UNROLL
Dusk at sea: one Phoenician merchant ship with its square sail half furled turning back from the coast, a smudge of smoke over the far shore, a calm dim sky above.

The nations judged

Isaiah 23

Tyre traded with the whole world. Who would you be without what you sell?

18 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 23
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

The Burden against Tyre

Isaiah
Gray morning off the island of Tyre: its sea wall broken in long gaps, the harbor empty of ships, roofless houses behind, smoke thinning; no one.

This is the burden against Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste,

without house or harbor.

Word has reached them

from the land of Cyprus.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Isaiah

Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland,

you merchants of Sidon,

whose traders have crossed the sea.

Isaiah
Isaiah

On the great waters

came the grain of Shihor;

the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre;

she was the merchant of the nations.

Isaiah

Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have not been in labor

or given birth.

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.”

Isaiah

When the report reaches Egypt,

they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

Question

Quick question

The great merchant ships are far out at sea when Tyre falls. Look back at verse 1.

From where does word of Tyre’s ruin reach the ships of Tarshish?

Isaiah
Evening on the open sea: two Phoenician ships sailing away west into a low sun, their square sails full, the coast gone behind them.

Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

Isaiah

Is this your jubilant city,

whose origin is from antiquity,

whose feet have taken her

to settle far away?

Isaiah
Isaiah

Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose traders are princes,

whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

Isaiah

The LORD of Hosts planned it,

to defile all its glorious beauty,

to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

Isaiah 23:9

Isaiah

Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;

there is no longer a harbor.

Isaiah

The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

Isaiah
Gray day at sea: a small Phoenician ship crowded with families and bundles making for a long mountainous island on the horizon, the water choppy.

He said, “You shall rejoice no more,

O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.

Get up and cross over to Cyprus—

even there you will find no rest.”

Isaiah
Isaiah

Look at the land of the Chaldeans—

a people now of no account.

The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures;

they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces.

They brought it to ruin.

Isaiah

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your harbor has been destroyed!

Isaiah

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

Isaiah

“Take up your harp,

stroll through the city,

O forgotten harlot.

Make sweet melody,

sing many a song,

so you will be remembered.”

Isaiah

And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

Isaiah
Evening seen from the water: the island city of Tyre packed behind its stone sea wall, two Phoenician ships at rest in the harbor, a calm dusky sky above.

Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

LORD of Hosts, You humble the pride of all glory. Set apart my work and my wages to You, for the good of those who live before You. Amen.

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Isaiah 23

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A verse to carry with you

The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

Isaiah 23:9

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