The burden of Tyre the prophecy of the heavy calamity and destruction of Tyre; which now stood in its strength and glory, being seated in an island, upon a rock, abounding in riches, mighty in naval power, having lately conquered that navy which the Assyrians brought against them. Yet this city was, according to this prophecy, destroyed; and that twice, first by Nebuchadnezzar, and long afterward by Alexander the Great. And although this prophecy seem directly and properly to respect the former destruction, yet it seems to have some reference to the latter also; only it is intimated, that after seventy years Tyrus should recover her former power and glory, before her second and final destruction.

Howl, ye ships either,

1. Properly; to which howling and lamenting is ascribed by a known figure called prosopopoeia : or,

2. Metonymically, the merchants and owners of ships, who had much commerce with this illustrious mart.

Of Tarshish either,

1. Of Tarsus, a great port of Cilicia, which anciently had the dominion of that part of the sea; or,

2. Of the ocean, which is so called, 1Ki 10:22 Psa 48:7 Isa 2:16 .

It is laid waste it shall shortly be laid waste; which was fulfilled not by Shalmaneser, as some would have it; for though he straitened it for some time, yet he never took it; but by Nebuchadnezzar.

No entering in so effectually wasted, that there is not a house left in it, nor any merchants or others that go into it, either to trade in it, or to repair it.

It is revealed to them: the sense of the words thus rendered may be this, it , i.e. this burden or destruction of Tyre, is , i.e. shall be, revealed, declared or made known, unto them; either,

1. To the Tyrians, to whom this notice should be sent concerning the preparations of their enemies against them: or,

2. To the ships, by which he means their owners or merchants,

from the land of Chittim which may be here mentioned, either because they first had and gave them notice of it, as was now said; or because their last and sorest destruction was brought upon them by Alexander, who was of the land of Chittim , as is affirmed by that very ancient and venerable, though apocryphal writer, /APC 1Ma 1:1 8:5 . But this place is otherwise rendered, both by ancient and later interpreters, which seems to be more natural and easy, and no less agreeable to the Hebrew text; either thus, that she is laid waste, so that there is no house, nor entering or coming in (to wit, for traffic)

from the land of Chittim is made known to them, to wit, to the ships or merchants that used to resort thither for traffic: or rather thus, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, (not any houses left for the citizens to dwell in,) nor entering or coming in (to wit, of merchants) from the land of Chittim; she (to wit, her people) is removed or gone into captivity , as this word properly signifies, and is rendered, Isa 38:12 . And for the last Hebrew word, lamo , which is rendered to them , (which is the only objection against this interpretation,) it is only added as an elegancy of the Hebrew language, and hath no further signification, as it is also Psa 58:7 , and as the particle lo , which signifies the same thing, and such other pronouns, are frequently redundant and insignificant in the Hebrew text, as hath been oft observed by grammarians and interpreters. He mentions

the land of Chittim because this was an eminent place for shipping and trading, as is manifest from Num 24:24 Eze 27:6 Dan 11:30 , and therefore doubtless had great dealings and commerce with Tyre, and may here be put synecdochically for all other countries which traded with her. It is not necessary, for the understanding of this text, to determine what Chittim is, whether it was Italy, or Greece, or the islands in those parts; it is sufficient to know that it was a seafaring place in the Midland Sea; and so much startled and concerned in the destruction of Tyre.

Be still Heb. Be silent , as one confounded, and not knowing what to say, or as mourners use to be, Job 2 8,13 Isa 47:5 ; boast no more of thy wealth and power, as thou usedst to do.

Of the isle Heb. of Tyrus , which now was an island, Eze 27:3 28:2 , till Alexander joined it to the continent, as Pithy reports. Although the title of islands is oft given by the Hebrews to places bordering upon the sea.

Zidon an eminent city of Palestine, nigh unto Tyre, much concerned with her and for her.

That pass over the sea that are a seafaring people. Have replenished; with mariners, Eze 27:8 , and commodities.

By great waters by the sea, which is very fitly called the great waters , Psa 107:23 ; understand, cometh , or is brought to her.

The seed of Sihor the corn of Egypt, wherewith Egypt abounded, and furnished divers other parts of the world, whence it was called the granary of the Roman empire; which also was easily conveyed by sea from Egypt to Tyre, and thence to divers other countries. This is called seed , here, as also Hag 1:10 , and elsewhere, by a usual metonymy; and the seed of Sihor , because it grew up the more abundantly because of the overflow of the river, as all sorts of authors have noted. For Sihor is nothing else but Nilus, as appears from Jer 2:18 , which is called Sihor , as by the Greeks it was called Melas , from its black colour. And this and no other river seems to be that Sihor, which is so oft mentioned as one of the bounds of the land of Canaan, as Num 34:5 , &c., because that land, at least in that extent which God allotted and gave it to the Israelites, though they through neglect or cowardice might not actually possess it, did reach to one of the branches of that river. And indeed, if Sihor be not Nilus, that great and neighbouring river is not named in all the Scripture, which seems very improbable.

The harvest of the river: this clause explains the former; that plentiful harvest of corn which comes from the influence and inundation of Nilus, which is emphatically called the river, as here, so also Exo 1:22 Isa 19:5 Eze 29:3,9 , as Euphrates is in other texts of Scripture.

Is her revenue is as easily procured and plentifully enjoyed by her, as if it grew in her own territories.

A mart of nations a place to which all nations resort for traffic.

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon for Zidon was a great city near Tyre, and strongly united to her by commerce and league, and called by some the mother of Tyre, which they say was built and first inhabited by a colony of the Sidonians; and therefore she must needs be greatly concerned in the destruction of Tyrus.

The sea that part of the sea in which Tyrus was, and from which ships and men were sent into all countries.

The strength of the sea: this is added to explain what he meant by the sea, even Tyrus, who might be called the strength of the sea , either actively, because it defended that part of the sea from piracies and injuries; or passively, because it was defended and strengthened by the sea, which encompassed it. And this title is here given to Tyrus, to show what great cause of confusion and fear Zidon had from this example, which for strength was much inferior to Tyrus.

I travail not, nor bring forth children & c.; I, who was so exceeding fruitful and populous, that I sent forth colonies into other countries, (of which the famous city of Carthage was one,) am now become barren and desolate.

According to this translation the sense is, All the neighbouring nations shall be no less terrified at the tidings of lite destruction of Tyrus, than they were of old upon the report of God’ s former and dreadful judgments upon the Egyptians, of which see Exo 15:14-16 Jos 2:9,11 , because they shall despair of resisting that enemy against whom that vast and potent city, which was deemed impregnable, could not defend itself. But the words are by the LXX., and other both ancient and later interpreters, rendered otherwise, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew text, When the report (to wit, of the destruction of Tyre) came, or shall come, (which word is easily understood, as it is above, Isa 23:3 , and in other texts of Scripture before mentioned,) to the Egyptians, they shall be sorely pained according to the report of Tyre ; their grief shall be answerable to the report; as the report is very dreadful, so their grief and anguish shall be very great: or, they shall fear lest they should be destroyed in like manner as Tyrus was destroyed.

Pass ye over to Tarshish flee from your own country to Tarsus of Cilicia, and there bewail your calamities. Or rather, as others render the place, Pass over the sea , which is oft called Tarshish; of which See Poole "Isa 23:1" .

Of the isle of Tyrus, as before, Isa 23:2 .

Is this your joyous city that formerly lived in so much pomp, and pleasure, and security? Whose antiquity is of ancient days; being built before Joshua’ s time, as is manifest from Jos 19:29 . Her own feet shall carry her ; whereas before, like a delicate lady, she would not set the sole of her foot to the ground, as the expression is, Deu 28:56 , but used to be carried in stately chariots, or magnificent vessels.

To sojourn to seek for new habitations. For as some of the Tyrians were taken and carried captive into Chaldea, and other places, so others fled by sea into several parts of the world, Carthage, and divers other towns of the Midland Sea, as is recorded by ancient historians.

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre? words of admiration: who and where is he that could imagine or durst attempt such a thing as this? This is the work of God, as is expressed, Isa 23:9 , and not of man.

The crowning city which was a royal city, Jer 25:22 , and called a kingdom , Eze 28:2,12 , and carried away the crown from all other cities, and crowned herself and her, citizens with glory and delights.

Whose merchants are princes equal to princes for wealth, and power, and reputation.

The Lord of hosts hath purposed it this is the Lord’ s own doing; therefore do not doubt it, nor wonder at it. God’ s design is by this one example to abate and abase the pride of all the potentates of the earth, that they may see and know what weak and wretched creatures they are, when God leaves them, and sets himself against them.

Pass through the land tarry no longer in thy own territories, but flee through them, and beyond them, into other countries, for safety and relief.

As a river swiftly, lest you be prevented; and continually, till you be all gone; and in shoals and multitudes.

O daughter of Tarshish O Tyrus; for of her he speaks both in the foregoing and following words. And Tyrus might well be called the daughter of Tarshish , i.e. of the sea, as that word is used, Isa 23:1 , and elsewhere, because it then was an island, and therefore as it were born of the sea, and nourished and brought up by it.

No more strength Heb. no more girdle : the girdle, which strengthens the loins of a man, is put for strength, as Job 12:21 38:3 . It behoveth you, O people of Tyrus, to flee away, as I advise you; for your city is unable to defend you; your wealth, the sinews of war, is lost; your walls broken down; the sea, which, like a girdle, surrounded and defended you, is now in part filled up by your enemies, who have joined you to the main land; your former friends and allies forsake you.

He the Lord, expressed Isa 23:9 , stretched out his hand to strike it, the antecedent being put for the consequent,

over the sea or, against the sea , i.e. against Tyrus, the daughter of the sea, as she was now called; and consequently against all those ships and men which used to traffic with Tyrus, and were enriched by that trade, and therefore suffered in her fall.

He shook the kingdoms Heb. he made the kingdoms to tremble; either,

1. The two kingdoms of Tyre and Sidon; or rather,

2. The neighbouring and confederate kingdoms, as appears by comparing this with Eze 26:15-18 , who might justly quake at her fall, partly, for the dreadfulness and unexpectedness of the thing; partly, because Tyre was a bulwark, and a refuge, and a great advantage to them; and partly, because her fall made way for their ruin, as being destroyed by their common enemy.

Hath given a commandment hath contrived and purposed it, as was said, Isa 23:8,9 ; hath put this design into the heads and hearts of her enemies, and given them courage to attempt, and strength to execute, so difficult an enterprise.

Against the merchant city Heb. against Canaan ; the word Canaan being taken either,

1. For a merchant, as it is used, Job 41:6 Hos 12:7 ; or rather,

2. For the proper name of a place or people, as it is generally used; for the Tyrians and Sidonians were descended from Canaan, Gen 10:15 , and were the only considerable remainders of that cursed race whom God had devoted to destruction. And so this phrase may be here used both as all evidence and as an argument of their intended and approaching ruin.

O thou oppressed virgin: so he calls her, either for her pride and beauty, and living in great ease and pleasure; or because she had hitherto never borne the yoke of a conquering enemy; though withal he declares that she should be oppressed or defloured very suddenly.

Daughter of Zidon whereby he understands either,

1. Zidon herself, who suffered in and with Tyre: for so this phrase seems generally to be used,

the daughter of Zion or of Jerusalem , or of Babel , or Egypt , &c., being nothing else but Zion, Jerusalem, Babel, Egypt , &c. Or rather,

2. Tyrus, as most interpreters, both Jewish and Christian, understand it, of whom this whole context and prophecy speaks; which may well be called the daughter of Zidon, because she was first built and possessed by a colony of the Sidonians; as Pliny calleth Carthage the daughter of Tyre, because she was built by a colony of Tyrians. And the title of daughter is ofttimes given in Scripture to towns or cities which had their being from or dependence upon other cities; in which sense we read of the daughter of Heshbon, Num 21:25 , and of Rubbah, Jer 49:2,3 , and of Sodom, and of Samaria, Eze 16:46,49,53 . And the daughter of Tarshish here above, Isa 23:10 , is not meant of Tarshish itself, but of Tyrus, which had a relation to and dependence upon Tarshish.

Pass over to Chittim of which place See Poole "Isa 23:1" . There also shalt thou have no rest ; thither thine enemies shall pursue thee, and there shall they overtake thee, although thou wilt think thyself secure when thou art fled to remote parts beyond the sea.

Behold the land of the Chaldeans you Tyrians, who think your city impregnable, cast your eyes upon the land and empire of the Chaldeans, or Babylonians; which though now it be a flourishing kingdom, and shall shortly grow far more glorious and potent, even the glory of kingdoms , as it is called, Isa 13:19 , yet. shall certainly be brought to utter ruin; and therefore your presumption is most vain and unreasonable.

This people was not: the Chaldeans at first were not a people, not formed into any commonwealth or kingdom.

Till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness till Nimrod, the head and founder of the Assyrian monarchy, built Babel, Gen 10:10 , now the head of the Chaldean monarchy, which he built for those people, who then lived in tents, and were dispersed here and there in wild and waste places, that he might bring them into order, and under government, and thereby establish and promote his own empire.

They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof the Chaldeans being by this means brought together into a body, fell to the work of building their city, and its towers and palaces, and thereby got power and dominion over their neighbours, till at last they grew the greatest of all the monarchies that then were upon earth.

He the Lord, who is expressed before, and is frequently designed in Scripture by this indefinite pronoun he, as hath been many times observed; whereby he insinuates the true reason why neither the Chaldeans nor the Tyrians should be able to stand, because the Almighty God was engaged against them. Brought it to ruin; will infallibly bring that great empire to ruin. He speaks of a future thing as if it were already past, as the prophets use to do. The Chaldeans shall now return to their first nothing, and become no people again.

Your strength the city of Tyre, where you found safety and wealth.

Forgotten neglected and forsaken by those who used to resort thither.

Seventy years during the whole time of the Jewish captivity in Babylon. For Tyrus was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, Jer 27:3,8 Eze 26:7 , a little after the taking of Jerusalem, and was restored by the favour of the Persian monarchs after the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon.

Of one king either,

1. Of the kingdom of Babylon, which lasted so long after this time; the word king being put for kingdom , as it is Dan 7:17 8:21 ; or

2. Of one royal race, of Nebuchadnezzar, including his son, and his son’ s son, in whom his family and kingdom were to expire.

After the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot she shall by degrees return to her former state of prosperity and traffic, whereby she shall easily entice the merchants of the world to converse and trade with her, as harlots use to entice their customers by lascivious songs.

