Isaiah 23:2-18 ▼

2 Be still, O dwellers of the coastland, merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea.

3 And on great waters is the seed of Sihor; the harvest of the River is her revenue, and she is a marketplace of nations.

4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, saying: “I have not been pained and I have not brought forth children, and I have not nourished young men or brought up young women.”

5 When the report comes to Egypt they will writhe in agony at the report of Tyre.

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

7 Is this your? jubilant one, whose origin is from days of old? Her own feet carried her to settle far away.

8 Who has taken counsel this against Tyre, the crowning one, whose merchants are princes; her traders are the honorable ones of the earth?

9 Yhwh of hosts has purposed it—to dishonor the pride of all glory, to shame all the honorable ones of the earth.

10 Cultivate your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no girdle anymore.

11 He has stretched out His hand over the sea, He has shaken the kingdoms. Yhwh has commanded against Canaan to destroy her strongholds.

12 And He said, “You will not add again to exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. To Kittim arise, pass over—even there is no rest unto you.”

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans—this people was not. Assyria has founded it for the desert creatures; they set up its towers, they raised up its palaces—He has appointed her to ruin.

14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your? refuge has been destroyed!

15 And it will come to pass in that day, that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years—as the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will come to pass to Tyre as the song of the harlot:

16 “Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many a song, so that you may be remembered.”

17 And it will come to pass at the end of seventy years, that YHWH will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

18 And her gain and her pay will be set apart for YHWH; it will not be stored up and not laid up, for unto those sitting before YHWH will be her gain, to eat to satisfaction, and for a surpassing covering.