Isaiah 23:15

23:15 At that time ¹  Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, ²  the typical life span of a king. ³  At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: ⁴ 

Isaiah 23:5

23:5 When the news reaches Egypt,

they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. ⁵ 

Isaiah 23:8

23:8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, ⁶ 

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are the dignitaries ⁷  of the earth?

Isaiah 23:1

The Lord Will Judge Tyre

23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:

Wail, you large ships, ⁸ 

for the port is too devastated to enter! ⁹ 

From the land of Cyprus ¹⁰  this news is announced to them.

Isaiah 23:17

23:17 At the end of seventy years ¹¹  the Lord will revive ¹²  Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. ¹³ 

Isaiah 23:10

23:10 Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile;

there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 23:6

23:6 Travel to Tarshish!

Wail, you residents of the coast!

Isaiah 23:14

23:14 Wail, you large ships, ¹⁵ 

for your fortress is destroyed!

Isaiah 23:3

23:3 the deep waters! ¹⁶ 

Grain from the Shihor region, ¹⁷ 

crops grown near the Nile ¹⁸  she receives; ¹⁹ 

she is the trade center ²⁰  of the nations.

Isaiah 23:13

23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,

these people who have lost their identity! ²¹ 

The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals.

They erected their siege towers, ²² 

demolished ²³  its fortresses,

and turned it into a heap of ruins. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 23:11

23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ²⁵ 

he shook kingdoms;

he ²⁶  gave the order

to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 23:4

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ²⁸  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.” ²⁹ 

Isaiah 23:18

23:18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. ³⁰ 

[23:15]  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.

[23:15]  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.

[23:15]  ³ tn Heb “like the days of a king.”

[23:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”

[23:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “they will be in pain at the report of Tyre.”

[23:8]  ⁹ 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.

[23:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the honored” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “renowned.”

[23:1]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Kittim,” a designation for the people of Cyprus. See HALOT 504-05 s.v. כִּתִּיִּים.

[23:17]  ¹⁷ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[23:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”

[23:17]  ¹⁹ 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.”

[23:10]  ²¹ 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.

[23:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “ships of Tarshish.” See the note at v. 1.

[23:3]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “the harvest of the Nile.”

[23:3]  ³² tn Heb “[is] her revenue.”

[23:3]  ³³ tn Heb “merchandise”; KJV, ASV “a mart of nations”; NLT “the merchandise mart of the world.”

[23:13]  ³³ tn Heb “this people [that] is not.”

[23:13]  ³⁴ tn For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 118 s.v. *בַּחוּן.

[23:13]  ³⁵ tn Or “laid bare.” For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 889 s.v. ערר.

[23:13]  ³⁶ sn This verse probably refers to the Assyrian destruction of Babylon.

[23:11]  ³⁷ tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”

[23:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[23:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.

[23:4]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:18]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”