to Kittim, even there you shall find no rest.”

13See the land of the Chaldeans – this people did not exist. Ashshur founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up their siege-towers, they demolished her palaces, and made her a ruin.

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

15And in that day it shall be that Tsor is forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one sovereign. At the end of seventy years it shall be to Tsor as in the song of the whore:

16“Take a lyre, go about the city, you forgotten whore; make sweet playing, sing many songs, so that you might be remembered.”

17And at the end of seventy years it shall be that יהוה visits Tsor. And she shall return to her hire and commit whoring with all the reigns of the earth on the face of the soil.

18And her goods and her hire shall be set apart for יהוה, not treasured nor laid up, for her gain is for those who dwell before יהוה, to eat sufficiently, and for a choice covering.

Isaiah 22
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