Isaiah 23:1-15

The Lord Will Judge Tyre

23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:

Wail, you large ships,

for the port is too devastated to enter!

From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them.

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.

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.”

23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,

these people who have lost their identity!

The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals.

They erected their siege towers,

demolished its fortresses,

and turned it into a heap of ruins.

23:14 Wail, you large ships,

for your fortress is destroyed!

23:15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: