Isaías 23

TYRE IN PROPHECY

¹ Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus Kittim word has come to them.

² Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.

³ On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor. The harvest of the Nile River was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: I have neither been in labor nor given birth. I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.

⁵ When word arrives at Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶ Crossover to Tarshish and cry you people of the island.

⁷ Is this your exultant city founded in antiquity? Is this the city that sent its people to settle in distant lands?

⁸ Who planned such a thing against Tyre, the city that produced kings? Its merchants are princes. Its traders are among the honored people of the world.

⁹ Jehovah of Hosts planned this in order to dishonor all arrogant people and to humiliate all the honored people of the world.

¹⁰ Travel through your country like the Nile, people of Tarshish. You no longer have a harbor.

¹¹ Jehovah has stretched his hand over the sea to shake kingdoms. He has commanded that Canaan's fortifications be destroyed.

¹² He said: »You will exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.«

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that were not. Assyria appointed it for desert creatures. They erected their siege towers and they stripped its palaces. They made it a ruin!

¹⁴ Cry out O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is destroyed.

¹⁵ Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the lifespan of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶ »Take harp and walk about the city, O forgotten prostitute. Pluck the strings skillfully; sing many songs, that you may be remembered.«

¹⁷ It will come about at the end of seventy years that Jehovah will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her prostitute’s wages and will play the wanton woman with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸ The money she earns by commerce will be dedicated to Jehovah. She will not store it away, but those who worship Jehovah will use her money to buy the food and the clothing they need.