Take an harp, go about the city as harlots use to do, to allure customers.

Thou harlot so he calleth Tyre, partly because she enticed merchants to deal with her by various artifices, and even by dishonest practices, as harlots use; and partly because of the great and general uncleanness which was both committed and tolerated in it. That thou mayest be remembered by those who had forgotten thee, Isa 23:15 .

Visit Tyre to wit, in mercy, as this phrase is used, Rth 1:6 Psa 65:9 , and elsewhere.

Her hire: the Hebrew word properly signifies, the hire of an harlot ; which agrees well with the

fornication in the next clause; although these phrases are not to be understood properly, but metaphorically, of trading or commerce with others.

Shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world shall trade promiscuously with people of all sorts of nations, as harlots entertain all comers.

Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: he speaks not here of what the Tyrians would do immediately after their restitution, but some time after it, even in the days of the Messiah; of which even some of the Jewish rabbies understand it, and to which the prophets have a special respect in their several prophecies, and Isaiah among and above the rest of them. So this is a prophecy concerning the conversion of the Tyrians to the true religion, of the accomplishment whereof something is said Act 21:3-5 , and more in other authors.

It shall not be treasured nor laid up either out of covetousness, or for the service of their pride and luxury, as they formerly did; but now they shall freely lay it out upon pious and charitable uses.

For them that dwell before the Lord for the support and encouragement of the ministers of holy things, who shall teach the good knowledge of the Lord, who dwell in God’ s house, and minister in his presence; the support of such persons being not only an act of justice and charity, but also of piety, and of great use and necessity to maintain and propagate religion in the world. Although this doth not exclude, but rather imply, their liberality in contributing to the necessities of all Christians.

Tyre was destroyed, in part, by Nabuchodonosor. Cyrus permitted all the captives of this, as well as of other countries, to return. ---

Cethim; Cyrus, or rather Macedonia. Merchants come thence no longer.

Island. Tyre was originally surrounded with water. A communication with the land was made afterwards, Josue xix. 29. (Calmet) (Ezechiel xxvii.) (Worthington)

Nile. Hebrew Shichor, or "muddy water," designates that river, Josue xiii. 3. ---

River. The overflowing of the Nile gave fertility to Egypt, insomuch that Tyre and other nations were supplied by it with corn.

Strength: people who sail. Septuagint, "but the strength....replied: I," &c. Sidon will not be concerned for the fall of her rival. She alleges that she has nothing to do with Tyre. That city would not allow that it was a colony of Sidon, ver. 12. (Calmet)

Seas. The rich Tyrians did so. (St. Jerome) ---

Septuagint, "to Carthage." Hebrew Tharsis, is Cilicia. (Calmet) ---

Hence Nabuchodonosor did not find a sufficient reward, Ezechiel xxix. 18.

Sojourn. Many fled, others were made captives.

Earth. The merchants were as rich as kings, or the latter sent their merchandise to Tyre, Ezechiel xxvii. 33.

Girdle, fortress; or rather, thou art naked, like a slave, chap. xx. 4.

Daughter; colony. (Calmet) ---

Oppressed. Literally, "calumniated." (Haydock)

It. Hebrew adds, "for fishermen." It was formerly covered with water. (Eusebius, prזp. ix.) ---

Ruin. The fall of Babylon has been denounced, chap. xiii.

King Nabuchodonosor, whose two sons reigned but a short time. The captivity of the people of God began also the year of the world 3398, and ended the year of the world 3468, the first of Cyrus. ---

Harlot. She shall be re-established, (Calmet) and shall invite people to her markets. (Sanchez) ---

Before Cyrus, she had kings, but they were of small power. The city was become very rich, and well fortified, when Alexander [the Great] was stopped by it for seven months. See Ezechiel xxvi. 14. (Calmet) ---

Tyre had rejoiced at the misfortunes of the Hebrews, and was punished by the like captivity. (Worthington)

Commit. Septuagint, "be the emporium for all." Great injustice prevailed formerly among merchants, so that it is represented as a dishonest calling. (Haydock)

Sanctified to the Lord. This alludes to the conversion of the Gentiles. (Challoner) ---

Before, the Tyrian were great enemies to the Jews, 2 Esdras xiii. 16., and 1 Machabees v. 15. Our Saviour wrought a miracle in favour of one of this country, Matthew v. 22., and Zacharias viii. 20. (Calmet) ---

Continuance. Literally, "old age." Aquila, "with changes of dress." (Haydock)

The burden of Tyre,.... Or a prophecy concerning the destruction of it. The Targum is,

"the burden of the cup of cursing, to give Tyre to drink.''

This was a famous city in Phoenicia, which exceeded in renown and grandeur all the cities of Syria and Phoenicia ^h, and was much known for its trade and navigation, for which it was well situated by the sea; and indeed new Tyre stood in it, about half a mile from the shore, before it was joined to the continent by Alexander the great: but this seems to be old Tyre, and, was upon the continent, which was built by the Phoenicians before the Trojan war ⁱ, and two hundred and forty years before the temple of Solomon ^k. It had its name צור, "Tzur", in the Hebrew language, from whence it is called Tyre, from the rock on which it was built, that word so signifying. It is written here without a vau; and it is a rule with the Jews ^l, that whenever this word is written full, with all its letters, it is to be understood of the city of Tyre; but if wanting, it designs Rome; and Cocceius interprets the whole prophecy of the antichristian city.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; not of Carthage, as the Septuagint version; but of Tartessus in Spain, which traded with Tyre, and from whence the Phoenicians are said to have large quantities of gold and silver. Some interpret it Tarsus, a seaport in Cilicia, which lay nearer to Tyre, the same place the Apostle Paul was of, Act 22:3 though by Tarshish may be meant the sea, as it sometimes is, and as the Targum and Jarchi here interpret it, and so designs ships in general; or, as the Targum, those that go down in the ships of the sea; or all sorts of persons, from every quarter, that sailed in ships to Tyre, and traded with it; these are now called to mourning and lamentation, because their commerce with it was now over:

for it is laid waste; not Tarshish, but Tyre; and this was done, not by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who indeed besieged it for the space of five years, but took it not; the Tyrians with twelve ships scattered his fleet, and took five hundred of his men, this was when Elulaeus was king of Tyre ^m; nor by Alexander the great; for though it was besieged and taken by him, yet before his time it had been besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years, and at last was taken by him, when Ithobalus was king of it ⁿ: and this seems rather intended here, since seventy years after this it was to be restored again, which best accords with those times, as will be seen hereafter:

so that there is no house, no entering in; no port or haven open to go in at, no shops to vend their goods in, no warehouses to lay them up in, nor inns to lodge at, as well as no private houses for the inhabitants to dwell in, all being destroyed by the enemy:

from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them; Chittim was one of the sons of Javan, as was also Tarshish, by whom the isles of the Gentiles were divided, Gen 10:4 from whom the Ionians or Grecians descended; so that Chittim seems to design some part of Greece, or isles belonging to it. The Macedonians are called by this name; and Alexander the Macedonian is said to come out of the land of Chittim, as in the Apocrypha:

"And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,'' (1 Maccabees 1:1)

"Beside this, how they had discomfited in battle Philip, and Perseus, king of the Citims, with others that lifted up themselves against them, and had overcome them:'' (1 Maccabees 8:5)

hence some think he is designed here, and the destruction of Tyre by him; and the words may be rendered, "from the land of Chittim he is revealed", or "appears unto them"; that is, as Jarchi glosses it, the destroyer to the men of Tyre, though he by Chittim understands the Cuthites. Josephus says ^o Chittim the son of Javan possessed the island Chethima, now called Cyprus, and from hence all islands, and most maritime places, are called Chittim by the Hebrews; and observes, that one of the cities of Cyprus is called Citium. And in the lamentation for Tyre, Eze 27:6, we read of the isles of Chittim; by which are meant perhaps the isles in the Aegean and Ionian seas, who traded with Tyre, and from these first came the tidings of Tyre's destruction to the ships or merchants of Tarshish; which agrees with a Hebrew exposition mentioned by Jarchi,

"from the land of Chittim is revealed to the men of Tarshish the destruction of Tyre; for the inhabitants of Tyre fled to Chittim, and from thence the rumour was heard.''

The sense which R. Joseph Kimchi gives of the passage, as his son David relates, is this,

"Chittim were merchants that went to Babylon, and told them that they might go to Tyre, and would be able to take it, and they would help them, and carry them there by sea.''

But it seems more likely that those trading people, by going from one country to another, got knowledge of the design of the Babylonians against Tyre, and acquainted that city with it. Some join the words, "from the land of Chittim", to the preceding, thus, "no entering in from the land of Chittim, it is revealed", or made known; that is, it is some way or other made known to the merchants of Chittim ^p that there is no entrance into Tyre, the city being laid waste and its port ruined, so that it is in vain for them to send their ships; to which the Septuagint in some measure agrees,

"because it perishes, and there are none come from the land of Chittim, it is carried captive.''

The Targum is,

"they shall come from the land of Chittim against them;''

which seems to favour the first sense.

Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle,.... Either the isles of Chittim, or other islands that traded with Tyre, the singular being put for the plural, called upon to grieve and mourn, because the city of their merchandise was destroyed, as Kimchi; or of Tyre itself, which being situated at some distance from the shore, was an island itself, until it was joined to the continent by Alexander ^q; and even old Tyre might be so called, it being usual in Scripture to call places by the seashore isles; and besides, old Tyre included in it new Tyre, the island, as Pliny ^r suggests; who are instructed to be silent as mourners, and to cease from the hurries of business, which they would be obliged to, and not boast of their power and wealth, as they had formerly done, or attempt to defend themselves, which would be in vain:

thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished; Zidon was a very ancient city of Phoenicia, more ancient than Tyre; for Tyre was a colony of the Zidonians, and built by them, and so might be said to be replenished by them with men from the first, as it also was with mariners, Eze 27:8 and likewise with merchants and wares, they being a trading and seafaring people; wherefore they are spoken of as merchants, and as passing over the sea: or this may be understood of the isles replenished with goods by the merchants of Tyre and Zidon, but now no more, and therefore called to mourning.

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 Jer 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 Eze 27:1 is a proper commentary on this clause.

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon,.... A city near to Tyre, about twenty five miles from it; Jarchi says it was within a day's walk of it; these two cities, as they were near to each other, so they were closely allied together, and traded much with one another, so that the fall of Tyre must be distressing and confounding to Zidon; and besides, Tyre was a colony of the Zidonians, and therefore, Isa 23:12, is called the daughter of Zidon, and could not but be affected with its ruin, and the more, as it might fear the same would soon be its case:

for the sea hath spoken; which washed the city of Tyre; or those that sailed in it; or rather Tyre itself, so called because its situation was by the sea, the island was encompassed with it:

even the strength of the sea; which was enriched by what was brought by sea to it, and was strengthened by it, being surrounded with the waters of it as with a wall, and had the sovereignty over it:

saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins; either the sea itself, which now no more brought great numbers of young people to Tyre, children to be educated, young men to be instructed in trade and business, and virgins to be given in marriage, the city being destroyed; or Tyre, which before was very populous, full of children, young men, and maidens, but now desolate; and which formerly sent out colonies abroad, and was a mother city to many, as Pliny says ^s; it was famous for the birth of many cities, as Lepti, Utica, Carthage, and Gades or Cales; but now it was all over with her. Some render it as a wish, "O that I had never travailed", &c. and so the Targum.

As at the report concerning Egypt,.... Its future destruction prophesied of, Isa 19:1 or what had in times past befallen it when the ten plagues were inflicted on it, and Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea; the report of which filled the neighbouring nations with fear and trembling, and put them into a panic; so the Targum,

"as they heard the plague with which the Egyptians were smitten:''

so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre; of the destruction of that; this should have the like effect upon the nations round about them, especially such as traded with them, as the judgments on Egypt had upon their neighbours; for, as for what was to come, the destruction of Tyre was before the destruction of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar: though some read the words, and they will bear to be read thus, "when the report" was made, or came "to the Egyptians, they will be in pain at", or "according to the report of Tyre" ^t;

"when it was heard in Egypt, pain shall take them for Tyre;''

as soon as the Egyptians heard of the taking and ruin of Tyre, they were in pain, as a woman in travail, partly fearing their own turn would be next, Tyre lying in the way of the Chaldeans unto them; and partly because of the loss of trade they sustained through the destruction of that city. In like pain will be the kings or merchants of the earth, at the destruction of Rome, Rev 18:9 and, according to an exposition mentioned by Jarchi, Tyre here is Edom; that is, Rome, for that with the Jews is commonly meant by Edom.

Pass ye over to Tarshish,.... Either to Tartessus in Spain, or to Tarsus in Cilicia, which lay over against them, and to which they might transport themselves, families, and substance, with greater ease; or "to a province of the sea", as the Targum, any other seaport; the Septuagint says to Carthage, which was a colony of the Tyrians; and hither the Assyrian ^u historians say they did transport themselves; though Kimchi thinks this is spoken, not to the Tyrians, but to the merchants that traded with them, to go elsewhere with their merchandise, since their goods could no more be disposed of in that city as usual.

Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle: of Tyre, as in Isa 23:2 or of every isle, as Aben Ezra, which traded here, because now their commerce was at an end; so Kimchi.

