Yesaya 23:2-4

23:2 Lament, ¹  you residents of the coast,

you merchants of Sidon ²  who travel over the sea,

whose agents sail over 23:3 the deep waters! ³ 

Grain from the Shihor region, ⁴ 

crops grown near the Nile ⁵  she receives; ⁶ 

she is the trade center ⁷  of the nations.

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ⁸  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ⁹ 

Yesaya 23:12

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed ¹⁰  virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.” ¹¹ 

Yeremia 25:22

25:22 all the kings of Tyre, ¹²  all the kings of Sidon; ¹³  all the kings of the coastlands along the sea; ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 27:3

27:3 Use it to send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, ¹⁵  and Sidon. ¹⁶  Send them through ¹⁷  the envoys who have come to Jerusalem ¹⁸  to King Zedekiah of Judah.

Yeremia 47:4

47:4 For the time has come

to destroy all the Philistines.

The time has come to destroy all the help

that remains for Tyre ¹⁹  and Sidon. ²⁰ 

For I, the Lord, will ²¹  destroy the Philistines,

that remnant that came from the island of Crete. ²² 

Yoel 3:4-8

3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? ²³ 

Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? ²⁴ 

I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! ²⁵ 

3:5 For you took my silver and my gold

and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. ²⁶ 

3:6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,

removing them far from their own country. ²⁷ 

3:7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.

I will repay you for what you have done! ²⁸ 

3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to ²⁹  the people of Judah. ³⁰ 

They will sell them to the Sabeans, ³¹  a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Zakharia 9:2

9:2 as are those of Hamath also, which adjoins Damascus, and Tyre ³²  and Sidon, ³³  though they consider themselves to be very wise.

[23:2]  ¹ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

[23:2]  ² map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[23:3]  ³ 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.

[23:3]  ⁴ 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.

[23:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the harvest of the Nile.”

[23:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “[is] her revenue.”

[23:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “merchandise”; KJV, ASV “a mart of nations”; NLT “the merchandise mart of the world.”

[23:4]  ⁸ 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.

[23:4]  ⁹ tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:4]  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.

[23:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

[23:12]  ¹¹ 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.

[25:22]  ¹² map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[25:22]  ¹³ sn Tyre and Sidon are mentioned within the judgment on the Philistines in Jer 47:4. They were Phoenician cities to the north and west of Judah on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Lebanon.

[25:22]  map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[25:22]  ¹⁴ sn The connection with Tyre and Sidon suggests that these were Phoenician colonies. See also Isa 23:2.

[27:3]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[27:3]  ¹⁶ sn The nations of Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah. They were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. The nations of Tyre and Sidon were on the sea coast north and west of Judah. They are best known for their maritime trade during the reign of Solomon. They were more commonly allies of Israel and Judah than enemies.

[27:3]  map For the location of Sidon see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[27:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “send by means of them” [i.e., the straps and crossbars made into a yoke] to…through.” The text is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style. Many English versions ignore the suffix on the end of “send” and find some support for this on the basis of its absence in the Lucianic Greek text. However, it is probably functioning metonymically here for the message which they see symbolized before them and is now explained clearly to them.

[27:3]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[47:4]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[47:4]  ²⁰ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[47:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “For the Lord will.” The first person style has been adopted because the Lord is speaking (cf. v. 2).

[47:4]  ²² sn All the help that remains for Tyre and Sidon and that remnant that came from the island of Crete appear to be two qualifying phrases that refer to the Philistines, the last with regard to their origin and the first with regard to the fact that they were allies that Tyre and Sidon depended on. “Crete” is literally “Caphtor” which is generally identified with the island of Crete. The Philistines had come from there (Amos 9:7) in the wave of migration from the Aegean Islands during the twelfth and eleventh century and had settled on the Philistine plain after having been repulsed from trying to enter Egypt.

[3:4]  ²³ tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”

[3:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “districts.”

[3:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.

[3:5]  ²⁶ tn Or perhaps, “temples.”

[3:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “border.”

[3:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will return your recompense on your head.”

[3:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “into the hand of.”

[3:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[3:8]  ³¹ sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.

[9:2]  ³² map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[9:2]  ³³ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.