Isaiah 23
Butler23:1 THE burden of Tyre.
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, the strong hold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins. When the report cometh to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the 6, 7 report of Tyre. Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn? Who hath purposed this against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Pass through thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no girdle about thee any more. He hath stretched out his hand over the sea, he hath shaken the kingdoms: the LORD hath given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the strong holds thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Kittim; even there shalt thou have no rest. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans; this people is no more; the Assyrian hath appointed it for the beasts of the wilderness; they set up their towers, they overthrew the palaces thereof; he made it a ruin. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strong hold is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it shall be unto Tyre as in the song of the harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall play the harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
TYRE and Zidon, great and ancient maritime cities of Phoenicia—Tyre the greater, but Zidon the more ancient—were situated on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and very near the northwest corner of the Canaan occupied by Israel. They come into notice frequently in the Scriptures, both in history and in prophecy. They were specially distinguished for their commerce and their consequent commercial relations with their colonies on the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. Indeed, at some periods these commercial relations reached every known country of the world. H. C.
The student of the Old Testament is constantly surprised to find such abundant references to this great city in the prophetical writings, and especially to note the numerous and specific predictions concerning Tyre in Holy Writ. Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah, speaking by Divine direction, have placed such predictions on record, and with a fulness and emphasis which hardly have a parallel in the prophetic declarations respecting any other city or people, except Jerusalem and the chosen Hebrew race. The five prophets are named in their historic order, according to the received chronology, and the particular references are as follows: Amos 1:9, 10; Isa. 23, especially verses 15-18; Jer. 25:22; 27:3; Ezek., chaps. 26, 27 and 28 entire, and 29:18; Zech. 9:2-4. See also prophecies in which Tyre and Zidon are associated in a common condemnation, Jer. 47:4; Joel 3:4-8, and others. Note also the instructive allusions in Ps. 45:12; 83:7; 87:4, indicating the close relations between Tyre and Israel. See for further historic reference 1 K. 7:13, 14; 9:11-14; Ezra 3:7; Neh. 13:16; Hos. 9:13, and the impressive allusion of Christ, Matt. 11:21, 22. E. D. Morris.
This burden, from its clear prediction of a distant future, has had its genuineness denied by some modern critics. But all the internal evidence of connection and style, as well as all the external, proves it to be Isaiah’s. The burdens are a series, of which this of Tyre, the one great maritime power of those days, is the last. So in chap. 2:16, the objects of judgment last named are “all ships of Tarshish, and all desirable merchandise,” while in chap. 11:11, “the isles of the sea” close the list of places from which Israel are to return. This burden has also many internal links with those before it. Its opening and closing sentences begin the burden of Moab. The howling of Moab is mentioned six times, and the same word is found three times in this message to Tyre. The form of the phrase “so that there is no house, no entering in,” is the same as in the burden of Damascus, “so that it is no city.” The repetition, “the sea, the strength of the sea,” is like chap. 19:7, “by the river, by the mouth of the river.” The title “joyous city” is common with the last burden, and the phrase in chap. 5:11 is the keynote of three earlier visions (5:25; 9:12; 10:4; 14:24, 27). The last words of 5:13 answer to the sentence on Damascus, “it shall be a heap, a ruin.” The promise at the close resembles those in the burdens of Damascus, Egypt and the valley of vision. The language is “terse, highly figurative, and sublime,” quite in the style of Isaiah, and unlike any later writer (Hend.). Birks
This prophecy consists of two parts. The first predicts the fall of Tyre (verses 1-14). The second promises its restoration and conversion (verses 15-18). The fall of Tyre is predicted, not directly, but in the form of apostrophes, addressed to her own people or her colonies (verses 1-7). The destruction is referred to God as its Author, and to the Chaldees as His instruments (verses 8-14). The prediction in the latter part includes three events. Tyre shall be forsaken and forgotten for seventy years (verse 15). She shall then be restored to her former activity and wealth (verses 16, 17). Thenceforth her gains shall be devoted to the Lord (verse 18).
Tyre, one of the chief cities of Phœnicia, was situated partly on a rocky island near the coast, and partly in a wide and fertile plain upon the coast itself. Hengstenberg has made it probable that from the beginning the chief part of the city was situated on the island, or rather a peninsula connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. Tyre is remarkable in history for two things—its maritime trade, and the many sieges it has undergone. The first of these on record was by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who, according to Menander, a historian now lost, but quoted by Josephus, blockaded Tyre for five years, so as to cut off the supply of water from the mainland, but without being able to reduce the city. The next was by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who besieged it thirteen years; with what result is not expressly mentioned either in profane or sacred history. A third siege was by Alexander the Great, who after seven months and with the utmost difficulty finally reduced it. It was afterward besieged by the Syrian king Antigonus, and more than once during the Crusades, both by Franks and Saracens. After this period it entirely decayed, and has now disappeared, its site being marked by the insulated rock, by the causeway between it and the mainland still existing as a bar of sand, and by columns and other architectural remains mostly lying under water.
It has been much disputed which of these events is the subject of the prophecy before us. But the great body of the older writers refer it to the siege by Nebuchadnezzar. The arguments in favor of this application are stated with great learning, force and clearness by Vitringa on the passage. A.
I. The message begins with a call to the Tyrian merchants and sailors, far away from their home, to mourn over the ruin of their city. Tarshish is Tartessus in Spain, one chief emporium of Tyrian commerce. Ships of Tarshish thus became a title for all vessels used for long voyages. Chittim is Cyprus, and the sea-coasts of the east of Europe. The mariners, returning homeward, mourn at the tidings of Tyre’s calamity. Birks.—The prophet calls on them to wail because Tyre is so completely destroyed that there remains no house and no harbor. They learn this sad news at the land of Chittim, supposed to be the island of Cyprus. It is known that Tyre had a colony there. H. C.
- “Merchants of Zidon” is a generic term for those of Phœnicia; since either Tyre or Zidon fitly represents the whole nation. Birks.
3. Over the great waters come to her the grains of Egypt, the harvests of the Nile. She is a great emporium for the nations. H. C.
4. The prophet hears a voice from the sea, which he then describes more exactly as coming from the stronghold or fortress of the sea—i.e., insular Tyre as viewed from the mainland. The rest of the verse is intended to express the idea that the city thus personified was childless; was as if she had never borne children. A.
6. Pass over the sea, ye people of Tyre, to Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain) for safety. They did so to some extent no doubt during the siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and yet more in the siege by Alexander the Great. The prophecy refers mainly to the former. H. C.
7. The people of Tyre boasted of their high antiquity. Their priests told Herodotus that their temple of Hercules had lasted twenty-three hundred years. These proud boastings would give double force to the prophet’s warning. Where all had been pride and vain security, there would soon be trembling flight, silence and desolation. The Tyrians would escape to remote settlements. “Her own feet” is an expressive figure for the Tyrian navy, by which this merchant city was accustomed to travel swiftly to distant lands.
8,9. Tyre might well be called “the crowning city,” or giver of crowns, because of the many kings she set up in the various Phœnician colonies. And by her commerce and wealth she might be said to supply garlands of grace and beauty to all the other nations. The fall of a city so ancient and noble must have some very weighty cause. “The Lord of hosts purposed it,” in order to accomplish a great end in His moral government of the world. Birks.—The plan and purpose were of God, who sought to stain the pride of man’s glorying and to make light all the heavy men and things of earth. Such is the contrasted significance of these Hebrew verbs. Perhaps the rich were then as now accounted the “solid” men of society; but God would make them light, taking away their wealth and with it their honor and their pride.
- “He” who “stretches out His hand” is the Lord. The Hebrew word for merchant is canaan, one who gets money. The meaning is that God had given command respecting the city of canaan (the merchant)—viz., Tyre, to destroy her strongholds.
12. The far-reaching ken of prophetic vision saw this Chaldean people, the future conquerors of Tyre, before they became a power among the nations. This reference to Chaldea shows that the prophecy refers to the conquest of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, and not to the earlier assault upon it by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; nor to the later, a real destruction, by Alexander the Great. H. C.—When Isaiah wrote, Assyria was the ruling power of the world; whatever changes were expected, were expected from that quarter. But here the conquest of Phœnicia is ascribed to a people then but little known, if known at all. It was perfectly natural, therefore, to say negatively that it was not to be effected by Assyria, as well as positively that it was to be effected by Chaldea.
15. The remainder of the chapter predicts the restoration of Tyre, not to its former dignity, but to its wealth and commercial activity, the fruits of which should thenceforth be consecrated to Jehovah. A.—Isaiah predicted that after a definite period—described as seventy years—Tyre should be restored again to something of its former magnificence. And surely it is a remarkable fact that within such a period the Chaldee-Babylonian dynasty, which Nebuchadnezzar had done so much to make historic, had been subverted by Cyrus; and that under the indulgent sway of Cyrus the inhabitants of Tyre were permitted to rebuild the insular city, and there to establish again in large degree those manufacturing and commercial interests which had been so long its peculiar glory. What the pen of prophecy had written two hundred years before actually came to pass, and at the very time specified; and for generations insular Tyre continued to flourish, as had been foretold. E. D. Morris.
“After the end of seventy years, according to the years of one king,” or one dynasty, or family of kings, that of Nebuchadnezzar; when that expired, the desolations of Tyre came to an end. And we may presume that Cyrus, at the same time when he released the Jews and encouraged them to rebuild Jerusalem, released the Tyrians also, and encouraged them to rebuild Tyre. H.—Nebuchadnezzar began his conquests in the first year of his reign; from thence to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus are
the seventy years; and these limit the duration of the Babylonish monarchy. W. Lowth.