Is this your joyous city?.... Which the other day looked so gay, brisk, and cheerful, through the number of its inhabitants, largeness of trade, fullness of provisions, and pleasures of every kind; and now distressed and desolate, and no voice of joy and gladness heard in it:

whose antiquity is of ancient days; the most ancient city in Phoenicia, excepting Zidon, as Strabo ^w says; and it was in being in the days of Joshua, Jos 19:29 if the words there are rightly rendered; and if so, Josephus must be mistaken, unless he speaks of insular Tyre, when he says ^x, that from the building of Tyre to the building of the temple (of Solomon) were two hundred and forty years, which must fall very short of the times of Joshua; such ^y seem to be nearer the truth, who make Agenor, the father of Cadmus, to be the builder of this city, who lived about the times of Joshua. The Tyrians indeed boasted of a still greater antiquity, and to which boasts perhaps reference is here had; for one of the priests of Tyre told Herodotus ^z that their city had been inhabited two thousand three hundred years; and Herodotus lived in the times of Artaxerxes and Xerxes, about the year of the world 3500. According to Sanchoniatho ^a, it was inhabited by Hypsuranius, who first built cottages of rushes, &c. in it; but these things are beyond all credit; however, certain it is that it was a very ancient city; it had the name of Palaetyrus, or old Tyre:

her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn; the sense is, that though the Tyrians had lived very delicately, and in great affluence, while their city was flourishing, yet now they should be very coarsely and roughly used; they should not ride on horses, or be drawn in carriages, but should be obliged to walk on foot, and be led or driven into a foreign country, Assyria or Chaldea, or to some province or provinces belonging to that empire; where they should be, not as inhabitants, but as sojourners and strangers; and should be used, not as freemen, but as captives and slaves. Grotius, by "her feet", understands the feet of her ships, sails and oars, and mariners themselves, by means of which she got into distant places, for safety; and so it is reported in history ^b, that the Tyrians being long besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, and having no hopes of being delivered, prepared a convenient number of ships, abandoned their city, transported themselves, wives, children, and riches, and sailed from thence to Cyprus, Carthage, and other maritime cities of their tributaries, or confederates; so that the Babylonians, when they took the city, found little or nothing in it; see Eze 29:18 though the words will bear another sense, being, according to the accents, to be read in connection with the preceding clauses, thus, " Is this the joyous city? from the first days of her antiquity her feet brought unto her inhabitants from afar to sojourn"; that is, by her labour and pains, by her journeys and voyages for the sake of merchandise, which may be meant by her feet, she brought a great number of persons to sojourn in her ^c.

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,.... Which had a king over it, to whom it gave a crown; and which crowned its inhabitants with riches and plenty, and even enriched the kings of the earth, Eze 27:33 this is said as wondering who could lay a scheme to destroy such a city, or ever think of succeeding in it; who could take it into his head, or how could it enter into his heart, or who could have a heart to go about it, and still less power to effect the ruin of such a city, which was the queen of cities, and gave laws and crowns, riches and wealth, to others; surely no mere mortal could be concerned in this; see Rev 13:3,

whose merchants are princes; either really such, for even princes and kings of the earth traded with her, Eze 27:21 or they were as rich as princes in other countries were:

whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth; made rich by trafficking with her, and so attained great honour and glory in the world; see Rev 18:3.

The Lord of hosts hath purposed it,.... To destroy Tyre; who is wonderful in counsel, capable of forming a wise scheme, and able to put it in execution; being the Lord of armies in heaven and in earth: and his end in it was,

to stain the pride of all glory; Tyre being proud of its riches, the extent of its commerce, and the multitude of its inhabitants, God was resolved, who sets himself against the proud, to abase them; to pollute the glorious things they were proud of; to deal with them as with polluted things; to trample upon them:

and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth: or, "to make light all the heavy ones of the earth" ^d; all such, who are top heavy with riches and honour, God can, and sometimes does, make as light as feathers, which the wind carries away, and they fall into contempt and disgrace with their fellow creatures; and the Lord's thus dealing with Tyre was not merely on their account, to stain their pride and glory, and disgrace their honourable ones; but for the sake of others also, that the great ones of the earth might see and learn, by this instance of Tyre, how displeasing to the Lord is the sin of pride; what a poor, vain, and perishing thing, worldly honour and glory is; and what poor, weak, feeble creatures, the princes and potentates of the earth are, when the Lord takes them in hand.

Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish,.... Or, "of the sea", as the Vulgate Latin; meaning Tyre, which was situated in the sea, and did, as it were, spring from it, and was fortified by it, and supported by ships of merchandise on it, from various places; but now, being about to be destroyed, the inhabitants of it are called upon to pass through it, and get out of it as fast as they could, even as swiftly as a river runs, and in great abundance or multitudes. Kimchi thinks the Tyrians are bid to pass to the daughter of Tarshish, that is, to Tarshish itself, to make their escape out of their own land, and flee thither for safety; this the accents will not admit of, there being an "athnach" upon the word "river"; rather the merchants of Tarshish, that were in Tyre, are exhorted to depart to their own land with all possible haste, lest they should be involved in its ruin; though the Targum inclines to the other sense,

"pass out of thy land, as the waters of a river flee to a province of the sea:''

there is no more strength; in Tyre, to defend themselves against the enemy, to protect their trade, and the merchants that traded with them; or, "no more girdle" ^e; about it; no more girt about with walls, ramparts, and other fortifications, or with soldiers and shipping, or with the sea, with which it was encompassed, while an island, but now no more, being joined to the continent by the enemy. Some think, because girdles were a part of merchandise, Pro 31:24, that this is said to express the meanness and poverty of the place, that there was not so much as a girdle left in it; rather that it was stripped of its power and authority, of which the girdle was a sign; see Isa 22:21.

He stretched out his hand over the sea,.... That is, the Lord of hosts, who had purposed to destroy Tyre, stretched out his hand of power over it, called the sea, as in Isa 23:4 because situated in it, supported by it, and had the sovereignty of it; in like manner as he stretched out his hand on the Red Sea, and destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians in it; to which the allusion may be:

he shook the kingdoms; of Tyre and Zidon, which were both kingdoms, and distinct ones; and also made other neighbouring kingdoms shake and tremble when these fell, fearing it would be their case next. Some understand this of the moving of Nebuchadnezzar, and of the kings of the provinces under him, to come against Tyre:

the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city; the city of Tyre, so famous for merchandise, that it was the mart of nations, as in Isa 23:3 or "against Canaan", in which country Tyre and Zidon were, being originally built and inhabited by the posterity of Canaan, Gen 10:15,

to destroy the strong holds thereof; either of the merchant city Tyre, whose fortifications were strong, both by nature and art; or "of Canaan", whose strong holds, or fortified cities, the principal of them were Tyre and Zidon; so Jarchi: and if the Lord of hosts gives a commandment to destroy it and its strong holds, as he did to Nebuchadnezzar and his army, and afterwards to Alexander and his, who could save them? that is, God said it, who gave commandment to destroy it.

And he said, thou shalt no more rejoice,.... Not meaning that she should never more rejoice, but not for a long time, as Kimchi interprets it; when her calamity should come upon her, her jovial time, her time of mirth, jollity, and revelling, would be over for a time; for, at the end of seventy years, she should take her harp, and sing again, Isa 23:15 for the words seem to be spoken of Tyre, concerning whom the whole prophecy is; though some think Zidon is here meant, which, being near, suffered at the same time with Tyre, or quickly after:

O thou oppressed virgin! Tyre is called a "virgin", because of her beauty, pride, and lasciviousness, and because never before subdued and taken: and "oppressed", because now deflowered, ransacked, plundered, and ruined, by Nebuchadnezzar:

daughter of Zidon: some think Zidon itself is meant, just as daughter of Zion means Zion herself, &c.; but it may be also observed, that such cities that have sprung from others, or have their dependence on them, are called their daughters; so we read of Samaria and her daughters, and Sodom and her daughters, Eze 16:46 and so Tyre is called the daughter of Zidon, because it was a colony of the Zidonians ^f; and at first built and supported by them, though now grown greater than its mother:

arise, pass over to Chittim; to the isle of Cyprus, which was near them, and in which was a city called Citium; or to Macedonia, which was called the land of Chittim, as in the Apocrypha:

"And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,'' (1 Maccabees 1:1)

or to the isles of the Aegean and Ionian seas; or to Greece and Italy; which latter sense is approved by Vitringa, who thinks the islands of Corsica, and Sardinia, and Sicily, are meant, which were colonies of the Tyrians; and so in Isa 23:1,

there also shalt thou have no rest; since those countries would also fall into the enemy's hands, either the Babylonians, or the Medes and Persians, or the Romans; into whose hands Macedonia, Carthage, and other colonies of the Tyrians fell, so that they had no rest in any of them.

Behold the land of the Chaldeans,.... Not Tyre, as some think, so called, because founded by the Chaldeans, who finding it a proper place for "ships", so they render the word "tziim", afterward used, and which is so interpreted by Jarchi, built the city of Tyre; but the country called Chaldea is here meant, and the Babylonish empire and monarchy, particularly Babylon, the head of it:

this people was not; a people, or of any great note and figure:

till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; Nimrod was the first builder of Babel, in the land of Shinar, and from that land went forth Ashur, and built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth, and Calah, which were built for people that lived scattered up and down in fields and desert places; so that the Assyrians were the first founders of Chaldea; and after it had been inhabited by the Chaldeans, it was seized upon by the Assyrians, and became a province of theirs:

they set up the towers thereof; the towers of Babylon, not of Tyre. Jarchi interprets it of building bulwarks against Tyre:

they raised up the palaces thereof; the stately buildings of Babylon; or razed them; so Jarchi; also the Targum,

"they destroyed the palaces thereof:''

and he brought it to ruin: or he will do it; the past tense for the future, i.e. God will bring Babylon to ruin; and therefore it need not seem strange that Tyre should be destroyed, since this would be the case of Babylon. Sir John Marsham ^g interprets the words thus,

"look upon Babylon, the famous metropolis of the Chaldeans; the people, that possess that city, not along ago dwelt in deserts, having no certain habitation; Nabonassar the Assyrian brought men thither, the Scenites (the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta, so called from their dwelling in tents); he fortified the city, he raised up towers, and built palaces; such now was this city, founded by the Assyrian; yet God hath brought it to ruin; Babylon shall be destroyed as Tyre;''

and this instance is brought to show that a city and a people, more ancient and powerful than Tyre, either had been or would be destroyed; and therefore need not call in question the truth or credibility of the prophecy relating to Tyre; but the sense of the whole, according to Vitringa, seems rather to be this: "behold the land of the Chaldeans"; the country they now inhabit; take notice of what is now about to be said; it may seem strange and marvellous: "this people was not"; not that they were of a late original, for they were an ancient people, who descended from Chesed, the son of Nahor, but for a long time of no account, that lived scattered up and down in desert places: till "the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness"; he drove out the Arabians from Mesopotamia, and translated the Chaldeans thither, who before inhabited the wilderness: "they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces"; that is, the Assyrians fortified and adorned the city of Babylon, the metropolis of the country; so Herodotus ^h says the Assyrian kings adorned the walls and temples of Babylon; now behold this land of the Chaldeans, or the people that inhabit it, as poor and as low as they have been, who owe their all to the Assyrians, even these "shall bring" Tyre "to ruin"; so that the instruments of the ruin of Tyre are here described; which, when this prophecy was delivered, might seem improbable, the Assyrians being possessors of monarchy.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish,.... As in Isa 23:1. See Gill on Isa 23:1,

for your strength is laid waste; meaning Tyre, a strong seaport, where their ships were safe, and always found vent for their goods and merchandise; and so it was the strength and support of their country; but was now destroyed, and therefore was matter of lamentation and mourning.

And it shall come to pass in that day,.... When Tyre is destroyed, from that time forward:

that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years; shall so long lie in its ruin, and not be rebuilt; it shall be without inhabitants, and unfrequented by men; there shall be no merchandise in it during that time; no merchants will come nigh it; she will be like a harlot cast off and forgotten by her lover: the term of time is the same with that of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and great part of it at least run out along with it; for Tyre was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, as Jerusalem was, though some time after it, and was restored when the Babylonish empire was destroyed, at the expiration of seventy years:

according to the days of one king; or kingdom, the Babylonish kingdom, which lasted so long in Nebuchadnezzar's family; whose family, he himself, his son, and son's son, are here meant, as Aben Ezra thinks; and seems to be the more commonly received sense; though Kimchi and others understand it of the days of a man, which are seventy years, Psa 90:10 and so it is added in the Septuagint version, "as the time of a man"; which perhaps was a marginal note, way of explanation, and crept into the text. Jarchi is of opinion King David is meant, whose age was seventy years, though he is at a loss to give a reason for this his opinion; but Kimchi suggests one, and that is, the covenant which was between Hiram king of Tyre and David; and this is mentioned to put the Tyrians in mind of the breach of it, which had brought desolation upon them; some understand this of the King Messiah ⁱ:

after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot; being rebuilt and restored to its former state; as a harlot who has been cast off by her lovers, on account of some disease she has laboured under, and through a dislike of her; but, having recovered her health, makes use of her arts, and this among others, to sing a song, in order to draw, by her melodious voice, her lovers to her again; and so Tyre being built again, and out of the hands of its oppressors, and restored to its former liberty, should make use of all arts and methods to recover her trade, and draw merchants from all parts to her again.

Take a harp, go about the city,.... As harlots used to do, that by their music, both vocal and instrumental, they might allure men into their company to commit fornication with them; so Tyre is directed to, or rather this is a prophecy that she should take very artful and ensnaring methods to restore her commerce and merchandise:

thou harlot that hast been forgotten; See Gill on Isa 23:15,

make sweet melody; or, "do well by striking" ^k; that is, the harp in her hand; strike it well with art and skill, so as to make melody, and give pleasure:

sing many songs; or, "multiply a song" ^l; sing one after another, till the point is carried aimed at:

that thou mayest be remembered; men may took at thee again, and trade with thee as formerly, who had been so long forgotten and neglected.

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years,.... When the seventy years before mentioned are ended:

that the Lord will visit Tyre; not in judgment, as before, but in mercy:

and she shall return to her hire; trade and merchandise; that shall revive, and be as in times past:

and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world, upon the face of the earth; be a mart of nations again, as in Isa 23:3 that is, trade and traffic with all nations of the earth, in the most ample and public manner; this is called committing fornication, in agreement with the simile of a harlot before used, whereunto Tyre is compared; as well as to observe the illicit ways and methods used in her commerce. The Targum is,

"and her merchandise shall be sufficient to all the kingdoms of the people, which are upon the face of the earth;''

and so the Septuagint,

"and shall be a mart to all the kingdoms of the world, upon the face of the earth.''

The phrase is used of mystical Tyre or Babylon, and of her merchants, in Rev 18:3.

And her merchandise, and her hire,.... Or, "but her merchandise", &c. not the same as before; or, however, not as carried on at the same time, but many ages after, even in the times of the Gospel; for this part of the prophecy respects the conversion of the Tyrians, in the first ages of Christianity; this is prophesied of elsewhere, Psa 45:12 and was fulfilled in the times of the apostles, Act 11:19 and so Kimchi and Jarchi say this is a prophecy to be fulfilled in the days of the Messiah ^m; and then the trade of this people, and what they got by it,

should be holiness to the Lord; that is, devoted, at least, great part of it, to holy uses and service; that is, in defraying of all expenses in carrying on the worship of God, for the maintenance of Gospel ministers, and for the supply and support of the poor saints:

it shall not be treasured, nor laid up: in order to be laid out in pride and luxury; or to be kept as useless, to gratify a covetous disposition; or for posterity to come:

for her merchandise shall be laid up for them, that dwell before the Lord; part of what should be gained by trading, at least, should be laid by for religious uses, as is directed, 1Co 16:1 even for the relief of poor saints in general, who assemble together before the Lord, for the sake of his worship; and particularly for the support of the ministers of the Gospel, who stand before the Lord, and minister in holy things, in his name, to the people:

to eat sufficiently; that they may have food convenient for them, and enough of it; or, in other words, have a sufficient maintenance, a comfortable supply of food for themselves and families, and raiment also; as follows:

and for durable clothing; that they may have a supply of clothing, and never want a coat to put upon their backs. This prophecy, as it belongs to Gospel times, is a proof of the maintenance of Gospel ministers, that they ought to be liberally provided for; and care should be taken that they want not food and raiment, but have a fulness and sufficiency of both, and that which is convenient for them.

¹ tn Heb “ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for it is destroyed, from a house, from entering.” The translation assumes that the mem (מ) on בַּיִת (bayit) was originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. This assumption allows one to take בַּיִת as the subject of the preceding verb. It is used in a metaphorical sense for the port city of Tyre. The preposition min (מִן) prefixed to בּוֹא (bo’) indicates negative consequence: “so that no one can enter.” See BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b.

³ tn Heb “the Kittim,” a designation for the people of Cyprus. See HALOT 504-05 s.v. כִּתִּיִּים.

¹ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

² map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

¹ tc The Hebrew text (23:2b-3a) reads literally, “merchant of Sidon, the one who crosses the sea, they filled you, and on the deep waters.” Instead of מִלְאוּךְ (mil’ukh, “they filled you”) the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads מלאכיך (“your messengers”). The translation assumes an emendation of מִלְאוּךְ to מַלְאָכָו (mal’akhav, “his messengers”), taking the vav (ו) on וּבְמַיִם (uvÿmayim) as improperly placed; instead it should be the final letter of the preceding word.

² tn Heb “seed of Shihor.” “Shihor” probably refers to the east branch of the Nile. See Jer 2:18 and BDB 1009 s.v. שִׁיחוֹר.

³ tn Heb “the harvest of the Nile.”

⁴ tn Heb “[is] her revenue.”

⁵ tn Heb “merchandise”; KJV, ASV “a mart of nations”; NLT “the merchandise mart of the world.”

¹ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

² tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

sn The sea is personified here as a lamenting childless woman. The foreboding language anticipates the following announcement of Tyre’s demise, viewed here as a child of the sea, as it were.

¹ tn Heb “they will be in pain at the report of Tyre.”

¹ tn Heb “Is this to you, boisterous one?” The pronoun “you” is masculine plural, like the imperatives in v. 6, so it is likely addressed to the Egyptians and residents of the coast. “Boisterous one” is a feminine singular form, probably referring to the personified city of Tyre.

² tn Heb “in the days of antiquity [is] her beginning.”

¹ tn The precise meaning of הַמַּעֲטִירָה (hamma’atirah) is uncertain. The form is a Hiphil participle from עָטַר (’atar), a denominative verb derived from עֲטָרָה (’atarah, “crown, wreath”). The participle may mean “one who wears a crown” or “one who distributes crowns.” In either case, Tyre’s prominence in the international political arena is in view.

² tn Heb “the honored” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “renowned.”

¹ tn Heb “the pride of all the beauty.”

¹ tc This meaning of this verse is unclear. The Hebrew text reads literally, “Cross over your land, like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish, there is no more waistband.” The translation assumes an emendation of מֵזַח (mezakh, “waistband”) to מָחֹז (makhoz, “harbor, marketplace”; see Ps 107:30). The term עָבַר (’avar, “cross over”) is probably used here of traveling over the water (as in v. 6). The command is addressed to personified Tarshish, who here represents her merchants. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has עבדי (“work, cultivate”) instead of עִבְרִי (’ivri, “cross over”). In this case one might translate “Cultivate your land, like they do the Nile region” (cf. NIV, CEV). The point would be that the people of Tarshish should turn to agriculture because they will no longer be able to get what they need through the marketplace in Tyre.

¹ tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”

² tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

³ tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.

¹ tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

² tn Heb “[to the] Kittim, get up, cross over; even there there will be no rest for you.” On “Kittim” see the note on “Cyprus” at v. 1.

¹ tn Heb “this people [that] is not.”

² tn For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 118 s.v. *בַּחוּן.

³ tn Or “laid bare.” For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 889 s.v. ערר.

⁴ sn This verse probably refers to the Assyrian destruction of Babylon.

¹ tn Heb “ships of Tarshish.” See the note at v. 1.

¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

² sn The number seventy is probably used in a stereotypical, nonliteral sense here to indicate a long period of time that satisfies completely the demands of God’s judgment.

³ tn Heb “like the days of a king.”

⁴ tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”

¹ tn Heb “so you will be remembered.”

¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

² tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”

³ tn Heb “and she will return to her [prostitute’s] wages and engage in prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the earth.”

¹ tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”

sn The point of this verse, which in its blatant nationalism comes precariously close to comparing the Lord to one who controls or manages a prostitute, is that Tyre will become a subject of Israel and her God. Tyre’s commercial profits will be used to enrich the Lord’s people.

The ^{( a )} burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of ^{( b )} Tarshish; for ^{( c )} it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of ^{( d )} Chittim it is ^{( e )} revealed to them.

^{( a )} See Isa 13:1

^{( b )} You of Cilicia that come here for merchandise.

^{( c )} Tyrus is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

^{( d )} By Chittim they meant all the isles and countries west of Palestine.

^{( e )} All men know of this destruction.

Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have ^{( f )} replenished.

^{( f )} Have hunted and enriched you.

And by great waters the ^{( g )} seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, [is] her revenue; and she is a merchandise of nations.

^{( g )} Meaning, the corn of Egypt which was fed by the overflowing of the Nile.

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the ^{( h )} sea hath spoken, [even] the strength of the sea, saying, I ^{( i )} travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish young men, [nor] bring up virgins.

^{( h )} That is, Tyrus, which was the chief part of the sea.

^{( i )} I have no people left in me, and am as a barren woman, that never had children.

As at the report concerning Egypt, [so] shall they be ^{( k )} greatly pained at the report of Tyre.

^{( k )} Because these two countries were joined in league together.

Pass ye over to ^{( l )} Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the isle.

^{( l )} Tyrus wills other merchants to go to Cilicia, and to come no more there.

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the ^{( m )} crowning [city], whose merchants [are] princes, whose traders [are] the honourable of the earth?

^{( m )} Who makes her merchants like princes.

Pass through thy land as a river, O ^{( n )} daughter of Tarshish: [there is] no more strength.

^{( n )} Your strength will no more serve you: therefore flee to other countries for comfort.

And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed ^{( o )} virgin, ^{( p )} daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

^{( o )} For Tyre was never touched nor afflicted before.

^{( p )} Because Tyrus was built by them of Zidon.

Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, [till] the ^{( q )} Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up its towers, they raised up its palaces; [and] he ^{( r )} brought it to ruin.

^{( q )} The Chaldeans who dwelt in tents in the wilderness were gathered by the Assyrians into cities.

^{( r )} The people of the Chaldeans destroyed the Assyrians: by which the prophet means that seeing the Chaldaeans were able to overcome the Assyrians who were so great a nation, much more will these two nations of Chaldea and Assyria be able to overthrow Tyrus.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your ^{( s )} strength is laid waste.

^{( s )} That is, Tyrus by whom you are enriched.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of ^{( t )} seventy years shall Tyre ^{( u )} sing as an harlot.

^{( t )} Tyrus will lie destroyed seventy years which he calls the reign of one king, or a man's age.

^{( u )} Will use all craft and subtilty to entice men again to her.

Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; ^{( x )} make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

^{( x )} She will labour by all means to recover her first credit, as a harlot when she is long forgotten, seeks by all means to entertain her lovers.

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her ^{( y )} hire, and shall play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

^{( y )} Though she has been chastised by the Lord, yet she will return to her old wicked practises and for gain will give herself to all men's lusts like a harlot.

And her merchandise and her hire shall be ^{( z )} holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, for sufficient food and for durable clothing.

^{( z )} He shows that God yet by the preaching of the gospel will call Tyre to repentance and turn her heart from evil and filthy gain, to the true worshipping of God, and liberality toward his saints.

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.

The desolations of Tyre were not to be for ever. The Lord will visit Tyre in mercy. But when set at liberty, she will use her old arts of temptation. The love of worldly wealth is spiritual idolatry; and covetousness is spiritual idolatry. This directs those that have wealth, to use it in the service of God. When we abide with God in our worldly callings, when we do all in our power to further the gospel, then our merchandise and hire are holiness to the Lord, if we look to his glory. Christians should carry on business as God's servants, and use riches as his stewards.

Tyre being a sea-port town, this prophecy of its overthrow fitly begins and ends with, Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for all its business, wealth, and honour, depended upon its shipping; if that be ruined, they will be all undone. Observe,

I. Tyre flourishing. This is taken notice of that her fall may appear the more dismal. 1. The merchants of Zidon, who traded at sea, had at first replenished her, Isa 23:2. Zidon was the more ancient city, situated upon the same sea-cost, a few leagues more to the north, and Tyre was at first only a colony of that; but the daughter had outgrown the mother, and become much more considerable. It may be a mortification to great cities to think how they were at first replenished. 2. Egypt had helped very much to raise her, Isa 23:3. Sihor was the river of Egypt: by that river, and the ocean into which it ran, the Egyptians traded with Tyre; and the harvest of that river was her revenue. The riches of the sea, and the gains by goods exported and imported, are as much the harvest to trading towns as that of hay and corn is to the country; and sometimes the harvest of the river proves a better revenue than the harvest of the land. Or it may be meant of all the products of the Egyptian soil, which the men of Tyre traded in, and which were the harvest of the river Nile, owing themselves to the overflowing of that river. 3. She had become the mart of the nations, the great emporium of that part of the world. Some of every known nation might be found there, especially at certain times of the year, when there was a general rendezvous of merchants. This is enlarged upon by another prophet, Eze 27:2, Eze 27:3, etc. See how the hand of the diligent, by the blessing of God upon it, makes rich. Tyre became rich and great by industry, though she had no other ploughs going than those that plough the waters. 4. She was a joyous city, noted for mirth and jollity, Isa 23:7. Those that were so disposed might find there all manner of sports and diversions, all the delights of the sons and daughters of men, balls, and plays, and operas, and every thing of that kind that a man had a fancy to. This made them secure and proud, and they despised the country people, who neither knew nor relished any joys of that nature. This also made them very loth to believe and consider what warnings God gave them by his servants; they were too merry to mind them. Her antiquity likewise was of ancient days, and she was proud of that, and that helped to make her secure; as if because she had been a city time out of mind, and her antiquity had been of ancient days, therefore she must continue a city time without end, and her continuance must be to the days of eternity. 5. She was a crowning city (Isa 23:8), that crowned herself. Such were the power and pomp of her magistrates that they crowned those who had dependence on her and dealings with her. It is explained in the following words: Her merchants are princes, and live like princes for the ease and state they take; and her traffickers, whatever country they go to, are the honourable of the earth, who are respected by all. How slightly soever some now speak of tradesmen, it seems formerly, and among the wisest nations, there were merchants, and traders, and men of business, that were the honourable of the earth.

II. Here is Tyre falling. It does not appear that she brought trouble upon herself by provoking her neighbours with her quarrels, but rather by tempting them with her wealth; but, if it was this that induced Nebuchadnezzar to fall upon Tyre, he was disappointed; for after it had stood out a siege of thirteen years, and could hold out no longer, the inhabitants got away by sea, with their families and goods, to other places where they had an interest, and left Nebuchadnezzar nothing but the bare city. See a history of Tyre in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, lib. 2. cap. 7. sect. 3, 43. page. 283, which will give much light to this prophecy and that in Ezekiel concerning Tyre.

1. See how the destruction of Tyre is here foretold. (1.) The haven shall be no convenient harbour for the reception of the ships of Tarshish, but all laid waste (1.), so that there shall be no house, no dock for the ships to ride in, no inns, or public houses for the seamen, no entering into the port. Perhaps it was choked with sand or blocked up by the enemy. Or, Tyre being destroyed and laid waste, the ships that used to come from Tarshish and Chittim into that port shall now no more enter in; for it is revealed or made known to them, they have received the dismal news, that Tyre is destroyed and laid waste; so that there is now no more business for them there. See how it is in this world; those that are spoiled by their enemies are commonly slighted by their old friends. (2.) The inhabitants are struck with astonishment. Tyre was an island. The inhabitants of it, who had made a mighty noise and bustle in the world, and revelled with loud huzzas, shall now be still and silent (Isa 23:2); they shall sit down as mourners, so overwhelmed with grief that they shall not be able to express it. Their proud boasts of themselves, and defiances of their neighbours, shall be silenced. God can soon quiet those, and strike them dumb, that are the noisy busy people of the world. Be still; for God will do his work (Psa 46:10; Zec 2:13), and you cannot resist him. (3.) The neighbours are amazed, blush, and are in pain for them: Zidon is ashamed (Isa 23:4), by whom Tyre was at first replenished; for the rolling waves of the sea brought to Zidon this news from Tyre; and there the strength of the sea, a high spring-tide, proclaimed saying, " I travail not, nor bring forth children now, as I have done. I do not now, as I used to do, bring ship-loads of young people to Tyre, to be bred up there in trade and business,"which was the thing that had made Tyre so rich and populous. Or the sea, that used to be loaded with fleets of ships about Tyre, shall not be as desolate as a sorrowful widow that is bereaved of all her children, and has none about her to nourish and bring up. Egypt indeed was a much larger and more considerable kingdom than Tyre was; and yet Tyre had so large a correspondence, upon the account of trade, that all the nations about shall be as much in pain, upon the report of the ruin of that one city, as they would have been, and not long after were, upon the report of the ruin of all Egypt, Isa 23:5. Or, as some read it, When the report shall reach to the Egyptians they shall be sorely pained to hear it of Tyre, both because of the loss of their trade with that city and because it was a threatening step towards their own ruin; when their neighbour's house was on fire their own was in danger. (4.) The merchants, as many as could, should transmit their effects to other places, and abandon Tyre, where they had raised their estates, and thought they had made them sure (Isa 23:6): " You that have long been inhabitants of this isle "(for it lay off in the sea about half a mile from the continent); "It is time to howl now, for you must pass over to Tarshish. The best course you can take is to make the best of your way to Tarshish, to the sea"(to Taressus, a city in Spain; so some), "or to some other of your plantations."Those that think their mountain stands strong, and cannot be moved, will find that here they have no continuing city. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. (5.) Those that could not make their escape must expect no other than to be carried into captivity; for it was the way of conquerors, in those times, to take those they conquered to be bondmen in their own country, and send of their own to be freemen in theirs (Isa 23:7): Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn; they shall be hurried away on foot into captivity, and many a weary step they shall take towards their own misery. Those that have lived in the greatest pomp and splendour know not what hardships they may be reduced to before they die. (6.) Many of those that attempted to escape should be pursued and fall into the hands of the enemy. Tyre shall pass through her land as a river (Isa 23:10), running down, one company after another, into the ocean or abyss of misery. Or, though they hasten away as a river, with the greatest swiftness, hoping to outrun the danger, yet there is no more strength; they are quickly tired, and cannot get forward, but fall an easy prey into the hands of the enemy. And, as Tyre has no more strength, so her sister Zidon has no more comfort (Isa 23:12): " Thou shalt no more rejoice, O oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon, that art now ready to be overpowered by the victorious Chaldeans! Thy turn is next; therefore arise; pass over to Chittim; flee to Greece, to Italy, any where to shift for thy own safety; yet there also shalt thou have no rest; thy enemies shall disturb thee, and thy own fears shall disquiet thee, where thou hopedst to find some repose."Note, We deceive ourselves if we promise ourselves rest any where in this world. Those that are uneasy in one place will be so in another; and, when God's judgments pursue sinners, they will overtake them.

