Isaiah 23:1-14
Evangelical Heritage Version
A Prophecy About Tyre
23 An oracle about Tyre.
Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
Because Tyre has been destroyed—
no more house or harbor![a]
This is the news they heard from Cyprus.[b]
2 Be silent, you who live along the coast,
you merchants of Sidon,
whose agents have crossed the sea[c] 3 on the great waters.
The grain of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, provided her income.
She was the marketplace of nations.
4 Be ashamed, Sidon, fortress by the sea,
because the sea has spoken, saying,
“No longer do I feel the pain of childbirth.
No longer do I have children.
I have no young men to raise,
no virgin girls to bring up.”[d]
5 When the news comes to Egypt,
they will agonize over the report from Tyre.
6 Sail across to Tarshish!
Wail, you island people!
7 Is this your joyful city, older than old,
whose feet carried her to settle so far away?
8 Who has planned this against Tyre,
the city that crowned kings,
whose merchants were like royal officials,
whose traders were honored around the world?
9 The Lord of Armies has planned this,
to strip their pride of all its glory,
to humiliate those who were honored around the world.
10 Overflow your land,[e] daughter of Tarshish,
like the Nile overflowing its banks.
You no longer have a harbor as a marketplace.[f]
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea.
He has shaken the kingdoms.
It is the Lord who has ordered the destruction
of Canaan’s[g] fortresses.
12 He said, “Rejoice no more, virgin daughter of Sidon,
you who have been violated.
Get up, sail across to Cyprus.[h]
But even there you will have no rest.”
13 (Compare it to the land of the Chaldeans—this people who have become nothing. It was the Assyrians who made it into a dwelling for wild animals from the desert. They raised up siege towers, tore down citadels, and made it a ruin.)
14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish,
because your stronghold is destroyed!
Footnotes
- Isaiah 23:1 The meaning of this line is uncertain.
- Isaiah 23:1 Hebrew Kittim, a term which may include other areas of the Mediterranean besides Cyprus
- Isaiah 23:2 The translation follows a reading from the Hebrew Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The literal reading in the Masoretic text is the one passing over the sea they have replenished you.
- Isaiah 23:4 The meaning of this figurative statement spoken by the sea is unclear. The sea seems to be lamenting the loss of Tyre, a daughter of the sea.
- Isaiah 23:10 Or, following a variant, work your land. The text and meaning of this line are uncertain.
- Isaiah 23:10 Or there is no longer any restraint (or boundary). The Hebrew text and its meaning are uncertain.
- Isaiah 23:11 Or Phoenicia’s. Phoenicia is the Greek name for Canaan.
- Isaiah 23:12 Hebrew Kittim
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.