Isaiah 23:1-15 ▼

1 Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, for the port is too devastated to enter! From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them.

2 Lament, you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

3 the deep waters! Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea says this, O fortress of the sea: |I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women.|

5 When the news reaches Egypt, they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre.

6 Travel to Tarshish! Wail, you residents of the coast!

7 Is this really your boisterous city whose origins are in the distant past, and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the dignitaries of the earth?

9 The LORD who commands armies planned it--to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

10 Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile; there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre.

11 The LORD stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook kingdoms; he gave the order to destroy Canaan's fortresses.

12 He said, |You will no longer celebrate, oppressed virgin daughter Sidon! Get up, travel to Cyprus, but you will find no relief there.|

13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, demolished its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins.

14 Wail, you large ships, for your fortress is destroyed!

15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: