Text -- Isaiah 23:1-11 (NET)

The Lord Will Judge Tyre

23:1 Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, ships, for the port is too devastated to enter! From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them. 23:2 Lament, you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over 23:3 the deep waters! Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations. 23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea says this, O fortress of the sea: “I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” 23:5 When the news reaches Egypt, they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. 23:6 Travel to Tarshish! Wail, you residents of the coast! 23:7 Is this really your boisterous city whose origins are in the distant past, and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside? 23:8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the dignitaries of the earth? 23:9 The Lord who commands armies planned it– to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth. 23:10 Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile; there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre. 23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook kingdoms; he gave the order to destroy Canaan’s fortresses.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 23:1

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.

NET Notes: Isa 23:2

¹ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

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

NET Notes: Isa 23:3

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.”

NET Notes: Isa 23:4

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.

NET Notes: Isa 23:5

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

NET Notes: Isa 23:7

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.”

NET Notes: Isa 23:8

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.”

NET Notes: Isa 23:9

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

NET Notes: Isa 23:10

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.

NET Notes: Isa 23:11

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.