Isaiah 23
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 23
Tyre and Sidon[a]
1 An oracle concerning Tyre:
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your harbor has been destroyed.
From the land of Cyprus
the news has reached them.
2 Be silent, you who dwell along the coast,
you merchants of Sidon,
whose messengers crossed over the sea
3 to the vast ocean.
The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile
provided your revenue;
you were the merchant for the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, the fortress of the sea,
for the sea has declared:
“I have not endured the anguish of labor,
nor have I given birth;
I have not reared young men
or brought up young women.”
5 When the news reaches Egypt,
they will writhe in anguish
upon hearing the fate of Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, you inhabitants of the coast.
7 Is this your vibrant city
founded in the days of old,
and whose feet have led her away
to settle in distant lands?
8 Who has devised this plan
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes
and whose traders were held in the highest esteem
throughout the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has devised this plan
to deflate the glory of the proud
and to humiliate the honored men of the earth.
10 Cross over to your own land,
you ships of Tarshish,
for your harbors no longer exist.[b]
11 The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea
and brought kingdoms to their knees;
he has commanded the destruction
of the fortresses of Canaan.
12 He has said:
You will exult no more,
O greatly oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise and cross over to Cyprus,
but even there you will find no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans;
it was this people, not Assyria,
who erected siege-towers,
tore down its palaces,
and left it in ruins.
14 Cry out in anguish, O ships of Tarshish,
for your fortress has been destroyed.
15 From that day, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of one king’s life. At the end of those seventy years, the plight of Tyre will be identical to that of the prostitute in the song:
16 Take your harp
and walk throughout the city,
you long-forgotten prostitute.
Pluck your strings sweetly
and sing many songs
so that they may remember you.
17 At the end of the seventy years the Lord will visit Tyre. She will once again ply her trade and prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 But her merchandise and her profits will be dedicated to the Lord; they will not be stored up or hoarded, but they will provide abundant food and clothing to those who live in the presence of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 23:1 Two songs oddly combined, one by Isaiah (vv. 1-4, 12-14), the other of much more recent date (vv. 5-11); the two describe the fall of Tyre and Sidon, the capitals of maritime trade. Sennacherib destroyed Sidon around 701 B.C. In the sixth century, Nebuchadnezzar, and later on (in 332 B.C.) Alexander, would besiege the impregnably fortified island of Tyre.
- Isaiah 23:10 Once Tyre fell, trade with Spain and Tarshish was left to its own resources.
