Isaiah 23:1

The Lord Will Judge Tyre

23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:

Wail, you large ships, ¹ 

for the port is too devastated to enter! ² 

From the land of Cyprus ³  this news is announced to them.

Isaiah 23:7

23:7 Is this really your boisterous city ⁴ 

whose origins are in the distant past, ⁵ 

and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

Ezekiel 26:13-14

26:13 I will silence ⁶  the noise of your songs; the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 26:14 I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place where fishing nets are spread. You will never be built again, ⁷  for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

Revelation 18:22

18:22 And the sound of the harpists, musicians,

flute players, and trumpeters

will never be heard in you ⁸  again.

No ⁹  craftsman ¹⁰  who practices any trade

will ever be found in you again;

the noise of a mill ¹¹  will never be heard in you again.

[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.

[23:1]  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.

[23:1]  ³ tn Heb “the Kittim,” a designation for the people of Cyprus. See HALOT 504-05 s.v. כִּתִּיִּים.

[23:7]  ⁴ 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.

[23:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the days of antiquity [is] her beginning.”

[26:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause to end.”

[26:14]  ⁷ sn This prophecy was fulfilled by Alexander the Great in 332 b.c.

[18:22]  ⁸ tn The shift to a second person pronoun here corresponds to the Greek text.

[18:22]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:22]  ¹⁰ tn On this term BDAG 1001 s.v. τεχνίτης states, “craftsperson, artisan, designer…Of a silversmith Ac 19:24, 25 v.l., 38….Of a potter 2 Cl 8:2 (metaph., cp. Ath. 15:2). πᾶς τεχνίτης πάσης τέχνης Rv 18:22.”

[18:22]  ¹¹ tn This is a different Greek word (μύλος, mulos) from the one for the millstone in v. 21 (μύλινος, mulinos). See L&N 7.68.