Isaiah 23:1-14 ▼

1 The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor; It is revealed to them from the land of Cyprus.

2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon; Your messengers crossed the sea

3 And were on many waters. The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue; And she was the nations’ gain.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying, “I have neither travailed nor given birth; I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”

5 When the report reaches Egypt, They will be in travail at the report of Tyre.

6 Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

7 Is this your exultant city, Whose origin is from days of old, Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?

8 Who has counseled this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

9 Yahweh of hosts has counseled it, to defile the pride of all beauty, To make contemptuous all the honored of the earth.

10 Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; There is no more restraint.

11 He has stretched His hand out over the sea; He has made the kingdoms tremble; Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strong defenses.

12 So He said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria established it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, For your strong defense is destroyed.