Thematic Bible




Isaiah 23:1 (show verse)

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;
It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).

Isaiah 23:2 (show verse)


Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
Your messengers crossed the sea

Isaiah 23:3 (show verse)


And they were on great waters.
The grain of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile River, was Tyre’s revenue;
And she was the market of nations.

Isaiah 23:4 (show verse)


Be ashamed, O Sidon [mother-city of Tyre, now like a widow bereaved of her children];
For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,
“I have neither labored nor given birth [to children];
I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.”

Isaiah 23:5 (show verse)


When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in agony at the report about Tyre.

Isaiah 23:6 (show verse)


Cross over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles];
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland [of Tyre].

Isaiah 23:7 (show verse)


Is this your jubilant city,
Whose origin dates back to antiquity,
Whose feet used to carry her [far away] to colonize distant places?

Isaiah 23:8 (show verse)


Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

Isaiah 23:9 (show verse)


The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To bring into contempt and humiliation all the honored of the earth.

Isaiah 23:10 (show verse)


Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more restraint [on you to make you pay tribute to Tyre].

Isaiah 23:11 (show verse)


He has stretched out His hand over the sea,
He has shaken the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and her fortresses [like Tyre and Sidon].

Isaiah 23:12 (show verse)


He has said, “You shall never again exult [in triumph], O crushed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

Isaiah 23:13 (show verse)

Now look at the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia)—this is the people which was not; the Assyrians allocated Tyre for desert creatures—they set up their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

Isaiah 23:14 (show verse)


Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your stronghold [of Tyre] is destroyed.

Isaiah 23:15 (show verse)

Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the prostitute’s song:

Isaiah 23:16 (show verse)


Take a harp, walk around the city,
O forgotten prostitute;
Play the strings skillfully, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.

Isaiah 23:17 (show verse)

It will come to pass at the end of seventy years that the Lord will remember Tyre. Then she will return to her prostitute’s wages and will play the [role of a] prostitute [by trading] with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

Isaiah 23:18 (show verse)

But her commercial gain and her prostitute’s wages will be dedicated to the Lord; it will not be treasured or stored up, but her commercial gain will become sufficient food and stately clothing for those who dwell (minister) in the presence of the Lord.