2. But whence shall all this trouble come?

(1.) God will be the author of it; it is a destruction from the Almighty. It will be asked (Isa 23:8), " Who has taken this counsel against Tyre? Who has contrived it? Who has resolved it? Who can find in his heart to lay such a stately lovely city in ruins? And how is it possible that its ruin should be effected?"To this it will be answered, [1.] God has designed it, who is infinitely wise and just, and never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures (Isa 23:9). The Lord of hosts, that has all things at his disposal and gives not account of any of his matters, he has purposed it. It shall be done according to the counsel of his will; and that which he aims at herein is to stain the pride of all glory, to pollute it, profane it, and throw it to be trodden upon; and to bring into contempt and make despicable all the honourable ones of the earth, that they may not admire themselves and be admired by others as usual. God did not bring those calamities upon Tyre in a way of sovereignty, to show an arbitrary and irresistible power; but he did it to punish the Tyrians for their pride. Many other sins, no doubt, reigned among them - idolatry, sensuality, and oppression; but the sin of pride is fastened upon as that which was the particular ground of God's controversy with Tyre; for he resists the proud. All the world observing and being surprised at the desolation of Tyre, we have here an exposition of it. God tells the world what he meant by it. First, He designed to convince men of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly glory, to show them what a withering, fading, perishing thing it is even when it seems most substantial. It were well if men would be thoroughly taught this lesson, though it were at the expense of so great a destruction. Are men's learning and wealth, their pomp and power, their interest in, and influence upon, all about them, their glory? Are their stately houses, rich furniture, and splendid appearances, their glory? Look upon the ruins of Tyre, and see all this glory stained, and sullied, and buried in the dust. The honourable ones of heaven will be for ever such; but see the grandees of Tyre, some fled into banishment, others forced into captivity, and all impoverished, and you will conclude that the honourable of the earth, even the most honourable, know not how soon they may be brought into contempt. Secondly, He designed hereby to prevent their being proud of that glory, their being puffed up, and confident of the continuance of it. Let the ruin of Tyre be a warning to all places and persons to take heed of pride; for it proclaims to all the world that he who exalts himself shall be abased. [2.] God will do it, who has all power in his hand and can do it effectually (Isa 23:11): He stretched out his hand over the sea. He has done so many a time, witness the dividing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh in it. He has often shaken the kingdoms that were most secure; and he has now given commandment concerning this merchant-city, to destroy the strongholds thereof. As its beauty shall not intercede for it, but that shall be stained, so its strength shall not protect it, but that shall be broken. If any think it strange that a city so well fortified, and that has so many powerful allies, should be so totally ruined, let them know that it is the Lord of hosts that has given a commandment to destroy the strongholds thereof: and who can gainsay his orders or hinder the execution of them?

(2.) The Chaldeans shall be the instruments of it (Isa 23:13): Behold the land of the Chaldeans; how easily they and their land were destroyed by the Assyrians. Though their own hands founded it, set up the towers of Babylon, and raised up its palaces, yet the Assyrians brought it to ruin, whence the Tyrians might infer that as easily as the old Chaldeans were subdued by the Assyrians so easily shall Tyre be vanquished by those new Chaldeans. Babel was built by the Assyrians for those that dwelt in the wilderness. It may be rendered for the ships (the Assyrians founded it for ships and shipmen that traffic upon those vast rivers Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian and Indian seas), for men of the desert, for Babylon is called the desert of the sea, Isa 21:1. Thus Tyrus was built upon the sea for the like purpose. But the Assyrians (says Dr. Lightfoot) brought that to ruin, now lately, in Hezekiah's time, and so shall Tyre hereafter be brought to ruin by Nebuchadnezzar. If we looked more upon the falling and withering of others, we should not be so confident as we commonly are of the continuance of our own flourishing and standing.

Here is, I. The time fixed for the continuance of the desolations of Tyre, which were not to be perpetual desolations: Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, Isa 23:15. So long it shall lie neglected and buried in obscurity. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar much about the time that Jerusalem was, and lay as long as it did in its ruins. See the folly of that proud ambitious conqueror. What the richer, what the stronger, was he for making himself master of Tyre, when all the inhabitants were driven out of it and he had none of his own subjects to spare for the replenishing and fortifying of it? It is surprising to see what pleasure men could take in destroying cities and making their memorial perish with them, Psa 9:6. He trampled on the pride of Tyre, and therein served God's purpose; but with greater pride, for which God soon after humbled him.

II. A prophecy of the restoration of Tyre to its glory again: After the end of seventy years, according to the years of one king, or one dynasty or family of kings, that of Nebuchadnezzar; when that expired, the desolations of Tyre came to an end. And we may presume that Cyrus at the same time when he released the Jews, and encouraged them to rebuild Jerusalem, released the Tyrians also, and encouraged them to rebuild Tyre. Thus the prosperity and adversity of places, as well as persons, are set the one over against the other, that the most glorious cities may not be secure nor the most ruinous despair. It is foretold, 1. That God's providence shall gain smile upon this ruined city (Isa 23:17): The Lord will visit Tyre in mercy; for, though he contend, he will not contend for ever. It is not said, Her old acquaintance shall visit her, the colonies she has planted, and the trading cities she has had correspondence with (they have forgotten her); but, The Lord shall visit her by some unthought-of turn; he shall cause his indignation towards her to cease, and then things will run of course in their former channel. 2. That she shall use her best endeavours to recover her trade again. She shall sing as a harlot, that has been some time under correction for her lewdness; but, when she is set at liberty (so violent is the bent of corruption), she will use her old arts of temptation. The Tyrians having returned from their captivity, and those that remained recovering new spirits thereupon, they shall contrive how to force a trade, shall procure the best choice of goods, under-sell their neighbours, and be obliging to all customers; as a harlot that has been forgotten, when she comes to be spoken of again, recommends herself to company by singing and playing, takes a harp, goes about the city, perhaps in the night, serenading, makes sweet melody, and sings many songs. These are innocent and allowable diversions, if soberly, and moderately, and modestly used; but those that value themselves upon their virtue should not be over-fond of them, nor ambitious to excel in them, because, whatever they are now, anciently they were some of the baits with which harlots used to entice fools. Tyre shall now by degrees come to be the mart of nations again; she shall return to her hire, to her traffic, and shall commit fornication (that is, she shall have dealings in trade, for the prophet carries on the similitude of a harlot) with all the kingdoms of the world that she had formerly traded with in her prosperity. The love of worldly wealth is a spiritual whoredom, and therefore covetous people are called adulterers and adulteresses (Jam 4:4), and covetousness is spiritual idolatry. 3. That, having recovered her trade again, she shall make a better use of it than she had done formerly; and this good she should get by her calamities (Isa 23:18): Her merchandise, and her hire, shall be holiness to the Lord. The trade of Tyre, and all the gains of her trade, shall be devoted to God and to his honour and employed in his service. It shall not be treasured and hoarded up, as formerly, to be the matter of their pride and the support of their carnal confidence; but it shall be laid out in acts of piety and charity. What they can spare from the maintenance of themselves and their families shall be for those that dwell before the Lord, for the priests, the Lord's ministers, that attend in his temple at Jerusalem; not to maintain them in pomp and grandeur, but that they and theirs may eat sufficiently, may have food convenient for them, with as little as may be of that care which would divert them from their ministration, and that they may have, not rich and fine clothing, but durable clothing, that which is strong and lasting, clothing for old men (so some read it), as if the priests, though they were young, must wear such plain grave clothing as old men used to wear. Now, (1.) This supposes that religion should be set up in New Tyre, that they should come to the knowledge of the true God and into communion with the Israel of God. Perhaps their being fellow-captives with the Jews in Babylon (who had prophets with them there) disposed them to join with them in their worship there, and turned them from idols, as it cured the Jews of their idolatry: and when they were released with them, and as they had reason to believe for their sakes, when they were settled again in Tyre, they would send gifts and offerings to the temple, and presents to the priests. We find men of Tyre then dwelling in the land of Judah, Neh 13:16. Tyre and Sidon were better disposed to religion in Christ's time than the cities of Israel; for, if Christ had gone among them, they would have repented, Mat 11:21. And we meet with Christians at Tyre (Act 21:3, Act 21:4), and, many years after, did Christianity flourish there. Some of the rabbin refer this prophecy of the conversion of Tyre to the days of the Messiah. (2.) It directs those that have estates to make use of them in the service of God and religion, and to reckon that best laid up which is so laid out. Both the merchandise of the tradesmen and the hire of the day-labourers shall be devoted to God. Both the merchandise (the employment we follow) and the hire (the gain of our employments) must be holiness to the Lord, alluding to the motto engraven on the frontlet of the high priest (Exo 39:30), and to the separation of the tithe under the law, Lev 27:30. See a promise like this referring to gospel times, Zec 14:20, Zec 14:21. We must first give up ourselves to be holiness to the Lord before what we do, or have, or get, can be so. When we abide with God in our particular callings, and do common actions after a godly sort - when we abound in works of piety and charity, are liberal in relieving the poor, and supporting the ministry, and encouraging the gospel - then our merchandise and our hire are holiness to the Lord, if we sincerely look at his glory in them. And our wealth need not be treasured and laid up on earth; for it is treasured and laid up in heaven, in bags that wax not old, Luk 12:33.

The prophecy commences by introducing the trading vessels of Phoenicia on their return home, as they hear with alarm the tidings of the fate that has befallen their home. "Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entrance any more! Out of the land of the Chittaeans it is made known to them." Even upon the open sea they hear of it as a rumour from the ships that they meet. For their voyage is a very long one: they come from the Phoenician colony on the Spanish Baetis, or the Guadalquivir, as it was called from the time of the occupation by the Moors. " Ships of Tarshish "are ships that sail to Tartessus (lxx inaccurately, πλοῖα Καρχηδόνος ). It is not improbable that the whole of the Mediterranean may have been called "the sea to Tarshish;"and hence the rendering adopted by the Targum, Jerome, Luther, and others, naves maris (see Humboldt, Kosmos , ii. 167, 415). These ships are to howl (hēlı̄lū instead of the feminine, as in Isa 32:11) because of the devastation that has taken place (it is easy to surmise that Tyre has been the victim); for the home and harbour, which the sailors were rejoicing at the prospect of being able to enter once more, have both been swept away. Cyprus was the last station on this homeward passage. The Chittim (written in the legends of coins and other inscriptions with Caph and Cheth ) are the inhabitants of the Cyprian harbour of Citium and its territory. But Epiphanius, the bishop of Salamis in the island of Cyprus, says that Citium was also used as a name for the whole island, or even in a still broader sense. Cyprus, the principal mart of the Phoenicians, was the last landing-place. As soon as they touch the island, the fact which they have only heard of as a rumour upon the open sea, is fully disclosed (niglâh ), i.e., it now becomes a clear undoubted certainty, for they are told of it by eye-witnesses who have made their escape to the island. The prophet now turns to the Phoenicians at home, who have this devastation in prospect.

"Be alarmed, ye inhabitants of the coast! Sidonian merchants, sailing over the sea, filled thee once. And the sowing of Sichor came upon great waters, the harvest of the Nile, her store; and she became gain for nations." The suffixes of מלּא (to fill with wares and riches) and תּבוּאה (the bringing in, viz., into barns and granaries) refer to the word אי , which is used here as a feminine for the name of a country, and denotes the Phoenician coast, including the insular Tyre. " Sidonian merchants "are the Phoenicians generally, as in Homer; for the "great Sidon"of antiquity (Zidon rabbâh , Jos 11:8; Jos 19:28) was the mother-city of Phoenicia, which so thoroughly stamped its name upon the whole nation, that Tyre is called צדנם אם upon Phoenician coins. The meaning of Isa 23:3 is not that the revenue of Tyre which accrued to it on the great unfruitful sea, was like a Nile-sowing, or an Egyptian harvest (Hitzig, Knobel). Such a simile would be a very beautiful one, but it is a very unlikely one, since the Phoenicians actually did buy up the corn-stores of Egypt, that granary of the ancient world, and housed the cargoes that were brought to them "upon great waters,"i.e., on the great Mediterranean. Sichor is a Hebraic form of Siris (the native name of the upper Nile, according to Dionysius Perieg. and Pliny). It signifies the black river ( Meals , Eust. on Dion. Per. 222), the black slime of which gave such fertility to the land. " The harvest of the Nile "is not so much an explanation as an amplification. The valley of the Nile was the field for sowing and reaping, and the Phoenician coast was the barn for this valuable corn; and inasmuch as corn and other articles of trade were purchased and bartered there, it thereby became gain (constr. of sachar , Ewald, §213, a, used in the same sense as in Isa 18:1-7, Isa 45:14, and Pro 3:14), i.e., the means of gain, the source of profit or provision, to whole nations, and even to many such. Others render the word "emporium;"but sâchâr cannot have this meaning. Moreover, foreigners did not come to Phoenicia, but the Phoenicians went to them (Luzzatto).

