Isaiah 23

Isaiah announces God’s judgment on Tyre, the great Phoenician sea-trading city, along with its sister city Sidon. Their wealth, pride and fame cannot save them, because the LORD Himself has planned their fall. The chapter ends with a surprising promise: after a time Tyre will be restored, and its profits will be set apart for the LORD.

Isaiah 23:1

The chapter opens with a heavy message against Tyre. Ships of Tarshish, far-traveling merchant vessels, are told to wail because their great home port is wrecked. News of the ruin reaches sailors as they pass Cyprus on the way home.

BSA: burden (“message from God, prophecy”): The word suggests a weighty message from God that the prophet must carry and deliver.

Hebrew: מַשָּׂא (massa, H4853) — “burden, load, oracle.” The Hebrew word means something lifted and carried. A prophet’s message against a nation is a heavy load, not a light opinion.

Isaiah 23:2-3

The coastland people and Sidon’s merchants are told to fall silent in stunned grief. Tyre grew rich by shipping Egypt’s grain across the sea and selling it to the nations. Her whole prosperity rested on trade, and now that trade is gone.

BSA: Be silent (“still, mourn”): Silence here is the hush of people struck dumb by loss. merchant (“trader, marketplace”): Tyre was not only a trader but a market where the nations met.

Isaiah 23:4

Sidon, proud as a fortress of the sea, is told to be ashamed. The sea itself speaks like a mother who has lost every child: no labor, no birth, no young men or women raised. The city’s life and future are emptied out.

BSA: stronghold (“fortress, place of security”): Sidon trusted her sea defenses, yet they could not protect her.

Isaiah 23:5

Egypt, Tyre’s grain supplier and customer, will also writhe in pain at the news. When a great trading partner falls, those who depended on her feel the shock too.

BSA: writhe (“twist, whirl, be in agony”): The picture is of someone twisting in pain, like a woman in labor.

Isaiah 23:6-7

Survivors are told to flee across the sea to Tarshish. The people mock the ruin of a once-jubilant city, ancient and widely settled, whose colonists had traveled far. Her old age and wide reach could not shield her.

BSA: jubilant (“your joyous, triumphant”): This was a city used to celebration and confidence, which makes the fall sharper. settle (“to sojourn, to colonize”): Tyre’s people had planted colonies far from home, yet none could rescue her.

Isaiah 23:8-9

Isaiah asks who could bring down a city so powerful, whose merchants ranked like princes. The answer is that the LORD of Hosts planned it. The aim was to humble human pride in glory and fame, not simply to punish a city.

BSA: planned (“to advise, counsel, or purpose”): The fall of Tyre was no accident but God’s settled purpose. disgrace (“to bring into contempt, make light of, or humble”): God lowers what the world honors when it exalts itself.

Hebrew: יָעַץ (yaʿaṣ, H3289) — “to plan, to counsel.” This is the word for a ruler’s deliberate counsel. Tyre had her clever merchants, but a higher counsel was set against her.

See also: Isaiah 14:26-27; Proverbs 21:30.

Isaiah 23:10

Daughter of Tarshish, probably the colonies and ports linked to Tyre, is told to work her land like the flooding Nile. The old restraint of Tyre’s power is gone, and there is no harbor to hold her. The colonies must now stand on their own.

BSA: harbor (“a safe place, a refuge”): The loss of the harbor pictures the loss of every safe place the city relied on.

Isaiah 23:11-12

The LORD’s outstretched hand reaches over the sea itself, shaking kingdoms and bringing down Phoenician strongholds. Sidon, once joyful, is crushed and finds no rest even by fleeing to Cyprus. No place is beyond God’s reach.

BSA: hand (“an open hand; strength, a side or share”): God’s hand stands for His power to act against any nation. rest (“no settling down, no peace”): The refugees would keep moving and never find real safety.

See also: Exodus 15:12.

Isaiah 23:13

This verse is hard to read, but it points to the fate of the Chaldeans’ land as a warning. Assyria had ruined Babylon’s territory, a people once great and now of no account. If that could happen to them, Tyre is not safe.

BSA: siege towers (“watchtowers, fortifications”): These were the war structures an army raised to break a city’s walls.

Isaiah 23:14

The cry of verse 1 returns. The ships of Tarshish must wail again, because the harbor that protected them and gave them purpose has been destroyed.

BSA: harbor (“stronghold, security, fortified place”): The Hebrew word here can mean a fortress, so the loss is of their whole security.

Isaiah 23:15

Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the length of one king’s reign. The time is a fixed span, not an endless one. God sets a limit even on His discipline.

BSA: forgotten (“left out of mind, neglected”): The city that once drew the world’s attention will drop out of notice.

See also: Jeremiah 25:11.

Isaiah 23:16

Tyre is pictured as an old, forgotten prostitute walking the streets with her harp and singing to be remembered. The image is of a city trying to win back her old customers through charm and music.

BSA: harlot (“one who has committed adultery or been unfaithful, often referring to idolatry”): The word hints at a city giving herself to whoever pays, with no loyalty to God.

Hebrew: זוֹנָה (zonah, H2181) — “prostitute.” Here the word describes Tyre’s commercial dealings, selling herself to any nation for profit rather than literal immorality.

Isaiah 23:17

After seventy years the LORD will restore Tyre, and she will return to her old trading with all the kingdoms. The picture is blunt: her business is still driven by profit and she will go back to selling herself to the world.

BSA: restore (“revive, bring back to a state of prosperity”): Even Tyre’s recovery is the LORD’s doing, not just a market turning.

Isaiah 23:18

Surprisingly, Tyre’s earnings will be set apart to the LORD. Instead of being hoarded, they will supply food and good clothing for those who live in His presence. God can turn the wealth of the nations to the use of His people.

BSA: set apart (“consecrated, holy”): Money that once served greed is made holy by being given over to the LORD. stored (“treasured, laid up”): The profits will not be locked in a vault but put to use.

See also: Isaiah 60:5-6; Haggai 2:8.