Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Isaiah 23
An Oracle Against Tyre
An oracle concerning Tyre:
Wail, ships of Tarshish!
It is devastated, without house or harbor.
From the land of Kittim
the news has been revealed to them.
Be silent, coastland dwellers,
whom Sidon’s merchants, crossing the sea, have filled.
Across great waters came Shihor’s grain,
the Nile’s harvest was her income;
she became the nations’ marketplace.
Be ashamed, Sidon,
for the sea, the sea’s fortress, has spoken:
“I have not labored or given birth,
raised young men or brought up young women.”
When the report reaches Egypt,
they will writhe at the news of Tyre.
Cross over to Tarshish!
Wail, coastland dwellers!
Is this your jubilant city,
whose beginnings reach back to ancient days,
whose feet carried her far away to settle?
Who planned this against Tyre,
the giver of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were honored across the earth?
The LORD of hosts planned it,
to profane the pride of every splendor,
to bring low all the earth’s honored people.
Flow across your land like the Nile,
daughter Tarshish;
there is no restraint anymore.
He stretched his hand over the sea
and shook kingdoms.
The LORD gave orders concerning Canaan
to destroy its strongholds.
He said, “You will rejoice no more,
oppressed virgin daughter Sidon.
Rise, cross over to Kittim;
even there you will find no rest.”
Look at the land of the Chaldeans!
This people is no more.
Assyria made it a home for desert creatures.
They raised siege towers, stripped its palaces,
and made it a ruin.
Wail, ships of Tarshish!
Your stronghold is devastated.
On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, Tyre will be like the prostitute in the song:
“Take a lyre, go round the city,
forgotten prostitute!
Play skillfully, sing many songs,
so you may be remembered.”
At the end of seventy years the LORD will attend to Tyre. She will return to her earnings and prostitute herself with all the world’s kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet her trade and earnings will be holy to the LORD. They will not be stored or hoarded; her trade will provide those who dwell before the LORD with abundant food and fine clothing.