The address to the whole of the coast-land now passes into an address to the ancestral city. Isa 23:4 "Shudder, O Sidon; for the sea speaketh, the fortress of the sea, thus: I have not travailed, nor given birth, nor trained up young men, brought up maidens." The sea, or more closely considered, the fortress of the sea, i.e., the rock-island on which Neo-tyrus stood with its strong and lofty houses, lifts up its voice in lamentation. Sidon, the ancestress of Canaan, must hear with overwhelming shame how Tyre mourns the loss of her daughters, and complains that, robbed as she has been of her children, she is like a barren women. For the war to have murdered her young men and maidens, was exactly the same as if she had never given birth to them or brought them up. Who is there that does not recognise in this the language of Isaiah (compare Isa 1:2)? - Even in Egypt the fate of Phoenicia produces alarm. Isa 23:5 "When the report cometh to Egypt, they tremble at the report from Tzor." In the protasis ( Isa 23:5 ) l^e mitzraim (to Egypt) the verb "cometh"is implied; the Caph in Isa 23:5 signifies simultaneousness, as in Isa 18:4 and Isa 30:19 (Ges. Thes . p. 650). The news of the fall of Tyre spreads universal terror in Egypt, because its own prosperity depended upon Tyre, which was the great market for its corn; and when such a bulwark had fallen, a similar fate awaited itself.

The inhabitants of Tyre, who desired to escape from death or transportation, are obliged to take refuge in the colonies, and the farther off the better: not in Cyprus, not in Carthage (as at the time when Alexander attacked the insular Tyre), but in Tartessus itself, the farthest off towards the west, and the hardest to reach. "Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast! Is this your fate, thou full of rejoicing, whose origin is from the days of the olden time, whom her feet carried far away to settle? Who hath determined such a thing concerning Tzor, the distributor of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the chief men of the earth? Jehovah of hosts hath determined it, to desecrate the pomp of every kind of ornament, to dishonour the chief men of the earth, all of them." The exclamation "howl ye"(hēillu ) implies their right to give themselves up to their pain. In other cases complaint is unmanly, but here it is justifiable (compare Isa 15:4). In Isa 23:7 the question arises, whether ‛ allizâh is a nominative predicate, as is generally assumed ( "Is this, this deserted heap of ruins, your formerly rejoicing city?" ), or a vocative. We prefer the latter, because there is nothing astonishing in the omission of the article in this case (Isa 22:2; Ewald, 327, a ); whereas in the former case, although it is certainly admissible (see Isa 32:13), it is very harsh (compare Isa 14:16), and the whole expression a very doubtful one to convey the sense of לכם אשר עליזה קריה הזאת . To ‛ allizâh there is attached the descriptive, attributive clause: whose origin (kadmâh , Eze 16:55) dates from the days of the olden time; and then a second "whose feet brought her far away (raglaim construed as a masculine, as in Jer 13:16, for example) to dwell in a foreign land. This is generally understood as signifying transportation by force into an enemy's country. But Luzzatto very properly objects to this, partly on the ground that רגליה יבלוּה (her feet carried her) is the strongest expression that can be used for voluntary emigration, to which lâgūr (to settle) also corresponds; and partly because we miss the antithetical ועתּה , which we should expect with this interpretation. The reference is to the trading journeys which extended "far away"(whether by land or sea), and to the colonies, i.e., the settlements founded in those distant places, that leading characteristic of the Tyro-Phoenician people (this is expressed in the imperfect by yobiluâh , quam portabant ; gur is the most appropriate word to apply to such settlements: for m ērâchōk , see at Isa 17:13). Sidon was no doubt older than Tyre, but Tyre was also of primeval antiquity. Strabo speaks of its as the oldest Phoenician city "after Sidon;"Curtius calls it vetustate originis insignis ; and Josephus reckons the time from the founding of Tyre to the building of Solomon's temple as 240 years ( Ant. viii. 3, 1; compare Herod. ii. 44). Tyre is called hammaēatirâh , not as wearing a crown (Vulg. quondam coronata ), but as a distributor of crowns (Targum). Either would be suitable as a matter of fact; but the latter answers better to the hiphil (as hikrı̄n , hiphrı̄s , which are expressive of results produced from within outwards, can hardly be brought into comparison). Such colonies as Citium, Tartessus, and at first Carthage, were governed by kings appointed by the mother city, and dependent upon her. Her merchants were princes (compare Isa 10:8), the most honoured of the earth; נכבּדּי acquires a superlative meaning from the genitive connection (Ges. §119, 2). From the fact that the Phoenicians had the commerce of the world in their hands, a merchant was called c ena‛ani or c ena‛an (Hos 12:8; from the latter, not from c in‛âni , the plural c in‛ânim which we find here is formed), and the merchandise c in‛âh . The verb c hillēl , to desecrate or profane, in connection with the "pomp of every kind of ornament,"leads us to think more especially of the holy places of both insular and continental Tyre, among which the temple of Melkarth in the new city of the former was the most prominent (according to the Arrian, Anab . ii. 16, παλαιότατον ὧν μνήμη ἀνθρωπίνη διασώζεται ). These glories, which were thought so inviolable, Jehovah will profane. " To dishonour the chief men: " l^e hâkēl ( ad ignominiam deducere , Vulg.) as in Isa 8:22.

The consequence of the fall of Tyre is, that the colonies achieve their independence, Tartessus being mentioned by way of example. "Overflow thy land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish! No girdle restrains thee any longer." The girdle ( m ēzach ) is the supremacy of Tyre, which has hitherto restrained all independent action on the part of the colony. Now they no longer need to wait in the harbour for the ships of the mother city, no longer to dig in the mines as her tributaries for silver and other metals. The colonial territory is their own freehold now, and they can spread themselves over it like the Nile when it passes beyond its banks and overflows the land. Koppe has already given this as the meaning of Isa 23:10.

The prophet now proceeds to relate, as it were, to the Pheonicio-Spanish colony, the daughter, i.e., the population of Tartessus, what has happened to the mother country. "His hand hath He stretched over the sea, thrown kingdoms into trembling; Jehovah hath given commandment concerning Kena'an , to destroy her fortresses. And He said, Thou shalt not rejoice any further, thou disgraced one, virgin daughter of Sidon! Get up to Kittim, go over; there also shalt thou not find rest." There is no ground whatever for restricting the "kingdoms"( m amlâcoth ) to the several small Phoenician states (compare Isa 19:2). Jehovah, reaching over the sea, has thrown the lands of Hither Asia and Egypto-Ethiopia into a state of the most anxious excitement, and has summoned them as instruments of destruction with regard to Kenaēan ( אל , like על in Est 4:5). Phoenicia called itself Kena‛an (Canaan); but this is the only passage in the Old Testament in which the name occurs in this most restricted sense. לשׁמיד , for להשׁמיד , as in Num 5:22; Amo 8:4. The form מעזניה is more rare, but it is not a deformity, as Knobel and others maintain. There are other examples of the same resolution of the reduplication and transposition of the letters (it stands for מענזיה , possibly a Phoenician word; see Hitzig, Grabschrift , p. 16, and Levi, Phoenizische Studien , p. 17), viz., תּמנוּ in Lam 3:22 (vid., at Psa 64:7), and קבנו in Num 23:13, at least according to the Jewish grammar (see, however, Ewald, §250, b ).

(Note: Böttcher derives the form from מעזן , a supposed diminutive; see, however, Jesurun , pp. 212-216.)

"Virgin of the daughter of Sidon" (equivalent to "virgin daughter of Sidon,"two epexegetical genitives; Ewald, §289, c ) is synonymous with Kena‛an . The name of the ancestral city (compare Isa 37:22) has here become the name of the whole nation that has sprung from it. Hitherto this nation has been untouched, like a virgin, but now it resembles one ravished and defiled. If now they flee across to Cyprus ( c ittiyim or c ittim ), there will be no rest for them even there, because the colony, emancipated from the Phoenician yoke, will only be too glad to rid herself to the unwelcome guests from the despotic mother country.

The prophet now proceeds to describe the fate of Phoenicia. "Behold the Chaldean land: this people that has not been ( Asshur - it hath prepared the same for desert beasts ) - they set up their siege-towers, destroy the palaces of Kena'an, make it a heap of ruins. Mourn, he ships of Tarshish: for your fortress is laid waste." The general meaning of Isa 23:13, as the text now runs, is that the Chaldeans have destroyed Kenaēan , and in fact Tyre. הקימוּ (they set up) points to the plural idea of "this people,"and בּחוּניו ( chethib בּחיניו ) to the singular idea of the same; on the other hand, the feminine suffixes relate to Tyre. "They (the Chaldeans) have laid bare the palaces ('armenoth , from 'armoneth ) of Tyre,"i.e., have thrown them down, or burned them down to their very foundations ( עורר , from ערר = ערה , Psa 137:7, like ערער in Jer 51:58); it (the Chaldean people) has made her (Tyre) a heap of rubbish. So far the text is clear, and there is no ground for hesitation. But the question arises, whether in the words לציּי ם יסדהּ אשּׁוּר Asshur is the subject or the object. In the former case the prophet points to the land of the Chaldeans, for the purpose of describing the instruments of divine wrath; and having called them "a nation which has not been"( היה לא ), explains this by saying that Asshur first founded the land which the Chaldeans now inhabit for them, i.e., wild hordes (Psa 72:9); or better still (as tziyyim can hardly signify mountain hordes), that Asshur has made it (this nation, ע ם fem., as in Jer 8:5; Exo 5:16) into dwellers in steppes (Knobel), which could not be conceived of in any other way than that Asshur settled the Chaldeans, who inhabited the northern mountains, in the present so-called land of Chaldea, and thus made the Chaldeans into a people, i.e., a settled, cultivated people, and a people bent on conquest and taking part in the history of the world (according to Knobel, primarily as a component part of the Assyrian army). But this view, which we meet with even in Calvin, is exposed to a grave difficulty. It is by no means improbable, indeed, that the Chaldeans, who were descendants of Nahor, according to Gen 22:22, and therefore of Semitic descent,

(Note: Arpachshad (Gen 10:22), probably the ancestor of the oldest Chaldeans, was also Semitic, whether his name is equivalent to Armachshad (the Chaldean high-land) or not. Arrapachitis rings like Albagh , the name of the table-land between the lake of Urmia and that of Van, according to which shad was the common Armenian termination for names of places.)

came down from the mountains which bound Armenia, Media, and Assyria, having been forced out by the primitive migration of the Arians from west to east; although the more modern hypothesis, which represents them as a people of Tatar descent, and as mixing among the Shemites of the countries of the Euphrates and Tigris, has no historical support whatever, the very reverse being the case, according to Gen 10, since Babylon was of non-Semitic or Cushite origin, and therefore the land of Chaldea, as only a portion of Babylonia (Strabo, xvi. 1, 6), was the land of the Shemites. But the idea that the Assyrians brought them down from the mountains into the lowlands, though not under Ninus and Semiramis,

(Note: The same view is held by Oppert, though he regards the Casdim as the primitive Turanian (Tatar) inhabitants of Shinar, and supposes this passage to relate to their subjugation by the Semitic Assyrians.)

as Vitringa supposes, but about the time of Shalmanassar (Ges., Hitzig, Knobel, and others),

(Note: For an impartial examination of this migration or transplantation hypothesis, which is intimately connected with the Scythian hypothesis, see M. V. Niebuhr's Geschichte Assurs und Babels seit Phul (1857, pp. 152-154). Rawlinson ( Monarchies , i. 71-74) decidedly rejects the latter as at variance with the testimonies of Scripture, of Berosus, and of the monuments.)

is pure imagination, and merely an inference drawn from this passage. For this reason I have tried to give a different interpretation to the clause לציּים יסדהּ אשּׁוּר in my Com. on Habakkuk (p. 22), viz., "Asshur - it has assigned the same to the beasts of the desert."That Asshur may be used not only pre-eminently, but directly, for Nineveh (like Kena‛an for Tzor ), admits of no dispute, since even at the present day the ruins are called Arab. 'l - âṯūr , and this is probably a name applied to Nineveh in the arrow-headed writings also (Layard, Nineveh and its Remains ).

The word tziyyim is commonly applied to beasts of the wilderness (e.g., Isa 13:21), and לציּים יסד for ציּה שׂם (used of Nineveh in Zep 2:13-14) may be explained in accordance with Psa 104:8. The form of the parenthetical clause, however, would be like that of the concluding clause of Amo 1:11. But what makes me distrustful even of this view is not a doctrinal ground (Winer, Real Wörterbuch , i. 218), but one taken from Isaiah's own prophecy. Isaiah undoubtedly sees a Chaldean empire behind the Assyrian; but this would be the only passage in which he prophesied (and that quite by the way) how the imperial power would pass from the latter to the former. It was the task of Nahum and Zephaniah to draw this connecting line. It is true that this argument is not sufficient to outweigh the objections that can be brought against the other view, which makes the text declare a fact that is never mentioned anywhere else; but it is important nevertheless. For this reason it is possible, indeed, that Ewald's conjecture is a right one, and that the original reading of the text was כּנענים ארץ הן . Read in this manner, the first clause runs thus: "Behold the land of the Canaaneans: this people has come to nothing; Asshur has prepared it (their land) for the beasts of the desert."It is true that היה לא generally means not to exist, or not to have been (Oba 1:16); but there are also cases in which לא is used as a kind of substantive (cf., Jer 33:25), and the words mean to become or to have become nothing (Job 6:21; Eze 21:32, and possibly also Isa 15:6). Such an alteration of the text is not favoured, indeed, by any of the ancient versions. For our own part, we still abide by the explanation we have given in the Commentary on Habakkuk , not so much for this reason, as because the seventy years mentioned afterwards are a decisive proof that the prophet had the Chaldeans and not Asshur in view, as the instruments employed in executing the judgment upon Tyre. The prophet points out the Chaldeans - that nation which (although of primeval antiquity, Jer 5:15) had not yet shown itself as a conqueror of the world (cf., Hab 1:6), having been hitherto subject to the Assyrians; but which had now gained the mastery after having first of all destroyed Asshur, i.e., Nineveh

(Note: This destruction of Nineveh was really such an one as could be called yesor l'ziyyim (a preparation for beasts of the desert), for it has been ever since a heap of ruins, which the earth gradually swallowed up; so that when Xenophon went past it, he was not even told that these were the ruins of the ancient Ninus. On the later buildings erected upon the ruins, see Marcus v. Niebuhr, p. 203.)

(namely, with the Medo-Babylonian army under Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian empire, in 606 b.c.) - as the destroyers of the palaces of Tyre. With the appeal to the ships of Tarshish to pour out their lamentation, the prophecy returns in Isa 23:14 to the opening words in Isa 23:1. According to Isa 23:4, the fortress here is insular Tyre. As the prophecy thus closes itself by completing the circle, Isa 23:15-18 might appear to be a later addition. This is no more the case, however, here, than in the last part of chapter 19. Those critics, indeed, who do not acknowledge any special prophecies that are not vaticinia post eventum , are obliged to assign Isa 23:15-18 to the Persian era.

The prophet here foretells the rise of Tyre again at the close of the Chaldean world-wide monarchy. "And it will come to pass in that day, that Tzor will be forgotten seventy years, equal to the days of one king; after the end of the seventy years, Tzor will go, according to the song of the harlot. Take the guitar, sweep through the city, O forgotten harlot! Play bravely, sing zealously, that thou mayest be remembered!" The " days of a king "are a fixed and unchangeable period, for which everything is determined by the one sovereign will (as is the case more especially in the East), and is therefore stereotyped. The seventy years are compared to the days of such a king. Seventy is well fitted to be the number used to denote a uniform period of this kind, being equal to 10 x 7, i.e., a compact series of heptads of years ( shabbathoth ). But the number is also historical, prophecy being the power by which the history of the future was "periodized"beforehand in this significant manner. They coincide with the seventy years of Jeremiah (compare 2Ch 36:21), that is to say, with the duration of the Chaldean rule. During this period Tyre continued with its world-wide commerce in a state of involuntary repose. " Tyre will be forgotten: " v'nishcachath is not a participle (Böttcher), but the perf. cons. which is required here, and stands for ונשׁכּחה with an original ת fem. (cf., Isa 7:14; Psa 118:23). After the seventy years (that is to say, along with the commencement of the Persian rule) the harlot is welcomed again. She is like a bayadere or troubadour going through the streets with song and guitar, and bringing her charms into notice again. The prophecy here falls into the tone of a popular song, as in Isa 5:1 and Isa 27:2. It will be with Tyre as with such a musician and dancer as the one described in the popular song.

When it begins again to make love to all the world, it will get rich again from the gain acquired by this worldly intercourse. "And it will come to pass at the end of the seventy years: Jehovah will visit Tzor, and she comes again to her hire, and commits prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the broad surface of the globe." Such mercantile trading as hers, which is only bent upon earthly advantages, is called zânâh , on account of its recognising none of the limits opposed by God, and making itself common to all the world, partly because it is a prostitution of the soul, and partly because from the very earliest times the prostitution of the body was also a common thing in markets and fairs, more especially in those of Phoenicia (as the Phoenicians were worshippers of Astarte). Hence the gain acquired by commerce, which Tyre had now secured again, is called ' ethnân (Deu 23:19), with a feminine suffix, according to the Masora without mappik (Ewald, §247, a ).

This restoration of the trade of Tyre is called a visitation on the part of Jehovah, because, however profane the conduct of Tyre might be, it was nevertheless a holy purpose to which Jehovah rendered it subservient. "And her gain and her reward of prostitution will be holy to Jehovah: it is not stored up nor gathered together; but her gain from commerce will be theirs who dwell before Jehovah, to eat to satiety and for stately clothing." It is not the conversion of Tyre which is held up to view, but something approaching it. Sachar (which does not render it at all necessary to assume a form sâchâr for Isa 23:3) is used here in connection with ' ethnân , to denote the occupation itself which yielded the profit. This, and also the profit acquired, would become holy to Jehovah; the latter would not be treasured up and capitalized as it formerly was, but they would give tribute and presents from it to Israel, and thus help to sustain in abundance and clothe in stately dress the nation which dwelt before Jehovah, i.e., whose true dwelling-place was in the temple before the presence of God (Psa 27:4; Psa 84:5; mecasseh = that which covers, i.e., the covering; ‛ âthik , like the Arabic ‛atik , old, noble, honourable). A strange prospect! As Jerome says, "Haec secundum historiam necdum facta comperimus ."

The Assyrians, therefore, were not the predicted instruments of the punishment to be inflicted upon Phoenicia. Nor was Shalmanassar successful in his Phoenician war, as the extract from the chronicle of Menander in the Antiquities of Josephus ( Ant. ix. 14, 2) clearly shows. Elulaeus, the king of Tyre, had succeeded in once more subduing the rebellious Cyprians ( Kittaioi ). But with their assistance (if indeed ἐπὶ τούτους πέμπσας is to be so interpreted)

(Note: The view held by Johann Brandis is probably the more correct one-namely, that Shalmanassar commenced the contest by sending an army over to the island against the Chittaeans ( ἐπὶ not in the sense of ad , to, but of contra , against, just as in the expression further on, ἐπ ̓ αὐτοὺς ὑπέστρεψε , contra eos rediit ), probably to compel them to revolt again from the Tyrians. Rawlinson ( Monarchies , ii. 405) proposes, as an emendation of the text, ἐπὶ του'τον ,by which the Cyprian expedition is got rid of altogether.))

Shalmanassar made war upon Phoenicia, though a general peace soon put an end to this campaign. Thereupon Sidon, Ace, Palaetyrus, and many other cities, fell away from Tyrus (insular Tyre), and placed themselves under Assyrian supremacy. But as the Tyrians would not do this, Shalmanassar renewed the war; and the Phoenicians that were under his sway supplied him with six hundred ships and eight hundred rowers for this purpose. The Tyrians, however, fell upon them with twelve vessels of war, and having scattered the hostile fleet, took about five hundred prisoners. This considerably heightened the distinction of Tyre. And the king of Assyria was obliged to content himself with stationing guards on the river (Leontes), and at the conduits, to cut off the supply of fresh water from the Tyrians. This lasted for five years, during the whole of which time the Tyrians drank from wells that they hand sunk themselves. Now, unless we want to lower the prophecy into a mere picture of the imagination, we cannot understand it as pointing to Asshur as the instrument of punishment, for the simple reason that Shalmanassar was obliged to withdraw from the "fortress of the sea"without accomplishing his purpose, and only succeeded in raising it to all the greater honour. But it is a question whether even Nebuchadnezzar was more successful with insular Tyre. All that Josephus is able to tell us from the Indian and Phoenician stories of Philostratus, is that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the reign of Ithobal ( Ant. x. 11, 1). And from Phoenician sources themselves, he merely relates (c. Ap. i. 21) that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years under Ithobal (viz., from the seventh year of his reign onwards). But so much, at any rate, may apparently be gathered from the account of the Tyrian government which follows, viz., that the Persian era was preceded by the subjection of the Tyrians to the Chaldeans, inasmuch as they sent twice to fetch their king from Babylon. When the Chaldeans made themselves masters of the Assyrian empire, Phoenicia (whether with or without insular Tyre, we do not know) was a satrapy of that empire (Josephus, Ant. x. 11, 1; c. Ap. i. 19, from Berosus), and this relation still continued at the close of the Chaldean rule. So much is certain, however - and Berosus, in fact, says it expressly - viz. that Nebuchadnezzar once more subdued Phoenicia when it rose in rebellion; and that when he was called home to Babylon in consequence of the death of his father, he returned with Phoenician prisoners. What we want, however, is a direct account of the conquest of Tyre by the Chaldeans. Neither Josephus nor Jerome could give any such account. And the Old Testament Scriptures appear to state the very opposite - namely, the failure of Nebuchadnezzar's enterprise. For in the twenty-seventh year after Jehoiachim's captivity (the sixteenth from the destruction of Jerusalem) the following word of the Lord came to Ezekiel (Eze 29:17-18): "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has caused his army to perform a long and hard service against Tyre: every head is made bald, and every shoulder peeled; yet neither he nor his army has any wages at Tyre for the hard service which they have performed around the same."It then goes on to announce that Jehovah would give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, and that this would be the wages of his army. Gesenius, Winer, Hitzig, and others, infer from this passage, when taken in connection with other non-Israelitish testimonies given by Josephus, which merely speak of a siege, that Nebuchadnezzar did not conquer Tyre; but Hengstenberg ( de rebus Tyriorum , 1832), Hävernick ( Ezek . pp. 427-442), and Drechsler ( Isaiah ii. 166-169) maintain by arguments, which have been passed again and again through the sieve, that this passage presupposes the conquest of Tyre, and merely announces the disproportion between the profit which Nebuchadnezzar derived from it and the effort that it cost him. Jerome (on Ezekiel) gives the same explanation. When the army of Nebuchadnezzar had made insular Tyre accessible by heaping up an embankment with enormous exertions, and they were in a position to make use of their siege artillery, they found that the Tyrians had carried away all their wealth in vessels to the neighbouring islands; "so that when the city was taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing to repay him for his labour; and because he had obeyed the will of God in this undertaking, after the Tyrian captivity had lasted a few years, Egypt was given to him"(Jerome).

I also regard this as the correct view to take; though without wishing to maintain that the words might not be understood as implying the failure of the siege, quite as readily as the uselessness of the conquest. But on the two following grounds, I am persuaded that they are used here in the latter sense. (1.) In the great trilogy which contains Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre (Ezek 26-28), and in which he more than once introduces thoughts and figures from Isaiah 23, which he still further amplifies and elaborates (according to the general relation in which he stands to his predecessors, of whom he does not make a species of mosaic, as Jeremiah does, but whom he rather expands, fills up, and paraphrases, as seen more especially in his relation to Zephaniah), he predicts the conquest of insular Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. He foretells indeed even more than this; but if Tyre had not been at least conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the prophecy would have fallen completely to the ground, like any merely human hope. Now we candidly confess that, on doctrinal grounds, it is impossible for us to make such an assumption as this. There is indeed an element of human hope in all prophecy, but it does not reach such a point as to be put to shame by the test supplied in Deu 18:21-22. (2.) If I take a comprehensive survey of the following ancient testimonies: ( a ) that Nebuchadnezzar, when called home in consequence of his father's death, took some Phoenician prisoners with him (Berosus, ut sup. ); ( b ) that with this fact before us, the statement found in the Phoenician sources, to the effect that the Tyrians fetched two of their rulers from Babylon, viz., Merbal and Eirom, presents a much greater resemblance to 2Ki 24:12, 2Ki 24:14, and Dan 1:3, than to 1Ki 12:2-3, with which Hitzig compares it; ( c ) that, according to Josephus (c. Ap. i. 20), it was stated "in the archives of the Phoenicians concerning this king Nebuchadnezzar, that he conquered all Syria and Phoenicia;"and ( d ) that the voluntary submission to the Persians (Herod. Isa 3:19; Xen. Cyrop. i. 1, 4) was not the commencement of servitude, but merely a change of masters; - if, I say, I put all these things together, the conclusion to which I am brought is, that the thirteen years' siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar ended in its capture, possibly through capitulation (as Winer, Movers, and others assume).

The difficulties which present themselves to us when we compare together the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, are still no doubt very far from being removed; but it is in this way alone that any solution of the difficulty is to be found. For even assuming that Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre, he did not destroy it, as the words of the two prophecies would lead us to expect. The real solution of the difficulty has been already given by Hävernick and Drechsler: "The prophet sees the whole enormous mass of destruction which eventually came upon the city, concentrated, as it were, in Nebuchadnezzar's conquest, inasmuch as in the actual historical development it was linked on to that fact like a closely connected chain. The power of Tyre as broken by Nebuchadnezzar is associated in his view with its utter destruction."Even Alexander did not destroy Tyre, when he had conquered it after seven months' enormous exertions. Tyre was still a flourishing commercial city of considerable importance under both the Syrian and the Roman sway. In the time of the Crusades it was still the same; and even the Crusaders, who conquered it in 1125, did not destroy it. It was not till about a century and a half later that the destruction was commenced by the removal of the fortifications on the part of the Saracens. At the present time, all the glory of Tyre is either sunk in the sea or buried beneath the sand - an inexhaustible mine of building materials for Beirut and other towns upon the coast. Amidst these vast ruins of the island city, there is nothing standing now but a village of wretched wooden huts. And the island is an island no longer. The embankment which Alexander threw up has grown into a still broader and stronger tongue of earth through the washing up of sand, and now connects the island with the shore - a standing memorial of divine justice (Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha , p. 357). This picture of destruction stands before the prophet's mental eye, and indeed immediately behind the attack of the Chaldeans upon Tyre - the two thousand years between being so compressed, that the whole appears as a continuous event. This is the well-known law of perspective, by which prophecy is governed throughout. This law cannot have been unknown to the prophets themselves, inasmuch as they needed it to accredit their prophecies even to themselves. Still more was it necessary for future ages, in order that they might not be deceived with regard to the prophecy, that this universally determining law, in which human limitations are left unresolved, and are miraculously intermingled with the eternal view of God, should be clearly known.

But another enigma presents itself. The prophet foretells a revival of Tyre at the end of seventy years, and the passing over of its world-wide commerce into the service of the congregation of Jehovah. We cannot agree with R. O. Gilbert ( Theodulia , 1855, pp. 273-4) in regarding the seventy years as a sacred number, which precludes all clever human calculation, because the Lord thereby conceals His holy and irresistible decrees. The meaning of the seventy is clear enough: they are, as we saw, the seventy years of the Chaldean rule. And this is also quite enough, if only a prelude to what is predicted here took place in connection with the establishment of the Persian sway. Such a prelude there really was in the fact, that, according to the edict of Cyrus, both Sidonians and Tyrians assisted in the building of the temple at Jerusalem (Ezr 3:7, cf., Isa 1:4). A second prelude is to be seen in the fact, that at the very commencement of the labours of the apostles there was a Christian church in Tyre, which was visited by the Apostle Paul (Act 21:3-4), and that this church steadily grew from that time forward. In this way again the trade of Tyre entered the service of the God of revelation. But it is Christian Tyre which now lies in ruins. One of the most remarkable ruins is the splendid cathedral of Tyre, for which Eusebius of Caesarea wrote a dedicatory address, and in which Friedrich Barbarossa, who was drowned in the Kalykadnos in the year 1190, is supposed to have been buried. Hitherto, therefore, these have been only preludes to the fulfilment of the prophecy. Its ultimate fulfilment has still to be waited for. But whether the fulfilment will be an ideal one, when not only the kingdoms of the world, but also the trade of the world, shall belong to God and His Christ; or spiritually , in the sense in which this word is employed in the Apocalypse, i.e., by the true essence of the ancient Tyre reappearing in another city, like that of Babylon in Rome; or literally , by the fishing village of Tzur actually disappearing again as Tyre rises from its ruins - it would be impossible for any commentator to say, unless he were himself a prophet.

III. Israel's crisis of faith chs. 7--39

This long section of the book deals with Israel's major decision in Isaiah's day. Would she trust in Yahweh or in other nations? The decision was a matter of faith; who is more trustworthy, God or strong people? God promised that trust in the nations would result in destruction (ch. 34) but trust in Him would bring abundance (ch. 35). Israel's decision would also determine whether she had a message for the nations or not and whether she would fulfill her mission to the nations or not. This decision is, of course, one that the people of God of all ages continually face.

B. God's sovereignty over the nations chs. 13-35

This major section of the book emphasizes the folly of trusting in the nations rather than in Yahweh. The section preceding it shows how King Ahaz trusted in Assyria and experienced destruction (chs. 7-12). The section following it shows how King Hezekiah trusted in the Lord and experienced deliverance (chs. 36-39). In this section the prophet expanded his perspective from Israel to include the world. The God of Israel is also Lord of the nations.

1. Divine judgments on the nations chs. 13-23

The recurrence of the Hebrew word massa', translated "oracle" or "burden," prescribes the boundaries of this section of text.¹⁴⁰ These chapters present the nations over which Immanuel is ruler, and they expand the idea of God's hatred of Assyria's pride (10:5-34; cf. 2:6-22; 13:11, 19; 14:11; 16:6; 17:7-11; 23:9). They are announcements of doom on these nations, but they are also announcements of salvation for Israel if she would trust in Yahweh. Isaiah delivered them to Israel rather than to the nations mentioned. Thus they assured the Israelites of Yahweh's sovereignty over the nations with a view to encouraging God's people to trust in the Lord (cf. Jer. 46-51; Ezek. 25-32; Amos 1-2). It would be foolish to trust in nations whom God has doomed. The unifying theme is the pride of these nations. Exalting self and failing to acknowledge God results in destruction.

". . . He [God] will hold every nation accountable for its actions."¹⁴¹

It is helpful to notice the structure of this section and the one that follows it.¹⁴²

Note that each of the first two columns of oracles (chs. 13-23) begins with Babylon, and the third deals with Israel, which the peoples of the world surround. In the first list Babylon is to Israel's north, Philistia to the west, Moab to the east, and Egypt to the south. In the second list Babylon is to the north, Edom to the south, Arabia to the east, and Tyre to the west. Thus the selection of these nations suggests that Israel occupies the central place in God's plans, and the surrounding nations are vulnerable.¹⁴³

The second series of five oracles chs. 21-23

Compared to the first series of oracles against the Gentile nations, this second series is more negative. Also the nations and cities against which they were sent are not as clearly defined suggesting that they apply more broadly to all the nations, not just the historical ones addressed.

The oracle against Tyre ch. 23

The first cycle of oracles closed by revealing that Egypt, the political oppressor of the Israelites, would come into equal status with Israel in the future (19:25). The second cycle similarly closes by disclosing that Tyre, the materialistic religious corrupter of God's people in the past, would come into a relationship of holiness (v. 18). Thus the climax of both revelations of judgment was the divine blessing of the Gentiles.

There are also parallels between Babylon, the first oracle in the first series, and Tyre, the last oracle in the second series. Babylon was the great land power of the ancient world, and Tyre was the great sea power. Babylon gained her power through warfare whereas Tyre gained hers peacefully. The descriptions of both cities meld into the view of future Babylon presented in Revelation 17-18. There the religious and commercial aspect of future Babylon are strongly reminiscent of Tyre. Note also the reference to a prostitute in both passages.

"Babylon's greatness lay in her glory, the list of her achievements and accomplishments, her sophistication and culture. Tyre did not have all of that, but she did have her wealth and her vast maritime contacts. So between the two of them, Babylon and Tyre summed up from east to west all that the world of that day--and this--thought was significant."²¹²

This oracle consists of two parts: a poem describing Tyre's fall (vv. 1-14) and a prediction of Tyre's ultimate commitment to the Lord and His people. Tyre was the major city of Phoenicia at this time and undoubtedly represents the other towns allied with it in some of the references in this chapter.²¹³

23:1 The prophet described news of Tyre's total destruction reaching sailors on ships of Tarshish moored in Cyprus. Tarshish was probably in Spain, but "ships of Tarshish" was a term that described the largest ships of the day capable of the longest voyages (cf. 2:16). Tyre was a very important Mediterranean seaport north of Israel, and its destruction would impact maritime trade everywhere.

23:2-3 Isaiah also called the residents of the Phoenician coast, including Sidon, another important port, to be silent and motionless since Tyre had collapsed. Tyre had been the marketplace for the large wheat crops that came from Egypt and were distributed to other Mediterranean lands.

23:4 Isaiah also gave voice to the sea, the mother of Tyre, which bewailed its loss at Tyre's demise. It's children were the ships that plied its waters because of Tyre's commercial activity. This loss would be a source of embarrassment to Sidon since it was a sister city in Phoenicia.

23:5 The fourth entity to sorrow over the news of Tyre's downfall would be Egypt. Tyrian ships transported Egyptian products all over the Mediterranean region. Tyre's destruction would have far-reaching effects.

23:6-7 Isaiah advised refugees to flee from Tyre to Tarshish. How the course of Tyre's fate would change! She had for centuries been a world power, not as an empire but as a broker of international trade. Her ambitions were not political, to rule others, but commercial, to grow rich. As such, Tyre symbolizes one aspect of worldly endeavor.

23:8-9 Why had Tyre perished? When Tyre founded colonies, she set up rulers over them--bestowed crowns. Princes and the honored of the earth ended up serving Tyre's ends. Thus this ancient city had tremendous power and influence. The reason for Tyre's death was the plan of the Lord Almighty. He desired to humble the proud and to humiliate the admired. He wanted to show the transitory nature of human glory and the folly of depending on such glory. God does not object when worthy people receive the credit due them. What He opposes is pride that seeks to live independent of Himself.

23:10 Tarshish could now expand freely, as the Nile overflows Egypt, because God had removed her main competitor, Tyre.

23:11-12 The Lord had stretched His hand over the sea in judgment, as He had over Egypt long ago (cf. Exod. 14:16; 15:4-6, 12). The sea was His province, not Tyre's (cf. Jon. 1:3-4). He had made all kingdoms tremble by condemning the whole Gentile Canaan region to judgment. The Phoenician coastal cities would have no more joy, peace, or security. Their residents would flee to Cyprus, Tarshish, and elsewhere but would not be able to find rest.

23:13 They would not find rest because the Assyrians would take revenge on any nation that gave sanctuary to the Tyrians. God's agent in the destruction of Tyre was first Assyria, then Babylonia, and finally Greece. Tiglath-pileser of Assyria set up a military governor in Tyre in 738 B.C., and his successors imposed escalating restraints on the city because it stubbornly resisted foreign control. Alexander the Great finally wiped the city into the sea in 332 B.C. leaving it uninhabitable.²¹⁴ Here Isaiah pointed to Assyria as the power God would use to cut back the influence of Tyre. Assyria had already done to the Chaldeans what the prophet foretold it would do to Tyre.²¹⁵

23:14 This repeated call to the ships of Tarshish to wail concludes Isaiah's announcement of Tyre's destruction forming an inclusio with verse 1. Even though Tyre's demise would give Tarshish more control, Tarshish would suffer because Tyre determined the prosperity of the Mediterranean world. The ships of Tarshish would have no port to enter at Tyre (v. 1), and they would have no security for their enterprise (v. 14). How foolish it would be, then, for the Jerusalemites to pin their hopes on Tyre.

As in the previous chapter, Isaiah gave a sign that what he had predicted about Tyre's destruction would indeed happen (cf. 22:15-25). It would experience a brief revival in the near future. Looking into the far distant future, the prophet also announced the conversion of Tyre into a place of holiness to the Lord (cf. 19:16-25).

23:15-16 In the day that the Lord would execute His plan against Tyre, there would be a period of 70 years when Tyre would experience relief from her oppressors.²¹⁶ "Like the days of one king" refers to the book of days that kings kept in which they recorded the events of their reigns day by day. The meaning is similar to "as a hired man would count" (16:14; 21:16), namely, that these would be 70 literal years. Tyre did experience such a period of respite following the campaigns of Sennacherib in 701 B.C. During the next 70 years Assyria was in decline and did not pay much attention to Tyre.²¹⁷ Consequently Tyre regained some of her former strength.

23:16 Isaiah's comparison of Tyre's recovery to the self-advertisements of a harlot illustrates two realities. Tyre would attract interest in herself again, and what she did was selfish and strictly for money (cf. Amos 1:9).

23:17 At the end of 70 years the Lord would restore Tyre to her former position of playing the materialistic harlot among the nations.

23:18 Unlike a selfish prostitute, however, Tyre would set aside her income to the Lord, and it would benefit those who dwell in the Lord's presence. When the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon, the merchants of Tyre sold them building materials for the second temple (Ezra 3:7), as they had done for the first temple during Solomon's reign (1 Kings 5:1-12). But the change in the Tyrians' attitude that this verse promises did not mark them then; they still engaged in commerce for selfish ends. Thus this verse looks beyond the history of ancient Tyre to a time yet future when God will transform hearts and cause Gentiles worldwide to come and worship Him (cf. 60:5-9; Rev. 21:24-26).²¹⁸ In the future Tyre will have a new status, a new spirit, and a new allegiance (cf. Ps. 87:4). She will join the Ethiopians, Egyptians, Assyrians (18:7; 19:18-25), and many other Gentiles in uniting to fulfill God's glorification of Israel.

"The care of a Phoenician widow once extended to a prophet (1 Ki. 17:8-16) will be the norm of coming relationships."²¹⁹

The Judeans should not envy the Tyrians, nor should God's people of any age envy materialistic idolaters. Ultimately God's people will enjoy all the wealth of Tyre that will come to her God.

". . . chs. 13-23 seem to be saying that since the glory of the nations (chs. 13, 14) equals nothing, and since the scheming of the nations (chs. 14-18) equals nothing, and since the vision of this nation (chs. 21, 22) equals nothing, and since the wealth of the nations (ch. 23) equals nothing, don't trust the nations! The same is true today. If we believe that a system of alliances can save us, we have failed to learn the lessons of Isaiah and of history. God alone is our refuge and strength (Ps. 46:2 [Eng. 1])."²²⁰

Isaiah 23 - The Burden Against Tyre

A. The promise of coming judgment against Tyre.

1. (1-5) The sailors of Tyre agonize when they hear of the destruction of their home port.

The burden against Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor; from the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom those who cross the sea have filled. And on great waters the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the River, is her revenue; and she is a marketplace for the nations. Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, saying, "I do not labor, nor bring forth children; neither do I rear young men, nor bring up virgins." When the report reaches Egypt, they also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

a. The burden against Tyre: To the north of Israel, Tyre was the leading city of Phoenecia, the great maritime power of the ancient world. Because it was such an important harbor and center for shipping, Tyre was synonymous with commerce and materialism.

i. Tyre was the "Babylon of the Sea." Because of their excellent harbor and seamanship, they established a commercial empire far greater than one would expect given their size and military power.

ii. Tyre was a city in two parts - an inland city, and an island city. The inland city was conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, just as Isaiah prophesied. The island city was conquered later by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.

iii. Tyre was a mixed bag for Israel. King Hiram of Tyre supplied David and Solomon great timbers for the building of the temple and other projects. Hiram gave Solomon sailors so Israel could build their commerce by sea. But later, Tyre gave Israel one of the worst rulers Israel ever had: Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab of Israel.

b. There is no house, no harbor: Isaiah pictures sailors from Tyre in the land of Cyprus and in Egypt hearing of the destruction of the harbor of Tyre. When they hear the news, the wail and are in agony at the report of Tyre.

2. (6-9) The proud city of Tyre is humbled.

Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coastland! Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far off to dwell? Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

a. Tyre was a city where money ruled. The merchants are princes, and the traders are the honorable of the earth. To be a leader or honorable, one didn't need to be of royal heritage, a good or a honest man. The only thing needed was success in business!

b. The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to bring dishonor the pride of all glory: Because of its great success, Tyre had become proud and full of self-glory. But the LORD of hosts has purposed to judge and humble Tyre, and Isaiah announces it.

i. "Pride, pride, pride, is that basic sin to which God is ever opposed, and man is ever expressing." (Jennings)

3. (10-14) The destruction of the city of Tyre.

Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more strength. He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; the LORD has given a commandment against Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And He said, "You will rejoice no more, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus; there also you will have no rest." Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not; Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up its towers, they raised up its palaces, and brought it to ruin. Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For your strength is laid waste.

a. The Chaldeans . . . Assyria: The mainland city of Tyre was defeated by both the Assyrians and the Babylonians. They were used by God to bring the city to ruin.

B. A promise of restoration to the city of Tyre.

1. (15-16) Seventy years of desolation for the city of Tyre.

Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: "Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered."

a. Tyre will be forgotten seventy years: God's judgments are so precise that He decrees the exact number of years Tyre will be forgotten.

b. That you may be remembered: Quoting what may have been a well-known song in his day, Isaiah makes the point that at the end of the seventy years appointed by God, Tyre will be remembered again.

2. (17-18) God's purpose in restoring the city of Tyre.

And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the LORD; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for fine clothing.

a. She will return to her hire: God will allow Tyre, symbolized by a prostitute, to continue her gross materialism with all the kingdoms of the world. But Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the LORD; ultimately, the riches Tyre so desperately sought will be given to the LORD anyway.

b. The LORD will visit Tyre: Many commentators think this refers to the presence of Christianity in Tyre in the days of the early church.

i. "Tyre, after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, recovered, as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Christian early with the rest of the neighboring countries. St. Paul himself found many Christian there, Acts 21:4. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishoprics under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians in 1124; but in 1280 was conquered by the Mamelukes and afterwards taken from them by the Turks in 1517. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay; is now a mere ruin, a bare rock, 'a place to spread nets upon,' as the Prophet Ezekiel foretold it should be, chapter 26:14." (Clarke)

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission