Miles de Libros Cristianos Gratis. Accede a nuestra Biblioteca Virtual

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 23:1

Para un estudio avanzado de: “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 23:1” utilice nuestra app.

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 Chittim it is revealed to them.

1. The returning ships are apprised, at the last stage of their voyage, of the disaster that has overtaken their mother-country. Ships of Tarshish may mean here, literally, “ships trading with Tarshish” (Tartessus) at the mouth of the Guadalquivir in Spain. See on Isa 2:16.

it is laid waste ] The unexpressed subject is best left indefinite, “a destruction has been wrought.”

no house, no entering in ] i.e. “no house (harbour) to enter in.” Cf. ch. Isa 24:10 “every house is shut up so that none can enter.” The last word, however, might be joined with the following clause, which would then run: since leaving the land of Chittim, &c. The vessels learn of the fall of Tyre, not at Cyprus, but on their voyage thence. The Chittim are the inhabitants of Kition, in the south of Cyprus, rounded by the Phnicians. The name was extended to the whole island, and ultimately in biblical usage to the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean (Dan 11:30).

it is revealed to them ] whether by rumour from flying vessels, or by eye-sight as they approached the shore, does not appear.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The burden of Tyre – (see the note at Isa 13:1)

Howl – This is a highly poetic description of the destruction that was coming on Tyre. The ships of Tarshish traded there; and the prophet now addresses the ships, and calls upon them to lament because the commerce by which they had been enriched was to be destroyed, and they were to be thrown out of employ.

Ye ships of Tarshish – (see the note at Isa 2:16). The Tarshish here referred to, was doubtless a city or country in Spain ( Tartessos), and was the most celebrated emporium to which the Phenicians traded. It is mentioned by Diod. Sic., v. 35-38; Strabo, iii. 148; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 3. According to Jer 10:9, it exported silver; according to Eze 27:12, Eze 27:25, it exported silver, iron, tin, and lead, to the Tyrian market. In this chapter Isa 23:1, Isa 23:6, Isa 23:10, it is represented as an important Phenician or Tyrian colony. All the circumstances agree with the supposition that Tartessus in Spain is the place here referred to. The name Tartessus ( Tartessos) is derived from the Hebrew tarshiysh by a change simply in the pronunciation (see Bochart, Geo. Sacra, iii. 7, and John D. Michaelis, Spicileg. Geo. Heb. i. 82-103).

For it is laid waste – Tyre is laid waste; that is, in vision it was made to pass before the mind of the prophet as laid waste, or as it would be (see the notes at Isa 1:1).

So that there is no house – It would be completely destroyed. This was the case with old Tyre after the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, and it remained so. See the analysis of the chapter.

No entering in – No harbor; no port; where the ships could remain, and with which they could continue to trade. Tyre was once better situated for commerce, and had greater natural advantages, than any port in the Mediterranean. Those advantages have, however, to a great extent passed away, and natural causes combine to confirm the truth of the divine predictions that it should cease to be a place of commerce. The merchandise of India, which was once conveyed overland through Babylon and Palmyra, and which found its natural outlet at Tyre, is now carried around the Cape of Good Hope, and will never again be restored to its old channel. Besides, Tyre itself, which once had so fine a harbor, has ceased to be a safe haven for large vessels. Robinson (George) says of its harbor, in 1830, It is a small circular basin, now quite filled up with sand and broken columns, leaving scarcely space enough for small boats to enter.

The few fishing boats that belong to the place are sheltered by some rocks to the westward of the island. (Travels in Syria and Palestine, vol. i. p. 269). Shaw, who visited Tyre in 1738, says of the harbor, I visited several creeks and inlets, in order to discover what provision there might have been formerly made for the security of their vessels. Yet, notwithstanding that Tyre was the chief maritime power of this country, I could not discover the least token of either cothon or harbor that could have been of extraordinary capacity. The coasting ships, indeed, still and a tolerably good shelter from the northern winds, under the southern shore, but are obliged immediately to return when the winds change to the west or south; so that there must have been some better station than this for their security and reception. In the N. N. E. part, likewise, of the city, we see the traces of a safe and commodious basin, lying within the walls; but which, at the same time, is very small, scarce forty yards in diameter.

Yet even this port, small as it is at present, is, notwithstanding, so choked up with sand and rubbish, that the boats of those poor fishermen who now and then visit this renowned emporium, can, with great difficulty, only be admitted (Travels, pp. 330, 331. Ed. fol. Oxon. 1738). Dr. Robin son says of the port of Tyre, The inner port Dr basin on the north was formerly enclosed by a wall, running from the north end of the island in a curve toward the main land. Various pieces and fragments of this wall yet remain, sufficient to mark its course; but the port itself is continually filling up more and more with sand, and now-a-days boats only can enter it. Indeed, our host informed us, that even within his own recollection, the water covered the open place before his own house, which at present is ten or twelve rods from the sea, and is surrounded with buildings; while older people remember, that vessels formerly anchored where the shore now is (Bib. Researches, vol. iii. p. 397).

From the land of Chittim – This means, probably, from the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. In regard to the meaning of the word Chittim, the following is the note of Gesenius on this verse: Among the three different opinions of ancient and modern interpreters, according to which they sought for the land of Chittim in Italy, Macedonia, and Cyprus, I decidely prefer the latter, which is also the opinion of Josephus (Ant. i. 6, 1). According to this, Chittim is the island Cyprus, so called from the Phoenician colony, Kition, (Citium), in the southern part of the island, but still in such a sense, that this name Chittim was, at a later period, employed also in a wider sense, to designate other islands and countries adjacent to the coasts of the Mediterranean, as, e. g., Macedonia (Dan 11:30; 1 Macc. 1:1; 8:5). This is also mentioned by Josephus. That Kition (Citium) was sometimes used for the whole island of Cyprus, and also in a wider sense for other islands, is expressly asserted by Epiphanius, who himself lived in Cyprus, as a well-known fact (Adv. Haeres. xxx. 25); where he says, it is manifest to all that the island of Cyprus is called Kition (Citium), for the Cyprians and Rhodians ( Rodioi) are called Kitians Kitioi.

It could also be used of the Macedonians, because they were descended from the Cyprians and Rhodians. That most of the cities of Cyprus were Phenician colonies, is expressly affirmed by Diodorus (ii. 114; compare Herod. vii. 90), and the proximity of the island to Phenicia, together with its abundant supply of productions, especially such as were essential in shipbuilding, would lead us to expect nothing else. One of the few passages of the Bible which give a more definite hint in regard to Chittim is Eze 27:6, which agrees very well with Cyprus: Of the oaks of Bashan do they make them oars; thy ships benches do they make of ivory, encased with cedar from the isles of Chittim. The sense of this passage is, that the fleets coming from Tarshish (Tartessus) to Tyre, would, on their way, learn from the inhabitants of Cyprus the news of the downfall of Tyre.

It is revealed to them – If we understand Chittim to denote the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, it means that the navigators in the ships of Tarshish would learn the intelligence of the destruction of Tyre from those coasts or islands where they might stop on their way. Tyre was of so much commercial importance that the news of its fall would spread into all the islands of the Mediterranean.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 23:1-18

The burden of Tyre

The prophecy against Tyre: lessons

The Tarshish of this chapter is Spain.

Chittim is the island of Cyprus. The word merchant is the same word that is rendered in other places Canaanite. The Canaanites were the most energetically commercial men of their time. To be a merchant was to be a Canaanite; to be a Canaanite was to be a merchant, substantially.

I. The world must come, however slowly, to recognise the fact that RULERS THEMSELVES ARE RULED; that the Lord reigneth. There can only be one Supreme. What a glorious dawn is that which will shine above the eastern hills when the world begins to feel that it is reigned over, governed, guided in all its march of progress. The world grows warmer under that recognition. At first the recognition is terrible enough, but it becomes more and more beneficent as things shape themselves.

II. The world must come to recognise the fact that EVEN EMPIRES ARE DEPENDENT UPON CHARACTER FOR THEIR EXISTENCE. For Tyre we may substitute London, Paris, New York, or the countries which they indicate. It is only the letter of this chapter which is ancient; the principle is energetic evermore. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The prophets attitude towards cities and states

When the Spirit of God is in a man he cares for no city, how great soever it may be, though he himself may not have whereon to lay his head. There is, however, a spirit in him which makes him greater than all the capitals of the world were they added to one another and constituted into one great avenue of capitals, each house in all the vista crowned or starred with a sceptre thrust from every window. The Galilean fishermen cared nothing for the pomp of Jerusalem; old prophets with ragged mantles on their stooping shoulders hurled Divinest judgment against proud kings. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Churchs love of worldly patronage

The Church has lost this prophetic inspiration, and now she bows down to worldly greatness and tells with delight that a chariot and pair has driven up to her front door. To what cent of indignity has she sunk, even in her very speech! She is now an influential Church, a respectable Church, an intelligent Church, a Church possessed of exceptional advantages, and most careful about her reputation! So the world pays its copper tribute, and says to the Church, Behave yourself! let us do what we like, and you sing your hymns and go up to heaven like any other vapour. Where are the men who can do without food, clothing, shelter? Where are the men who would spurn any offer of patronage?–sons of thunder, sons of judgment; men who never sit down to eat, but snatch their apple as they hasten along the road that they may keep their next appointment to thunder judgment upon unrighteousness, and break in pieces with an iron rod the vessel of impurity. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Tyre

Tyres celebrity dates first from the time of David. In the Assyrian era, however, Tyre had already attained to a kind of supremacy over the rest of the Phoenician cities. It lay on the coast, rather more than twenty miles from Sidon; but being hard pressed by enemies, it had transferred the real seat of its trade and wealth to a rocky island, three miles farther north, and only 1200 paces from the mainland. The strait that separated this insular Tyre () from ancient Tyre () was, upon the whole, shallow, and the ship channel in the neighbourhood of the island was only about eighteen feet deep, so that a siege of insular Tyre by Alexander was carried out by the erection of a mole. Luther refers the prophecy to this attack by Alexander. But earlier than this event was the struggle of Tyre with Assyria and Babylon, and first of all the question arises, Which of these two struggles has the prophecy in view? In consequence of new disclosures, for which we are indebted to Assyriology, the question has entered a new phase. Down to the present, however, it still permits of only a hypothetical and unsatisfactory solution. (F. Delitzsch.)

The Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were simply carriers and middle men. In all time there is no instance of a nation so wholly given over to buying and selling, who frequented even the battlefields of the world that they might strip the dead and purchase the captive. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XXIII

Prophecy denouncing the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar,

delivered upwards of one hundred and twenty years before its

accomplishment, at a period when the Tyrians were in great

prosperity, and the Babylonians in abject subjection to the

Assyrian empire; and, consequently, when an event of so great

magnitude was improbable in the highest degree, 1-14.

Tyre shall recover its splendour at the termination of seventy

years, the days of ONE king, or kingdom, by which must be

meant the time allotted for the duration of the Babylonish

empire, as otherwise the prophecy cannot be accommodated to

the event, 15-17.

Supposed reference to the early conversion of Tyre to

Christianity, 18.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII

Verse 1. The burden of Tyre] Tyre, a city on the coast of Syria, about lat. 32 N. was built two thousand seven hundred and sixty years before Christ. There were two cities of this name; one on the continent, and the other on an island, about half a mile from the shore; the city on the island was about four miles in circumference. Old Tyre resisted Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years; then the inhabitants carried, so to speak, the city to the forementioned island, Isa 23:4. This new city held out against Alexander the Great for seven months; who, in order to take it, was obliged to fill up the channel which separated it from the main land. In A.D. 1289 it was totally destroyed by the sultan of Egypt; and now contains only a few huts, in which about fifty or sixty wretched families exist. This desolation was foretold by this prophet and by Ezekiel, one thousand nine hundred years before it took place!

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish] This prophecy denounces the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It opens with an address to the Tyrian negotiators and sailors at Tarshish, (Tartessus, in Spain,) a place which, in the course of their trade, they greatly frequented. The news of the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; “for the Tyrians,” says Jerome on Isa 23:6, “when they saw they had no other means of escaping, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage and in the islands of the Ionian and AEgean sea.” From whence the news would spread and reach Tarshish; so also Jarchi on the same place. This seems to be the most probable interpretation of this verse.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The burden of Tyre; the prophecy of the heavy calamity and destruction of Tyre; which now stood in its strength and glory, being seated in an island, upon a rock, abounding in riches, mighty in naval power, having lately conquered that navy which the Assyrians brought against them. Yet this city was, according to this prophecy, destroyed; and that twice, first by Nebuchadnezzar, and long afterward by Alexander the Great. And although this prophecy seem directly and properly to respect the former destruction, yet it seems to have some reference to the latter also; only it is intimated, that after seventy years Tyrus should recover her former power and glory, before her second and final destruction.

Howl, ye ships; either,

1. Properly; to which howling and lamenting is ascribed by a known figure called prosopopoeia: or,

2. Metonymically, the merchants and owners of ships, who had much commerce with this illustrious mart.

Of Tarshish; either,

1. Of Tarsus, a great port of Cilicia, which anciently had the dominion of that part of the sea; or,

2. Of the ocean, which is so called, 1Ki 10:22; Psa 48:7; Isa 2:16.

It is laid waste; it shall shortly be laid waste; which was fulfilled not by Shalmaneser, as some would have it; for though he straitened it for some time, yet he never took it; but by Nebuchadnezzar.

No entering in; so effectually wasted, that there is not a house left in it, nor any merchants or others that go into it, either to trade in it, or to repair it.

It is revealed to them: the sense of the words thus rendered may be this, it, i.e. this burden or destruction of Tyre, is, i.e. shall be, revealed, declared or made known, unto them; either,

1. To the Tyrians, to whom this notice should be sent concerning the preparations of their enemies against them: or,

2. To the ships, by which he means their owners or merchants,

from the land of Chittim; which may be here mentioned, either because they first had and gave them notice of it, as was now said; or because their last and sorest destruction was brought upon them by Alexander, who was of the land of Chittim, as is affirmed by that very ancient and venerable, though apocryphal writer, 1Ma 1:1 8:5. But this place is otherwise rendered, both by ancient and later interpreters, which seems to be more natural and easy, and no less agreeable to the Hebrew text; either thus, that she is laid waste, so that there is no house, nor entering or coming in (to wit, for traffic)

from the land of Chittim, is made known to them, to wit, to the ships or merchants that used to resort thither for traffic: or rather thus, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, (not any houses left for the citizens to dwell in,) nor entering or coming in (to wit, of merchants) from the land of Chittim; she (to wit, her people) is removed or gone into captivity, as this word properly signifies, and is rendered, Isa 38:12. And for the last Hebrew word, lamo, which is rendered to them, (which is the only objection against this interpretation,) it is only added as an elegancy of the Hebrew language, and hath no further signification, as it is also Psa 58:7, and as the particle lo, which signifies the same thing, and such other pronouns, are frequently redundant and insignificant in the Hebrew text, as hath been oft observed by grammarians and interpreters. He mentions

the land of Chittim, because this was an eminent place for shipping and trading, as is manifest from Num 24:24; Eze 27:6; Dan 11:30, and therefore doubtless had great dealings and commerce with Tyre, and may here be put synecdochically for all other countries which traded with her. It is not necessary, for the understanding of this text, to determine what Chittim is, whether it was Italy, or Greece, or the islands in those parts; it is sufficient to know that it was a seafaring place in the Midland Sea; and so much startled and concerned in the destruction of Tyre.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. TyreHebrew, Tsur,that is, “Rock.”

ships of Tarshishshipsof Tyre returning from their voyage to Tarshish, or Tartessus inSpain, with which the Phoelignicians had much commerce (Eze27:12-25). “Ships of Tarshish” is a phrase also used oflarge and distant-voyaging merchant vessels (Isa 2:16;1Ki 10:22; Psa 48:7).

no housenamely, left;such was the case as to Old Tyre, after Nebuchadnezzar’s siege.

no enteringThere is nohouse to enter (Isa 24:10)[G. V. SMITH]. Or, Tyre isso laid waste, that there is no possibility of entering the harbor[BARNES]; which isappropriate to the previous “ships.”

ChittimCyprus, ofwhich the cities, including Citium in the south (whence came”Chittim”), were mostly Phoelignician (Eze27:6). The ships from Tarshish on their way to Tyre learn thetidings (“it is revealed to them”) of the downfall of Tyre.At a later period Chittim denoted the islands and coasts of theMediterranean (Da 11:30).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The burden of Tyre,…. Or a prophecy concerning the destruction of it. The Targum is,

“the burden of the cup of cursing, to give Tyre to drink.”

This was a famous city in Phoenicia, which exceeded in renown and grandeur all the cities of Syria and Phoenicia h, and was much known for its trade and navigation, for which it was well situated by the sea; and indeed new Tyre stood in it, about half a mile from the shore, before it was joined to the continent by Alexander the great: but this seems to be old Tyre, and, was upon the continent, which was built by the Phoenicians before the Trojan war i, and two hundred and forty years before the temple of Solomon k. It had its name , “Tzur”, in the Hebrew language, from whence it is called Tyre, from the rock on which it was built, that word so signifying. It is written here without a vau; and it is a rule with the Jews l, that whenever this word is written full, with all its letters, it is to be understood of the city of Tyre; but if wanting, it designs Rome; and Cocceius interprets the whole prophecy of the antichristian city.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; not of Carthage, as the Septuagint version; but of Tartessus in Spain, which traded with Tyre, and from whence the Phoenicians are said to have large quantities of gold and silver. Some interpret it Tarsus, a seaport in Cilicia, which lay nearer to Tyre, the same place the Apostle Paul was of, Ac 22:3 though by Tarshish may be meant the sea, as it sometimes is, and as the Targum and Jarchi here interpret it, and so designs ships in general; or, as the Targum, those that go down in the ships of the sea; or all sorts of persons, from every quarter, that sailed in ships to Tyre, and traded with it; these are now called to mourning and lamentation, because their commerce with it was now over:

for it is laid waste; not Tarshish, but Tyre; and this was done, not by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who indeed besieged it for the space of five years, but took it not; the Tyrians with twelve ships scattered his fleet, and took five hundred of his men, this was when Elulaeus was king of Tyre m; nor by Alexander the great; for though it was besieged and taken by him, yet before his time it had been besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years, and at last was taken by him, when Ithobalus was king of it n: and this seems rather intended here, since seventy years after this it was to be restored again, which best accords with those times, as will be seen hereafter:

so that there is no house, no entering in; no port or haven open to go in at, no shops to vend their goods in, no warehouses to lay them up in, nor inns to lodge at, as well as no private houses for the inhabitants to dwell in, all being destroyed by the enemy:

from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them; Chittim was one of the sons of Javan, as was also Tarshish, by whom the isles of the Gentiles were divided, Ge 10:4 from whom the Ionians or Grecians descended; so that Chittim seems to design some part of Greece, or isles belonging to it. The Macedonians are called by this name; and Alexander the Macedonian is said to come out of the land of Chittim, as in the Apocrypha:

“And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,” (1 Maccabees 1:1)

“Beside this, how they had discomfited in battle Philip, and Perseus, king of the Citims, with others that lifted up themselves against them, and had overcome them:” (1 Maccabees 8:5)

hence some think he is designed here, and the destruction of Tyre by him; and the words may be rendered, “from the land of Chittim he is revealed”, or “appears unto them”; that is, as Jarchi glosses it, the destroyer to the men of Tyre, though he by Chittim understands the Cuthites. Josephus says o Chittim the son of Javan possessed the island Chethima, now called Cyprus, and from hence all islands, and most maritime places, are called Chittim by the Hebrews; and observes, that one of the cities of Cyprus is called Citium. And in the lamentation for Tyre, Eze 27:6, we read of the isles of Chittim; by which are meant perhaps the isles in the Aegean and Ionian seas, who traded with Tyre, and from these first came the tidings of Tyre’s destruction to the ships or merchants of Tarshish; which agrees with a Hebrew exposition mentioned by Jarchi,

“from the land of Chittim is revealed to the men of Tarshish the destruction of Tyre; for the inhabitants of Tyre fled to Chittim, and from thence the rumour was heard.”

The sense which R. Joseph Kimchi gives of the passage, as his son David relates, is this,

“Chittim were merchants that went to Babylon, and told them that they might go to Tyre, and would be able to take it, and they would help them, and carry them there by sea.”

But it seems more likely that those trading people, by going from one country to another, got knowledge of the design of the Babylonians against Tyre, and acquainted that city with it. Some join the words, “from the land of Chittim”, to the preceding, thus, “no entering in from the land of Chittim, it is revealed”, or made known; that is, it is some way or other made known to the merchants of Chittim p that there is no entrance into Tyre, the city being laid waste and its port ruined, so that it is in vain for them to send their ships; to which the Septuagint in some measure agrees,

“because it perishes, and there are none come from the land of Chittim, it is carried captive.”

The Targum is,

“they shall come from the land of Chittim against them;”

which seems to favour the first sense.

h Curt. l. 4. sect. 2. i Justin, l. 18. c. 3. k Joseph. Antiqu. I. 8. c. 3. sect. 1. l Bereshit Rabba, sect. 61. fol. 54. 2. m Joseph. Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 2. n Ib. l. 10. c. 11. sect. 1. & contr. Apion, I. 1. sect. 21. o Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. p So some in Vatablus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The prophecy commences by introducing the trading vessels of Phoenicia on their return home, as they hear with alarm the tidings of the fate that has befallen their home. “Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entrance any more! Out of the land of the Chittaeans it is made known to them.” Even upon the open sea they hear of it as a rumour from the ships that they meet. For their voyage is a very long one: they come from the Phoenician colony on the Spanish Baetis, or the Guadalquivir, as it was called from the time of the occupation by the Moors. “ Ships of Tarshish ” are ships that sail to Tartessus (lxx inaccurately, ). It is not improbable that the whole of the Mediterranean may have been called “the sea to Tarshish;” and hence the rendering adopted by the Targum, Jerome, Luther, and others, naves maris (see Humboldt, Kosmos, ii. 167, 415). These ships are to howl ( hellu instead of the feminine, as in Isa 32:11) because of the devastation that has taken place (it is easy to surmise that Tyre has been the victim); for the home and harbour, which the sailors were rejoicing at the prospect of being able to enter once more, have both been swept away. Cyprus was the last station on this homeward passage. The Chittim (written in the legends of coins and other inscriptions with Caph and Cheth) are the inhabitants of the Cyprian harbour of Citium and its territory. But Epiphanius, the bishop of Salamis in the island of Cyprus, says that Citium was also used as a name for the whole island, or even in a still broader sense. Cyprus, the principal mart of the Phoenicians, was the last landing-place. As soon as they touch the island, the fact which they have only heard of as a rumour upon the open sea, is fully disclosed ( niglah ), i.e., it now becomes a clear undoubted certainty, for they are told of it by eye-witnesses who have made their escape to the island. The prophet now turns to the Phoenicians at home, who have this devastation in prospect.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Doom of Tyre.

B. C. 718.

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 Chittim it is revealed to them. 2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. 3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations. 4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. 5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. 6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle. 7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. 8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? 9 The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. 10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. 11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof. 12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest. 13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin. 14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

Tyre being a sea-port town, this prophecy of its overthrow fitly begins and ends with, Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for all its business, wealth, and honour, depended upon its shipping; if that be ruined, they will be all undone. Observe,

I. Tyre flourishing. This is taken notice of that her fall may appear the more dismal. 1. The merchants of Zidon, who traded at sea, had at first replenished her, v. 2. Zidon was the more ancient city, situated upon the same sea-cost, a few leagues more to the north, and Tyre was at first only a colony of that; but the daughter had outgrown the mother, and become much more considerable. It may be a mortification to great cities to think how they were at first replenished. 2. Egypt had helped very much to raise her, v. 3. Sihor was the river of Egypt: by that river, and the ocean into which it ran, the Egyptians traded with Tyre; and the harvest of that river was her revenue. The riches of the sea, and the gains by goods exported and imported, are as much the harvest to trading towns as that of hay and corn is to the country; and sometimes the harvest of the river proves a better revenue than the harvest of the land. Or it may be meant of all the products of the Egyptian soil, which the men of Tyre traded in, and which were the harvest of the river Nile, owing themselves to the overflowing of that river. 3. She had become the mart of the nations, the great emporium of that part of the world. Some of every known nation might be found there, especially at certain times of the year, when there was a general rendezvous of merchants. This is enlarged upon by another prophet, Eze 27:2; Eze 27:3, c. See how the hand of the diligent, by the blessing of God upon it, makes rich. Tyre became rich and great by industry, though she had no other ploughs going than those that plough the waters. 4. She was a joyous city, noted for mirth and jollity, &lti>v. 7. Those that were so disposed might find there all manner of sports and diversions, all the delights of the sons and daughters of men, balls, and plays, and operas, and every thing of that kind that a man had a fancy to. This made them secure and proud, and they despised the country people, who neither knew nor relished any joys of that nature. This also made them very loth to believe and consider what warnings God gave them by his servants; they were too merry to mind them. Her antiquity likewise was of ancient days, and she was proud of that, and that helped to make her secure; as if because she had been a city time out of mind, and her antiquity had been of ancient days, therefore she must continue a city time without end, and her continuance must be to the days of eternity. 5. She was a crowning city (v. 8), that crowned herself. Such were the power and pomp of her magistrates that they crowned those who had dependence on her and dealings with her. It is explained in the following words: Her merchants are princes, and live like princes for the ease and state they take; and her traffickers, whatever country they go to, are the honourable of the earth, who are respected by all. How slightly soever some now speak of tradesmen, it seems formerly, and among the wisest nations, there were merchants, and traders, and men of business, that were the honourable of the earth.

II. Here is Tyre falling. It does not appear that she brought trouble upon herself by provoking her neighbours with her quarrels, but rather by tempting them with her wealth; but, if it was this that induced Nebuchadnezzar to fall upon Tyre, he was disappointed; for after it had stood out a siege of thirteen years, and could hold out no longer, the inhabitants got away by sea, with their families and goods, to other places where they had an interest, and left Nebuchadnezzar nothing but the bare city. See a history of Tyre in Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World, lib. 2. cap. 7. sect. 3, 43. page. 283, which will give much light to this prophecy and that in Ezekiel concerning Tyre.

1. See how the destruction of Tyre is here foretold. (1.) The haven shall be no convenient harbour for the reception of the ships of Tarshish, but all laid waste (1.), so that there shall be no house, no dock for the ships to ride in, no inns, or public houses for the seamen, no entering into the port. Perhaps it was choked with sand or blocked up by the enemy. Or, Tyre being destroyed and laid waste, the ships that used to come from Tarshish and Chittim into that port shall now no more enter in; for it is revealed or made known to them, they have received the dismal news, that Tyre is destroyed and laid waste; so that there is now no more business for them there. See how it is in this world; those that are spoiled by their enemies are commonly slighted by their old friends. (2.) The inhabitants are struck with astonishment. Tyre was an island. The inhabitants of it, who had made a mighty noise and bustle in the world, and revelled with loud huzzas, shall now be still and silent (v. 2); they shall sit down as mourners, so overwhelmed with grief that they shall not be able to express it. Their proud boasts of themselves, and defiances of their neighbours, shall be silenced. God can soon quiet those, and strike them dumb, that are the noisy busy people of the world. Be still; for God will do his work (Psa 46:10; Zec 2:13), and you cannot resist him. (3.) The neighbours are amazed, blush, and are in pain for them: Zidon is ashamed (v. 4), by whom Tyre was at first replenished; for the rolling waves of the sea brought to Zidon this news from Tyre; and there the strength of the sea, a high spring-tide, proclaimed saying, “I travail not, nor bring forth children now, as I have done. I do not now, as I used to do, bring ship-loads of young people to Tyre, to be bred up there in trade and business,” which was the thing that had made Tyre so rich and populous. Or the sea, that used to be loaded with fleets of ships about Tyre, shall not be as desolate as a sorrowful widow that is bereaved of all her children, and has none about her to nourish and bring up. Egypt indeed was a much larger and more considerable kingdom than Tyre was; and yet Tyre had so large a correspondence, upon the account of trade, that all the nations about shall be as much in pain, upon the report of the ruin of that one city, as they would have been, and not long after were, upon the report of the ruin of all Egypt, v. 5. Or, as some read it, When the report shall reach to the Egyptians they shall be sorely pained to hear it of Tyre, both because of the loss of their trade with that city and because it was a threatening step towards their own ruin; when their neighbour’s house was on fire their own was in danger. (4.) The merchants, as many as could, should transmit their effects to other places, and abandon Tyre, where they had raised their estates, and thought they had made them sure (v. 6): “You that have long been inhabitants of this isle” (for it lay off in the sea about half a mile from the continent); “It is time to howl now, for you must pass over to Tarshish. The best course you can take is to make the best of your way to Tarshish, to the sea” (to Taressus, a city in Spain; so some), “or to some other of your plantations.” Those that think their mountain stands strong, and cannot be moved, will find that here they have no continuing city. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. (5.) Those that could not make their escape must expect no other than to be carried into captivity; for it was the way of conquerors, in those times, to take those they conquered to be bondmen in their own country, and send of their own to be freemen in theirs (v. 7): Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn; they shall be hurried away on foot into captivity, and many a weary step they shall take towards their own misery. Those that have lived in the greatest pomp and splendour know not what hardships they may be reduced to before they die. (6.) Many of those that attempted to escape should be pursued and fall into the hands of the enemy. Tyre shall pass through her land as a river (v. 10), running down, one company after another, into the ocean or abyss of misery. Or, though they hasten away as a river, with the greatest swiftness, hoping to outrun the danger, yet there is no more strength; they are quickly tired, and cannot get forward, but fall an easy prey into the hands of the enemy. And, as Tyre has no more strength, so her sister Zidon has no more comfort (v. 12): “Thou shalt no more rejoice, O oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon, that art now ready to be overpowered by the victorious Chaldeans! Thy turn is next; therefore arise; pass over to Chittim; flee to Greece, to Italy, any where to shift for thy own safety; yet there also shalt thou have no rest; thy enemies shall disturb thee, and thy own fears shall disquiet thee, where thou hopedst to find some repose.” Note, We deceive ourselves if we promise ourselves rest any where in this world. Those that are uneasy in one place will be so in another; and, when God’s judgments pursue sinners, they will overtake them.

2. But whence shall all this trouble come?

(1.) God will be the author of it; it is a destruction from the Almighty. It will be asked (v. 8), “Who has taken this counsel against Tyre? Who has contrived it? Who has resolved it? Who can find in his heart to lay such a stately lovely city in ruins? And how is it possible that its ruin should be effected?” To this it will be answered, [1.] God has designed it, who is infinitely wise and just, and never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures (v. 9). The Lord of hosts, that has all things at his disposal and gives not account of any of his matters, he has purposed it. It shall be done according to the counsel of his will; and that which he aims at herein is to stain the pride of all glory, to pollute it, profane it, and throw it to be trodden upon; and to bring into contempt and make despicable all the honourable ones of the earth, that they may not admire themselves and be admired by others as usual. God did not bring those calamities upon Tyre in a way of sovereignty, to show an arbitrary and irresistible power; but he did it to punish the Tyrians for their pride. Many other sins, no doubt, reigned among them–idolatry, sensuality, and oppression; but the sin of pride is fastened upon as that which was the particular ground of God’s controversy with Tyre; for he resists the proud. All the world observing and being surprised at the desolation of Tyre, we have here an exposition of it. God tells the world what he meant by it. First, He designed to convince men of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly glory, to show them what a withering, fading, perishing thing it is even when it seems most substantial. It were well if men would be thoroughly taught this lesson, though it were at the expense of so great a destruction. Are men’s learning and wealth, their pomp and power, their interest in, and influence upon, all about them, their glory? Are their stately houses, rich furniture, and splendid appearances, their glory? Look up on the ruins of Tyre, and see all this glory stained, and sullied, and buried in the dust. The honourable ones of heaven will be for ever such; but see the grandees of Tyre, some fled into banishment, others forced into captivity, and all impoverished, and you will conclude that the honourable of the earth, even the most honourable, know not how soon they may be brought into contempt. Secondly, He designed hereby to prevent their being proud of that glory, their being puffed up, and confident of the continuance of it. Let the ruin of Tyre be a warning to all places and persons to take heed of pride; for it proclaims to all the world that he who exalts himself shall be abased. [2.] God will do it, who has all power in his hand and can do it effectually (v. 11): He stretched out his hand over the sea. He has done so many a time, witness the dividing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh in it. He has often shaken the kingdoms that were most secure; and he has now given commandment concerning this merchant-city, to destroy the strongholds thereof. As its beauty shall not intercede for it, but that shall be stained, so its strength shall not protect it, but that shall be broken. If any think it strange that a city so well fortified, and that has so many powerful allies, should be so totally ruined, let them know that it is the Lord of hosts that has given a commandment to destroy the strongholds thereof: and who can gainsay his orders or hinder the execution of them?

(2.) The Chaldeans shall be the instruments of it (v. 13): Behold the land of the Chaldeans; how easily they and their land were destroyed by the Assyrians. Though their own hands founded it, set up the towers of Babylon, and raised up its palaces, yet the Assyrians brought it to ruin, whence the Tyrians might infer that as easily as the old Chaldeans were subdued by the Assyrians so easily shall Tyre be vanquished by those new Chaldeans. Babel was built by the Assyrians for those that dwelt in the wilderness. It may be rendered for the ships (the Assyrians founded it for ships and shipmen that traffic upon those vast rivers Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian and Indian seas), for men of the desert, for Babylon is called the desert of the sea, ch. xxi. 1. Thus Tyrus was built upon the sea for the like purpose. But the Assyrians (says Dr. Lightfoot) brought that to ruin, now lately, in Hezekiah’s time, and so shall Tyre hereafter be brought to ruin by Nebuchadnezzar. If we looked more upon the falling and withering of others, we should not be so confident as we commonly are of the continuance of our own flourishing and standing.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

ISAIAH – CHAPTER 23

AN ORACLE CONCERNING TYRE

Ancient Tyre was a principal seaport on the Phoenician coast, about 25 miles South of Sidon and Northwest of Jerusalem. The date of its founding is unknown, but many Sidonians fled there around 1200 B.C. when their own city was plundered by the Philistines. Until the decline of Egyptian power, it was loyal to Egypt. But, when the power of Egypt was broken, Tyre became independent and controlled most of the coastal cities of Phoenicia.

Friendly with both David and Solomon, Tyre contributed many of the materials for the royal palace and temple in Jerusalem (2Sa 5:11; 1Ki 5:1-12; 1Ch 14:1; 2Ch 2:3-16) in exchange for food and territorial concessions (1Ki 9:10-14) – later assisting Solomon in the development of the Port of Ezion-geber on the Red Sea, (1Ki 9:26-28).

Hiram I joined the two parts of Tyre together by an artificial causeway and dedicated a temple to heathen deities – Melgart and Astarte. For some time the city was under tribute to Assyria. During this time her former relationship with Israel was broken, so that Amos and Joel denounced her treatment of the Hebrew people, (Amo 1:9; Joe 3:4-6). Though she ultimately gained her freedom from Assyria, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah all prophesied her subjection to Babylon, (Jer 25:22; Jer 27:1-11; Eze 26:1 to Eze 28:19; Eze 29:18-20; Zec 9:2).

Verse 1-7: THE FALL OF TYRE

1. The opening scene is one of wailing over the devastation of Tyre; at Cyprus the seamen who have sailed the Phoenician ships, returning from Tarshish, learn that they have no warehouse or harbor to which they may return (Verse 1).

a. Tarshish appears to have been a coastal area in Spain – rich in metals such as: gold, silver, iron, tin and lead, (Jon 1:13; Isa 66:19; Jer 10:9; Eze 27:12).

b. “Ships of Tarshish” seems to indicate any ship that was engaged in the transport of these precious cargoes – with the understanding that Tyre was the mistress of the sea, (Eze 27:12; Eze 27:25).

c. Symbols of wealth and power, these ships served such distant ports that they were often gone from one to three years before returning, 2Ch 9:20-21).

2. Sidon, in verse 2, stands for all Phoenician towns along the coast; having been replenished by these “merchants that pass through the sea”, they are stricken with awe, (Verse 2; Eze 27:3; Eze 27:8; Eze 27:23).

3. The “mart of nations” (Eze 27:12-13), Tyre had been a great center of commerce – her veSsels providing great riches as they gathered the grain, produce and natural resources of Egypt and transported them throughout the known world, (Verse 3; cf. Isa 19:7-9).

4. Sidon, the firstborn of Canaan (son of Ham: Gen 10:15; Gen 10:19; Jdg 10:6; Jer 47:4; Eze 28:21-22), the founder of Tyre, is bowed with shame because her daughter will no longer be able to plant distant colonies as in the past, (Verse 4).

5. Egypt will be deeply pained at the report concerning Tyre -knowing that her own days must be numbered, (Verse 5; comp. Exo 15:14-15; Jos 2:9-11).

6. And the inhabitants of the coasts will pass over to Tarshish, bewailing the loss of the ancient, once-joyous, city whose feet (ships) will carry her afar to sojourn, (Verse 6-7).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. The burden of Tyre. Tyre was very wealthy, and highly celebrated, both on account of the variety and extent of its commercial intercourse with all nations, and on account of the flourishing colonies which sprang from it: Carthage, which was the rival of the Roman Empire, Utica, Leptis, Cadiz, and other towns, which also sent every year a present to Tyre, by which they acknowledged that they looked on Tyre as their mother. Isaiah threatens its destruction, because it had been hostile to the people of God, as we may infer from what is said by Ezekiel; for we ought carefully to attend to the cause of the destruction, because it was the design of the Prophet to shew that God testifies his fatherly regard to his people by opposing all her enemies. (Eze 26:2.) Some think that this refers to the storming of Tyre by Alexander, who took it with great difficulty. But the argument on which they rely, that Isaiah mentions Chittim, (101) has little force. By that name the Hebrew writers unquestionably denote the Macedonians, but under this word they likewise include other nations, such as the Greeks, and the countries that were beyond the sea. Nebuchadnezzar employed in that siege not only his own soldiers, but also foreigners, whom he brought from Greece and other places. It is for a reason altogether different, as we shall immediately see, that he mentions the Greeks, namely, that henceforth they will not take their ships to Tyre for the sake of carrying on merchandise.

But from the conclusion of this chapter I draw an argument for a contrary opinion, for Isaiah speaks of the restoration of Tyre, and it was never restored after having been stormed by Alexander. Besides, when I compare Ezekiel’s words with those of Isaiah, I think that I see one and the same prediction. Now, he does not speak of Alexander, but of Nebuchadnezzar; and I cannot doubt that it must be explained in that manner. Not only so, but in the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah that city was under the dominion of a king, but historians relate that, when it was stormed by Alexander, it had been brought to the form of a republic. And if we consider the object of the prophecy, we shall be sufficiently confirmed in this opinion, for his aim is to comfort the Jews by threatening that the inhabitants of Tyre, by whom they had been oppressed, will not pass unpunished. For it would have been highly inconsistent that the Lord should punish other nations, and that this nation, which had been not less hostile, should escape punishment altogether, or be punished five hundred years afterwards. Every conjecture, therefore, leads us to this conclusion, that we should expound this passage as relating to Nebuchadnezzar.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish. He employs various figures of speech, according to his custom, in illustrating the ruin of Tyre, in order to obtain greater credit to the prediction; for a plain narrative would have been ineffectual, or would not have exerted a powerful influence on minds naturally dull and sluggish, and therefore he sets before their eyes a lively portrait. This calamity, he declares, will be very grievous, because it will be felt even in distant countries. He bids the “ships howl,” because, when Tyre has been destroyed, they will have nothing to do. The ships of the Cilicians are particularly mentioned by him, because, being neighbors, they traded often and extensively with the inhabitants of Tyre; and Cilicia is called by the Hebrews “Tarshish.” It was impossible that there should not have arisen great inconvenience to that country at the destruction of Tyre; not only because commerce ceased for a time, but also because the articles of merchandise were carried off, and there was a disturbance of commercial relations (102) as usually happens when the fortunes of rich men have been overthrown.

That there may be no entering in from the land of Chittim. What I have translated “that there maybe no entering in,” is explained by some to signify, that there may be no house “into which you can enter,” but I think that I have faithfully conveyed the Prophet’s meaning. And yet he does not mean that the Cilicians or the Greeks will be hindered from entering, but that they will not hold intercourse with Tyre as they were formerly accustomed to do, because it will not be, as formerly, a mart of nations.

Those who think that the Prophet speaks of the defeat accomplished by Alexander, separate this clause of the verse “from the land of Chittim” from what goes before, and connect it thus, “from the land of Chittim it was revealed to them.” But, on the contrary, I join it differently in this way, “From not going from the land of Chittim;” that is, that the Greeks may no more enter as they were formerly accustomed to do. By the word “Chittim,” he means both the Greeks and the western nations; as if he had said “There will be an end put to commerce with the Greeks, so that they will no longer take their ships thither.” Under this designation he includes also the inhabitants of Cyprus, (103) Sicily, and Italy, and other nations.

This was revealed to them. These words may be understood to refer both to the Greeks and to the inhabitants of Tyre. If they refer to the inhabitants of Tyre, the meaning will be, “When the report of the ruin of the city shall reach them, they will put an end to their wonted voyages, for they will avoid that harbour as they would avoid a rock;” and this is the meaning which I more readily adopt. Yet I do not reject the other interpretation, that the Prophet confirms his prediction, as we commonly speak of a thing that is certain, “Let this be regarded as addressed to you.”

(101) A slight change of spelling makes it necessary to remind the reader of the English Bible, that the “Chittim” were the descendants of Kittim, (Gen 10:4,) a son of Javan, and grandson of Japheth. — Ed.

FT359 “ Et les papiers des marchans espars çà et là;” — “And the merchants’ accounts scattered hither and thither.”

FT360 “ Les Egyptiens;” — “The Egyptians.”

FT361 The Roman stadium or furlong = 125 paces = 625 feet. A Roman mile = 1000 paces = 5000 feet. An English mile = 1760 yards = 5280 feet. Therefore a Roman mile is to an English mile as 5000 to 5280, or as 125 to 132; and the number of English miles is to that of Roman miles in the inverse ratio of 132 to 125; so that 200 stadia = 25 Roman miles = somewhat less than 24 English miles. It ought to be remembered, that the author does not profess to state the exact distance, but gives it in round numbers. — Ed

FT362 “The seed of Sihor.” — Eng. Ver. שחר, ( shīchōr,) and יאור, ( yĕōr,) are the Hebrew and Egyptian names of the Nile. The first, according to its etymology, means black, and corresponds to Μέλας and Melo , of Greek and Latin names of the same river, all derived from the color of the water, or the mud which it deposits.” — Alexander

FT363 “As at the report concerning Egypt.” — Eng. Ver. Luther’s version runs thus:— “ Gleichwie man erschrak, da man von Egyptian hörete; also wird man auch erschrecken, wenn man von Tyrus hören wird;” — “Like as they were terrified when they heard of Egypt; so will they also be terrified when they shall hear of Tyre.” — Ed

FT364 “Tyre at this time was seated on an island; after Alexander’s conquest it was rebuilt on the continent.” — Stock

FT365 “ Leurs registres et papiers de comtes;” — “Their records and account-books.”

FT366 “The trade carried on by the Phoenicians of Sidon and Tyre,” says an able historian, “was extensive and adventurous; and both in their manners and policy, they resemble the great commercial states of modern times, more than any people in the ancient world.” After mentioning the navigation to Tyre as the earliest route of communication with India, he goes on to say, “To this circumstance, which, for a considerable time, secured to them a monopoly of that trade, was owing, not only the extraordinary wealth of individuals, which rendered the ‘merchants of Tyre, princes and her traffickers the honorable of the earth,’ (Isa 23:8,) but the extensive power of the state itself, which first taught men to conceive what vast resources a commercial people possess, and what great exertions they are capable of making.” He adds in a note, “The power and opulence of Tyre, in the prosperous age of its commerce, must have attracted general attention. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, who flourished two hundred and sixty years before the fall of Tyre, there is the most particular account of the nature and variety of its commercial transactions that is to be found in any ancient writer; and which conveys, at the same time, a magnificent idea of the extensive power of that state.” — Robertson’s Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India

FT367 “There is no more strength.” — Eng. Ver. “There is no mound now left.” — Stock

FT368 “The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant-city.” — Eng. Ver. “Jehovah hath given a charge concerning Canaan.” — Stock.

(102) Bogus footnote

(103) Bogus footnote

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
3.

TYRE

a. SPLENDOR

TEXT: Isa. 23:1-7

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 coast, thou whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

And on great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.

Be thou ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea hath spoken, the stronghold 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 report of Tyre.

Pass ye over to Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the coast.

Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn?

QUERIES

Why is Jehovah about to bring about Tyres downfall?

What is the seed of Shihor?

Why was Egypt pained at the report of Tyre?

PARAPHRASE

This is Gods message to Tyre: Weep, O merchant-ships of Tyre, returning home from distant lands! Weep for your harbor, for it is gone! The news that you heard in the islands of the Aegean are all true! A shocked silence is everywhere! Stillness reigns where once your bustling port was full of ships from Phoenicia, bringing merchandise from far across the great sea, grain from the fertile Nile delta. You were the market place of the world. So, hang your head in shame, Phoenicia, for formerly Phoenician traders and merchants were children of the great sea and were strewn all over the Mediterranean, but now they are so few, the sea claims she never had any such children. There will be great distress in Egypt, also, when the news of Tyres downfall reaches there. You may flee as refugees to one of your colonies such as Tarshish, but you will find the whole world of coastal trade wailing Tyres demise. Is this silent ruin all that is left of your once proud, wealthy and historical city? Think of all the great colonies your merchantmen have founded!

COMMENT

Isa. 23:1-3 WORLDS MARKET PLACE: Tyre was a city on the coast of Phoenicia. The oldest part of the city lay on the mainland; but the main seaport part of the city was located on two rocky islands about a mile off the coast of Phoenicia. Herodotus claims that Tyre was founded about 2740 B.C. The Tell-el-Amarna tablets contain an appeal from the ruler of Tyre, dated 1430 B.C. (just after the Exodus), imploring help from Amenhotep IV against the invading Habiri (Hebrews). Joshua assigned Tyre to the tribe of Asher, but in all probability the city was not occupied by the Hebrews (Cf. Jos. 19:29). 2Sa. 24:7 shows that the border of the Israelite kingdom extended to Tyre; and Davids palace was constructed with the help of Hiram, king of Tyre (2Sa. 5:11; 1Ch. 14:1). Hiram also furnished Solomon with cedar and cypress wood in exchange for wheat and oil (1Ki. 5:1; 1Ch. 22:4; 2Ch. 2:3-18). Later, Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, and priest of Astarte, married Ahab, king of Israel (1Ki. 16:31), and sought to introduce the Baal worship into Israel. Tyre grew in wealth and power through international trade. It exploited the cedar forests of the Lebanon mountain range. Tyrian purple, the product of the murex shellfish, was also a famous export. The cedar forests provided material for the famous Phoenician galleys, and, accepting the challenge of the sea became her way to wealth and fame. She exported her pagan religion along with trading her commerce. In 876 B.C. Tyre began to pay tribute to the king of Assyria and suffered some plundering in the battle of Qarqar, 853 B.C. But she still was able to assert independence. Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser both laid siege to the city. For five years she was under siege, but in 722 B.C. she made a treaty with the Assyrians. Finally her king was deposed by Sennacherib and she began to lose more of her independence. We shall continue with the history of Tyres demise at the end of this chapter.

Whether Isaiahs prophecy of Tyres downfall is intended to be in the distant future or whether it will be some immediate downfall is not easy to determine. Historically speaking her complete downfall did not come until Alexander the Great was able to conquer it in about 332 B.C. Her glory began to fade, however, with the Assyrian invasion of Phoenicia and Syria and northern Palestine in 722 B.C. We assume then that Isaiah is predicting Tyres demise not intending that it is to happen immediately but gradually.
The message of the prophet is that Tyres merchantmen and seamen who travel as far away as Tarshish (probably on the eastern coast of Spain) should look forward to a time of mourning over her. The time is coming when her famous ports will not be available for them to enter and sell their cargoes. Tyres final downfall is going to be international news! Men on her ships will be hearing it, when it happens, as far away as Kittim (islands in the Aegean sea). An old, established, international institution which no one thought would ever disappear, will fail. It will cause consternation throughout the world. There will be a shocked silence. People will be struck dumb momentarily by the news. Her fame was world-wide. She traded in an immense grain supply from the ancient granary of the world, Egypt. The grain of Shihor (Shihor literally means black) came from the fertile, black-dirt, fields of the Nile delta. Tyre was the middleman between the Egyptian grain resources and the nations much in need of grain. Tyre was actually the market place of the world.

Isa. 23:4-7 WASTED MEMORY: Sidon is here used metaphorically to represent the whole region of Phoenician coast to be affected by the coming destruction. The Phoenicians were sons of the sea. They were great seafaring men. The sea is metaphorically their father. But after the future desolation of Phoenicia, the sea will have no more sons from that area. The great fleet of ships and navy of mariners which was once Tyres pride and joy will only be a matter for dejected shame. Tyres death will affect the whole world! Egypt, who depended on Tyre for trading, will suffer distress at the news. The citizens of Tyre are told that should they even flee to Tarshish they would find much mourning among the coastal cities of the Mediterranean at the downfall of Tyre. The whole Mediterranean and Aegean coast felt the blow. So the question comesIs this the great wealthy and proud Tyre? Tyre had exerted profound influence on the world. The great city of Carthage, on the coast of north Africa, was one of Tyres colonies. The feet of her merchantmen traversed the whole known world. Now, what is she to be? Only a wasted memory!

Why was this judgment to come upon Tyre? Isaiah does not give us much light on the reason for judgment here. If we turn to Ezekiel chapters 26, 27, and 28, however, we find statements of the causes for her judgment. Tyre evidently took advantage of some calamity that befell Jerusalem and exploited Jerusalems affliction for her own advance (Eze. 26:1-2). She was also proud and self-exalting (Eze. 27:1-3). Tyres king uttered blasphemies against Jehovah (Eze. 28:1-10).

QUIZ

About how old was the city of Tyre?

What relationships had Tyre with Israel in the past?

What was Tyres great influence on the world of that day?

Give three reasons for Gods judgment upon Tyre.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XXIII.

(1) The burden of Tyre . . .The chapter calls us to enquire into the political relations of Tyre at the time of Isaiah. These we learn, partly from Scripture itself, partly from Assyrian inscriptions. In the days of David and Solomon there had been an intimate alliance between Israel and Hiram, King of Tyre. Psa. 45:12 indicates at least the interchange of kingly gifts, if not the acknowledgment of sovereignty by payment of tribute. Psa. 83:7, which we have some reason to connect with the reign of Uzziah, shows that this alliance had passed into hostility. The position of Tyre naturally threw it into more intimate relations with the northern kingdom; its country was nourished by the kings country then as in the days of Herod Agrippa (Act. 12:20), and there seems reason to believe that the son of Tabeal, whom Pekah and Rezin intended to place upon the throne of Judah, was the son of a Tyrian ruler. (See Note on Isa. 7:6.) It was, at this time, the most flourishing of the Phnician cities, and had succeeded to the older fame of Zidon. The action of Ahaz in inviting the help of Tiglath-pileser against Israel and the Syrians had tended to make Tyre also an object of attack by the Assyrian armies. The prophecy now before us would seem to have been connected with that attack, and foretells the issue of the conflict on which Tyre had rashly entered. Upon that issue light is thrown by the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings. Sargon records that he plundered the district of Samaria and the whole house of Omri, and reigned from Yatnan (Cyprus), which is in the midst of the sea of the setting sun . . . from the great Phnicia and Syria. . . . to all the cities of remote Media (Records of the Past, vii. 27). Sennacherib boasts of a victory over the land of the Hatti (i.e., Hittites); fear overwhelmed Luti, the king of Zidon, and he fled to Yatnan, which is in the midst of the sea, and the Assyrian placed Tubalu (the Tabeal of Isaiah) on the throne of the kingdom (Records of the Past, vii. 61). In anticipation of these events, the prophet utters his note of warning to the great merchant city. It seems more natural to connect it with those events, which came within the horizon of his vision, than to refer it, as some interpreters have done, to the later siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. The mention of the Chaldeans as having been subdued by the Assyrians, which fits in with Sargons and Sennacheribs victories over Merdach-baladan (Records of the Past, vii. 45, 59), who endeavoured to establish an independent kingdom in Babylon (see Note on Isa. 39:1), and is, of course, entirely inapplicable to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, seems, indeed, to be decisive as to this question.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish . . .See Note on Isa. 2:16. The prophet sees, as in vision, the argosies of Tyre speeding on their way homeward across the Mediterranean from Tarshish (Spain), and bids them raise their lamentation over the coming fate of their city. They will hear that their city has been taken, that there is no access to its harbours. At Chittim (Cyprus, or, probably, Citium, the chief Phnician colony of the island), the tidings which burst upon them were as a revelation, confirming the vague rumours they had heard before.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. Ships of Tarshish The Mediterranean fleet, especially the larger vessels which plied between the Phoenician coast (for all cities and towns on the coast were sea-faring,) and Tartessus in Spain.

Is laid waste This is spoken of Tyre. It is so seen in vision.

From Chittim it is revealed Cyprus, or Citium, a chief port in Cyprus. The vision takes in seamen returning and hearing from the colony at Cyprus bad news of Tyre.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Lament Over Tyre ( Isa 23:1-14 ).

The final burden is the burden of Tyre and Sidon. These were two wealthy and powerful seaports on the Mediterranean coast from which ships went out to all parts of the known world. Their largest ships were called ships of Tarshish, possibly because of the smelted metals that they carried, or possibly because of the destinations that they reached (Jonah set sail for Tarshish from Joppa in order to go to a distant land – Jon 1:3; Jon 4:2). There may in fact have been a number of places called Tarshish as it may have been a name given to a number of places from which such metals were obtained. Tartessus in Spain, Sardinia (where Phoenician inscription have been found bearing the name Tarshish), and some port in East Africa (on the basis of 2Ch 20:36) have all been suggested.

Analysis

a The burden of Tyre. Howl you 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 (Isa 23:1).

b Be still (or ‘silent’) you inhabitants of the isle (or ‘coastland’), you whom the merchants of Zidon who have passed 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 market of nations (Isa 23:2-3).

c Be ashamed, O Zidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed nor brought forth, nor have I nourished young men or brought up virgins” (Isa 23:4).

d When the report comes to Egypt they will be sorely pained at the news of Tyre (Isa 23:5).

e Pass over to Tarshish. Howl you inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous situation whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to reside as an alien? (Isa 23:6-7).

f Who has purposed this against Tyre, the one who dispensed crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose trade supremos are the honourable of the earth? (Isa 23:8).

f Yahweh of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth (Isa 23:9).

e Pass through your land like the Nile, O you daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraining girdle any more (Isa 23:10).

d He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms, Yahweh has given commandment concerning the merchant (or ‘Canaan’) to destroy its strongholds (Isa 23:11).

c And he said, “You will no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim, even there you will have no rest” (Isa 23:12).

b Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This people is no more. The Assyrian has appointed (or ‘founded’) it for the beasts of the wilderness. They set up their towers, they overthrew its palaces, he made it a ruin (Isa 23:13).

a Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste (Isa 23:14).

In ‘a’ the ships of Tarshish are to howl, because Tyre is laid waste, and the same applies in the parallel. In ‘b’ the isles and coastlands across the sea are to be silent as they behold what has happened to the one who replenished them, the merchant of the nations, who brought to them the produce of the Nile, standing by unable to help her, while in the parallel Babylon is unable to help her because she herself has been devastated and is a ruin. In ‘c’ even Zidon is to be ashamed of Tyre because she is now childless, while in the parallel she who is the raped ‘daughter of Zidon’ will pass over to Kittim and find no rest there. In ‘d’ Egypt will be sorely pained at the news of Tyre, while in the parallel it is because of what Yahweh has done to Tyre. In ‘e’ she is to ‘pass over’ to far off Tarshish which no longer looks as welcoming as it once did, and in the parallel she is the ‘daughter of Tarshish’ where she is now unrestrained as she ‘passes’ homeless through the land. In ‘f’ the question is as to who has done this to Tyre, and in the parallel the answer is that it is Yahweh of hosts Who has humbled her.

Isa 23:1

‘The burden of Tyre. Howl you 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.’

The picture is poignant. News will reach the great ships of Tarshish, the large ore-carrying, sea-going vessels, as they return from their long voyages via Kittim (Cyprus), of the disaster that has befallen their beloved Tyre. And they are told to howl. Their city has been laid waste. Its houses have been demolished. No one enters it. This would refer to the mainland section, still under occupation by Assyria. The small island would be secure even if under pressure. But the port could not operate normally. The ships would have nowhere to find shelter. (And one day that too would be destroyed, compare Eze 26:1-5).

Isa 23:2

‘Be still (or ‘silent’) you inhabitants of the isle (or ‘coastland’), you whom the merchants of Zidon who have passed over the sea have replenished.’

The word translated isle or coastland is always difficult to interpret exactly. It often refers to the more distant peoples across the seas, on ‘isles’ and distant ‘coastlands’, without being too specific. If that is the idea here, although it is in the singular, then the inhabitants of the distant coastland are called on to be still or silent, a mark of respect for the disaster which has befallen the one who has replenished them by trade. Or it may be that they are to be still because they can offer no help, just as in the parallel Babylon can offer no help. Tyre is stranded without assistance. The merchants of Zidon and the merchants of Tyre could be seen as one, for they were sister cities.

Alternatively we can read ‘isle’, thus being a reference to the small island fortress which was part of Tyre and was still secure, seen as fed from the sea by the ships of Zidon (probably secretly by night), and they are called on to wait in silence because of their precarious situation. The same word for ‘isle’ occurs in Isa 23:6 where it seems to have this meaning.

Isa 23:3

‘And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue, and she was the market of nations.’

The importance of Tyre to all is now explained. Shihor is probably here to be identified with the a branch of the Nile, as in Jer 2:18, although now no longer in existence (contrast Jos 13:3; 1Ch 13:5 where it seems at first sight to refer to ‘the Wadi of Egypt’. But there may well once have been a branch of the Nile further north than today to which these were referring. However as geography was not then an exact science, and waters connected with Egypt may not always have been clearly distinguished, more than one waterway may have been called Shihor, ‘the canal of Horus’).

Here reference is to the fact that the ships of Tyre were the main means by which the large exports of grain from Egypt (the seed of Shihor) were carried to the cosatland and to the world across ‘great waters’ for which their ships were suited, earning both Egypt and Tyre great profits. Indeed Tyre was the middleman of the nations, encouraging trade between the different nations. Thus both Egypt and the nations must wail at her difficulties.

Isa 23:4

‘Be ashamed, O Zidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed nor brought forth, nor have I nourished young men or brought up virgins”.’

These words are poignant. Even her sister city Zidon is exhorted to turn from Tyre in shame, for she is bereft of children. Her youths and maidens are no more. She is as though she had never borne them. Perhaps Tyre is here called ‘the Sea’ because with her stronghold in the sea and her ships plying the seas it was as though she was the sea. She was mistress of the seas.

Isa 23:5

‘When the report comes to Egypt they will be sorely pained at the news of Tyre.’

Once the news of what has happened to Tyre reaches Egypt she will be sorely pained, distressed at what it will do to her trade. But there is a pregnant silence about the possibility of her coming to her aid. She too disowns Tyre as her responsibility. So much for alliances.

Isa 23:6-7

‘Pass over to Tarshish. Howl you inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous situation whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to reside as an alien?’

‘Pass over to Tarshish.’ Tarshish is the distant land with which Tyre traded which has been variously identified as Sardinia, Spain or East Africa. It may indeed refer to more than one place for it signified the land from which she collected ore. So to the landsman Tarshish was the distant ore provider, wherever it was. No doubt the Tyrians often spoke of it boastingly, that land that no others knew. That is the place to escape to, he suggests, sarcastically, the place of which they speak with the natural boasting of the sailor to a landsman, for it is far away beyond the reach of Assyria, and it is where they lord it over the natives (Isa 23:10).

So Tyre is to howl over her situation, for it has now changed. It is no more. The word ‘situation’ is read in, others suggest reading in ‘city’ (the Hebrew leaves ‘joyous’ standing on its own). However, the idea is probably ‘what Tyre was’ (its general status) that made it joyous, for it was unique in the world. It was a world city. She had had this unique situation from ancient days, travelling the known world and residing as a welcome resident alien in many places, forming trade colonies, living on the sea, but always able to return home to port. But now there is no port. Her foundation is gone. Her life situation has collapsed, her colonies are bereft. Her joyous situation is no more.

Isa 23:8

‘Who has purposed this against Tyre, the one who dispensed crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose trade supremos are the honourable of the earth.’

But the question is, who has purposed this against Tyre, the great Tyre, who crowned merchant princes in many lands, whose trade supremos are honoured everywhere? Who could possibly have brought her to this situation?

Isa 23:9

‘Yahweh of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.’

The answer is that Yahweh has done it to stem her pride. His purpose is to destroy her worldwide glory and bring her international trade supremos into contempt. In other words, to put Tyre in her place so that she may learn her need and seek to Yahweh. Only Yahweh could reach so far across the sea and do so much.

Isa 23:10-11

‘Pass through your land like the Nile, O you daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraining girdle any more. He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms, Yahweh has given commandment concerning the merchant (or ‘Canaan’) to destroy its strongholds.’

Here the ‘daughter of Tarshish’ could be seen as signifying the inhabitants of Tarshish (compare daughter of Zion) so that the people of Tarshish are now addressed. The suggestion here would then seem to be that the Tyrians have been lording it over the people of Tarshish. Where ore is involved, which has to be dug from the ground, labour had to be obtained, and that often no doubt resulted in slave labour and the use of force against unwilling peoples forced to become labourers. Thus God’s action here has given the people of Tarshish a new freedom. They are now as free to pass through their land as the Nile is to pass through Egypt. The restraining girdle has been removed. For Tyre’s colonies (kingdoms) are in disarray, shaken by Yahweh (and by the lack of ships), and His command is that the Tyrian strongholds be destroyed. Note that the sea is no hindrance to the hand of Yahweh, He reaches where He will.

Or ‘daughter of Tarshish’ may refer to the fact that Tyrians now find refuge there rather than being their masters. In Isa 23:6 they ‘pass over’ to Tarshish. Here they ‘pass’ unrestrained through Tarshish.

For mezach as ‘girdle’ see Job 12:21; Psa 109:19. Others would translate as ‘shipbuilding’.

‘Canaan.’ The inhabitants of the coastland north of Carmel where called Canaanites, both by Greek sources and on their own coins, and Zidon was ‘the firstborn of Canaan’ (see Gen 10:15; Gen 10:19 compare Jos 5:1), thus we may read ‘Canaan’ here. But the word does also mean ‘merchant, trafficker’ (see Isa 23:8. Also Job 41:6; Pro 31:24; Eze 17:4; Zep 1:11; Zec 14:21).

Isa 23:12

‘And he said, “You will no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim, even there you will have no rest.” ’

Tyre is here pictured as the virgin daughter of Zidon who has been raped (oppressed). She has no security where she is and will know no more rejoicing, so she should rouse herself, leave her island fortress, and pass over to Kittim (Cyprus). But even there she will not find rest. Cyprus was also under the powerful influence of Assyria. She will be a displaced person, even a fugitive, and restless because she has no one to turn to. She is alone.

She had been told to go to Tarshish, now she is told to go to Cyprus. But the significance of all these suggestions, in spite of all her colonies, was that she really had nowhere to go where she would be welcome.

Isa 23:13-14

‘Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This people is no more. The Assyrian has appointed (or ‘founded’) it for the beasts of the wilderness. They set up their towers, they overthrew its palaces, he made it a ruin. Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.’

It will be of no use to look to Babylon for help. Babylon is herself past help. Indeed Tyre have only to look at the example of the Chaldeans, with whom they were probably in alliance, in order to see mirrored there their own fate. They opposed Assyria, and now they are no more. So what chance will Tyre have? The Assyrians have determined to make Babylon a place for beasts to dwell in. They will set up their siege towers, they will overthrow its palaces. He will make it a ruin (‘he’ refers to the Assyrian). And they will do the same to Tyre. They could only do it to the mainland city, for the island fortress was impregnable until the coming of Alexander the Great, but that would be enough to prevent further trade for a time. Thus the ships of Tarshish may well howl for they will have no harbour to come to. Their place of safety will be destroyed.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isa 23:1-18 Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18 records Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Prophecies Against the Nations Isa 13:1 to Isa 27:13 records prophecies against twelve nations, culminating with praise unto the Lord. God planted the nation of Israel in the midst of the nations as a witness of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Instead of embracing God’s promises and commandments to mankind, the nations rejected Israel and their God, then they participated in Israel’s destruction. Although God judges His people, He also judged these nations, the difference being God promised to restore and redeem Israel, while the nations received no future hope of restoration in their prophecies; yet, their opportunity for restoration is found in Israel’s rejection when God grafts the Church into the vine of Israel (Rom 11:11-32). The more distant nations played little or no role in Israel’s idolatry, demise, and divine judgment, so they are not listed in this passage of Scripture.

It is important to note in prophetic history that Israel’s judgment is followed by judgment upon the nations; and Israel’s final restoration is followed by the restoration of the nations and the earth. Thus, some end time scholars believe that the events that take place in Israel predict parallel events that are destined to take place among the nations.

Here is a proposed outline:

1. Judgment upon Babylon Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27

2. Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32

3. Judgment upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14

4. Judgment upon Damascus Isa 17:1-14

5. Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7

6. Judgment upon Egypt Isa 19:1-25

7. Prophecy Against Ethiopia & Egypt Isa 20:1-6

8. Judgment upon the Wilderness of the Sea Isa 21:1-10

9. Judgment upon Dumah Isa 21:11-12

10. Judgment upon Arabia Isa 21:13-17

11. Judgment upon Judah Isa 22:1-25

12. Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18

13. Judgment upon the Earth Isa 24:1-23

14. Praise to God for Israel’s Restoration Isa 25:1 to Isa 27:13

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Fall of TyRev. 1. The burden of Tyre, the proud Phoenician metropolis, which withstood the attacks of several Assyrian armies and endured a siege of thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar, but was destroyed by Alexander the Great after a siege of seven months: Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, the great merchant vessels of that day, named after the city of Tartessus in Spain with which much of the world’s commerce was carried on; for it, Tyre, the center of the world’s markets, is laid waste, so that there is no house, not one of them being left in the city on the mainland after the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, no entering in, neither into buildings nor even into the harbor after Alexander had destroyed the city on the island; from the land of Chittim, the island of Cyprus, whose capital was Citium, it is revealed to them, the sailors and merchants of Tyre, returning from a long voyage, receiving the news of the city’s destruction at this, their last landing-place before reaching Phoenicia.

v. 2. Be still, namely, with amazement and horror, ye inhabitants of the isle, those of the coast country of Phoenicia in general and of New Tyre in particular; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, the second great commercial city of Phoenicia, that pass over the sea, have replenished, both by founding the city and by making it one of the world’s chief markets.

v. 3. And by great waters, by maritime trade and transportation, the seed of Sihor, “dark-colored,” applied to the Nile, the harvest of the river, the products of the rich lowlands of Egypt, is her revenue, that with which Tyre traded not only along the Mediterranean coast, but far inland as well; and she is a mart of nations, what was gathered in her became profitable merchandise to all nations.

v. 4. Be thou ashamed, trembling with the disgrace of it all, O Zidon, Phoenicia in general; for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, the fortress of Tyre, which was located on an island at some distance from the coast, saying, I travail not nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men nor bring up virgins. Tyre, bereaved of all her children by Ivar, was like a childless woman. There was nothing but rock and sea left where formerly the rich city had stood.

v. 5. As at the report concerning Egypt, when the sad news concerning the fall of Tyre shall reach Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre, because this meant not only a severe reduction in the trade of Egypt, but also the removal of one of the bulwarks against the enemy. Moreover, those who escaped from Tyre would have to flee to the remote corners of the earth.

v. 6. Pass ye over to Tarshish, the commercial metropolis of Spain, the colony where the last Phoenician ships might be found; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle, all those living along the coast of the Mediterranean, the fugitives with the inhabitants, since they all were included in the calamity which had come upon Tyre.

v. 7. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? That was the end of all her proud self-glorification. Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn, rather, “whose feet carried her afar to settle,” not only over her trade routes, but also in locating colonies in distant countries. The doom of Tyre having been pictured thus, the prophet proceeds to preach the glory of Jehovah.

v. 8. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, which dispensed crowns to the rulers of its colonies, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? The wealth of these men, together with their connections in distant lands, gave them a position of power and influence like that of rulers.

v. 9. The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, He who has the fortunes of all men in His hands, to stain the pride of all glory, to profane, to bring shame upon that which the Tyrians wrongfully elevated, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth, so that both they and their temples and idols would he disgraced and humiliated. The result is that the colonies gain their independence.

v. 10. Pass through thy land as a river, overflowing it like the Nile, without interference and hindrance from fallen Tyre, O daughter of Tarshish, the Spanish colony of Tyre; there is no more strength, literally, “not is there any more a dam. ” The fate of Tyre is now further described for the benefit of the colonies:

v. 11. He, Jehovah, stretched out His hand over the sea, as the One who has absolute power over all the forces of nature; He shook the kingdoms, putting them in commotion to carry out His plans. The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, literally, “against Canaan,” which here designates Phoenicia only, to destroy the strongholds thereof, chiefly the bulwarks of Tyre.

v. 12. And He said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon, Tyre and all Phoenicia being disgraced now as a result of the conquest. Arise, pass over to Chittim, emigrating to Cyprus, since the home country was in the hands of the enemies; there also shalt thou have no rest, for the colony would not welcome the former oppressors.

v. 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, whence the destroyers came; this people was not, who at first did not figure in history, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, for a section of the Assyrian empire had at first been assigned to them for settlement; they set up the towers thereof, that is, the Babylonians erected their siege-towers against Tyre, they raised up the palaces thereof, rather, “utterly destroyed its castles”; and he brought it to ruin, its bulwarks were overthrown.

v. 14. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for your strength is laid waste. Cf v. 1. Thus the Lord punishes those who exalt themselves and are proud in their idolatrous hearts.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Isa 23:1-14

THE BURDEN OF TYRE. We hero reach the last of the “burdens”the concluding chapter of the series of denunciatory prophecies which commenced with Isa 13:1-22. It is an elegy “in three stanzas, or strophes” (Cheyne)the first extending from Isa 13:1 to Isa 13:5; the second, thence to Isa 13:9; and the third from Isa 13:10 to Isa 13:14. An undertone of sadness, and even of commiseration, prevails throughout it, the prophet viewing Tyre as a fellow-sufferer with Israel, persecuted and oppressed by the fame enemy, Assyria, which was everywhere pushing her conquests, and had recently extended her dominion even over Babylon (Isa 13:13). This last allusion fixes the date of the prophecy to a time subsequent to B.C. 710, when the Assyrian monarch, Sargon, first conquered the country, and took the title of king.

Isa 23:1

Howl (comp. Isa 13:6, 31). The expression is common in the prophets (see Jer 4:8; Jer 25:34, etc.: Eze 21:12; Eze 30:2; Joe 1:5, Joe 1:11, Joe 1:13; Zep 1:11; Zec 11:2, etc.). Ye ships of Tarshish. “Ships of Tarshish” are first mentioned in connection with the trade carried on by Solomon. Apparently, the term there designates a certain class of ship rather than those engaged in a particular trade. Here, however, Phoenician ships, actually engaged in the trade with Tartessus, may be intended. Tartessus was a very ancient Phoenician settlement in the south of Spain, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and was the center of a most important and lucrative commerce. In the present passage the returning fleet of merchantmen is addressed, and told that the harbour to which they are hastening is closed, the city desolate. From the land of Chittim. “Chittim” here, as in Gen 10:4, and elsewhere generally, is probably Cyprus, whose most ancient capital was called by the Greeks Kitten (see Joseph, ‘Ant. Jud,’ 1.6, 1). The name “Chittim” is not improbably a variant of “Khittim,” “the Hittites,” who may have been the first to colonize the island. A fleet from the Western Mediterranean would naturally touch at Cyprus on its way to Tyro, and would there learn the calamity.

Isa 23:2

Be still; rather, be silent, as in the margin. It would be idle to complain or lament. Ye inhabitants of the isle. Tyro was situated on a small isle, which Alexander joined to the mainland by means of a mole (Arrian, ‘Exp. Alex.,’ 2.23). It is uncertain, however, whether this isle is meant here, or the strip of Phoenician coast, since the Hebrew ‘i has both meanings. Thou whom the merchants of Zidon have replenished. During the flourishing period of Tyro, Zidon, though it had generally kings of its own, played a secondary part to Tyre, and for the most part acquiesced in Tyrian supremacy. Its best sailors served in the Tyrian fleet (Eze 27:8), and its merchants were content to enrich the recognized “chief city.”

Isa 23:3

By great waters; rather, on great waters; i.e. on the waters of the Mediterranean (cf. Psa 107:23; Eze 27:26). The Egyptian vessels conveyed the corn intended for exportation to the ports at the mouths of the Nile, where it was transhipped aboard Phoenician craft, which carried it on the open sea to the countries needing it. We never hear of the Egyptians disputing the trade of the Mediterranean with the Phoenicians and the Greeks, though they certainly had trading-vessels at times on the waters of the Red Sea. The seed of Sihor; i.e. the corn of the Nile valley. “Si-her,” or rather “Shihor,” is the only proper name by which the Nile is designated in the Hebrew Scriptures. It means “the dark,” “the turbid,” and may be compared with the modern “Bahr-el-azrak,” used of the Eastern or Abyssinian Nile, and with the term” Nilus” itself, if that signifies “the dark blue stream.” It occurs, as the name of the Nile, only in Jos 13:3; 1Ch 13:5; Jer 2:18; and the present place. Is her revenue; i.e. “produces a portion of her annual income.” And she is a man of nations (so Gesenius and Ewald). Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate, “It is the gain of the nations,” referring “it’ to the corn which the Tyrians exported.

Isa 23:4

Be thou ashamed, O Zidon. Zidon, the most ancient and venerable of the Phoenician cities (Gen 10:15; Jos 11:8; Jos 19:28; Jdg 18:7; Justin, Jdg 18:3, etc.), is called upon to feel shame because Tyre is captured. The ruin of the metropolitan city would be felt as a disgrace by all the lesser towns, and by Zidon especially. The sea even the strength of the sea; rather, the stronghold of the sea; i.e. Tyre herself. Tyre declares that she is childless, has neither son nor daughter, is as if she had never travailed nor brought forth children. I travail not, etc.; rather, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor nourished up, etc. My children being dead or taken from me, it is as if I had never borne them.

Isa 23:5

As at the report concerning Egypt; rather, when the rumor shall reach Egypt. They shall be sorely pained. The Egyptians bore no great affection towards any foreign nation. They were a people whose charity began and ended at home. But the fall of Tyre was always a shock to them, and was felt to portend evil to themselves. The Asiatic power which was strong enough to capture the island-fortress would be a formidable enemy to Egypt itself, and might be expected at no distant date to attempt the conquest of the Nile valley.

Isa 23:6

Pass ye over to Tarshish. The advice was good, and may, perhaps, have been followed to some extent. When Sennacherib attacked Elulaeus of Sidon, that monarch fled across the sea, probably to Cyprus. When Alexander finally ruined Tyre, a part of the population made its escape on shipboard to Carthage (Arrian,’ Exp. Alex.,’ 2.24, 8). An escape of the kind is represented in the Assyrian sculptures (Layard, ‘Monuments of Nineveh,’ first series, pl. 7l).

Isa 23:7

Is this your joyous city? literally, your joyous one; i.e. Can this wretched heap of ruins be the rich and joyous Tyre? Whose antiquity is of ancient days. Though regarded as less ancient than Zidon (Justin, 18.3), Tyro nevertheless claimed a very remote antiquity. Herodotus was told that its temple of Hercules (Melkarth) had been built two thousand three hundred years previously (Herod; 2.44). Q. Curtius makes the city to have been founded by Agenor, the father of Cadmus, who was supposed to have lived three hundred years before the Trojan War (‘Vit. Alex.,’ 4.4). It must be noted, however, on the other hand, that there is no mention at all of Tyro in Homer, and none in Scripture until the time of Joshua (Jos 19:29), about B.C. 1300. Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn (so Lowth, Rosenmller, Gesenius, Ewald, Kay). Others render the passage, “whose feet were wont to carry her afar off to sojourn.” In the one case the coming flight and exile, in the other the past commercial enterprise of the city, is pointed at.

Isa 23:8

Who hath taken this counsel? Who can have conceived the thought of destroying a city at once so powerful and so conducive to the advantage of other states? The answer is given in the next verse. The crowning city; i.e. “the dispenser of crowns.” Either to the governors of her colonies, or perhaps to the other cities of Phoenicia Proper. It is not quite clear whether the kings of those cities needed the sanction of Tyro to confirm them on their thrones, or not. The Hebrew word used must certainly be rendered “crowning,” and not “crowned.” Whose merchants are princes. Not actually sovereigns, but the chief men in the state under the king. Traffickers; literally, Canaanites. But the ethnic name seems to have early acquired the secondary meaning of “traders” (see Pro 31:24; Job 41:6).

Isa 23:9

The Lord of hosts hath purposed it; rather, hath counseled it. The word is the same as that used in the opening clause of Isa 23:8. God has conceived the thought of destroying Tyre, for the reasons which the prophet proceeds to specify:

1. To stain the pride of all glory; or, of all beauty. Not that “glory” or “beauty” are displeasing to him, or provoke his envy, as the heathen thought (Herod; 7.10, 4) but that those who “pride” themselves on their glory and beauty offend him.

2. To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth; i.e. to render contemptible those whom the world honors, though they do not deserve honor.

Isa 23:10

Pass through thy laud as a river; rather, overflow thy land, as the Nile. Shake off all restraint; that is, give thy desires free ventbe no longer cramped and confined by the restrictions of the metro-polls. Tartessus is addressed, as the leading colony, and perhaps the one most oppressed; and in her person all the colonies are called on to shake themselves free of the mother city. There is no more strength; rather, there is no more a girdle; i.e. there is nothing that need restrain yonthe power of Tyre is gone!

Isa 23:11

He stretched out his hand over the sea, By “he” we must understand “Jehovah” (see Isa 23:9). God has smitten Tyrothe great maritime powerdestroyed its dominion, and set its subject cities free. He shook the kingdoms; i.e. not only Tyre, but the other cities of the Phoenician coast, each of which had its own king. Against the merchant city; rather, against Canaan. Phoenicia is called “Canaan,” as England is often called “Britain.” So the “SyroPhoenician woman” of Mar 7:26 is “a woman of Canaan” in Mat 15:22.

Isa 23:12

He said. Jehovah continues his threatenings. The oppressed virgin, daughter of Sidonor rather, the oppressed virgin-daughter of Sidonmay he either. Tyre, which, according to some, was built by fugitives from Zidon, or Phoenicia generally, of which Zidon, as the “firstborn” (Gen 10:15), was a sort of mother. Pass over to Chittim (comp. Isa 23:6). Chittim (Cyprus) was a nearer refuge than Tarshish, and far more easily reached; but, on the other hand, it was much less safe. Sargon and Esarhaddon both of them exercised dominion over it; and when Abdi-Milkut, King of Sidon, fled there in the reign of the latter, the Assyrian monarch pursued him, caught him, and “cut off his head”. Still, it was so often sought by princes flying from Phoenicia when attacked by Assyria, that cuneiform scholars call it “the usual refuge of the Phoenician kings”. There also shalt thou have no rest. Cyprus submitted to Sargon, and again to Esarhaddon. It was included in the dominions of Asshur-bani-pal. After Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Tyre, it was annexed by Egypt (Herod; 2.182), on the conquest of which country by Cambyses it became Persian. The Phoenicians had “no rest” there after Assyria had once found her way to the island.

Isa 23:13

Behold the land of the Chaldeans (comp. Isa 13:19; Isa 47:1, Isa 47:5; Isa 48:14, Isa 48:20). Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah knows the people as Chahleans (Kasdim), the capital as Babylon. Kaldi, in the inscriptions, is a rare word, and the name of a not very important tribe. Yet Berosus uses the term to designate the whole nation. This people was not; rather, is not; i.e. “is no more a people””has ceased to exist.” Sargon conquered Babylon in B.C. 710, and made himself king, ruling it, together with Assyria, until B.C. 705, when it rebelled and recovered its independence. Sennacherib reconquered it in B.C. 704, and again in B.C. 700, when he made his eldest son viceroy. Esarhaddon ruled over both countries, as did Asshur-bani-pal. Though later Babylon reasserted her independence, and became a great empire, yet Isaiah was justified, at almost any period of his life after B.C. 710, in speaking of her as non-existent. Till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness. There is no “till” in the original. The clause is separate and independent, not connected grammatically with the preceding. Nor does it assert that the Assyrians “founded” Babylon for any one, but only that they “established” it, or “appointed” it to be a habitation for “the beasts of the desert“ (comp. Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14; Jer 1:1-19 :39, etc.). The prophet views the Assyrians as intending to reduce Babylon to ruins, and leave it waste and uninhabited. The towers thereof; i.e. the siege-towers requisite for reducing so strong a city. They raised up; rather, they made bare (cf. Hab 3:9). He brought it to ruin. “He” is “the Assyrian.” The case of Babylon is adduced to increase the alarm of Tyro, by reminding the inhabitants of what the Assyrians had done to a town greater and stronger than their own. The allusion is probably to certain severities of Sargon’s in B.C. 710, which, however, are rhetorically exaggerated. It was never the policy of the Assyrians to depopulate or destroy Babylon.

Isa 23:14

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish (comp. Isa 23:1). The ships that traded with Tarshish, not those belonging to Tarshish, are intended. Your strength is laid waste; rather, your stronghold; i.e. Tyre itself. The elegy ends as it began, with a statement of the bare fact. Alexander’s destruction of the city was the final and complete fulfillment of the prophecy. The captures by Esarhaddou, by Asshur-bani-pal, and by Nebuchadnezzar, were anticipations of the final one, and partial fulfillments of the prophecy.

Isa 23:15-18

TYRE‘S RESTORATION TO PROSPERITY AND CONVERSION TO JEHOVAH. After an interval, expressed by the symbolic number of” seventy years,” Tyre is to rise from her ashes, and become once more a prosperous state, resuming her former occupation of a “merchant city,” and once more making great gains, which she will devote to the service of Jehovah. St. Jerome thought that this prophecy had not been accomplished in his day. If so, it cannot be said to have been accomplished yet; unless, indeed, Tyre may be regarded as representing the commercial spirit, which. under Christianity, is not necessarily alien from religion, but shows itself sometimes altogether friendly to the Church, supplying ways and means for ten thousand philanthropic and praiseworthy enterprises (Isa 23:18).

Isa 23:15

Tyro shall be forgotten; i.e. “shall cease to occupy men’s thoughts, as a factor in politicsshall pass out of their calculations, and count for nothing.” Seventy years. “Forty years” and “seventy years” are the chief representatives in Scripture of an indefinite time. The week of creation seems to have given to seven its quasi-sacred character, which passed from the primary number to the corresponding decimal one. The sacred use of “seventy” appears first in the “seventy elders” who accompanied Moses to the covenant-feast on Sinai (Exo 24:9). After this, “seventy ‘talents are mentioned as the weight of the bronze offerings for the tabernacle (Exo 38:29), and “seventy” shekels as the weight of the silver bowls offered by the heads of tribes when the tabernacle was set up (Num 7:13-85). The “indefinite” us, of “seventy” is most apparent in such expressions as that of Gen 4:24, “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, surely Lamech seventy and sevenfold;” and that of Mat 18:22, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” “Seventy” seems also to be indefinite in Exo 15:27; Num 33:9; Jdg 1:7; Jdg 12:13; 2Sa 24:15; 1Ki 5:15 : 1Ch 21:14, etc. It is absurd to count the “seventy years” of the present passage, as some do, from the accession of Nebuchadnezzar to the death of Nabonidus, for neither did Tyro begin to be forgotten in the first year of the one prince, nor did she immediately recover herself on the death of the other. According to the days of one king; or, like the days of one king. The period, whatever its length, should be to Type “like the days of one king;” i.e. unchanging, without hope. Oriental kings prided themselves on maintaining an unaltered policy (of. 2Ki 25:27; Isa 14:17). Shall Tyre sing as an harlot; literally, it shall be to Tyre as [in] the song of the harlot. A particular song seems to be meant, part of which the prophet proceeds to quote in the next verse.

Isa 23:16

Take an harp. Harlots in the East, and indeed in the West also in ancient times (Her; ‘Epist.,’ 1.14, 1. 25), were expected to be musicians. The harp and the guitar were their usual instruments. Forgotten harlot. In addressing. Tyro as a “harlot,” the prophet does not seem to mean more than that her aims were, or at any rate had been, selfish and worldly, such as sever between man and God. She had pursued wealth for the enjoyments that it brought her, not in order to make a good use of it. Hers had been the covetousness which is “idolatry” (Col 3:5).

Isa 23:17

The Lord will visit Tyre. In mercy, not in judgment (cf. Jer 27:22; Jer 29:10). She shall turn to her hire; i.e. “to her commerce,” to her former mode of life. But with the difference noted in Isa 23:18.

Isa 23:18

Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. There is nothing intrinsically wrong or debasing in commerce. Rightly pursued, and engaged in with the view of devoting the profits made in it to good and pious ends, the commercial life may be as religious, and as acceptable to God as any other. The world has known many merchants who were Christians, in the highest sense of the word. Solomon in his best days was a merchant (1Ki 9:27, 1Ki 9:28; 1Ki 10:22), but one who employed the wealth which he derived from commerce to the honor and glory of God. It shall not be treasured nor laid up. The merchants shall not lay it up in their own coffers, but expend it wisely and religiously. It shall be for them that dwell before the Lord; i.e. it shall be applied to religious usesto the sustentation of ministers, the relief of the poor and necessitous among God’s people, and other similar purposes. Such an employment of the gains made sanctifies commerce, and makes it a good and a blessed thing.

HOMILETICS

Isa 23:9

The fall of Tyre a warning against pride in the glories of civilization and art.

In destroying Tyre, God, we are told, “purposed to stain the pride of all glory.” The word translated “glory” also signifies “beauty” (2Sa 1:19; Isa 4:2; Eze 7:20); and the “glory” for which Tyro was renowned consisted, not in military reputation or governmental ability, but in wealth, commerce, and the production of beautiful objects, as garments, bowls, metal castings, and ether works of art. It was on the perfection to which she had brought the arts which aim at embodying the beautiful, that Tyre especially prided herself. Her boast was, “I am of perfect beauty” (Eze 27:3). By her fate we are taught

I. THAT THE CULT OF THE BEAUTIFUL HAS ITS ESPECIAL DANGERS TO OUR MORAL NATURE. Artistic work seems to emanate so entirely from a man himself, to be so purely his own absolute creation, that it naturally raises in him an admiration of himself and an exalted conception of his own powers. How shall he not be proud of faculties that enable him to produce works which send a thrill of delight through crowds, and are recognized as possessions for all time! Again, the beautiful is so charming, so attractive, that it is apt to seem sufficient for a man, and so to absorb all his attention, and shut out all thought of higher and nobler things. In our own time the cult is actually preached as a sufficient religion, and men are asked what more they can possibly desire than to feast the eye perpetually on beautiful objectsbeautiful buildings, beautiful furniture, beautiful clothes, pictures, statues, statuettes, harmonious colors, delicate textures, soft and subdued light, graceful forms, pleasing contrasts. A weak and effeminate race is produced by such a training; the robuster virtues are uncared for; men become lapped in a luxurious sensualism, and need a warning voice, like that of the prophet, to wake them from their delightful dream to life’s stern realities.

II. THAT THE EXCLUSIVE CULT OF THE BEAUTIFUL PROVOKES GOD‘S ANGER AND JEALOUSY. Type is not accused of crimes. She is not a “bloody city,” like Nineveh (Nab. Isa 3:1); she is not “full of lies and robbery.” Her punishment does not come upon her “because of the violence” that is in her, nor for extreme arrogancy, nor for hypocrisy. Her sin seems to be in her luxury, in her softness, in her “perfect beauty” (Eze 27:11). She is rich, she is comely, she has things of beauty all about her, and she is content. She wants no more. The beautiful and the enjoyable satisfy her. But God is angered thereby. He will not have even the beautiful, though it is a shadow of himself, shut him out from the first place in men’s thoughts. He will vindicate his own honor. He will suffer no rival near his throne. If men are so wrapt up in anything as to forget him, he will remind them of himself by some terrible judgment, which can be ascribed to none but him (Isa 3:8-11).

Isa 23:17, Isa 23:18

The pursuit of wealth culpable or praiseworthy according to the object had in view.

To seek gain for gain’s sake, either for the mere purpose of hoarding and accumulating, and so having the satisfaction of feeling that one is rich (Her; ‘Sat.,’ 1.1, 11. 66, 67), or to expend it on one’s self in luxuries and enjoyments of various kinds, though perhaps beneficial to the community whereto a man belong, is injurious to his own moral character, and an offence to God. Covetousness, the apostle assures us (Col 3:5), is idolatry, and so is selfishness of every kind. Those who have their heart set on any other end except pleasing God, are idolaters, whatever the end may be. They let something, which is not God, absorb their thoughts, occupy their minds, engage their affections. They gradually and silently, perhaps even unconsciously, lose the sense of God’s presence, of his providence, at last of his very existence. They become practical atheists. On the other hand, to seek. gain for the purpose of making a right use of it, to spend it in the service of God, either directly in church-building and endowing, or indirectly in ameliorating the condition of mankind at large or of any special class of men, is elevating to the moral character and pleasing in God’s sight. Any occupation not in itself wrong is rendered honorable, and in a certain sense sanctified, by being pursued in this spirit. Better to be a “publican,” like Zacchaeus, however discreditable the calling in the sight of man, if one-half of the gains made be devoted to feeding the poor, than to follow the most elevated calling and appropriate all the proceeds to one’s self. “Gain” becomes “godliness” when the great wealth, which is the result of high qualities wisely employed, and blessed by God in such employment, is made an offering to him, in the person of his Church or of his poor.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 23:1-18

The fall of Tyre.

I. THE ANCIENT FAME OF TYRO. Consecrated to Melkarth, the principal god of the city, the temple on the island, the supposed site of the ancient city, is said by Arrian to have been the most ancient within the memory of man. Ezekiel speaks of Tyre as “in the midst of the seas” (Eze 27:25, Eze 27:26). The Tyrians were closely connected with the Zidonians, those famous “hewers of timber” (1Ki 5:6). And perhaps the Zidonians of Homer include the Tyrians. Besides their renown ha forest-craft, they were skilful workers in brass and copper. In Solomon’s time there was close intercourse between Hebrews and Tyrians, the former exchanging their corn and oil for the cedar-wood and precious metals of the latter (1Ki 9:11-14, 1Ki 9:20-25; 1Ki 10:22). The denunciation of the prophets against Tyre begin from the time when the Tyrians and the Phoenicians began to buy Hebrew captives and sell them-to the Greeks: “The children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their bender (Joe 3:6; cf. Amo 1:9, Amo 1:10). A great commercial people, they planted Carthage, and became possessed of Cyprus. We find one Luliya (or Elulaeus) named in Josephus (‘Ant.’ 9.14. 2) as ruling over Tyre during this prosperous period; he seems to have been, in fact, king also of Zidon and suzerain of Phoenicia. He ned before Sennacherib to Cyprus (‘Records of the Past,’ 7.61). It is in the light of such relationsPhoenicia trembling before the advance of Assyria and warned by the fate of Babyloniathat we must read the prophecy or oracle.

II. THE RUMOR OF ILL. We see in this picture the trading-ships of the Phoenicians returning from their distant colonies in. Spain on the Baetis (or Guadalquivir) Their last landing-place on the way home is Cyprus, the land of Chittim (or Citium). And here the news meets them that their harbor and their home is desolate. And a mighty howl arises from the fleet, while the dwellers on the Phoenician coast are dumb with grief. Egypt also is implicated in the fate of Tyre. In the description by Ezekiel of the wealth of Tyre, we read, “Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail” (Eze 27:7). So here the” seed of Sihor” (the Nile) is on the ocean-highway, their trade being car, led on for them by the Phoenicians. The Phoenician coast was the “barn for the corn of the Nile,” and they distributed it to the nations. And now Phoenicia is addressed through Zidon, the ancient ancestral city. The city was thought of in antiquity as femininesometimes as a daughter, sometimes as a mother. So Tyrian coins bear the legend, “Of Tyre, mother of the Zidoniaes” The rocky stronghold of the sea speaks, and complains that she is like a barren woman; for the war has robbed her of her young men and maidens. In effect she says, “I am destroyed; my wealth and resources gone, my commerce annihilated, I cease to plant cities and colonies, and to nourish and foster them by my trade.” Tyre, a daughter of the sea, is denied by her own mother. As Tyre was an outpost of Egypt against the Assyrians, she, too, is “sore pained” at the sad tidings.

III. THE LAMENTATION OVER TYRE. The prophet advises the people to migrate to their Spanish colonies; for the capital can no longer shelter them. From later times we have a picture of a scene similar to that now passing before his mind’s eye. When Alexander the Great besieged Tyre they at first laughed at the king and the mound which he built, “as if he thought to vanquish Poseidon,” god of the sea; afterwards, as it grew surprisingly, they sent their children, wives, and old people to Carthage” (Died; 17:41). And the LXX. says that they fled thither on this occasion.

1. Luxury and pride ashamed. The prophet looks in vision upon a heap of ruins; it is like the corpse of a once beautiful and proud woman. Once she was the “joyous city, that dwelt carelessly” (Zep 2:15), and felt herself to be without a rival. She boasted of her antiquity. The Tyrians told Herodotus (in the fifth century B.C.) that their city had already been founded two thousand three hundred years (Zep 2:1-15 :44). Her traders, like those of Venice in the Middle Ages, had been reckoned the equals of princes and kings (Jer 25:22). But greed, arrogance, oppressive conduct towards other nations, had brought her low.

2. The judgment of God. The hand of Jehovah must be traced and felt in all this. He brings the haughty low, that the meek and despised may be raised. Beauty, which has itself associations of sacredness to the imagination, is not beautiful when it gilds and glorifies infamy. Then Jehovah desecrates it, and. brings disgrace upon the grace and honor of the merely worldly great. “Whoever is the instrument, yet the overthrow of wicked, proud, and vicious cities and nations is to be traced to the God who rules in the empires and kingdoms of the earth; and he often selects the most distinguished and important cities and men to make them examples to others, and to show the ease with which he can bring all down to the earth.” The dispersion of the people is strongly contrasted with their own belief in their rooted and immemorial origin in the soil of Phoenicia.

IV. EMANCIPATION OF THE TYRIAN COLONIES. Harshly treated, perhaps, they take the first opportunity of throwing off the yoke of the mother-city. Especially Tartessus is mentioned. She may now freely and unhindered overflow the land, even as, in the time of the inundation, Nile’s waters overspread Egypt (Amo 8:8; Amo 9:5). There is no “girdle;” perhaps no bridle in the hand of Tyre any longer to restrain her colony’s defiant independence. For all the kingdoms that border upon the sea, especially Phoenicia and Syria, have been convulsed with alarm, as Jehovah’s hand was stretched out, and the order was given to destroy the strong places of Canaan. Then, under the favorite figure of the woman, the city appears no longer an inviolate maiden, but dishonored and defiled. Cyprus will afford no refuge for the fugitives, for she will be rejoicing at deliverance from the Phoenician yoke, and will not welcome them; or the “long arm” of the Assyrian will reach them there. No power, however well founded and far-extending, can endure against the fiat of the Almighty. It might seem impossible that a city so celebrated and so powerful, so well defended and fortified, and associated with many allies and confederates, should be destroyed and overturned; but “all that appears permanent in the worm stands or falls according to the will of God, and there is no need of the instruments of war for overturning the best fortified place, but the mere expression of the will of God is enough” (Calvin). Warning from the fate of the Kasdim. We know little about this people, who are, perhaps, used to denote Babylon in general, conquered by Sargon. This land has been turned into a desert and haunt of wild beasts. The battering-engines of the Assyrians have reduced their forts to ruin. All around denotes the impending ruin to Tyro.

V. THE RESTORATION OF TYRE. At the end of “seventy years,” probably put for a long period, it appears that commerce will revive, “but only as the handmaid of religion.” This is the main truth to be dwelt on, and the obscurity of the passage must be left to the exegetes. Recurring to the city under the image of the womannow a ringing-womanthe prophet looks forward to the time when there will be the mirth of restored prosperity in the seats of Tyro. “When it begins again to make love to all the world, it will get rich again from the profit acquired by this worldly intercourse. Wealth will no longer be stored up and capitalized as formerly, but tributes and presents will be given to Israel, and thus help to sustain in abundance and clothe in stately dress the nation which dwelt before Jehovah, i.e. whose true dwelling-place was in the temple before the presence of God (Psa 27:4; Psa 84:5)” (Delitzsch). In Christian times there was a Church at Tyre, visited by St. Paul (Act 21:3, Act 21:4), and so its trade was connected with the spread of the gospel.

LESSONS.

1. God mingles compassion with his chastisements of cities, peoples, and individuals. If so towards the wicked, how much more towards the children of his adoption and love! Restoration, revivals of prosperity, are from him who, as the proverb says, “never smites with both hands.”

2. There is a selfish and corrupt and a true and generous spirit in trade. A time is contemplated when riches will be no longer absorbed by a few enormous capitalists, but be diffused for the common good. The narrow-minded in trade is the sign of the narrow heart; the best traders are those whom love to their kind has taught to unite personal interest with the general good. The accumulation of immense wealth can hardly be the object of a Christian ambition. Let us hasten, by prayer, by teaching, by example, the time when wealth shall not be treasured nor laid up

“No more shall rest in mounded heaps,
But smit with freer light shall slowly melt;
In many streams to fatten lower lands,
And light shall spread, and man be liker man
Thro’ all the season of the golden year.”

3. Commerce and Christianity should go hand-in-hand. Our sailors and our merchants should be the best pioneers of the gospel, and our missionaries the most enlightened friends of commerce and civilization. So may our

“Happy sails
Knit land to land, and blowing heavenward
With silks, and fruits, and spices, clear of toll,
Enrich the markets of the golden year.”

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 23:3

The harvest of the river.

Egypt was the first of nations, and the masts of the vessels stood hike tall river-reeds by her banks. How expressive the words are! There is life where the river comes, life along the emerald banks to which the cattle come, and on the fields where the waters overflow.

I. ALL LANDS HAVE THEIR RIVERS. Think of the Tiber, the Tigris, the Thames, the Rhone, the Rhine, the Nile, the Niger. Cities rise on their banks which are, like Tyre, populous and prosperous. The harvest is vast indeed. Ships which are freighted with necessaries and luxuries, with the works of art, the spoils of the sea, and the produce of far-away lauds, all come up the river. What wonder that the river should become a type of the blessings of the gospelthat the prophet should tell us “living waters shall flow out of Jerusalem!”

II. THE HARVESTS ARE MANIFOLD. We are so accustomed to think of the golden sheaves of the corn-fields when we mention the rivers, that we are liable to forget how indebted we are to the broad estuaries which bear on their bosom the wealth of many nations. How manifold, too, are our harvests under the gospel! Where that comes philanthropy lives, and social purity flows, and justice is sacred in its rivers of righteousness, and salvation comes, delivering us from sensuality and sin. Harvests? Surely the Christian should notice how wide and vast the gospel waters are.

III. THEIR DRYING UP IS DEATH. We cannot live without rain and rivers. Cattle perish. Verdure withers. Man himself dies. No wealth can purchase what God gives so plentifully. “Hath the rain a Father?” Oh yes. Not a mere Creator, but a Father; for it is rich in evidences of his universal care and love. God gives “the former and the latter rain,” and all through the ages the rivers flow into the sea. So God’s truth remains! The living water flows, and the voice is still heard, “He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 23:1-15

Aspects of Divine judgment.

I. ITS CERTAINTY.

1. The duration of time is no guarantee against its coming; Tyre was a “joyous city, whose antiquity was of ancient days” (Isa 23:7), but judgment would fall upon her in God’s chosen time. Both men and nations are apt to think that long continuance in comfort is a sufficient pledge that it will never be disturbed; duration begets a false sense of security. If men could only see things as they are, they would perceive that the true argument is exactly opposite to that in which they indulge; for the longer a man has been living in unvisited transgression, the longer has penalty been due, and the sooner may he confidently expect retribution to arrive.

2. Ordinary defenses are of no avail against it. The commerce and consequent wealth of Tyre (Isa 23:2, Isa 23:3), her replenishments, from Zidon, and her enrichments from Egypt would not save her; nor would the high station to which she had mounted, nor the social position of her sons; it was nothing to the righteous Lord that she was esteemed a “crowning city” (Isa 23:8), and that her merchants were princes. No defenses that we can raise will avert God’s judgment when the hour is ripe for sentence to be executed. Wealth cannot buy off retribution, nor can rank interpose its influence to avert it; science cannot teach us how to elude it; and the arm of affection is impotent to shield us from its blow. There is no barrier man can raise which is not swept down in a moment when God arises to judgment.

II. ITS FULNESS AND EFFICACY.

1. It silences. (Isa 23:2.) It brings the curses, the clamors, the revilings, the slanderous accusations, the shameful innuendoes of ungodliness and of malignity to a disgraceful end. “God strikes a silence through them all.”

2. It scatters, it dissolves. (Isa 23:6, Isa 23:7, Isa 23:10.) It sends the children of iniquity, of vice, of crime, to “the four corners of the earth;” it disperses them over sea and land. The bands of sin are broken up, and its guilty members are scattered far and wide.

3. It humiliates. (Isa 23:12.) The virgin-daughter of Zidon should be humbled; God’s judgments bring to the dust of humiliation those who have held their head high and treated others with indignity.

4. It pursues. (Isa 23:12.) “There also shalt thou have no rest.” The penalty of a man’s sin finds him out whithersoever he may go to escape it. Jonah “flees from the presence of the Lord;” but whither shall a man flee from his presence, or from the blow of his chastisements? No change of, skies, of scenes, of society, of occupations, will shut out accusing recollections from the soul, or shield from the uncompleted corrections of the Divine hand. The serious and repeated violation of the “greater commandments” of God is attended with penalties which pursue the soul from place to place, and from period to period, in all the journey of our life.

5. It incapacitates. (Verse 4.) Tyre should lose her power to found colonies and to sustain cities; she would be reduced to helplessness and incapacity. This is the fate of those whom God’s judgment overtakes. What they once did with pride and joy they can do no longer, though they put forth all their remaining powers; there is “no strength in their right hand.” The energies of the mind, the vigor of the soul, the craft of the hand,all is gone.

III. ITS REMOTE EFFECTS. When Tyre fell, the ships of Tarshish would have occasion to lament (verses 1, 14), Zidon would have to be ashamed of her daughter (verse 4), and Egypt would be sorely pained (verse 5). Far across sea and land, and a long way down the coming and departing years, reach the sad consequences of guilt. The wisest moralist cannot point to the place where these will not be found, nor the cleverest calculator tell the time when these will not he felt.

IV. ITS DIVINE MEANING. “The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory,” etc. (verse 9). God sends punishment because it is due; because, in the exercise of his righteousness, sin must be marked with the signs of his deep displeasure; but he sends such penalties as he does send in order to compel his subjects to see and to feel that the glory of man can be scattered in a moment, and that over all his magnificence the shadow of death will be thrown whensoever the hand of Divine judgment is uplifted. God’s visitations are man’s opportunities; then may he learn and feelas otherwise he never wouldthat his only wisdom is in instant abandonment of every evil way, and immediate return, in penitence and faith, to a forgiving and restoring Savior.C.

Isa 23:18

Gain and devotion.

We are reminded that

I. WE CANNOT DEVOTE TO GOD‘S SERVICE ANYTHING WE HAVE NOT HONORABLY GAINED. It may be said that the text, taken with its context (see Isa 23:17), does not sustain this thought; that, indeed, it points in the opposite direction. But in addition to such explicit prohibitions as that in Deu 23:18, we have the whole strain and spirit of the Law of God. It is the glory of that Law that it so states, establishes, guards, enforces, emphasizes, the purity of the Divine Lawgiver that if any solitary passage like this one seems to sanction that which is inconsistent with it, we are quite sure that, either in its rendering or in our interpretation of it, there must be a mistake. Everything was done that could be done to separate the people of God from the impurities and iniquities into which other nations had fallen, and into the sanction of which they had pressed even their religious rites. We may be uncertain about many things in Scripture, but we are quite sure of this, that no smallest countenance is meant to be given in any single part of it to the devotion of ill-earned gain to the service of the holy God (see Act 19:18, Act 19:19). Not only such “hire” as seems to be hinted at here, bat all revenue that is obtained by unworthy, unprincipled, unconscientious means must be wholly unfit for an offering on the altar of God.

II. THAT WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO WITHHOLD FROM GOD‘S SERVICE THE RESOURCES WE CAN CONTROL. They are not to be “treasured or laid up.” To keep them back for use at some future time, to hold them in reserve for some possible emergency, is:

1. Disobedient. God plainly and repeatedly requires of us that we should put out our “talents” in his service and in that of our fellow-men; and all the resources we may have at our disposal of every kind are talents committed to our charge.

2. Distrustful. It indicates a lack of faith in the readiness of God to provide for our returning wants, and to meet our necessities as they arise.

3. Selfish and unsympathizing. It is the action of one who has no heart to feel the strong and pressing claims of ignorance, sorrow, and degradation on our pity and our help.

4. Wasteful.

III. THAT WE SHOULD DEVOTE SOME GOOD PART OF OUR SUBSTANCE TO THE MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. “For them that dwell before the Lord,” etc.

1. All our possessions are to be gained, held, and used religiously; they are to be “holiness to the Lord.”

2. Much of what we have at our disposal should be spent in the furtherance of philanthropy: in the cause of education; in the restoration of the sick and suffering; in the reclamation of the fallen; in the help and rehabilitation of the unfortunate, etc.

3. Some of our “means” we should apply specially to the maintenance of Christian worship and of the Christian ministry. It is, indeed, possible to give handsomely toward the erection of sacred structures, and, in so doing, to be ministering to our own importance; men may be magnifying themselves when they propose and pretend to be honoring God. But, on the other hand, we render true, acceptable, and lasting service when we give freelyand in such a way as to encourage similar generosity in otherstowards the worship of God, towards the publication of redeeming truth at home or abroad, towards the support of those who employ all their time and expend all their strength in the noble work of saving men and training them for the kingdom of heaven.C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 23:1

The mission of Tyre, the commercial.

This is the aspect under which Tyre is best known and remembered. Dean Stanley gives a brief but characteristically suggestive description of it. “The massive remains of the ancient walls of Arvad, nearly surrounding the island of the modern Ruad, give some notion of the defenses of Tyre. The limited size of the island led, both in Tyre and Arvad, to arrangements which must have rendered them a striking exception to most Oriental and to most ancient cities. For the sake of economizing the narrow space, the houses of both were built up, fearless of earthquakes, to the height of many stories, recalling, says Strabo, the aspect of the gigantic mansions of the Augustan Rome. With this lofty mass of edifices towering on its sea-girt rock, Tyre might well be thought a fit type of the ancient queen of commerce; and the prophet naturally spoke of her as a floating palace, as a ship moored by the long strand,’ in the midst of the seas,’ with her ‘masts of cedar,’ her ‘sails of fine linen, blue and purple,’ her ‘mariners, rowers, and pilots.'” The practical point to keep in view is that commercial nations are always in peril of getting to merely use other nations, and so to neglect their responsibilities to them. To this danger commercial England is now exposed. Very much of the talk of the day goes on the assumption that the whole world was made for the sake of England. We are being constantly reminded of our individuality, and of the precise mission of the individual; we may be profitably reminded that there is an individuality of nations, and that each nation has its separate mission and responsibility. Dr. Arnold illustrates this when he says, “There are three peoples of God’s electionRome, Athens, and Jerusalem; two for things temporal, and one for things eternal. Yet even in things eternal they were allowed to minister. Greek cultivation and Roman polity prepared men for Christianity.” “God appears to have communicated all religious knowledge to mankind through the Jewish people, and all intellectual civilization through the Greeks.” As a distinctively commercial city, we may observe

I. THE MISSION OF TYRE IN CIVILIZATION. The refinement of human society comes about by the operation of the laws of association and emulation, just as does the refinement of the individual and the family. It is by seeing the things others possess, and the ways others take, that we are incited to personal, family, and social improvements. Families that shut themselves up from society keep their boorish manners. Nations isolated by natural situation civilize very slowly. Exactly what happens to the young men through Continental travel happens to a nation when it reaches out to other lands the hand of commerce. In neither case is the result wholly good, but a large share of goodness is in it, because intellectual growth and moral advancement always go along with the material advantages of civilization.

II. THE MISSION OF TYRE IN THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE RACE. The scattering of the nations over the earth; the development of special race-types; the separations made by antagonistic interests and aggrandizing individuals, all tend to the destruction of the sense of mutual brotherhood. And just this commercial nations revive, by bringing plainly to view how the prosperity of one nation depends on the prosperity of another, and how the well-being of the whole race-family can alone be secured by universal freedom, peace, and kindly helpfulness. Tennyson reminds of this in the lines

“Knit land to land, and blowing heavenward
Enrich the markets of the golden year.”

III. ITS MISSION IN THE DEMAND OF HUMANITY FOR WORK. It is singular that man’s idea of bliss should have become “idleness.” The end set before a man in this life is that he shall no longer have need for work. Yet work is man’s goodthe Divine idea in his creation; the Divine agency for his culture; and the inexpressibly sad thing to say about any man, here or yonder, is that he does not work. And commerce, by constantly creating new demands and enriching our stores of raw material, makes work. All hindrances to commerce, such as taxation and war, injure the nations by putting limitations on work. Universal peace would mean a healthy activity throughout the world. Every man using his ability in the service of his fellow, and getting, as his return, the service of his fellow to him. But there are evils attending the spread of commerce. Especially such as follow the undue share of wealth possessed by individuals. Shelley speaks of it thus

“Commerce has set the mark of selfishness,
The signet of its all-enslaving power,
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold;
Before whose image bow the vulgar great,
The vainly rich, the miserable proud,
The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings,
And with blind feelings reverence the power
That grinds them to the dust of misery.”

To this also must be added the tendency of commerce to create selfish intereststo destroy the idea and sentiment of personal and national honor, which seeks its vindications in war, and to encourage the notion that we are to use other people rather than to serve them, service being the supreme idea of Christ’s regenerate humanity: “I am among you as he that serveth.” “The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”R.T.

Isa 23:2

The dependence of one nation upon another.

Tyre was, according to some authorities, a colony of Zidon. And the figure in the text sets forth a corporate body, each part dependent on the other. Insular Tyre directly dependent on the mainland, and both closely related to Zidon. And yet further, the Egyptians had in their country no timber for the building of seaworthy ships, so their foreign trade was carried on for them by the Phoenicians. Some of the European nations now are pressing to secure seaports, in order to relieve their sense of dependence on others. Insular England does the carrying trade for the world, so all nations depend on her, and she in turn depends on the trading of the nations. In the pottery districts we were told that the white clay, of which biscuit china is made, is brought all the way from Cornwall, because it can be more easily carried than the heavier clay, and the coal, which are needed for the firing process. So even Staffordshire depends on Cornwall, and Cornwall on Staffordshire. Some countries send us corn, some sugar, some spice, some cotton, some fruit. Countries vary in their genius. Rome finds law for the world, Greece finds art, and Palestine finds religion. For its highest well-being no one nation can separate itself from the others. It lives and thrives by its very dependence. We only note

I. THAT THIS MUTUAL DEPENDENCE TENDS TO CHECK THE WAR–SPIRIT. The people of the nations never want war. They may be roused to a fever-heat of passion, and so be driven into war; but the long experience of the ages proves that, whoever gets good out of war, the people always suffer. Classes of society want war; but only for the maintenance of selfish interests. The evil of war is seen in its shutting the markets of the world. Such is England’s dependence on foreign corn, and so nearly does it consume its stores in the face of the new harvest, that six months’ war would threaten famine. All classes, except those who trade in war and war material, pray and strive for universal peace. Man’s true interests support the Christian principles.

II. THAT THIS MUTUAL DEPENDENCE ENRICHES ALL SECTIONS. God has ordered his world so that nobody shall be “sufficient to himself.” And the more a man seems to have, the more dependent he becomes, because of the increase of his wants. The most independent man is the ignorant laborer, who can lie anywhere and eat anything; the least independent, the wealthy man who has encouraged ten thousand needless wants and luxuries. God puts the abundance of one thing in one land, and of another thing in another. And the exchange of commodities enriches all. The world is one body, “and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.” The interest of one nation is the interest of all. God is the God and Father of all.R.T.

Isa 23:9

God’s constant work of humbling pride.

“Jehovah Sabaoth hath devised it, to desecrate the pride of all glory.” It is possible that reference may be intended to the desecration of the Tyrian temple of Hercules, which is said to have been the oldest in the world. But the reference may be general, and any actual case would but illustrate the general truth. “God did not bring these calamities upon Tyre in a way of sovereignty, to show an arbitrary and irresistible power; but he did it to punish the Tyrians for their pride. Many other sins, no doubt, reigned among themidolatry, sensuality, and oppression; but the sin of pride is fastened upon as that which was the particular ground of God’s controversy with Tyre, for he resists the proud. Let the ruin of Tyre be a warning to all places and persons to take heed of pride; for it proclaims to all the world that he who exalts himself shall be abased.” Thomson, in ‘The Land and the Book,’ forcibly describes the present condition of humbled, ruined Tyre: “It (an insignificant village) is all that remains of her. But weep not for Tyre; this very silence and repose are most eloquent and emphatic on themes of the last importance to the Christian faith. There is nothing here of that which led Joshua to call it ‘the strong city’ more than three thousand years ago (Jos 19:29); nothing of that mighty metropolis which baffled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and all his power for thirteen years, until every head in his army was bald, and every shoulder peeled in the hard service against Tyrus (Eze 29:18); nothing in this wretched roadstead and. empty markets to remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing in her markets; no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so long resisted the efforts of the great Alexander;all have vanished like a troubled dream. As she now is and has long been, Tyre is God’s witness; but great, powerful, and populous, she would be the infidel’s boast.” The point to be illustrated is that God will be sure to deal with individuals and with nations, for the humbling and crushing of pride. He will do so because

I. PRIDE INVOLVES PERIL TO A MAN‘S OWN CHARACTER. There can be no healthy growth where it is present. The passive virtues, which are so specially commended in Christianity, cannot dwell with pride, which is so closely allied with satisfaction in self and the despising of others. Pride is a worm at the loot of the tree of character.

II. PRIDE DESTROYS THE COMFORTABLENESS OF A MAN‘S RELATIONS WITH HIS FELLOW–MEN. The proud man tries to keep away from his fellows. And his fellows are glad enough to keep away from him. It is inconceivably miserable for a “man to be placed alone in the midst of the earth.”

III. PRIDE SPOILS A MAN‘S RELATIONS WITH GOD. They are founded on the proper humility of the submissive and dependent creature. For man the universal law is, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,” or else you certainly must, as Tyre, be humbled.R.T.

Isa 23:12

No escape from God’s judgments.

“There also shalt thou have no rest.” Either the colonists would not receive them, or their enemies would still pursue after them, seeking them out even where they had found shelter. Reference is intended to those calamities which befell the Tyrians in their subsequent settlementsCyprus, Sicily, Carthage, and Spain. Cheyne illustrates the expression by showing that “the long arm of Assyria reached them even in Cyprus, where Lull, King of Zidon, had already sought refuge.” The importance of Cyprus as a naval station was recognized by the Babylonians fifteen or sixteen centuries before Christ. The inscription of Sargon, King of Agane, relates how “the sea of the setting sun he crossed,” and in the third year conquered a land which can hardly be any other than Cyprus. Cyprus was also conquered by the Assyrian Sargon. God’s judgments never exhaust themselves in acts which fail to accomplish the desired ends of humbling men’s pride and correcting men’s faults. They go on until their purpose is reached. The point to be illustrated here is that God’s judgments cannot be escaped by any fleeing from the place where God’s judgments are resting. The judgment was on the Tyrians, and it affected Tyre only for their sakes. So to escape from Tyre could not result in getting away from the afflicting and humbling hand of God. This may be efficiently illustrated from the story of Jonah, who hurried from the upland districts of Palestine to take ship at Joppa, flee across the great sea, and get away from the presence of the Lord. He could not. God holdeth “the winds in his fists, and the waters in the hollow of his hand,” and can send these to execute his judgments. And still it is a fixed idea of men, out of which they need to be driven, that they can get free of their disabilities, and of Divine judgment as correction of sin, by changing their circumstances, or going from one place to another. Never. God deals with theft, and only in a secondary sense with their circumstances. As long as we sin we come into the Divine judgment. If we suffer, and yet the evil is not cured, the Divine judgments must continue. “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” And sometimes the freedom we have sought by changing our place is changed to an even more humiliating form of chastisement, as the Tyrians endured worse things in their escape than if they had remained at home. However we flee from troubles, we can never flee from ourselves, and never rice from God.R.T.

Isa 23:18

Commerce the handmaid of religion.

“Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness unto the Lord.” This appears to be a prediction of the conversion of the Tyrians to the worship and service of the true God. “Instead of hoarding up their gains, or devoting them as presents to the temple of Hercules, as they had formerly done, they would now consecrate them to the support of true religion, “In the line of fulfillment we may note that Jesus Christ visited the neighborhood (Mat 15:21); St. Paul found disciples there (Act 21:3-6); and it early became a Christian bishopric. The prophecy would be accomplished if the Christians of Tyre sent girls to Jerusalem; as such gifts would be regarded as representative of the “merchandise.” Dean Plumptre says, “Interpreted religiously, the prophet sees the admission of proselytes to the worship of Israel in the future, as he had seen it probably in the days of Hezekiah (Psa 87:4). Interpreted politically, the words point to a return to the old alliance between Judah and Tyre in the days of Solomon (1Ki 5:1-12), and to the gifts which that alliance involved (Psa 45:12).” The Tyrians and Zidonians contributed to the erection of the second temple (Ezr 3:7). Commerce. as having regard to purely worldly interests, is called “harlotry.” “Large marts of commerce are often compared to harlots seeking many lovers, that is, they court merchants, and admit any one for the sake of gain.” Commerce is the handmaid of religion when she is

I. THE AGENT FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. In the sense of uprightness and fairness between man and man. Religion is the chief support of practical rightness, truth to word and promise, fair taking of samples, honest wages, reasonable profits, and doing the best for those who buy of us and those who sell to us. But religion is glad of the help of all good business principles, and all good business customs. Religion is strengthened by the sense of honor that is found in commercial men. Honest commerce helps on the work which religion would do in the world.

II. THE AGENT FOR CHARITY. In the sense of gentle consideration for others, and helpfulness to all who are in distress. The tendency of commerce is towards selfishness, but when touched by the spirit of religion it is sensitive to the needs of the poor, who are always multiplied by advancing civilization. Religion inspires workers among the poor and suffering and disabled. Commerce is noble when, acting as handmaid to religion, it supports the workers with its wealth, helping the hungry and the outcast to “sufficiency for eating, and to durable clothing.”R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 23:1. The burden of Tyre There can be no wonder that the prophet, foretelling the judgments of the different nations concerned with the Jews, should dwell upon that of Tyre. In this chapter, which contains the 8th and last discourse of the second book of his prophesies, Isaiah paints, in a most lively manner, the calamity which should happen to Tyre, in a discourse consisting of various apostrophes, directed either to the Tyrians themselves or to the inhabitants of Gades in Farther Spain, or to the islands of the Mediterranean sea; and also to the Sidonians and Egyptians, who, together with the insular inhabitants of Greece and Italy, should both admire and bewail the overthrow of Tyre. In the prosecution hereof he compares this calamity of the Tyrians to their abundance, riches, luxury, and most flourishing state, which drew upon them at that time the eyes of all nations, thus greatly exaggerating their calamity. Soon after he sets forth the causes of this strange event; the Supreme One, the God of Israel, against whom their Hercules was unable to defend the Tyrians; and the instrumental causes, the Chaldeans, who, though at that time they had no empire in the world, were yet to he called forth by the Supreme God to execute his judgments. See Isa 23:13. But as God, according to his exquisite goodness to mankind, usually tempers his justice and severity with clemency and with grace, and had accordingly determined to call in his good time the Gentiles to the participation of all the blessings of the Gospel, the prophet teaches that this first calamity of the Tyrians should be concluded in 70 years, after which time their nation should flourish in its former manner; and, what seemed beyond all expectation, the Tyrians should receive the kingdom of God, should consecrate their wealth to him, and become converts to the true religion. This is the sum of the present illustrious prophesy; the scene whereof is to be fixed at that time when the Chaldeans, under Nebuchadnezzar, besieged Tyre, which is presented as so besieged in vision to the eyes of the prophet, in all its pomp and glory. The prophesy, besides the inscription, contains two parts; first, the judicial sentence of God upon Tyre, Isa 23:1-14 and secondly, the alleviation of that sentence, Isa 23:15-18. The sentence is again two-fold; the first part sets forth the judgment of Tyre, Isa 23:1-7 the other the causes of that judgment. The former part declares the judgment or calamity of Tyre figuratively, by apostrophes; the first of which is directed to the Tyrian mariners, Isa 23:1.; the second to those insolent people with whom the Tyrians traded, or to the Tyrian merchants and traders, Isa 23:2. 3.; the third to Sidon, Isa 23:4-5.; the fourth to Tyre itself, Isa 23:6-7. The latter part of the first section, which sets forth the causes of the judgment, declares the principal cause to be the God of Israel (as the punisher of sin, the origin of all evil). Jehovah, therefore, had determined this calamity upon Tyre; and the prophet denounces it, with a new apostrophe, to the Tyrians, Isa 23:8-12. The instrumental causes he declares to be the Chaldeans; with a last apostrophe, to the Tyrian sailors, Isa 23:13-14. The latter section, which contains the alleviation of the divine judgment, plainly manifests that this calamity of Tyre should be concluded within 70 years, after which it should flourish again; Isa 23:15-17 and reveals the gracious design of God to call the Tyrians to the communion of his visible church, Isa 23:18. It has been questioned, which of the Tyres was the subject of the prophesies of Isaiah and Ezekiel. The truest and best answer is, that they pertain to both; some expressions being applicable only to the former, and others only to the latter. But it should be observed, that both Tyres are comprehended under the same name, and both spoken of as one city; part being built on the continent, and part on an island adjoining. Tarshish was Tartessus in Spain; Chittim signifies the isles and countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. The plain meaning of this apostrophe, directed to the ships, that is to say, to the mariners of Tarshish, whose gain proceeded principally from Tyre, is, “Lament and deplore the mournful fall of this city, which you shall hear of while you are trafficking in the most distant ports of the Mediterranean sea.” Instead of, so that there is no house, no entering-in, Vitringa reads, both within and without. See Bishop Newton, Vitringa, and, for more concerning Tyre, the Univ. Hist. vol. 2: p 322.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

IV. PROPHECY AGAINST TYPE

Isaiah 23

All the nations hitherto mentioned, bordering on Judah, come under the power of Assyria. But Tyre, according to verse 13, is to fall a prey to the Chaldans. This prophecy is placed last on account of its fulfilment belonging to a time subsequent to the supremacy of Assyria. Tyre was not only the head of the minor Phnician states, but was also the mistress of the sea, both for commerce and war; and for these two reasons was the most important ally of Egypt. He who would attack Egypt from the north must first seek to possess himself of Tyre, which was the bulwark of Egypt. Assyria had long an eye on Egypt. They were, in fact, natural rivals. Shalmaneser, rightly perceiving the importance which Tyre had for his plans against Egypt, made himself master of Phnicia, with exception of insular Tyre, which he blockaded for five years, and sought, by cutting off its supply of water, to force to surrender. Whether he succeeded in this attempt cannot be definitely ascertained. In any case Tyre suffered no great loss. Our prophecy must have had its rise at this time. For further particulars see below in remarks on Isa 33:15-18. Rationalistic interpreters place this alternative before us in regard to the genuineness of the prophecy. Either the prophecy refers to a conquest of Tyre by the Assyriansin that case it is genuine; or it is intended to announce a conquest by the Chaldaeansin that case it is spurious. It is admitted that it bears the marks of having Isaiah for its author. But it is judged impossible for Isaiah to have announced the Chaldans as the conquerors of Tyre. I believe it would be more scientific not to regard this as impossible, but to treat it as a problem. Even Knobel defends the authenticity of the prophecy against the shallow objections drawn from language and history by Hitzig and Movers (Tbingen Quarterly Journal III. p. 506 sqq.). Movers afterwards modified his view so as to allow chapter 23. to be genuine, but revised and altered by Jeremiah (Phoen. II. 1, p. 396, Note). Knobel defends also its integrity against Eichhorn, Ewald and Meier. The Isa 23:15-18 stand and fall with the expression the land of the Chaldans, Isa 23:13. The piece consists of two parts, of which the first (Isa 23:1-14) has for its subject the fall of Tyre, the second (vers.1518) Tyres restoration.

____________________

a) The fall of Tyre

Isa 23:1-14

1The 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 Chittim it is revealed to them.

2Be 1still, ye inhabitants of the isle;

Thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea,
Have replenished.

3And by great waters the seed of Sihor,

The harvest of the river, is her revenue;

And 2she is a mart of nations.

4Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath spoken,

Even the strength of the sea, saying,

3I travail not, nor bring forth children,

Neither do I nourish up young men,

Nor bring up young virgins.

54As at the report concerning Egypt,

So shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

6Pass ye over to Tarshish;

Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

75Is this your joyous city,

Whose antiquity is of ancient days?

6Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

8Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, 7the crowning city;

Whose merchants are princes,

Whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

9The Lord of hosts hath purposed it,

To 8stain the pride of all glory,

And to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

10Pass through thy land as a river,

O daughter of Tarshish:

There is no more 9strength.

11He stretched out his hand over the sea;

He shook the kingdoms.
The Lord hath given a commandment 10against 11the merchant city

To destroy the 12Strongholds thereof.

12And he said,

Thou shalt no more rejoice,
O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon;
Arise, pass over to Chittim,
There also shalt thou have no rest.

13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans;

This people was not:

13Till the Assyrian founded it

For them that dwell in the wilderness:
They set up the towers thereof;
They raised up the palaces thereof;

And he brought it to ruin.

14Howl, ye ships of Tarshish;

For your strength is laid waste.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 23:1. which is first found in Joel (Isa 1:5; Isa 1:11; Isa 1:13), occurs besides in Isaiah only in the first prophecy against Babylon (Isa 13:6 here evidently borrowed from Joel) and in the form in the Massa against the Philistines (Isa 14:31).

Isa 23:3. never means emporium, mart, which it must signify if should be referred to . The form can denote only what is traded, or gain resulting from merchandise (Isa 45:14 and Pro 3:14). It is identical in meaning with , Isa 23:18; Pro 3:14; Pro 31:18. [ is obviously the construct state, and is referred by Ewald to , by Gesenius to an assumed form .D. M.].

Isa 23:4. and as Isa 1:2. [Delitzsch pertinently asks, Who does not in these words hear Isaiah speak?D. M.].

Isa 23:5. before marks coincidence, is the accusative of time.

Isa 23:7. (comp. Isa 22:2) involves perhaps an allusion to the Phnician female name Elissa. (=) is to lead, to bring. afar (comp. on Isa 22:3).

Isa 23:11. is treated by some, e.g., Olshausen, as an anomaly; by others it is supposed capable of explanation. We must agree with those who regard it as an anomalous form which has arisen by some oversight.

Isa 23:13. , Keri from explorare is the specula, turris exploratoria. The word occurs only here. Pilel from (= nudum esse, Isa 22:6, Hab 3:9) nudare, to make naked, i.e., to uncover by overturning. The conjugation Pilel only here, Pilpel Jer 51:58. besides only Isa 25:2. Comp. Isa 17:1.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet in the first place calls upon the Tyrian mariners sojourning in Tarshish far from their home, to break forth into loud lamentation. as the tidings have come to them across the land of Chittim that their home is destroyed, and a return thither is no longer possible (Isa 23:1). Then in a brief word stillness, eternal silence is enjoined on insular Tyre, that had been hitherto the noisy centre of the Phnician commerce, the great negotiator between Egypt with its abundance of products and the other nations (verses 2 and 3). Then Zidon is reminded of the shame it will feel, when, on coming to the site of Tyre, it will find no children there, but only the dead rock and unfruitful sea (verse 4). Egypt, too, learns the report, and is affrighted (Isa 23:5). Nothing remains for Tyre but to flee to Tarshish, as its ships can no more return to Tyre (Isa 23:6). Next, the Prophet makes a comparison between what Tyre was and what it is. The terrible blow falls on a joyous city having a wide dominion from ancient time (Isa 23:7). But from whom does this whole purpose respecting Tyre proceed? From Jehovah who humbles all pride (Isa 23:8-9), who liberates the nations hitherto oppressed by Tyre (Isa 23:10), who rules over sea and nations, in order to exercise judgment on the haughty Phnicians, who now must flee into distant countries, to find even there no rest (Isa 23:11-12). But what people will be the instrument in Jehovahs hand to execute this judgment? It will be the people of the Chaldaeans, hitherto not a nation, but who will one day make Assyria a habitation for the beasts of the desert. This people sets up its siege apparatus against Tyre, throws down the high buildings, and reduces the city to ruins (Isa 23:13). With the cry, Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste, the discourse closes as it began (Isa 23:14).

2. The burden of Tyrerevealed to them.

Isa 23:1. Attention has properly been called to the fact that the first Massa (xiii.) was directed against Babylon, the greatest worldly power possessing supreme dominion on the land, the rich and luxurious consumer of all precious productions of the earth; and that, on the other hand, the last Massa has for its subject the first power on the sea, the centre of the worlds commerce, the great purveyor of all things that are costly, or that minister to enjoyment. Here too we can add that the worldly power first threatened with a Massa, is according to Isa 23:13 to execute the judgment on the one last threatened. The ships of Tarshish (comp. on Isa 2:16) are addressed by metonymy instead of the mariners sailing in them. The form of expression is singularly brief and concise. They are to howl , i.e. that it has been laid waste, that a destruction, a devastation has taken place (Isa 15:1), and such a one as excludes the mariners from their house and home, and from a return home ( the opposite of , e.g., in designating the setting of the sun). has a negative signification, and the force of an ecbatic conjunction, marking the result. That the destruction which renders it impossible for the Tyrian mariners to return home is the destruction of Tyre itself, is self-evident. The Prophet is too sparing of his words to say that. This sad news has come from the land of the Chittim to the Tyrian mariners far away from their home. The report reached Chittim first, and thence was carried to Tarshish. They do not learn the news in Chittim, but it comes from it; for the text is from the land, not in the land. The name Chittim is found in Citium, , , , the name of a considerable port in the island of Cyprus. The Chittim are then, in the first place, the inhabitants of the island of Cyprus. In a wider signification, however, the word denotes the islands and maritime countries of the Mediterranean Sea in general (Isa 23:12; Gen 10:4; Jer 2:10; Eze 27:6; Dan 11:30), comp. on Jer 2:10. (comp. Isa 22:14; Isa 38:12; Isa 40:5; Isa 53:1) intimates that the report received from the land of the Chittim was a sure one. Therefore they are summoned to howl.

3. Be stillof the nations.

Isa 23:2-3. The Prophet passes from the extreme west to the extreme east of the Mediterranean Sea. He calls now to the Tyrians themselves; , i.e. be silent, be still (the word only here in Isaiah). He means evidently dumb, speechless amazement (comp. Exo 15:16). is terra maritima, including not only an island but also continental territory having a sea coast (comp. on Isa 11:11; Isa 20:6). Old Tyre was on the mainland and possessed no harbor. Insular Tyre lay 30 stadia north of Palae-Tyrus, and 3 stadia from the mainland. It had excellent harbors, the best on the whole coast of Palestine (Movers,Phoen. II., I., p. 176). As according to the latter part of Isa 23:2, only that Tyre can here be meant which the merchants that pass over the sea filled, we must understand insular Tyre under . The word is masculine, but is here treated as feminine, as the feminine suffix in refers to . The merchants of Zidon (which was an older city, comp. Justin Isa 18:3) filled Tyrus, says the Prophet. Zidon was itself a seaport town, but the port of Tyre was better. The Zidonians had in the 13th century, B. C., laid out a port and city on the rocky islands of Tyre (comp. Movers,Phoen. II., 313; Justin Isa 18:3; Isa 18:5). Hiram completed this plan by building the suburb Eurychoros on the east side of the smaller island, and the new city on this smaller island; and at the same time he connected the new city with the western or old city, which was on the larger island. It is readily conceivable that beside the Tyrians, chiefly Zidonian merchants and mariners filled the port and city of insular Tyre. How could old Egypt, a neighboring country, excelling as it once did, all the nations of the East in agriculture and industry, avoid coming into the liveliest intercourse with the great commercial centre, Tyre? The one was necessary to the other. Of late years Ebers in particular (Egypt and the Books of Moses I., p. 127 sqq.) has shown the ancient connection of Phnicia with Egypt. The Phnician alphabet, as can be positively demonstrated in regard at least to the greater part of the letters, is derived from the hieratic written characters of the Egyptians. In the third millenium B. C., says Ebers,ut supra, p. 149, the Phnicians stood in close intercourse with Egypt, learned from the subjects of the Pharaohs the cursive mode of writing, and communicated the same to all nations of Western Asia and of Europe. But the Phnicians received from the Egyptians, not merely intellectual, but also material goods for their own use, and to trade with distant regions: Isa 23:3, By great waters,i.e., by the Nile and the sea came the seed of Sihor, and the harvest of the river (comp. on Isa 19:7, where a like expression is to be noted) to Tyre, and so became the income of this city, what was gathered into it. Sihor Hebraized from the vernacular name of the Upper Nile, but as a Hebrew word formed from the root , niger fuit, Job 30:30=the black river, . The name Sihor denotes undoubtedly the Nile, Jer 2:18; the places (1Ch 13:5; Jos 13:3; Jos 19:26) are uncertain. The double designation seed of the Nile and harvest of the river is a poetic parallelism which resolves one conception into two, which, it is true, are not equivalent. What was sown and reaped on the Nile the Tyrians gathered in, not to keep it wholly for themselves, but only in order to secure commercial profit by selling it again. Translate the last clause of Isa 23:3, And it (the income of Tyre, what was gathered into it) became the merchandise of the nations. What the Tyrians brought in from Egypt goes out from them as profitable merchandise to all nations.

4. Be thou ashamedof the isle.

Isa 23:4-6. Who should be more affected by the fate of Tyre than its mother Zidon in the north, and its neighbor and commercial friend Egypt in the south? Zidon is accordingly bidden to be ashamed at suffering the disgrace of seeing her offspring die out in the second generation. Early extinction of race was regarded as a punishment inflicted by God, and awakened the suspicion of either open or secret crime on the part of the person thus visited (comp. the Book of Job). For this reason want of children was a reproach (Gen 30:23; Isa 4:1; Luk 1:25). By the sea and the strength (fortress) of the sea, most interpreters understand the city of Tyre itself, and the complaint I have not travailed nor brought forth,etc., is supposed to mean: I have lost again all the children born of me. But it must appear strange in the highest degree that Tyre, because it is situated in the sea, and lives from the sea, should itself be called sea. And I have not brought forth, etc., is something quite different from I have lost again my children. Jerome takes the words I have not travailed, etc., as words of the sea used metaphorically: frustra divitias comportavi, . illa dives illa luxuriosa et populorum quondam gaudens multitudine, in qua nascebatur turba mortalium, caterva puerorum, juventutis examina, cujus plateae virginum. ac juvenum. lusibus perstrepebant, nunc ad solitudinem redacta est. But even according to this view a meaning is artificially put upon the figurative speech which is not necessarily contained in its terms. I believe that a literal, and not metaphorical interpretation suits better both the context and the words employed. Zidon comes to Tyre, her daughter, to look around her. But with shame must the mother behold the place empty where her daughter with her many children had dwelt. She sees nothing but the sea, and the natural bulwark on which the waves of the sea break, the bare rocks of insular Tyre. And the sea together with the bulwark calls to Zidon, ashamed at the sight: I have not travailed, etc., i.e. thou seekest children, but findest nothing else than rock and sea, which do not travail nor bring forth, nor nourish children. [Alexander seems to me to set forth in brief terms the correct view of Isa 23:4 : 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.D. M.]. Isa 23:5. As Zidon is ashamed after the fall of Tyre so Egypt is terrified. Translate: when the report comes to Egypt. The concluding words of the verse seem to contain an empty pleonasm. But this is not the case. The Prophet intends to say: Egypt is affrighted, as the report (reaches, comes to) it, namely, the judgment of Tyre. The terror will correspond to the importance which the fall of Tyre must have both positively and negatively for Egypt. The words of the sixth verse I take as a call uttered by those who have heard the report concerning Tyre, first of all, by the Egyptians. These are forthwith impressed by the thought that nothing further remains for the surviving Tyrians to do than to flee with howling as far away as possible to the opposite end of the earth, to Tarshish. There is yet another reason why Tarshish is the place to which Tyre should flee. There, according to Isa 23:1, its ships are staying, which cannot return home, and which are now the only property and refuge of the mother country.

5. Is this your joyousno rest.

Isa 23:7-12. These verses contain words of the Prophet. He contrasts what Tyre was once with what it is now. , etc., is a question. Must it so happen to you? Must this be your lot, as it were, the end of the song? And must such a conclusion follow the joyful beginning? We feel the antithesis between and the condition to which points. A joyous, because glorious and powerful city was Tyre, and this foundation of its joy was deep and broad. For its origin (principium, origo, in Isaiah only here) dates from ancient time, and its power extended to the most distant countries. Herodotus, who was himself in Tyre, relates (II. 44) that the priests in the temple of Hercules had declared the age of the city and temple to be 2,300 years. As Herodotus was in Phnicia in the year 450 b. c., this would carry back the founding of Tyre to the year 2,750 b. c., and Movers (II. 1, p. 135) finds this quite credible. Moreover, this age in comparison with that of the oldest Egyptian things of which we have accounts, would not be a very high one. Comp. Strabo XVI. 2, 22; Curt. IV. 4. Her feet carried her afar (see on Isa 22:3) to dwell. It cannot be objected to our explanation that Tyre reached by ship those distant places, and that therefore not flight into regions beyond the sea, but carrying away into captivity, therefore painful migration on foot is held out in prospect to her. For it is unjustifiable to press the expression feet, and we dare not think on a future migration to a distance, because such a thought is here inept. It would be proper in Isa 23:6, and also in Isa 23:12 it suits the connection; but in Isa 23:7 it makes the impression of tautology. Isa 23:8. But who is he who had the power to decree this concerning the rich old Tyre of far-reaching might? The Prophet in the following verses shows a great interest in answering this question. Tyre was not merely the wearer of crowns, but also the bestower of crowns (). This can hardly mean that she herself had crowned kings. (Comp. Hiram, 2Sa 5:11; 1Ki 6:1; Jer 27:3). For many cities had these, which are not for this reason called coronatrices. We must, therefore, think of dependent cities, either Phnician (therefore the king of Tyre is called Great-king, comp. VaihingerinHerzogs,R. Encycl. XI. p. 617 sqq.), or colonial cities. Of Tartessus (Herod. 1:163; Psa 72:10) Citium and Carthage (originally) it is expressly stated that they had kings. Comp. Gesenius on this passage, Movers,Phn. II. 1, p. 529 sqq.; especially p. 533, 535, 539. Jeremiah too mentions besides the kings of Tyre and Zidon also Jer 25:22. Moreover, the rich and mighty metropolis had also in her midst citizens, who, though only merchants, equalled princes in wealth, pomp and power. How exactly too the Prophet distinguishes and . can be seen from Isa 10:8. The Phnicians called their country and themselves Canaanites. But because they were the chief representatives of trade, merchants in general are called Canaanites; as at a later period Chaldean denoted an astrologer; Lombard, a money changer; and Swiss, a porter or body guard. Observe that here stands for (comp. Gen 15:2, Damascus for Damascene). Above all this pomp and power the might of Jehovah is highly exalted. He has decreed its destruction in order to profane () the pride of all glory.This is to happen by delivering up and casting down into the mire of the earth. From the use of the expression profane the conclusion has not improperly been drawn that the Prophet had especially in his mind the famous, magnificent and ancient temples of Tyre (comp. Herodotusut supra). Jehovah purposed further by the ruin of Tyre to humble all the proud (proudest) of the earth. An essential part of this humiliation is that the colonies hitherto drained of their resources for the benefit of the mother country, and kept under rigorous restraint, now become free. This is illustrated by the instance of the most remote colony Tartessus. Tarshish (Isa 23:10) is now told that she may be independent, and may dispose freely of her own territory and products. This verse has been explained in a great variety of ways by the old interpreters. (Comp. Rosenmueller). Since Koppe the explanation which we have given is commonly adopted. As the Nile overflows Egypt (comp. Amo 8:8; Amo 9:5) so shall Tarshish (daughter of Tarshish, comp. on Isa 22:4) spread herself without restraint over her own land. This must have been previously prevented; and the phrase there is no more girdle must have a meaning that refers to this. The word is found besides only Psa 109:19. Of the same signification is Job 12:21. Both words can only denote in these places the girdle. This meaning does not well suit the passage before us. But it seems to me that the Prophet by the word girdle intends an allusion which is unintelligible to us. Possibly an octroi-line restricting commerce for the benefit of the lords paramount, a cordon or something of a like nature, was designated by a Phnician term cognate with the Hebrew . How, and by what means does the Lord execute His purpose against Tyre? This is answered in Isa 23:11 in general terms. He sets the sea and the kingdoms of the earth for this purpose in motion. Here as little as in Isa 23:4 would I understand under Sea, Tyre (Hitzig), or all Phnicia Knobel); nor do I take the expression he stretched out his hand,etc., as meaning that He simply reached His hand over the sea (Delitzsch); for does the Prophet imagine Jehovah to be dwelling on the other side of the sea? But the expression to stretch the hand over the sea denotes here, as in Exo 14:21 (which place the Prophet had perhaps before his eye), such an outstretching of the hand as sets the sea in motion. And so denotes here not to put in terror, trembling; but to put in commotion in order that they may arise to execute what the Lord commands them (Isa 14:16). The second part, of the verse tells for what purpose the sea and kingdoms are put in motion. The Lord has given them a commandment ( as Isa 10:6 : the pronominal object being omitted, as often happens) against Canaan ( = Phnicia, as the Phnicians themselves gave the country this designation, comp. on Isa 23:8) in order to destroy ( comp. on Isa 3:8) its bulwarks. The meaning of the whole verse is: Land and sea will conspire to destroy the bulwarks of Tyre. Tyre shall be successfully assailed both by land and sea. But Tyre shall be destroyed not merely for the moment, but permanently (although at first not forever, Isa 23:15 sqq.). This is the meaning of Isa 23:12. Tyre had been called joyous Isa 23:7. But the rejoicing shall depart from her. She is now a a virgo compressa, vitiata (Pual only here comp. Isa 52:4), and such a one does not rejoice. That Tyre is here called daughter of Zidon, i.e., Zidonian, is perhaps not merely a generalization of the name Zidon, but possibly at the same time a blow designedly given to the pride of Tyre, which named herself on coins the mother of the Zidonians (comp. Movers,Phn. II. 1, p. 94, 119 sq.), and perhaps called herself so in the time of Isaiah. Tyre must be punished, must be destroyed. Therefore the remnant are summoned to emigrate to Cyprus, into the hitherto dependent colony of Chittim, as the command had already been given (Isa 23:6) to pass over to Tarshish. But Tyre arrives in Chittim, not as mistress, but as an exile without power; a situation which excites in those who had been hitherto oppressed by her the desire to revenge themselves on her. Hence even there poor Tyre finds no rest.

6. Behold, the landis laid waste.

Isa 23:13-14. We had been told (Isa 23:11-12) in general terms how Tyre should be destroyed, and Isa 23:13 informs us regarding the particular instrument, i.e., regarding the people that the Lord had destined to execute punishment. We receive from Isa 23:13 the impression that the prophetic vision is turned in another direction. It is as if his look were suddenly diverted from west to east. He sees suddenly before him to his own astonishment the land of the Chaldeans. The land of the Chaldeans, not the people! The people he might see everywhere marching, fighting. The land he can behold only in its own place. The very part of the earths surface where the country of the Chaldeans lay, apart from its relation to Tyre, was of great importance for the Prophet and his people. Thence should the destroyer of Jerusalem come; there should the people of Judah pass 70 years in captivity. And because the look of the Prophet is here for the first time directed to the Chaldeans, he is prompted to characterize them in brief terms. He does this with two, but with two very significant strokes. The first describes the past, the second the future of the people. He first declaresThis is the people that was not. He certainly does not mean to say thereby, that the people of the Chaldeans was not at all, or was not in the physical sense. Could the Prophet have known nothing of Nimrod (Gen 10:10), nothing of Ur of the Chaldeans, the original home of Abraham? But prophecy, in its grand style, confines, as is well known, the whole history of the world to a few kingdoms; and what does not belong to them is regarded as if it were not. But it was after the Assyrians that the Chaldeans first came upon the theatre of the worlds history. Hence from the prophetic view of history the Chaldeans appear to us a people that hitherto was not. But why does he say , the people? If he had said a people, this would not have been at all singular. There were such nations without number. But the Chaldeans do not belong to the common nations. They were a leading nation. There were then in the sense of prophecy only two leading nations, i.e., representatives of the worldly power. The one was Assyria; the other, the Chaldeans, had not yet appeared. With the second stroke he describes the future of the Chaldeans. I decidedly agree here with Paulus and Del. who regard as the object of placed absolutely before the verb. Ashurthis has it (viz.: the Chaldean nation) set, founded for the beasts of the desert.This view alone suits the context. If we take Ashur as the subject, then we must connect it with as the old versions and some modern interpreters do, but contrary to the Masoretic punctuation. This people, which is not Assyria, will then signify either; this people will be more fortunate than the Assyrians (were under Shalmaneser against Tyre), or: this people, when it will be no more Assyrian, or: which is not civilized as the Assyrians. This suffix in is then referred by all to Tyre. It is manifest that all these explanations of are arbitrary. But if we take according to the accents as subject of then this will mean: Ashur has appointed them to be dwellers of the desert, i.e., Ashur has transplanted them to the Babylonian plain, and made of mountaineers dwellers of the desert. It is then assumed that the Chaldeans after their first migration from the Carduchian mountains, which event belongs to a very early time, were subsequently strengthened by additional settlers sent by the Assyrian kings (So Knobel, Arnold in HerzogsR.-Enc. II., p. 628 sqq.). It is certain that there were Chaldeans in Babylonia and in the Armenian mountains. The first point needs no proof; the second point is clear from the narrative of Xenophon (Cyrop. III. 1, 34; Anab. IV. 3, 4 sqq.; V. 5, 17; VII. 8, 25) and is determined by the statements of Strabo (12:3, 18 sqq.), and of Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v.), and is also generally acknowledged. It is also quite possible that the Chaldeans separated at a very early time, and that one part remained in the old seats, i.e., in the Karduchian mountains, while another part, pursuing the natural routes, i.e., the river-valleys, migrated to the south, and settled on the lower Euphrates. For according to the Assyro-Babylonian monuments, here lies the mat Kaldi or Kaldu. According to them it extended to the Persian Gulf (comp. Schrader,Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 44). With this agree the classic authors who (as Strabo XVI. 1, 6, 8) designate this border of the Gulf and the swamps in which the Euphrates loses itself as lacus Chaldaici (Pliny VI. 31; comp. Strabo XVI. 4, 1, ). That these regions were even in very remote times peopled by the Chaldeans, is established by the fact that the ancient Ur of the Chaldeans, the home of Abraham, has been lately discovered in Mugheir, which lies south-east of Babylon on the right bank of the Euphrates. For upon all the clay tablets found there in great number, the name U-ru-u, i.e., occurs (comp. Schraderut supra, p. 383 sq.). Schrader refers further to an inscription of king Hammurabi dating from the second millennium B. C., composed in the purest Assyrian, in which he states that II and Bel, the inhabitants of Sumir and Accad (names of tribes and territories in South Babylonia) surrendered to his rule (ibid. p. 42). From the language of this inscription it is clear that a Semitic people then dwelt in those regions. But this can have been none other than the people of the Chaldeans. In the tenth century B. C. Asurnasirhabal speaks of the mat Kaldu as a part of his dominion (ibid. p. 44). Resting on all these grounds Schrader utters the following judgment: We can assume that since the Chaldeans immigrated in the second or third millennium B. C. into these regions on the lower Euphrates and Tigris, they were uninterruptedly the proper ruling nation, the dominant one under all circumstances. On the other hand, they were certainly not aboriginal in the country. They found already there a highly cultivated people of Cushite or Turanian extraction, from whom they borrowed the complicated cuneiform mode of writing. If the Chaldeans on the lower Euphrates and Tigris were not aboriginal, it is natural after what has been said to assume that they migrated from the territories at the source of the Euphrates and Tigris into the region at the mouth of these rivers (comp. Ewald,Hist. I., p. 404 sq.). But it is a mere hypothesis derived from this passage, and entirely without evidence, to assume a transplantation of the Chaldeans in later times by Shalmaneser. It is also very questionable whether can denote inhabitants of the desert; for the only place which is adduced, Psa 72:9 ought to exclude the possibility of any other interpretation, in order to be able to counterpoise the weight of all other places where the word signifies beasts of the desert. It is questionable, too, whether the very fertile country of Babylon could be described as before it was visited by the divine judgments (comp. 13; Jeremiah 1). Many attempts have been made at conjectural emendations of the passage. Ewald would substitute Canaanites, and Meier, Chittim for Chaldeans. Olshausen (Emendations of the Old Testament, p. 34 sqq.) would make much greater changes. But all these attempts are capricious and unwarranted. I have already remarked that the view proposed by Paulus and Delitzsch (taking Ashur as the object of placed absolutely before it) alone corresponds to the context. Only in this way is something said of the Chaldeans that briefly, but completely, characterizes them. For they are then described as the people that hitherto had not appeared as the great worldly power, but that will now supplant the Assyrians in this character. There is yet another proof of the accuracy of our view. There are in this paragraph various allusions to the ninth chapter of Amos. Three times Amos employs in that chapter the Piel in the signification of appoint, order, command, in which meaning the word occurs here also (Isa 23:11). Amos again (Isa 23:5) twice makes use of the comparison with the overflowing Nile; comp. in our paragraph, Isa 23:10. In Amo 9:6, as in , the object of the sentence is placed first absolutely, and then repeated by means of a feminine suffix attached to . In the word Ashur the Prophet has before him the idea of the country and of the city rather than that of the people. Hence the feminine suffix to . Such constructions occur in Hebrew in the most varied forms. is constituere, to found, to establish (Hab 1:12; Psa 104:8). The Chaldeans, says Isaiah, make of Ashur, i.e., the country and city, but especially the city, as it were an establishment for beasts of the desert, i.e., a place of residence appointed for them as their legitimate possession and permanent property. Finally we must point to Zep 2:13 sq., as the oldest commentary on this passage. For not only does Zephaniah say clearly what means, but we can also regard his words as a proof of the accuracy of our view in general. For they show that Zephaniah, too, understood this passage of the destruction of Nineveh. When Zephaniah (Isa 2:15) says of Nineveh This is the rejoicing city, had he not Isa 23:7 of our chapter in his eye? The words and he will stretch out his hand (Zep 2:13) recall He stretched out his hand (Isa 23:11). Comp., too, in Zep 2:13 with the before us. If then there are clear traces that Zephaniah, when he wrote the second chapter of his prophecy, had beside other passages in Isaiah (Isa 13:21; Isa 14:23; Isa 34:11) also this twenty-third chapter in his mind, and if he gives in his prophecy a description of the ruined Nineveh, which by the word connects itself with our passage, and appears as a more detailed description of what is only slightly indicated by Isaiah, may we not in such circumstances be permitted to affirm that Zephaniah understood the place before us as we do? Further, there is contained in Zephaniahs reference to this passage the proof that it must have been already in existence in his time, consequently in the reign of king Josiah (624 B. C.). If now Zephaniah did not hesitate to understand this passage of the destruction of Nineveh, we will not allow ourselves to be prevented from doing the same, either by the objection of Delitzsch that this would be the only place in which Isaiah prophesies that the worldly supremacy would pass from the Assyrians to the Chaldeans, or by the objections of others who regard it as absolutely impossible that in the time of Isaiah a destruction of Tyre by the Chaldeans should have been foretold. In regard to Delitzschs objection, I would wish it to be remarked that the prophecy of Isaiah is related to that of those who come after him, as a nursery is to the plantations that have arisen from it. Do not the germs of the later prophecies originally he to a large extent in the prophecy of Isaiah? Such a germ we have here. The words to form a parenthesis which quite incidentally, in language brief and enigmatical, and probably not understood by the Prophet himself, deposit a germ which even Nahum and Zephaniah have only partially developed. Not till the time of Jeremiah and after the battle of Car-chemish, which determined Nebuchadnezzars supremacy in the earth, could it be completely unfolded. And if I assume that Isaiah could already prophesy the destruction of Nineveh by the Chaldeans, I must much more affirm that he could also predict the destruction of Tyre by the same people. The Assyrian invasion undoubtedly gave occasion to this prophecy. The Assyrians had a design on Egypt. The taking of Samaria, and the attacks on Judah and on the countries lying east and west of it, were only means to that end. We perceive from Isa 23:3; Isa 23:5 that Tyre then stood in close relation to Egypt. The power of the Tyrians on the sea was naturally of the greatest importance for Egypt. The Assyrians had therefore all the more occasion for depriving Egypt of this valuable ally. Let us add, that Isaiah had then to warn Judah most emphatically against forming an alliance with Egypt. Would not Tyre also have been an object of the untheocratic hopes which the unbelieving Jews placed in Egypt the ally of Tyre? This would aptly explain to us the reason why Isaiah lifted his voice against Tyre also. Israel should trust in no worldly power, therefore not even in Tyre. Tyre too is doomed to destruction; but it will not be destroyed by the Assyrians. This might then readily have been conjectured when the Assyrians were actually engaged in hostilities with Tyre. But it was a part of the task assigned to Isaiah to counteract the dread inspired by Assyria. He therefore declares expressly: another later nation that is not yet a people, namely, the Chaldeans will destroy Tyre. What follows (Isa 23:15 sqq.), agrees with this. The 70 years are undoubtedly the years of the Chaldean supremacy. As we observed already, the words to (Isa 23:13) are to be treated as parenthetical. With the Prophet proceeds to describe the action of the people of the Chaldeans, as the appointed instrument for the destruction of Tyre. They set up his watch-towers,i.e., the many set up the watch-towers belonging to the whole body (comp. touching this change of number Isa 1:23; Isa 2:8; Isaiah 23:23, 26; Isa 8:20). With Isa 23:14 the paragraph closes as it began.

Footnotes:

[1]Heb. silent.

[2]And it became merchandise for the nations.

[3]this and the fallowing verbs in past tense.

[4]When the report comes to Egypt, they are forthwith in terror at the report concerning Tyre.

[5]Is this your lot, O joyous city?

[6]Her feet carried her afar to dwell.

[7]the crown-giver.

[8]Heb. to pollute.

[9]Heb. girdle.

[10]Or, concerning a merchantman.

[11]Heb. Canaan.

[12]Or, strengths.

[13]See Exegetical Comment.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Prophet here describes the overthrow of Tyre, and in characters of great misery. Promises are made in the close of the chapter, of a change.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

It is remarkable that this prophecy was delivered at a time when Tyre was in the height of prosperity, and resting to the full in the enjoyment of flourishing trade and merchandize. For long after this, the prophets Ezekiel and Zechariah, both of them, took notice of the pride and greatness of Tyre. Eze 28:1 to the end. Zec 9:3-4 . But of what avail is the pomp of nations, where the love of God is not? Of what avail is worldly prosperity to individuals unsanctified by grace!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Inner History

Isa 23

The whole chapter relates to the destiny of Tyre. History has confirmed the prophecy to the letter. Jesus Christ himself referred to the destiny of Tyre and Sidon. The Tarshish of this chapter is Spain. Chittim is the island of Cyprus. The word “merchant” is the same word that is rendered in other places “Canaanite.” The Canaanites were the most energetic commercial men of their time. To be a merchant was to be a Canaanite; to be a Canaanite was to be a merchant, substantially. With these points of antiquity the general mass of the people have nothing to do. Yet with the inner history which lies under all these marvellous accidents the world must be concerned until the end of time.

For example, the world must come, however slowly, to recognise the fact that rulers themselves are ruled; that nations are units; that empires are limited; that the Lord reigneth. There can be only one Supreme. It would seem as if all pluralism were but accidental that in unity we must find character, purpose, power, issue, and destiny. There are many volumes, but the only volume which holds them all, in so far as they are true, is the Bible. There are many kings, but they all have a King over them eternal, immortal, invisible, the only Potentate; all others are dramatic kings, painted figures, useful or useless, as the case may be; but the King of glory reigneth, and all gates fly back at his coming, and all doors lift themselves up in sign of welcome, and in token of his right to come. Nations take a great deal of education in this matter, as indeed do individuals. What a glorious dawn is that which will shine above the eastern hills when the world begins to feel that it is reigned over, governed, guided in all its march of progress; that every throb of it is but the echo of a throb profounder still:

The world grows warmer under that recognition. At first the recognition is terrible enough, but it becomes more and more beneficent as things shape themselves, as dumb things begin to sing, and things that looked impracticable and unmanageable fall into order, and consent to the universal economy. Unless we get some larger view like this we shall be the victims of circumstances; every little Napoleon that cares to be haughty to the ambassador of a foreign court may set us up in an attitude of alarm. Be quiet with religious tranquillity. Things are not ordered by the whims and moods of petty toy-kings: they come and go, they die of diseases, like dogs; they have no philosopher’s stone in their pouch; they are but a smoke, as we are: the Lord reigneth. When nations come to understand this, the earth shall yield her increase, the whole world shall be a harvest-field, and there shall be no want in our streets, no cry of atheistic pain.

The world must come, secondly, to recognise the fact that even empires are dependent upon character for their existence. Where are the testimonials? What is their record? It is all written. The greatest man cannot do without his references. Under many circumstances he may pass freely, because a good deal will be assumed regarding him; but there will come a point call it, if you will, Day of Judgment; it is a solemn, grand term when empires must put down their record, and stand or fall by what they have done. The individuals make the nation. When the individuals are right the nation cannot be wrong. It is not within our compass to deal with countries, empires, great lands, all at once; but we can deal with the little children, we can begin at some point of reformation or culture, and be faithful to the sphere which that point indicates; and thus every one of us can be helping the regeneration of the world. It is possible that we may be wasting much energy by imagining that because we cannot control an empire we cannot educate a life. Our empire may be the little house-empire all the young forces that throb about the hearthstone and the table. Or we may have some wizardry of eloquence that can touch people who will not go to church. Or we may have that secret of sympathy which makes the whole world kin. Do not suppose that we are to wait until we have energy enough to make the whole world hear us; we may begin with the very first child that comes in our way yea, with the dying man who has but an hour to live; even in him we may, by God’s blessing, cause to flash up that divinity which men call light.

We cannot read this history without feeling how true it is in all its moral outline and issue. For Tyre we may substitute London, Paris, New York, or the countries which they indicate. It is only the letter of this chapter which is ancient; the principle is energetic evermore. There is a tone of bitterness in the chapter, a tone of what is distinctively Scriptural irony that acid, biting tone of old Elijah. “Pass ye over to Tarshish” ( Isa 23:6 ). That is an ironical expression. The people are mocked when through sin they have lost their strength. Go away to your remotest colony, and sit down with those whom you have called tributaries and dependents. O thou once overfed and over-pampered glutton, go sit down in the kitchen when the fire is out, and make a banquet for thyself on thy memory! How proud had Tyre been! How she thrived upon her corn trade in Egypt! Egypt had no timber, and therefore could not build ships; and if she had had a whole Bashan full of oaks she never would have cut a plank, for Egypt from time immemorial detested the sea. You never caught an Egyptian on the sea if he could stow himself away anywhere else. The Tyrian liked the sea, did not care how broad it was, or deep; he had a spirit of locomotion and daring and enterprise, and wherever the corn was the man of Tyre might be seen. Tyre enriched herself with the harvests of the Nile; she thought Sihor flowed for her advantage; the harvest of the river was her revenue, and she was a mart of nations. Honour to whom honour is due. She had acquired a great position in the world, and therefore she must have had elements of character of conspicuous value. It is idle to deny the energy, the capacity, the force of any man who has ascended to the top and planted his banner there. He has to be accounted for, and reckoned with; and he will never be brought down by sneers. Tyre was a haughty lady. To know what Tyre was we have only to read Ezekiel xxvi.-xxviii. There we have a full-length portraiture of Tyrus; “O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim. Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee” ( Eze 27:3-7 ). Only a prophet dare have challenged such strength and splendour. The prophecies should be read not retrospectively but prospectively, as they were uttered, and we should see the great men of old hurling their thunders against evident might, pomp, grandeur, settled and immutable reputation.

A wonderful thing is this, that when the Spirit of God is in a man he cares for no city, how great soever it may be, though he himself may not have whereon to lay his head. There is, however, a spirit in him which makes him greater than all the capitals of the world, were they added to one another and constituted into one great avenue of capitals, each house in all the vista crowned or starred with the sceptre thrust from every window. The Galilean fishermen cared nothing for the pomp of Jerusalem; old prophets with ragged mantles on their stooping shoulders hurled divinest judgment against proud kings. The Church has lost this prophetic inspiration, and now she bows down to worldly greatness, and tells with delight that a chariot and pair has driven up to her front door. To what a cant of indignity has she sunk, even in her very speech! She is now an “influential” Church, a “respectable” Church, an “intelligent” Church, a Church possessed of “exceptional advantages,” and most careful about her “reputation”! So the world pays its copper tribute, and says to the Church, Behave yourself! let us do what we like, and you sing your hymns and go up to heaven like any other vapour. Where are the men who can do without food, clothing, shelter? Where are the men who would spurn any offer of patronage? sons of lightning, sons of judgment; men who never sit down to eat, but snatch their apple as they hasten along the road that they may keep their next appointment to thunder judgment upon unrighteousness, and break in pieces with an iron rod the vessel of impurity.

Tyre is called “the crowning city” ( Isa 23:8 ). The speaker cannot drop his satire; he has got accustomed to it now; he is in his best vein of mockery. The crowning city was Tyre because she distributed crowns to the Phoenician colonies, so to say, she kept a whole cupboard full of crowns, and took one out after another, and gave to the little colonies that they might play at being kingdoms. “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.” But Tyre was proud of her dignities! “Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. There were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas” ( Eze 27:23-25 ). Then the “rowers” of Tyre the men who, so to speak, rowed the beautiful city as upon a river brought her into great waters, and whilst she was there the east wind broke her. O that east wind! that eternal resource of God! So Tyre was overwhelmed:

But the question arose: Who did all this? How did all this come to pass? The answer is sublime:

“The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth…. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strongholds thereof (Isa 23:9 , Isa 23:11 ).

There is a “who” in history. We find that who in the eighth verse: “Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre?” “Who” is not a word we apply to a dog, but to a man, to one reasonable, responsible. Yet who could apply the term to a mere man under such peculiar circumstances? No man could have done it. We never ask, with any idea of receiving for an answer that a man did it, “Who set the sun in his tabernacle?” Did it ever occur to any one to say, “Two men lifted the burning load to that altitude”? The answer would, be received with a derisive smile. There are some things which man could not have done. God reconstructs geography. He is not only the Geologist of the globe, but its Geographer. The God that built up the rocks managed all the surface work. God readjusts the map of the world; he alters names, boundaries, capacities; the four seasons are his servants, and he tells them what to do. At this very time Chittim, or Cyprus, revolted against Tyre, and the Phoenician colonies began to be restless, and hey too joined Sennacherib when he attacked the mother city. There are colonies that will not always be colonies. Who did it? God shook the kingdoms: Egypt, Ethiopia, Babylon, Syria, Israel, Judah, quaked down to their foundations, whilst Tiglath-Pileser was building and glorifying the Assyrian Empire, as if he were a species of god: and in due time his neck was to be wrung, and he was to be thrown away, because there cannot be two Almighties.

“Pass over to Chittim” ( Isa 23:12 ). Here we have the irony again. Go into the little island, shrink within the smallest bounds: O thou mighty England, Great Britain and Ireland, go and sit upon a stone, and dine upon gravel and sand! “Behold the land of the Chaldeans” ( Isa 23:13 ). What is the meaning of that challenge? The meaning is that Tyre learned from Chaldea. Let one country learn from another. Do not let history be wasted upon our statesmen and leaders and merchants. Study the history of the world if you would study the history of your own town. Always read the little in the light of the great. Be sure to have the right atmosphere, the right point of view, the right perspective, or you may be imagining that a thing is great only because it is near. The philologist does not scruple to say that if a man knows only one language he knows none. There is an obvious sense in which that is true. It may be said to be distinctively and peculiarly true of the English tongue, which has about it the flavour of nearly all countries, and is the most difficult of all languages to acquire. So it is about our business, about our parish, about our city, and about our country: we know nothing about any of these until we know something about the whole scheme of things. We must know that even a straight line drawn upon a globe dips, and loses its straightness. We must remember that a city, any city, how proud, great, mighty, rich soever, is to be judged in the light of the history of cities. Tyre must ponder Chaldea.

How true the Bible is to itself in making everything turn upon character! Now what have you done? What is your spirit? Are you haughty or humble? Is your greatness moral, or only financial? What is covered by your fine linen with broidered work from Egypt? Do you cover wounds and bruises with these decorated plasters? What is your soul? This is God’s answer. “Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: with thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: by thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas” ( Eze 28:2-8 ). The Lord will not have two gods. He will not have any rival. “Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God” ( Eze 28:9-10 ). The rampant boaster should be brought down to the dust. Our strength is in our modesty. What hast thou that thou hast not received? We have seen men of boastful temper, who have mocked others, sold up in the public market-place without a soul to buy in a chair for the overthrown boaster to sit down upon. Character is everything. Character is dignity. There may be no money in the bank, but see how the head holds itself up, and how the eye has an upward turn in it that means, I seek a country out of sight; I am but a stranger and a pilgrim, with hardly time to put off my sandals and lay down my staff; I yearn for the city of light. Character is courage. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” What is this character? It can only be a creation of God. Character is not one of the arts or manufactures. There is less manipulation about a character than about anything else. A picture may be painted, but not a character. Character is the real man, the inward soul-man, the spirit-man, the very plasm of being. Blessed be God that it is so, for otherwise how many men would be mistaken: they are so rough externally, they have had so few advantages; they have been battled against and overthrown, until quite a tone of defiance has entered into their daily speech, but in their souls they are chastened, and refined, and pure, and trustful. This is the miracle of God. Character only can be regenerated and reconstructed and guaranteed by all the energy of heaven. “Ye must be born again.” We have greater advantages than ever Tyre had: how are we using them? “I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.” Let us consider this well, and be wise.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XIV

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 6

Isaiah 13-23

This section is called “The Book of Foreign Prophecies,'” because it treats of the foreign nations in their relation to Judah and Israel.

There are ten foreign nations here mentioned, as follows: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, and Tyre, with second prophecies against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon, and one thrown in against Israel, Judah) Jerusalem, and Shebna, each. This Shebna was probably a foreigner. He was to be degraded from his high office and Eliakim was to take his place.

The radical critics assign to this section a much later date because of the distinctly predictive prophecies contained in it. There is no question that it reflects the condition of Babylon long after the time of Isaiah, and unless one believes heartily in supernatural revelations, the conclusion that it was written much later than the time of Isaiah, is unavoidable. The author accepts it as a prophecy of Isaiah and holds tenaciously to the theory of the unity of the book.

In Isaiah 13-23 the prophet gives us a series of judicial acts on various surrounding peoples, each of whom embodied some special form of worldly pride or ungodly self-will. But Asshur-Babel was conspicuous above all the rest. After fourteen centuries of comparative quiet, she was now reviving the idea of universal empire, notwithstanding the fact that Nimrod’s ruined tower stood as a perpetual warning against any such attempt. This was the divine purpose, that God might use it for his own instrument to chastise, both the various Gentile races, and especially his own people, Israel. This was the “hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa 14:26 ), to break up the fallow ground of the world’s surface, and prepare it for the good seed of the kingdom of God. Not only are these chapters (Isaiah 13-23) thus bound together inwardly, but they are also bound together outwardly by a similarity of title. We cannot detach Isaiah 13-14 from what has gone before without injury to the whole series, because

1. It is only in these chapters that we have the full antithesis to the mighty overflowing of the Assyrian deluge in Isaiah 7-8, and Isa 10 .

2.Isa 12 is a fit introduction to Isaiah 13-14, in that the deliverance of Zion, so briefly alluded to in Isa 12 , requires a further view of the enemies’ prostration, which these chapters supply. In Isa 14:2-27 we find the song of triumph analogous to Exo 15 , rather than in Isa 12 .

3.Isa 14:27 seems to be a fit termination of the section which began with Isa 7:1 .

4. There are many verbal links that connect these chapters with the preceding chapters. For example, take Isa 10:25 and Isa 13:3 ; Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:5 ; Isa 9:18 and Isa 13:13 , et multa al.

5. The complete cutting off of Ephraim foretold in Isa 7 requires a fuller revelation of the divine purpose concerning Asshur-Babylon, as its counterpoise and this is found in Isaiah 13-14.

From Isa 14:28 we infer that this prophecy was written toward the end of Ahaz’s reign. At that time spiritual darkness had won the conquest of the whole world. The “lamp of God” was now dark in his tabernacle. Hoshea, king of Israel, was the vassal of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Ahaz had long ago surrendered himself to Tiglath-pileser. So the light of prophecy, with such a background, was very luminous now. Assyria was at this time at the height of her power, but Isaiah tells with distinctness that Assyria shall be broken in pieces in the Holy Land, and it is certain that Assyria received just such a blow in the defeat of Sennacherib’s army.

The prophet also saw the doom of Babylon, the city which was at this time the real center of the empire. He even mentions the instruments of the destruction, commencing with the Medes, who were not at this time an independent nation. Nothing can be more definite than Isaiah’s statements as to the absolute ruin of the “Golden City,” which prediction at the time must have seemed to violate all probability. Yet we have abundant evidence that it was all fulfilled, both regarding the nearer event of its capture by the Medes and also the ultimate desolation of its site.

The significant word with which each of these prophecies opens is the word “burden” which has here its original and ordinary meaning. This original meaning of the word seems to be supplied from 2Ki 9:25 , where it is used to mean the divine sentence on Ahab: “Jehovah laid this burden upon him.” The appropriateness of its use here is in the fact that the prophecy to which it is prefixed is usually denunciatory in character, and always so in Isaiah. It is easy to see that it here means a grievous threatening oracle. It is claimed by some that this word is used elsewhere in a good sense, as in Zec 12:1 and Mal 1:1 , but upon close examination of these passages in their connection it will be seen that they are denunciatory and that the word has its primary meaning in these instances also.

The reason that Babylon was given first consideration among the enemies of God’s people seems to be the fact that a divine revelation came to Isaiah at this early date (725 B.C.) showing that Babylon was to be the great enemy to be feared, as the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity. The main points of the denunciation against her are as follows:

1. The instruments of God’s destruction of Babylon are the far-away nations, which God himself will assemble for this work of destruction (Isa 13:2-5 ).

2. The vivid description of the sweeping devastation, which is all inclusive in the objects of its vengeance (Isa 13:6-16 ).

3. The Medes are named as the instruments to begin this work, and the permanent effects of the desolation to follow (Isa 13:17-22 ).

4. The reason for all this is God’s favor to Jacob who had been oppressed by these foreigners (Isa 14:1-2 ).

5. Israel’s parable of exaltation over Babylon reciting their oppressive work and God’s intervention which humbled Babylon and exalted Israel (Isa 14:3-20 ).

6. The final announcement of Babylon’s doom and the permanency of its desolation (Isa 14:21-23 ).

The prophecy against Assyria under this first burden consists of God’s oath of assurance to his people that his purpose already foretold concerning Assyria should stand. Babylon in the first part of the prophecy is presented as the most formidable enemy of God’s people, but it had not yet become so fearful then. But Assyria was their dread at this time. So Isaiah comes nearer home to meet their present need and assures them that they need not fear the Assyrian for God’s purpose concerning him should stand.

There are several things in this burden that call for special consideration:

1. In Isa 13:2-5 the prophet speaks of the mustering of the host to battle as if it were then in the process of assembling, indicating the vividness of it all to the prophet’s mind as present, though it was only a vision of the future.

2. In Isa 13:3 Jehovah speaks of his “consecrated ones,” clearly referring to the Medes and Persians. Now in what sense were they “consecrated ones”? It means that they were the instruments of his purpose, set apart for the specific work of executing his judgment. They were consecrated, or set apart, by the Lord for this work though they themselves were ungongcious of the function they performed. There are many illustrations of such use of men by the Lord recorded in the Scriptures, two notable examples of which are Cyrua and Caesar Augustus.

3. In Isa 13:10 there is a reference to the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. This is an expression of Nature’s sympathy with the Lord. When he is angry, the lights of the heavens grow dark, as at the crucifixion of our Lord, and as it will be at the end of the world. So it is often the case in the time of great judgments. There seems also to be a special fitness in the expression here in view of the importance attached to the signs of the heavenly bodies by the Chaldeans at this time.

4. The desolation described in Isa 13:20-22 is witnessed by every traveler of today who passes the site of this once glorious and proud Babylon.

5. In Isa 14:9-11 we have the glad welcome given to these Babylonians in their entrance into the lower spirit world. The inhabitants of this region are represented as rising up to greet and welcome these unfortunate Babylonians. The idea of personal identity and continued consciousness after death is here assumed by the prophet.

6. In Isa 14:12 there is a back reference to the fall of Satan who, before his fall, was called Lucifer. Here Babylon in her fall is represented as Lucifer) the bright star of the morning from heaven. Our Saviour refers to the incident of Satan’s falling also in Luk 10:18 , and we have a like picture of him in Rev 12:7-9 , all of which must be considered in the light of the analogue of Satan’s fall when he sinned and was cast out of heaven.

7. In Isa 14:25 Jehovah says he will “break the Assyrian in his land,” which refers to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host from which Assyria never recovered. In Isa 14:26 the Lord explains that Assyria was the hand that he had stretched out for chastisements upon the nations of the world as they were related to Judah and Israel.

The series of burdens from Isa 14:28-23:18 may be viewed as an unrolling of the “purpose concerning the whole earth,” just mentioned in Isa 14:26 . Though the prophet stands on his watchtower and turns his eye around to the different points of the horizon and surveys the relation in which each nation stands to the advancing judgment, his addresses to the nations must be thought of as chiefly meant for the warning and comfort of Israel, which had too often adopted the sins of those whom she was meant to sanctify.

The burden of prophecy against Philistia is a warning to Philistia, following closely upon the death of Tiglath-pileser which brought great rejoicing to Philistia, because they thought the rod that smote them was broken. The prophet here reminds them that out of the serpent’s root there would come forth the adder. In other words, there would arise from Assyria an enemy far more deadly than the one who had been cut off, and instead of being a mere serpent he would be a fiery flying serpent. The reference is, probably, to Sargon who took Ashdod, made the king of Gaza prisoner and reduced Philistia generally to subjection. At this time the poor of Israel would feed safely, but Philistia was to be reduced by famine and the remnant slain by the Assyrians who are here referred to as “a smoke out of the north.” Then God’s people will answer Philistia’s messengers that Jehovah had founded Zion and in her the afflicted would take refuge.

Some critics say that the bulk of the prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there. To this we answer that speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain and lead to no results of any importance whatever. What matters it whether Isaiah quoted or not? There is no proof that he did and it makes no difference if be did. The author will contend that Isaiah was the original author of these two chapters until the critics produce at least some proof that he quoted from an earlier author.

A brief outline of these two chapters is as follows:

1. A vivid picture of Moab’s overthrow (Isa 15 ).

2. Moab exhorted to flee to the house of David for shelter, but refuses to make the right use of his affliction (Isa 16:1-12 ).

3. A confirmation of the prophecy and its speedy fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14 ).

For the picture of Moab’s overthrow the reader may read Isa 15 . It is a vivid account of this overthrow and cannot be well improved upon.

In Isa 16:1-5 we have an exhortation to Moab to take refuge with the house of David. Perhaps there is here an implication that Moab is not safe in his relation to Israel but that there would be safety for him if he would take shelter under the wings of Judah. Anyhow, there is a promise to Moab that he might find shelter and security, if only he would comply with the conditions herein set forth. But the pride of Moab was the cause of his downfall, which was utterly complete and accompanied by great wailing (Isa 16:6-8 ).

The prophet was moved to pity and tears for Moab upon witnessing such desolation and sadness as should come to this people. No gladness, no joy, no singing, and no joyful noise was to be found in his borders (Isa 16:9-12 ). Such a prophetic sight of Jerusalem made Jeremiah the weeping prophet and moved the blessed Son of God to tears. “Your house is left unto you desolate” is the weeping wail of our Lord as he saw the sad fate of the Holy City.

The time set here by the prophet for the humiliation of Moab is exactly three years, strictly measured, as a hireling would measure the time for which he would receive his pay, the fulfilment of which cannot be determined with certainty because we do not have the exact date of the prophecy, nor do we know which one of the different invasions that would fulfil the conditions is really meant. Considering the date given in Isa 14:28 we may reasonably conclude that the date of this prophecy was in the first or second year of Hezekiah’s reign, and may have had its fulfilment by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria in the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, sending a detachment to these eastern parts of the country.

It is said that Damascus has been destroyed and rebuilt oftener than any other Eastern city. This may account for the fact that Damascus, treated so severely by Tiglath-pileser, was again in a position to attract the attention of Shalmaneser when he advanced against Samaria. In the time of Jeremiah the city had been rebuilt, but we do not hear of any more kings of Damascus.

The burden of prophecy against Damascus includes two prophecies concerning Israel and Judah and one concerning Ethiopia, and the main points of this prophecy are the ruin of Damascus (Isa 17:1-3 ) ; only a remnant left to Jacob who would look to Jehovah, because he had forgotten the God of his salvation (Isa 17:4-11 ) ; the multitude of the heathen invaders suddenly destroyed (Isa 17:12-14 ) ; Ethiopia’s interest in these movements, and her homage to Jehovah according to which she sends a present to him (Isa 18:1-7 ).

There are several things in this burden that need special attention:

1. The language referring to the overthrow of Damascus is not to be pressed too far. Damascus was besieged and temporarily destroyed, but it revived. See Jer 49:23-27 ; Eze 27:18 ; and the New Testament references. Damascus is still a city of importance.

2. In Isa 17:12-14 we have an account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army which was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s host (2Ki 19:35-37 ).

3. There is some controversy as to what nation is referred to in Isa 18:2 ; Isa 18:7 , but it is surprising that there should be such controversy, since the evidence is overwhelming that the nation here mentioned was Ethiopia. This is a region south of Egypt and far up the Nile. The inhabitants, though black, were not ignorant and weak, but a nation of vigor and influence in the days of Isaiah. Cf. the Abyssinians.

4. The act of homage to Jehovah by Ethiopia as mentioned in Isa 18:7 is not given and therefore not easily determined and can be ascertained only with some probability. There is evidence that Ethiopia was intensely interested in the downfall of Sennacherib which is prophesied in this connection, therefore, it is probable that the present was sent to Jehovah in connection with Ethiopia’s alliance with Israel which existed at this time. It is true that the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it were not favorable. The government and idolatry were most securely established and the things predicted seemed most improbable, from the human point of view.

Then what the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this? The men of Ephraim and some in Judah were at this time bent on throwing themselves upon Egypt for protection against Assyria. This was both wrong in itself and impolitic. So Isaiah was hedging against such alliance by showing the coming humiliation of the power to which they were looking for aid.

There was an element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites. The tender sympathy expressed for penitent Egypt in Isa 19:20-23 must have assured the Israelites that if they would return to their God, he would be entreated of them and heal them.

The prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 is a prophecy relating to the political condition of Egypt, in which Jehovah will cause civil strife and confusion, destroying the power of their idols and the wisdom of their wise, and will place over them one who is a “cruel Lord” and a “fierce king.”

The fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the internal strife in Egypt during the days of Tirhakah and Psammetichus iii the early part of the seventh century B.C. and the conquering of Egypt by Esar-haddon, who was decidedly a “cruel prince” and treated Egypt with severity, splitting it up into a number of governments, yet this prophecy has been referred to Sargon, to Cambyses, and to Darius Ochus, and some think it is applicable to the successive rulers of Egypt, generally, viz: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish. But this is not probable.

The picture in Isa 19:5-10 is a picture of the distressful condition of Egypt while passing through the trying ordeal just prophesied. Then follows (Isa 19:11-15 ) a picture of the confusion of the wise men of Egypt as their wisdom is turned into folly.

There are five happy effects of this judgment on Egypt, in stages which reach a happy climax:

1. The Egyptians are stricken with fear because of Jehovah and because of the land of Judah, similar to the fear that came upon them when they were visited with the ten plagues (Isa 19:16-17 ).

2. Egypt shall learn the language of Canaan and swear unto Jehovah. The language here referred to is the Hebrew which was spoken largely in the country after the introduction of so many Jews there. The “five cities” represents, perhaps, the low and weakened condition of Egypt after the judgment is visited upon it (Isa 19:18 ).

3. The worship of Jehovah is established in Egypt (Isa 19:19-22 ). This was literally fulfilled in the building of the temple at Leontopolis by Onias IV, with special license from Ptolemy Philometor, to whom he is said to have quoted this passage from Isaiah. Here was offered sacrifice to Jehovah and the oblation, according to this prophecy. Through the Jewish law and influence the idolatry of Egypt was overthrown and they were prepared for the coming Saviour, whom they received through the evangelization of the missionaries in the early centuries of the Christian era.

4. The consequent union of Egypt and Assyria in worship (Isa 19:23 ).

5. The unity and equality of the nations in blessing. This and the preceding stage of this happy effect finds a primary fulfilment in the wide-spread influence of the Jews over Syria and the adjacent countries under the Syro-Macedonian kings, as well as over Egypt under the Ptolemies. But a larger fulfilment is to be found in the events at Pentecost, which sent devout men back from Jerusalem into Egypt and Libya on one side, and into Parthis, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, on the other, to tell how God, having raised up his Son Jesus (the Prince and Saviour), had sent him to bless the Jews first, and in them all nations.

The prophecy of Isa 20 is a prophecy against Egypt and Ethiopia, who were the hope of Israel in alliance, to be delivered from Assyria, which the prophet labored to prevent. It consists, (1) of the historical circumstance. This is related in Isa 20:1 which gives the date at the year in which Tartan came to Ashdod, etc. (2) Isaiah’s symbolical action and its meaning (Isa 20:2-4 ). This was a common occurrence with the prophets. Here the action symbolized the humiliating captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia which was fulfilled either by Sennacherib or by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. (3) The reason for this visitation upon Egypt and Ethiopia, viz: Israel looked to these powers instead of Jehovah and they could not be blessed while they were in alliance with backslidden Israel. So the Lord was taking care of Israel in his dealings with Egypt and Ethiopia.

“The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), is a prophecy against Babylon and contains a vivid description of the marshalling of forces against Babylon for her destruction, the overwhelming sympathy of the prophets, the expelling of sensual security, instructions to the Lord’s watchman, the fulfilment, and the final declaration. The forces marshalled for her destruction are the Medes and Elamites under Cyrus and the prophet leaves us not in doubt that the reference here is to Babylon. There can be no mistake that this prophecy has its fulfilment in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. All this is because of her relation to Israel and therefore the encouragement of God’s people and the glory of the one eternal Jehovah.

“The burden of Dumah” is generally conceded to be a prophecy against Edom, because the word “Seir” occurs in it as the place from which the one is represented as calling to the prophet. The word “Dumah” means silence and is used allegorically, “of the Silent Land” of the dead (Psa 94:17 ), and refers here, perhaps, to the silent or low state of Edom at this time. In this burden someone is represented as calling to the prophet out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?” To which the watchman replied, “There is a brighter day ahead, but it is to be followed by a period of darkness for you; if you will repent, you may do so.”

The prophecy against Arabia is a prophecy of the desolation to come upon Arabia and her borders, deranging their commerce and causing flight and privation, which would be accomplished in one year. The date of the prophecy is not very well determined but the fulfilment is found in Sargon’s expedition into Arabia during which the caravans had to leave their regular routes and “take to the woods.”

“The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ) is a prophecy against Jerusalem in which we have set forth a vivid picture of the revellings of the city (Isa 22:1-4 ) ; then a description of an outside foreign army threatening the city, causing surprise, and a hasty preparation for the siege (Isa 22:5-11 ); instead of humbling themselves, putting on sackcloth and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they try to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12-14 ) ; then follows the degrading of Shebna from his high office and the placing of Eliakim in his position (Isa 22:15-25 ). The events herein described were fulfilled either in Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem or in that of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some difficulties in fitting this prophecy to either siege and in matters where we have such limited knowledge it does not become us to be dogmatic. Some parts fit one better, and other parts fit the other better, but all things considered, the author is inclined to believe that this prophecy refers to the Assyrian invasion.

There are three distinct paragraphs given to the burden of Tyre (Isa 22:13 ): (1) The greatness of Tyre as a city of commerce and the wail of distress for the fate of the city; (2) Jehovah’s purpose to cause this destruction and stain the pride of all her glory; (3) Babylon, an example of what will come to Tyre and the promise of Tyre’s returned prosperity after seventy years. After this period Tyre will revive and be of service to Jehovah’s people. The first part of the prophecy fits into the history which shows the many reverses of this city and may refer to the Babylonian siege specifically. The last part of the prophecy may have its fulfilment in the orders of Cyrus to the Tyrians to rebuild the Temple, and the Tyrian ships were of incalculable aid in disseminating Judaism before Christ and Christianity since Christ.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the section (Isaiah 13-23) called and what the appropriateness of the title?

2. What the foreign nations mentioned in this book of prophecies and what additional prophecies thrown in?

3. What the position of the radical critics relative to this section?

4. What the connection between the parts of this section?

5. What the special connection between Isaiah 13-14 and the preceding section?

6. What the date of the prophecy in Isaiah 13-14, what the conditions both in Israel and Judah, and also in the other nations, at this time, and what the sure light of prophecy in this dark hour?

7. What the significant word with which each of these prophecies opens, what its meaning, and what its appropriateness in this connection?

8. Why was Babylon given by the prophet first consideration among the enemies of God’s peoples and what the main points in this denunciation against her?

9. What the prophecy against Assyria under this first burden and why put in here?

10. What the special things to be noted in this burden?

11. How may the series of burdens from Isa 14:28 and Isa 23:18 be viewed and what the object of the warnings?

12. What the burden of prophecy against Philistia and how is the destructive work upon the country here described?

13. What say the critics of this prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) and what the reply?

14. Give a brief outline of these two chapters.

15. Give the picture of Moab’s overthrow?

16. What the exhortation and promise to Moab in. Isa 16:1-5 ?

17. What the cause of the downfall that was to follow?

18. How did this sight of the future destruction of Moab affect the prophet and what examples of other such sympathy in the Bible?

19. What the time fixed for the humiliation of Moab and when its fulfilment?

20. What is a remarkable characteristic of Damascus, and for what does it account?

21. What does this burden against Damascus include and what the main points in it?

22. What are the things in this burden that need special attention?

23. What the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it?

24. What is the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this?

25. What element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites?

26. What the prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 and when was it fulfilled?

27. What the picture in Isa 19:5-10 ?

28. What is set forth in Isa 19:11-15 ?

29. What the important and happy effects of this judgment on Egypt?

30. What the prophecy of Isa 20 and what its contents?

31. What “The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), and what its striking points?

32. What is “The burden of Dumah” and what its interpretation?

33. What the prophecy against Arabia and when the fulfilment?

34. What “The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ), and what the salient points in the prophecy?

35. What the outline of the burden of Tyre and what the salient points of the interpretation?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 23:1 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 Chittim it is revealed to them.

Ver. 1. The burden of Tyre. ] Heb., Tsor, whence came Tyre. It was the chief city of Phoenicia, the chief market of the East, a very microcosm or epitome of the whole world, for its wealth and wickedness. It was not far from Judea – our Saviour Mat 15:21 went from Galilee into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon – in whose misery she made herself merry, Eze 26:2 and is therefore here threatened with utter destruction.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, ] i.e., Of Tartessus, in Spain, or of Tarsus, in Cilicia, St Paul’s country, or of the main ocean.

For it is laid waste, ] viz., By Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards by Alexander the Great, who of an island made it part of the continent, and then razed it to the ground. a

So that there is no house. ] Or thus: So that there is no house, nor coming in for those from Chittim, is made known to them.

a Plin., lib. v. cap. 19.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 23

The last of these local judgements here comes before us – “the burden of Tyre.” This city is the type of the world’s commercial glory; wealthy, corrupt, and self-confident, but taken though not destroyed after a long siege by Nebuchadnezzar. Such historically is the destruction announced not here only but in Ezek. 26-28. Tyre and the Tyrians formed the centre of the merchandise of the ancient world, the emporium of all the commodities and the luxuries of that day, the link through “the ships of Tarshish” between the west and the east. Its fall therefore could not but affect painfully and universally the dwellers on the earth; and the rather, as trading rivals were fewer than now. Yet how would not in our day the overthrow of the proudest seat of modern commerce make itself felt to the ends of the earth? We know from elsewhere that the siege was prolonged for a term quite unusual, thirteen years; indeed we need not travel beyond the prophetic record (Eze 29 )* to learn how severe a task it was for the Chaldean conqueror; but so much the greater was the moral effect of its fall. So that Tyre and Sidon remained the proverbial and most striking warning of divine judgement, as may be gathered from our Lord’s reference.

*Zec 9:3 , Zec 9:4 alludes rather, It would appear, to the Macedonian chief who ravaged the sea-board cities of Phoenicia, and of Palestine north and south, so ruthlessly. This at least is the historic occasion, for the Holy Ghost, there, as everywhere has the closing conflicts in His eye, and the future triumph of Israel under the Messiah Some it may be added, think that Isa 23 refers to Shalmaneser’s siege of Tyre; but this seem’s to the last degree improbable as the city is seen soon after in an opulent and powerful state. Others even deny its capture by Nebuchadnezzar; but Eze 29:18 teaches not that he failed to take it, but that its results did not compensate for the time and toil the Tyrian ships having carried off the treasures elsewhere.

“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 Chittim it is revealed to them” (v. 1). There seems to be no need for departing from the ordinary sense of Chittim, either here or in ver. 12, in which the learned Bochart understands the Cutheans or Babylonians, and the meaning here to be “from the land of the Cutheans doth their captivity come.” Neither is there in Chittim any necessity to refer this burden to the sack of new or insular Tyre by Alexander the Great, as do Luther and others. The prophet calls the far-famed ships of Tarshish, first and repeatedly, to take up the dirge of the ruined mart for their merchandise, and intimates that though there was no house to receive them, nor haven for their ships to enter, the ill news would be revealed in the far west (primarily Cyprus).

“Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle (or, coast); the merchants of Zidon that pass over the sea have replenished thee. And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the river, [was] her revenue; and she was the market of nations” (vv. 2, 3) What a change, when silence reigned where once had thronged their neighbours, the merchants of Zidon, where the treasures of the enriching Nile were gathered, “the market of nations,” now a waste! “Be thou ashamed, Zidon, for the sea hath spoken, the strength of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, [nor] brought up virgins. As at the report concerning Egypt, they were sorely pained at the report of Tyre” (vv. 4, 5). Zidon was too nearly allied to Tyre, too intimately bound up with it, not to feel and suffer keenly; and as Tyre had been its boast heretofore, so now its degradation could not but darken their neighbours; since the very sea is by bold but happy figure made to bewail her desolation: whom had she pertaining to her lineage, now that Tyre was no more? And so it was with Egypt also. The Zidonians, though directly profited by Egypt more than all other foreign nations, did not more grieve over the ruin of Tyre than of their great southern ally.

Verses 6, 7 finish these addresses with a direct appeal to the Tyrians themselves, taunting their haughty merchants with the reverse that awaited them, the just recompense of their deeds “Pass over to Tarshish: howl, ye inhabitants of the isle (or; coast). [Is] this your joyous [city], whose antiquity [is] of ancient days? Her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn” (vv. 6, 7). Far from being an attraction to the ships of Tarshish, they must go and howl there themselves, they the men of the sea-girt land, whose city rang with gaiety, and whose years of proud security were only less ancient than Zidon, and yet more prosperous and eminent! Yes, they must go, and trudge sadly, painfully, in quest of some asylum in a strange land.

And why was this? Who would smite and prostrate the proud city of Phoenicia? “Who hath purposed this against Tyre, that giveth crowns, whose merchants [were] princes, whose dealers [were] the honourable of the earth?” (v. 8). The answer follows in verse 9. “Jehovah of hosts hath purposed it, to stain (or, profane) the pride of all glory, to bring to naught all the honourable of the earth. Overflow thy land as the Nile, daughter of Tarshish: [there is] no more restraint. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shaketh the kingdoms. Jehovah hath given a commandment on Canaan [or, the merchant city], to destroy the strongholds thereof, and hath said, Thou shalt no more exult, oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest” (vv. 9-12). Here the moral reasons are not given in full; we must search other prophets for all. But Jehovah’s opposition to the proud is stated, His scorn for the glory of man, His slight of all trust in earthly strongholds. Even in exile the Tyrians should find no rest. In the next verse we have the instrumental means He meant to-employ: “Behold the land of the Chaldeans: this people existed not. The Assyrian founded it for the dwellers in the wilderness: they set up their towers, they destroyed the palaces thereof; he brought it to ruin” (v. 13). The Chaldeans, who, in contrast with old Tyre, were nationally a people but of yesterday, are seen by the prophet bringing Tyre to ruin. Such appears to be the meaning, which is confirmed by the fresh call to grief of the ships of Tarshish in verse 14: “Howl, ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is laid waste.”

But the conqueror himself yields to an avenger. Babylon falls; and the full term of seventy years, which beheld the returning remnant of Judah, had a revival in store for Tyre but a revival of her meretricious ways, pandering for gainful trade to all the luxurious habits and corruptions of the nations. “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 for Tyre as a harlot’s song. Take a harp, go about the city, thou forgotten harlot, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that Jehovah will visit Tyre, and she will return to her hire, and will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the ground” (vv. 15-17). Nevertheless the last verse intimates that even this prophetic scene, though so largely accomplished in the past, is not without its bright side in the day of Joy to the whole earth. “And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to Jehovah: it shall not be treasured nor laid up [as in former days, when conscienceless tricks of avarice dictated the manner and objects of her trade]; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before Jehovah, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing” (v. 18). The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, when the King shall greatly desire the beauty of His earthly bride (Psa 45:12 ).

That God was thus pleased to reveal, not only about Babylon and the Assyrian, but about Philistia and Moab and Damascus about Egypt and Tyre, may seem little in the eyes of unbelieving philosophy; but what a favour to His people of old, the centre of all, and not the less because they were weak and worthless and continually turning aside from Him like a deceitful bow! What will it be to that people when they are His in a truer and fuller sense than ever, as they can only be when they judge their apostasy, both in seeking every idol, and in rejecting His Messiah and theirs? Then they will know, as petty and pedantic rationalists cannot through their false starting-point (at bottom the same unbelief as Israel’s), that all these prophecies form parts of a vast harmonious system, converging on His future kingdom over all the earth, when He receives it of God in association with Israel, then made willing in the day of His power, and strikes through kings in the day of His wrath, and judges amongst the nations (Psa 110:5 , Psa 110:6 ). Meanwhile the pride of commerce was judged in Tyre, as the pride of nature was in Egypt.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 23:1-7

1The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;

It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus.

2Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,

You merchants of Sidon;

Your messengers crossed the sea

3And were on many waters.

The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;

And she was the market of nations.

4Be ashamed, O Sidon;

For the sea speaks, the stronghold of the sea, saying,

I have neither travailed nor given birth,

I have neither brought up young men nor reared virgins.

5When the report reaches Egypt,

They will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

6Pass over to Tarshish;

Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

7Is this your jubilant city,

Whose origin is from antiquity,

Whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places?

Isa 23:1 Wail, O ships of Tarshish Wail (, BDB 410, KB 413, Hiphil IMPERATIVE) denotes loud shrieking. It is used often in Isaiah (cf. Isa 13:6; Isa 14:31; Isa 15:2-3; Isa 16:7 [twice]; Isa 23:1; Isa 23:6; Isa 23:14; Isa 52:5; Isa 65:14 and a related term [] in Isa 15:8 [twice]). See Special Topic: GRIEVING RITES .

Note this same phrase appears in Isa 23:14. Often a repeated phrase marks a literary unit, but here that does not fit well.

The ships of Tarshish were large commercial grain carriers, usually from Egypt. They became an idiom (as did Phoenicia and Canaanite) for merchants.

Tarshish This place name (BDB 1077) could refer to

1. a city in southern Spain on the Atlantic side, which was a Phoenician colony (i.e., Tartessus, Isa 23:7)

2. the island of Sardinia (cf. Gen 10:4)

3. a city on the north African coast (Carthage was a colony of Phoenicia)

4. a metaphor for a far distant port

5. a type of large sea-going commercial ship

6. a rival maritime nation (cf. 1Ki 10:22)

without house or harbor The city of Tyre had two divisions.

1. most of the houses and shops were located on the mainland coast (cf. Jos 19:29; 2Sa 24:7)

2. the palace, temple, and fortress were on an island (originally two small islands) just off the coast (cf. Eze 27:32)

This made it almost invulnerable until Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. destroyed the coastal part and used the debris to build a causeway to the island fortress (cf. Eze 26:3-5).

The ships from Tarshish had no where to offload their cargo, nor receive different cargo to take home.

There is a textual issue connected to harbor. It is literally come in (NJB, no way of getting in, BDB 97, KB 112, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT), which may denote a harbor or haven.

It is parallel to Isa 23:14, so NRSV translates the line as for your fortress is destroyed.

Cyprus The MT has Kittim (BDB 508), possibly taken from the name of a Roman city on the island of Cyprus called Citium, which was originally a Phoenician colony (cf. Isa 23:7).

Some identify the inhabitants with one of the sons of Javan, Elishah (cf. Gen 10:4; Eze 27:7).

Isa 23:2 Be silent This Qal IMPERATIVE is parallel to wail in Isa 23:1 (BDB 198 I). There is speculation based on a Ugaritic root that it reflects a separate root (BDB 199 II) lament (wail, TEV; lament, REB).

Sidon This was a coastal city (cf. Gen 10:19) of Phoenicia about twenty-five miles north of Tyre. It was originally the main city (cf. Jos 13:4; Jos 13:6). The name seems to have come from the eldest son of Canaan, son of Ham (cf. Gen 10:15). Tyre and Sidon are often linked together in the NT in reference to the nation of Phoenicia (cf. Mat 11:21-22; Mat 15:21; Act 12:20).

NASB, NRSV,

NJBYour messengers crossed the sea

NKJVWhom those who cross the sea have filled

TEVYou sent agents

JBwhose goods traveled over the sea

The NASB follows the Isaiah scroll from the DSS. The MT has passed over the sea (BDB 569, KB 583, Piel PERFECT) they replenish you. The term your messengers, in its inflected form, is very similar in Hebrew to the verb fill.

1. VERB, (fill,BDB 569, NKJV)

2. NOUN, (messenger, BDB 521, NASB)

Isa 23:3

NASB, JBthe grain of the Nile

NKJV, NRSV,

REBthe grain of Shihor

NJBthe grain of the Canal

PESHITTAthe harvest of the river

The MT has grain of Shihor, harvest of the Nile. Shihor (BDB 1009) means the pond of Horus (KB 1477). It referred to

1. an eastern branch of the Nile (BDB 1009)

2. a canal of black (BDB 1007 I) water

3. a lake in the eastern delta region

It is spelled differently in

1. Jos 13:13; 1Ch 13:5,

2. Jer 2:18,

3. Isa 23:3,

but all refer to the same area in Egypt.

she was the market of nations See Eze 27:3-23.

Isa 23:4 Be ashamed The VERB (BDB 101, KB 116, Qal IMPERATIVE) is used of God’s judgment on idols (cf. Jer 50:2). Here it denotes the shame of a defeated nation (cf. Isa 1:29; Isa 19:9; Isa 37:27; Isa 41:11). These nations can experience forgiveness and restoration if they will turn to YHWH (cf. Isa 49:23); this is also true of His own people (cf. Isa 29:23; Isa 45:17; Isa 54:4).

Sidon is personified. The NRSV footnote says Ruined Sidon is barren like the sea without sailors (i.e., young men).

Isa 23:7 This describes Tyre (cf. Isa 23:5)

1. jubilant city (i.e., prideful and self-satisfied, cf. Isa 22:2; Isa 24:8; Isa 32:13)

2. very old city (i.e., pride in their antiquity)

3. colonizing nation (pride in their international influence)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

burden = oracle.

Tyre. It had rejoiced in the misfortunes of Judah (Amo 1:9); so it is punished by the same king of Babylon (Isa 23:13). Eze 26:2-21.

Ships of Tarshish. See note on Isa 2:16 and 1Ki 10:22.

ships. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for the people in them.

house. In this case “port”.

Chittim. Originally used of Cyprus, but extended to the islands and coast-lands of the Mediterranean.

it: i.e. the fall of Tyre.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Now in chapter 23 he takes up his burden against Tyre. Tyre was, of course, a seaport town. It was the area… The people of Tyre were known as Phoenicians. And so you who are versed in your ancient history know of the Phoenicians and the tremendous navy that the Phoenicians possessed. They were merchants. Their ships plied the Mediterranean. In fact, they even went around the Cape Horn to bring back goods, merchandise and all. And the Phoenician navy more or less ruled the seas, and in those days the navies were used primarily for merchandising.

And so Tyre was the commercial capital of the world as far as goods and variety of goods and all. Commercialism more or less centered in Tyre in those days, the city of Tyre. So he is pronouncing now the judgment of God against Tyre, the commercial capital.

It is interesting as you go into the prophecies of Ezekiel that Ezekiel also in chapter 26 declares the destruction of Tyre. The description that Ezekiel gives in chapter 26 is much more detailed than is that of Isaiah. Ezekiel points out that there will be two enemies that will come against Tyre. The first one would break down their walls, destroy their cities, and so forth. The second one would take the rubble and cast it into the midst of the sea. And scrape the dust and cast it into the midst of the sea. And he goes on and he divides the sieges of Tyre between, “he shall do this, he shall do this, he shall do that.” And then it turns and the pronoun becomes “they and they and they.”

Now, as you look at your secular history, you’ll find that Nebuchadnezzar came against Tyre first; after a thirteen-year siege he finally took Tyre. But as the scriptures said, he’ll not get any spoil. And Nebuchadnezzar after thirteen years did not take any spoil. Because while he was besieging the city of Tyre, because he basically had a land army and the Phoenicians had all these ships, the people of Tyre during this period of siege actually moved to an island that was about a mile offshore. And they built a whole new city of Tyre on this island, so that by the time Nebuchadnezzar took the city of Tyre, the people had pretty well moved out to this island and thus he didn’t take any spoil. Just like Ezekiel said. But then Ezekiel said, “And they shall come and they shall take thy timbers and thy stones and cast them into the midst of the sea: and they will scrape thy dust and throw them in the midst of the sea” ( Eze 26:12 ). That’s a strange thing for a prophet to say about the destruction of a city.

So when Alexander the Great, couple hundred years after Nebuchadnezzar, came in his conquest of that area, when he came to the city of Tyre and made a demand that they capitulate to him, they said, “Are you kidding? We’re safe. We’re out here on this island. There is nothing you can do.” Well, he tried to gather a navy from ships in Sidon and so forth, and that invasion was crushed. And so Alexander the Great then launched upon this very interesting campaign of taking the ruins of the old city of Tyre, and he began to throw the rocks, the timbers and all, building a causeway out to the island. Finally taking the dirt and scraping it and dumping it on top so that he could get his machines for besieging the city and all, moving them along this causeway that he built and he fulfilled the weird prophecies of Ezekiel of scraping the dust and all and throwing it into the midst of the sea. And he built the causeway out to Tyre and finally took the city of Tyre, utterly destroying it and the Bible says, “And thy place shall be a place for the spreading of nets” ( Eze 26:14 ).

Now for years people just thought when they saw the ruins of the area Tyre that this was just a peninsula. But upon closer examination they discovered that it is exactly as the historian said, “This is the island city of Tyre.” And the peninsula that they thought was a peninsula is actually an artificial causeway that was built by Alexander the Great as he conquered the city of Tyre exactly according to the script. You’d think that Alexander had read the Bible or something. He would just follow the script perfectly as God declared.

The interesting thing when they finally discovered the site of ancient Tyre, when they finally realized, “This is Tyre”, they looked up and here were fishermen spreading their nets on the rocks there. Just like Ezekiel said, “And thy place shall be a place for the spreading of nets.” So again, God’s interesting Word being fulfilled.

Then in Eze 28:1-26 , he takes up this lamentation against the king of Tyre. But as he is speaking against the king of Tyre, the prophecy switches and he begins to address himself unto Satan, the power behind the king of Tyre. “How art,” no, that’s Isaiah. In addressing himself, Ezekiel says concerning Satan, “Thou was perfect in beauty, perfect in wisdom, perfect in all of thy ways until the day that iniquity was found in thee,” and so forth. “And thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God” ( Eze 28:12-13 ). And he is describing Satan.

Now Tyre was the center of the commercial system. God seems to have it in for man’s commercial systems. It would seem that God is not interested in men exploiting other men for their own profit. And God comes down hard against Tyre because of its commercialism. In the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, the final great commercial system that is destroyed, again, it says, “Weep and howl, ye merchants for you were made rich and so forth by thy merchandise and all.” But it says, “Rejoice ye in heaven for those men who have enslaved other men in debts and so forth are over, you know.” So that when we enter into the Kingdom Age you won’t find commercialism. Everyone that thirsteth, come and drink, eat freely. Commercialism will be over in the Kingdom Age. And all of us will share together in that kingdom and no one will be exploiting someone else for gain or for profit. And God really has it in for people exploiting others for personal gain or profit. And so he takes up the burden against Tyre, the commercial center.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them ( Isa 23:1 ).

So Tyre is to be laid waste. It was. This great commercial city.

Be still, ye inhabitants of the coast; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is the marketplace of the nations. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strongholds thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish ( Isa 23:2-14 ):

Now he speaks here of the Chaldeans or the Babylonians being the conquerors.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish for your strength is laid waste ( Isa 23:14 ).

The great Phoenician navy.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten for seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot. Take a 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 turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication 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 ( Isa 23:15-18 ).

Now in Psalms, a psalm of the Kingdom Age speaks of Tyre bringing her gifts and so forth unto the Lord in the Kingdom Age in one of the kingdom psalms. So ultimately Tyre will be used again only for the supplying of the kingdom of the Lord. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 23:1-14

Isa 23:1-5

THE BURDEN OF TYRE

Although this chapter is labeled “The burden of Tyre” in the first verse; yet it actually contains the burden of Tyre, the burden of Sidon, and the burden of the whole of Phoenicia.

There are four divisions in the chapter: (1) a prophecy of doom (Isa 23:1-5), (2) God is the executioner of wicked nations (Isa 23:6-9), (3) the extent of Tyre’s destruction (Isa 23:10-14), and (4) the prophecy of Tyre’s renewal (Isa 23:15-18). This chapter concludes the second major division of the prophecy, concluding the denunciations hurled by the prophet against a dozen nations.

Present-day commentators are reluctant to decide which destruction of Tyre is here prophesied; but the Assyrian “destruction” which is favored by some cannot be fully established. Sure, there were defeats of Tyre by a number of Assyrian invaders; but by paying heavy tribute, and by certain other accommodations the Tyrians were usually able to maintain some semblance of autonomy except in two instances: (1) that of the 13-year siege by Nebuchadnezzar from, 587-574 B.C., and (2) that of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. which lasted seven months and was completed when Alexander built a mole out to the island city and literally scraped all of it into the sea. Of course, critical commentators are blind to either one of these sieges on account of their absurd dictum about “predictive prophecy.” We feel very certain that these are precisely the sieges foretold by the prophecy. In fact, the mention of the Chaldeans in Isa 23:13 is the only proof of this needed.

Isa 23:1-5

“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 coast, thou whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. And on great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations. Be thou ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea hath spoken, the stronghold of the sea, 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 report of Tyre.”

TYRE

This city was one of the first great cities on earth. Herodotus gave the date of its founding as 2300 B.C. It stood for many centuries as the prime example of commercialism; and Hailey believed that it was in its capacity as a center of commerce that it received God’s prophetic condemnation here. Having already proclaimed the doom of great political and military powers, as well as the centers of decadent paganism, God, as Hailey saw it, was here denouncing “the world capital of commerce. We cannot fully agree with this, because Tyre in this chapter represents the entire coastal country. She is identified with Sidon in Isa 23:4; and “Tyre and Sidon” are mentioned together throughout the New Testament especially; and, even in the Old Testament, the godless wife of Ahab was identified as the “daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians.” She was the one who murdered the prophets of God, installed Baal as the God of Northern Israel and moved hundreds of pagan priests into the country. Therefore, although the selfish, wicked commercialism of Tyre was indeed condemned by the Lord’s denunciation here, that was by no means the full extent of their sins.

It is generally believed that Tarshish, as mentioned here must be identified with Tartessus, a colony of Tyre built upon the southwest coastline of Spain “beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which was the center of an important and lucrative commerce.

“No house, no entering in …” Such words as these denoted the total ruin of Tyre, something that did not occur until the ruin of the city by Nebuchadnezzar; and even in that conquest, Tyre continued “for the life of one king (seventy years),” in a sense “forgotten” and of no particular importance till later. The fulfillment of this line “no house … no entering in” took place in the siege by Alexander in 332 B.C. It happened like this: After taking the Tyre on the coast, Alexander tore down all the houses of Tyre, using them to construct a mole all the way out to the island city itself, which was literally scraped into the sea. The critics, of course, would date this prophecy, not merely “after the exile but after 332 if they dared; but Alexander himself indicated belief in these very prophecies.

“Merchants of Sidon …” Here Sidon stands for Tyre and all of Phoenicia. The ships of Tarshish (Isa 23:1) are the same vessels referred to here as “ships of Sidon.” After all, Sidon was the mother city of Tyre; and, “Old coins, excavated from the ruins of Tyre, carry the legend, “The metropolis of the Sidonians.

“On great waters the seed of the Shihor …” This is a reference to the extensive products of the Nile valley usually carried by the ships of Tarshish and Sidon to the great cities of the Mediterranean. “`Shihor’ is related to the word `black,’ which is given to the Nile river because of the black sediment carried by that river in its annual overflow. This name for the Nile also occurs in Jer 2:18, and in 1Ch 8:5.

“Be thou ashamed, O Sidon …” (Isa 23:4) “Sidon, called the mother of Tyre in Isa 23:12, is here represented as deeply affected by the calamity of her daughter. For the people of antiquity, childlessness was as great a disgrace as any other calamity; and Sidon’s daughter Tyre having been mined is here designated as the shame of Sidon.

Isa 23:5 refers to the pain that was supposed to come to Egypt over the fall of Tyre. As Rawlinson suggested, “Egypt bore no great affection toward any foreign nation”; but, as Tyre was a buffer stronghold on the Egyptian border, the fall of it would indeed be a source of pain and apprehension on the part of the Egyptians. Whatever nation would be strong enough to take Tyre could reasonably be expected to launch a campaign against the Nile valley also.

Isa 23:6-9

“Pass ye over to Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the coast. 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 bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? Jehovah of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.”

“Whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn …” (Isa 23:7). This is a prophetic reference to the selling of 30,000 citizens of Tyre into captivity, and to nothing else in the long history of that great city. Critical efforts to make this a prophecy of some other calamity in Tyre are futile. Regarding all of those conflicts with Assyria, and even in the case of the 13-year siege by Nebuchadnezzar, nothing that even resembles this is visible. Concerning all the invasions and assaults of Tyre prior to Alexander the Great, the Encyclopedia Britannica states that, “For the most part, Assyrian and Babylonian might spent itself in vain against Tyre’s defenses … But after a siege of seven months Alexander took it, slaughtered 8,000 of its citizens, later executed 2,000 more, and sold 30,000 into slavery! Of course, such slaves were marched to their destination on foot; and right here one finds Tyre’s own feet carrying her afar off to sojourn. Oh yes, this is indeed predictive prophecy. Isaiah lived in the eighth century; Tyre was “carried off on its own feet” in the fourth (332 B.C.)! Thus at last the old slave traders finally got what was coming to them. For ages “They had been present on battlefields, either stripping the dead, or bargaining for captives. On one occasion, they had even sold Israelites as captives, a shameful act that earned them this denunciation from Amos:

“Thus saith Jehovah, for three transgressions of Tyre, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they delivered up the whole people to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour the palaces thereof” (Amo 1:9-10).

“The bestower of crowns …” (Isa 23:8). This emphasizes the importance of ancient Tyre. All over the Mediterranean world, there were colonies and cities where Tyre had established petty dependent “kings” who cooperated with them in their worldwide system of markets. Jamieson called Tyre, “The city from which dependent kingdoms had arisen.

Of great significance in this paragraph is the use of the word “traffickers” (Isa 23:8). It never meant an honorable merchant, but a crooked deceiver. The word thus rendered here also may be translated Canaanite, or Phoenician; and one of the charges of the prophet Hosea against Israel was that they also had become “traffickers” in the crooked and deceitful sense (Hos 12:7).

Barnes suggested that the ruin of a great city so magnificent and so ancient would naturally raise a question as to who had purposed such a thing; and that question is raised in Isa 23:8. The thundering answer comes in the very next verse: “Jehovah of hosts hath purposed it!” Furthermore, the reasons underlying God’s purpose were also given. God wished to stain all false pride and human glory. He would punish and denounce that false standard of success that declared the crooked traffickers of Tyre as the “honorable of the earth.” Honorable they were not. God reduced, and he should have reduced such “honor” to the contempt it deserved. In our own generation, there are many examples of the same human conceit that God here punished.

Isa 23:1-3 WORLDS MARKET PLACE: Tyre was a city on the coast of Phoenicia. The oldest part of the city lay on the mainland; but the main seaport part of the city was located on two rocky islands about a mile off the coast of Phoenicia. Herodotus claims that Tyre was founded about 2740 B.C. The Tell-el-Amarna tablets contain an appeal from the ruler of Tyre, dated 1430 B.C. (just after the Exodus), imploring help from Amenhotep IV against the invading Habiri (Hebrews). Joshua assigned Tyre to the tribe of Asher, but in all probability the city was not occupied by the Hebrews (Cf. Jos 19:29). 2Sa 24:7 shows that the border of the Israelite kingdom extended to Tyre; and Davids palace was constructed with the help of Hiram, king of Tyre (2Sa 5:11; 1Ch 14:1). Hiram also furnished Solomon with cedar and cypress wood in exchange for wheat and oil (1Ki 5:1; 1Ch 22:4; 2Ch 2:3-18). Later, Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, and priest of Astarte, married Ahab, king of Israel (1Ki 16:31), and sought to introduce the Baal worship into Israel. Tyre grew in wealth and power through international trade. It exploited the cedar forests of the Lebanon mountain range. Tyrian purple, the product of the murex shellfish, was also a famous export. The cedar forests provided material for the famous Phoenician galleys, and, accepting the challenge of the sea became her way to wealth and fame. She exported her pagan religion along with trading her commerce. In 876 B.C. Tyre began to pay tribute to the king of Assyria and suffered some plundering in the battle of Qarqar, 853 B.C. But she still was able to assert independence. Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser both laid siege to the city. For five years she was under siege, but in 722 B.C. she made a treaty with the Assyrians. Finally her king was deposed by Sennacherib and she began to lose more of her independence. We shall continue with the history of Tyres demise at the end of this chapter.

The message of the prophet is that Tyres merchantmen and seamen who travel as far away as Tarshish (probably on the eastern coast of Spain) should look forward to a time of mourning over her. The time is coming when her famous ports will not be available for them to enter and sell their cargoes. Tyres final downfall is going to be international news! Men on her ships will be hearing it, when it happens, as far away as Kittim (islands in the Aegean sea). An old, established, international institution which no one thought would ever disappear, will fail. It will cause consternation throughout the world. There will be a shocked silence. People will be struck dumb momentarily by the news. Her fame was world-wide. She traded in an immense grain supply from the ancient granary of the world, Egypt. The grain of Shihor (Shihor literally means black) came from the fertile, black-dirt, fields of the Nile delta. Tyre was the middleman between the Egyptian grain resources and the nations much in need of grain. Tyre was actually the market place of the world.

Isa 23:4-7 WASTED MEMORY: Sidon is here used metaphorically to represent the whole region of Phoenician coast to be affected by the coming destruction. The Phoenicians were sons of the sea. They were great seafaring men. The sea is metaphorically their father. But after the future desolation of Phoenicia, the sea will have no more sons from that area. The great fleet of ships and navy of mariners which was once Tyres pride and joy will only be a matter for dejected shame. Tyres death will affect the whole world! Egypt, who depended on Tyre for trading, will suffer distress at the news. The citizens of Tyre are told that should they even flee to Tarshish they would find much mourning among the coastal cities of the Mediterranean at the downfall of Tyre. The whole Mediterranean and Aegean coast felt the blow. So the question comes-Is this the great wealthy and proud Tyre? Tyre had exerted profound influence on the world. The great city of Carthage, on the coast of north Africa, was one of Tyres colonies. The feet of her merchantmen traversed the whole known world. Now, what is she to be? Only a wasted memory!

Why was this judgment to come upon Tyre? Isaiah does not give us much light on the reason for judgment here. If we turn to Ezekiel chapters 26, 27, and 28, however, we find statements of the causes for her judgment. Tyre evidently took advantage of some calamity that befell Jerusalem and exploited Jerusalems affliction for her own advance (Eze 26:1-2). She was also proud and self-exalting (Eze 27:1-3). Tyres king uttered blasphemies against Jehovah (Eze 28:1-10).

Isa 23:10-14

“Pass through the land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more. He hath stretched out his hand over the sea, he hath shaken the kingdoms: Jehovah hath given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the stronghold thereof. And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon: arise, pass over to Kittim; even there shalt thou have no rest. Behold, the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not; the Assyrians founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the palaces thereof; they made it a ruin. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for your stronghold is laid waste.”

“Pass through the land as the Nile …” (Isa 23:10). This verse is admitted to be obscure in meaning; but Barnes thought that, “Just as a river flows without obstruction through a land, so the inhabitants would be scattered.

Isa 23:11 mentions the “destruction” of Tyre, a thing that actually took place only once, in the complete sense, but which also appears in this passage to speak of the destruction by Babylon, the successful termination of that 13-year siege, being certainly a sufficient “destruction” to put the city in a state of having been forgotten for some seventy years.

“Pass over to Kittim; even there shalt thou have no rest …” (Isa 23:12). “Kittim” here is generally held to be the same as the island of Cypress, a colony of Sidon, and one of the stops by ships of Tarshish on their way home to Tyre. On two occasions when Tyre fell, some of the people actually escaped in ships to Cypress.

“Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: this people was not …” (Isa 23:13). Lowth seems to have been correct when he declared that this means, “that they were of no account (Deu 32:21),” that is, without any significance as a powerful nation. As a matter of fact, Babylon (most surely indicated by this mention of the Chaldeans) was not important at all until, “Some powerful king of Assyria gathered them together and settled them in Babylon.” Echoes of this historical fact are in this verse.

The really difficult part of Isa 23:13 is in the words, “They overthrew the palaces thereof, they made it a ruin.” In our view, the first words of the next verse (Isa 23:14) compel us to interpret this as a reference to the overthrow of Tyre, not a victory over Babylon by the Assyrians. They appear in the verse as builders of Babylon, which of course, they were until Babylon rebelled and overthrew Assyria.

“Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for your stronghold is laid waste …” (Isa 23:14). All scholars admit the difficulty and ambiguity of this passage, and we are extremely suspicious of those who wish to see Isaiah’s prophecy here as something which he might have been able to foresee, rather than as authentic predictive prophecy of events centuries after Isaiah lived. Only in those instances of Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Tyre and of Alexander’s destruction of it may we actually find such terms as “laid waste” applicable to what happened.

We are delighted to note that a recent dependable scholar agrees with our interpretation that Isa 23:13-14 refer to the conquest of Tyre by Babylon, and not by Assyria. He wrote:

“In spite of the difficulties of Isa 23:13, since Tyre is the object of Isaiah’s burden, it seems that its ruin at the hands of the Babylonians, a people from the desert wilderness, is his topic here … The following verses bear out this view.

To us, no other interpretation of this admittedly difficult passage is acceptable.

Eze 26:16-21 carries another explicit prophecy of the destruction of Tyre, which also is a prophecy of the total destruction of the city, which actually occurred in 332 B.C. “Thou shalt never be found again … I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited … The isles shall be dismayed at thy departure” (Eze 23:18-21).

Isa 23:8-11 AUTHOR OF JUDGMENT: HOW shall the great fall of Tyre be explained? It will be of such magnitude and so far-reaching in its consequences something beyond what the eye can see must be the cause. Tyre, market place of the world, hub of the worlds commerce, builder of colonies, destined to be reduced to almost nothing? Impossible as it appears to the human eye! Tyre became a bestower of crowns, through founding of other city-colonies such as Carthage, etc. She also built up quite an aristrocracy of merchants known throughout the world as princes-of-all-traders. It would appear nothing human or natural could so completely erase Tyres hold on the commerce of the world. The answer comes from the prophet who asked the question. The answer is-Jehovah of hosts hath purposed it! The Lord God of Israel is the God of all nations. He is King of all kings. He purposed it. Tyres destiny is controlled not by chance, fortune, accident, coincidence, but by the will of the Omnipotent Creator of all mankind. It is one of the main emphases of the prophets that Almighty God enthrones and dethrones earths rulers in all ages. Jehovah, in His own good time and according to His eternal wisdom and purposes, permits nations and races to flourish and diminish. He governs the ups and downs of potentates and populations according to certain standards of justice, righteousness, morality and truth. In other words, His governing principles are not capricious or frivolous. Any ruler or people or nation who will make their main concern human dignity, freedom and justice will find Gods approval. But of course, human dignity, freedom and justice cannot be built on any foundation other than truth-truth about God, His identity, His nature, His revealed will. Any nation accepting falsehood about God as a national policy will find all other national structures crumbling into ruin upon such a ruinous foundation. This was the cause for the judgment of God upon one pagan ruler and nation after another. This was the cause for the judgment of God upon Israel and Judah. They did not govern themselves according to divine principles because they denied the Divine Author of those principles. Jehovah brought Tyre down for her pride. When the successful grow proud, they grow contemptuous and corrupt. Inevitably the exploitation of human beings by one another follows pride. So God has chosen to govern the world by bringing the proud down-by humiliating those who exalt themselves.

Tyres colonies (such as Tarshish) would be hampered in their own freedom by the mother city as long as she maintained such a strangle-hold on their economy. But when Tyre is defeated, Tarshish will be free of her restraint and will be able to expand its trade. Tarshish will be able to flow through her own territory as the Nile inundates the valley of Egypt. Isaiah emphasizes again in Isa 23:11 that this great, world-shaking upheaval was from the hand of the Lord. God creates both weal and woe (Isa 45:7). Evil does not befall a city unless the Lord does it (Amo 3:6).

Isa 23:12-14 AGENT OF JUDGE: Jehovah is the author of Tyres destiny but He usually employs human agents in carrying out both His deliverances and His judgments. When Tyres great devastation comes it will be as shocking and traumatic as a virgin ravished (raped). Even if she flees to Cyprus (Kittim) she will find no relief from the pain of her experience. But who shall ravish her? It will be the Chaldeans! The Babylonians are predicted to be Tyres assailants. When Isaiah first made the prediction of Tyres downfall the Assyrians would seem to be the most likely agents of Gods judgment but the prophet makes it clear the Chaldeans are to execute His punishment. So it was in 585 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon, laid siege to Tyre. The siege lasted 13 years and in 572 the city was overrun. From that time her stranglehold on the worlds trade was broken. However, her citizens escaped Nebuchadnezzar and fled to the islands a mile or more off shore and formed a new colony. The Babylonians, without much of a navy, could not conquer that stronghold. So Tyre remained at least a fortress protecting any advance of conquering armies down through Phoenicia enroute to Egypt and other points south. Alexander the Great, on his way to conquer the world in 322 B.C., conquered Tyre once and for all. His conquest fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah 23, Ezekiel 26-28, and Zechariah 9, in minute detail, as follows:

1. He used the captured fleets of other cities and attacked the new island city by taking the ruins of the old city Its timbers and stones and casting them into the sea and building a causeway out to the island.

2. Other neighboring cities were so frightened they opened their gates to Alexander without opposition.

3. The old city site was scraped flat like the top of a rock and today you may go there and find fishermen spreading their nets on its ruins.

4. There are great artesian wells there that would supply a city with water (10 million gallons daily) yet the city has never been rebuilt on the old location. Sidon, a city just a few miles from Tyre, has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over!

There remains a small city of no international significance (not on the original site) on the island. Travelers today may walk over the very causeway Alexanders armies constructed to give them access to the once proud and internationally powerful Tyre. God said it, and it was so! The mills of Gods justice may grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine! God oft-times uses human agents to execute His judgments (Cf. Isa 10:5-19; Isa 44:23 to Isa 45:7; Jer 27:1-11).

The English translation of our text makes it appear almost as if Isaiah were looking back on an event that has already transpired. However, the use of the past tense in the Hebrew language often is what we call the prophetic perfect-a past that is the equivalent of a very assured future. Tyres destiny is certain-so certain it may be looked upon as having already happened. So, though the past tense is used, this whole passage should be regarded as a prophecy which tells of the future overthrow of Tyre.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The burden of Tyre opens with a graphic description of her desolation. Her harbors are closed. Her borders are desolate. The sea, which had been her highway, is abandoned, and Egypt, her ally, is affrighted at the report. The desolation is then contemplated, and the inquiry, “Who hath purposed this against Tyre?” is answered. This desolation is the act of Jehovah.

In view of this fact, the utter overthrow is again described. The prophet then declares definitely that for seventy years Tyre is to be forgotten. After seventy years she is to be visited by Jehovah, and restored to a position of influence. There is no hint of Tyre turning at any time to God. According to this prophecy, when restored she will still play the harlot with the kings of the earth. Her restoration is to be in some way in the economy of God, of service to His own people. Nothing more than this is intended.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON

THE PROPHET ISAIAH

Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.

edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago

ISAIAH CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THE BURDEN OF TYRE

WE NOW COME to the last of these special prophecies, or burdens, relating to nations and cities with whom Israel had to do. Three of these may be looked at as very definite types of this present evil world, to deliver us from which, CHRIST died.

Egypt speaks of the world as we first knew it in our natural state; a scene of darkness, bondage, and death. Its Pharaohs were recognized by the mass of the people not only as kings but as gods, and divine honors were paid to them. Thus they may well speak to us of Satan, the prince and god of this world.

From Egypt Israel was delivered by the blood of the passover lamb and the omnipotent power of GOD who led them triumphantly through the dried bed of the Red Sea where Pharaoh’s hosts, who plunged in after them, were destroyed. On the farther shores of the Red Sea they sang praises to Him who had so wonderfully delivered them.

We too, through grace, have known such deliverance and can say that henceforth just as Egypt was dead to Israel and Israel dead to it, so we have died to the world and the world to us by our identification with the crucified Saviour.

Babylon speaks rather of the religious world – a religion based not upon divine revelation but upon the vain imaginations of men, not subject to the will of GOD.

From this idolatrous city the worship of images was spread far and wide throughout the ancient world. It has its counterpart today in the sphere of worldly religion which has a form of godliness without the power. We see it in its completeness in the mystery of Babylon the Great in the book of Revelation; a vast religious-commercial system which will dominate the greater part of the world after the Church has been caught up to be with the Lord. But at last the rulers of earth’s kingdoms themselves will tire of this incubus and will destroy it utterly.

Tyre speaks of the world as a great commercial system – where men through material pursuits seek to enrich themselves and their families, reveling in every kind of luxury and in forgetfulness

of GOD. This is the pervading aspect of the world as we know it today, when nation after nation is reaching out for commercial gain and people are living on a luxurious scale such as has never been known in previous centuries.

But the day is soon coming when all these things upon which men have set their hearts shall be destroyed and the present world system pass away. We may see a prediction of this in the prophecy relating to the doom of Tyre.

“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 Chittim 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 by great waters the seed of Sihor. the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre” (verses 1-5).

The prophet foresaw the complete destruction of Tyre as a great metropolis whose ships reached every known port in the world of that day. Sidon was the mother city but it never attained to the greatness of its daughter, Tyre, settled by merchants who left Sidon to build a great city by the seaside, partly on the land and partly on a rocky island some distance from the shore, the two being connected by a stone causeway.

The history of Tyre reads like a thrilling romance and will repay anyone who takes the time to acquaint himself with it. The Sidonians were Phoenicians, an active, progressive race from which sprang some of the more progressive peoples of modern times. They are credited with having invented the alphabet at a time when other nations still used pictographs in order to express themselves in writing.

Our own alphabet in many respects Is linked with these ancient Phoenician characters. It must have seemed incredible at the time of Isaiah’s prophecy that Tyre should ever become little more than a memory, yet the predictions were fulfilled to the letter. The Tyre of today is but a squalid reminder of the great metropolis of olden days. The doom of the city would affect nations as near as Egypt and as far away as Tarshish because it was through the ships of Tyre that their merchandise was profitably disposed of.

“Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle. Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. Who hath taken this counsel 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, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth” (verses 6-9).

Tarshish seems to be a somewhat general term, certainly including Spain, possibly also Great Britain. We are told that the Tyrian merchants brought from Tarshish tin, lead, and other metals (Eze 27:12). These were found in the mines of Spain and Britain, the very word “Brittania,” the ancient name of that island kingdom, meaning “the land of tin.”

On the other hand, in I Kings10:22 we are told that Solomon’s navy brought to Palestine from Tarshish, gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. The last came originally from India so that Tarshish would seem to refer not only to Western Europe but also to Eastern Asia.

Solomon’s navy made the round trip once every three years. This would suggest a lengthy sea voyage through the Mediterranean, out past the Pillars of Hercules into the broad Atlantic, southward past the shores of Africa, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, up through the Indian Ocean to Hindustan and back. It is noteworthy that these voyages were made in ships of Tyre, though belonging to King Solomon.

We can well understand how the great merchant princes of Tyre were looked upon as the honorable of the earth, even as today men give honor to those who amass vast fortunes through commercial enterprises. Unhappily, men who thus become wealthy, seldom give the glory to the GOD who gave them the ability to earn such vast sums. Tyre did not take GOD into account at all and so He would bring against it other great powers in order to “stain the pride of all glory,” for He has decreed that no flesh shall glory in His presence.

For us as Christians today it is the Cross of CHRIST that speaks of the shameful death of the One whom the great ones of earth rejected, but in whose death we may now see the end of all earthly glory. So with the Apostle Paul we may well exclaim, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, 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 Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest” (verses 10-12).

The destruction of Tyre would involve to a very large extent the loss of prestige of many of the great merchant cities which had been founded by or were in close alliance with Tyre. Tartessun in Spain was a daughter of Tyre because founded by Phoenicians. The Same was true of Cartagena and also of Carthage in North Africa. Chittim, or Cyprus, owed its prosperity chiefly to the business done with Tyre. Hence, the howling of the merchants of all of these commercial centers when the great city to which they looked as the chief source of their prosperity fell beneath the judgment of GOD whom it had ignored.

“Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength 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 shall Tyre sing as an 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 turn to her hire, and shall comm1t fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth”

(verses 13-17).

The immediate agency for the accomplishment of this prophecy of the destruction of Tyre was Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldean armies. Babylon, originally founded by Nimrod and known as Babel, had existed for many centuries, but it never became a great world power until it was enlarged and taken over by the Assyrians long before Nebuchadnezzar’s day. Separated from Assyria, it eventually became the dominant power in the region west of the Euphrates.

Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre and partially destroyed it, carrying away many of its people into captivity. During that same seventy years in which Israel remained in captivity, the Phoenician city was in a state of degradation and collapse, but after the death of Nebuchadnezzar and, a few years later, the capture of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, Tyre was largely rebuilt, though it never again became the commercial city it had been. But it sought to establish intimate relations with various surrounding peoples in the effort to recoup its misfortunes.

During the Persian period of world ascendancy Tyre flourished to some extent, but was at last almost completely destroyed by the armies of Alexander the Great when he overcame the Persians and conquered most of Western Asia and Egypt. Tyre has never come into prominence since and yet there is a future of blessing predicted for it.

It is evident that the last verse of our chapter, like so many other prophetic scriptures, carries us beyond the present age to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom of our Lord JESUS CHRIST.

In that day a new city will be raised up on the ruins of Tyre and will be subject to Him whose right it is to reign, and will bring her glory and honor to His feet. This is predicted both here and in Psa 45:12 where we see Israel, once more recognized as the wife of the Lord, and the daughter of Tyre among those who rejoice in her blessing and bring their gifts to the king.

“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” (verse 18).

~ end of chapter 23 ~

http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/

***

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

CHAPTER 23

The Burden of Tyre

1. Tyres great disaster (Isa 23:1-5) 2. The complete overthrow (Isa 23:6-14) 3. Tyres future restoration and degradation (Isa 23:15-18)Tyre typifies the commercial expansion and glory of the world. Behind this commercial glory stands Satan, the god of this age. Read Eze 28:11-19. Nebuchadnezzar carried out judgment upon Tyre Eze 29:17-21. A revival of Tyre is also predicted. We call attention to a statement in the beautiful Forty-fifth Psalm, a millennial Psalm. When the King appears, surrounded by His own, The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift Psa 45:12. It is what is indicated in Isaiahs vision, And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

burden See note 1;

(See Scofield “Isa 13:1”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

am 3289, bc 715

burden: Tyre, whose destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is here foretold, was a city of Phoenicia, on the shore of the Mediterranean, twenty-four miles south of Sidon, and thirty-two north of Accho or Ptolemais, according to the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries, about latitude 33 degrees 18 minutes north, longitude 35 degrees 10 minutes east. There were two cities of this name; one on the continent called Pale Tyrus, or Old Tyre, according to Strabo, thirty stadia south of the other, which was situated on an island, not above 700 paces from the main land, says Pliny. Old Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, after a siege of thirteen years, bc 573, which he so utterly destroyed, that it never afterwards rose higher than a village. But previous to this, the inhabitants had removed their effects to the island which afterwards became so famous by the name of Tyre, though now consisting only of about 800 dwellings. Jer 25:15, Jer 25:22, Jer 47:4, Eze 26:1 -Eze 28:25, Joe 3:4-8, Amo 1:9, Amo 1:10, Zec 9:2, Zec 9:4

Howl: Isa 15:2, Isa 15:8, Rev 18:17-19

ye ships: Isa 2:16, Isa 60:9, 1Ki 22:48, 2Ch 9:21, Psa 48:7, Eze 27:25

for it is: Isa 15:1, Jer 25:10, Jer 25:11, Rev 18:22, Rev 18:23

the land: Isa 23:12, Num 24:24, Jer 2:10, Eze 27:6, Dan 11:30

Reciprocal: Gen 10:4 – Kittim Jos 19:29 – Tyre 1Ki 10:22 – Tharshish 1Ch 1:7 – Kittim Psa 79:6 – upon Psa 87:4 – Tyre Isa 13:1 – burden Isa 13:6 – Howl ye Isa 23:6 – howl Isa 23:14 – General Jer 49:3 – Howl Eze 26:2 – Tyrus Eze 26:16 – all the princes Eze 27:30 – shall cause Eze 30:2 – Howl Jon 1:3 – Tarshish Nah 1:1 – burden Mat 11:22 – Tyre Mar 3:8 – Tyre Mar 7:24 – Tyre Luk 10:13 – Tyre Act 12:20 – Tyre Rev 8:9 – the ships Rev 18:11 – the merchants

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Isa 23:1. The burden of Tyre Tyre was an ancient and wealthy city, situated upon the Mediterranean sea, and for many ages one of the most celebrated cities in those parts of the world. The Greek geographer, Strabo, says, that after Sidon, it was the greatest and most ancient city of the Phenicians. Accordingly, Bishop Lowth makes no question but it is meant Jos 19:29, where mention is made of the strong city Tyre, as existing when Canaan was divided by lot to the tribes of Israel. And it is mentioned also in the fragments of Sanchoniathon, the Phenician historian, who is reckoned to have lived about the time of Gideon, or somewhat later. In the days of David and Solomon it evidently appears to have been a place of great note, and it continued and increased in its commerce, wealth, population, and power, during the reigns of the subsequent kings of Israel and Judah. When Isaiah uttered this prophecy respecting its desolation, (which he did one hundred and twenty-five years at least before its accomplishment,) it stood firm in its strength and glory, abounded in riches, and was especially mighty in naval power, having lately conquered the navy which the Assyrians had brought against it. Yet this city, according to this prophecy, was destroyed, and that twice; first by Nebuchadnezzar, and long afterward by Alexander the Great. The former it withstood thirteen years, at the end or which time the inhabitants, wearied out by endless efforts, resolved to place the sea between them and their enemy, and accordingly passed into an island about half a mile from the shore, where, as Vitringa has proved at large from good authorities, a smaller city already stood, accounted a part of Tyre, and where had long been the principal station for ships. The city on the island was by this means greatly enlarged, and was afterward termed New Tyre. This stood out against Alexander seven months; and before he could take it he was obliged to fill up the strait which separated the island from the continent. Although this prophecy first and more directly respects the former destruction, yet it seems to have some reference to the latter also; only it is here foretold, that seventy years after the former destruction, and before the latter, Tyre should recover her former power and glory, which came to pass accordingly. This is the eighth and last discourse of the second part of Isaiahs prophecies.

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish By Tarshish, it seems, Tartessus in Spain is meant, a place which, in the course of trade, the Tyrians greatly frequented: see note on Isa 2:16. Howling and lamenting are ascribed to the ships by a known figure; for it is laid waste It shall shortly be laid waste; so that there is no house, &c. Every house, or warehouse, shall be shut up, and all trade shall cease. From the land of Chittim it is revealed to them Namely, to the ships, that is, the negotiators and mariners of Tarshish, whose gain proceeded principally from Tyre, and whom the prophet here addresses; as if he had said, Lament and deplore the mournful fall of this city, which you shall hear of while you are trafficking in the most distant parts of the Mediterranean sea. Chittim, in Scripture, signifies all the countries lying upon that sea; and the words import that the news of the siege of Tyre should be dispersed through them all. Indeed, according to Jerome on Isa 23:6, when the Tyrians saw they had no other means of escaping except by sea, while some of them fled in their ships to the adjoining island, as mentioned above, others of them took refuge in Carthage, and in the islands of the Ionian and gean seas, from whence the news would easily reach Tarshish.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 23:1. The burden of Tyre. This was one of the most ancient cities of Phnicia, situate on a rock, seven hundred paces from the shore, though now joined to the land by the working of the sea. The Zidonians built and fortified Tyre for safety in time of war. It was rebuilt and improved by king Agenor, father of Cadmus. Gen 11:4. In Joshuas time it was called the strong city, and fell to the lot of Aser; but being deemed impregnable, no conquest was attempted. After the destruction of Troy, neas found protection with the Tyrians and sailed to Carthage, and finally to Italy. Tyre was the mother of navigation, the emporium of merchandise, and covered the seas with her ships. It had part of its city on the opposite shore. The inhabitants, though Canaanites at first, would by commerce presently become mixed nations.

Nebuchadnezzar besieged this strong place for thirteen years; during which time the redundant population were sent away to Carthage, and to the Grecian ports. When the Tyrians could hold out no longer, the merchants fled with their ships and riches to Carthage. When the city was stormed, eight were put to death, and two thousand crucified, the conquerors being enraged that they found no reward for their long siege.

Isa 23:3. The seed of Sihor, the river which limited the southern boundary of the promised land. 2Ch 13:5.The harvest of the river, the Nile. The reference is to the manner of sowing corn, as the inundation retired. Ecc 11:1. The harvests of the rivers formed a principal source of Tyrian wealth.

Isa 23:6. Pass ye over to Tarshish. The LXX read, , Carthage, and correctly no doubt. There is however another opinion given, 1Ki 10:22; which is favoured by Bochart, and by Poole; but the navy of Hiram, king of Tyre, and the navy of Tarshish are distinctly named. Carthage was a daughter of Tyre, built, according to Boistes chronology, in the year of the world 2398, and embellished by queen Dido in 2480. It stood on a neck of land between Tunis and Utica, and became the metropolis of a powerful republic, comprising Tunis, Sardinia, Sicily, and a great part of Spain. In the space of a hundred and fifty years, she maintained three Punic wars with Rome; and Hannibal her general marched an army from Spain into the heart of Italy, and menaced the gates of Rome with fire. At length the senate passed the severe decree, Delenda est Carthago. Let Carthage be destroyed. When Scipio announced his orders, the inhabitants ran about the streets in a frantic manner, tearing their hair, and uttering piercing cries to their gods. But Carthage rose again by Roman colonies, and became a grand seat of christianity. It was finally ruined by the Arabs, and left to this day like Babylon, in a mass of confusion. BOISTE.

Isa 23:8. Who hath taken counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, as to riches, splendour, architecture and commerce. Her merchants were princes, living in regal style, and loaded with wealth. Who could dare to storm the impregnable fortress, and ravage the queen of the seas. Ah, it was thy pride which made the Lord take counsel against thee, and decree to put the virgins neck under the rude yoke of the king of Babylon. The council of a senate should always act in subordination to the council in heaven.

Isa 23:12. Thou shalt no more rejoice, oh thou oppressed virgin. The title of virgin was delicately applied to all primitive cities that had never been stormed and ravaged by conquest. Thou must now fly for refuge to all the isles of Chittim, now called Greek Islands, and to the shores of the Mediterranean sea, and sing for bread.

Isa 23:14. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish. These spread themselves on the western shores of Europe and Africa. In the Saxon chronicle, edited by Ingram, 1823, we have an account of a Trojan or a Phnician colony who came in five long ships to the north of Ireland, and west of Scotland. Tha comon of Armenia.

Isa 23:16. Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot. The perfection of thy music, and thy melodious airs of Phnician song, may procure thee a pittance of bread in exile. What a contrast between the princely mansions, and the Tyrian purple, now changed for garbs of shame.

Isa 23:17-18. It shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, as in Isa 23:15. The days of one king, or the expiration of the Assyrian empire. Dan 7:17; Dan 8:20. The Lord shall visit Tyre, and cause her gradually to rise again; and her hire of merchandise shall be holiness to the Lord. As but little of this occurred after the seventy years captivity, in the worship of the God of Israel, the ultimate bearing of this prophecy must regard the conversion of the people to the christian religion. Bishop Lowth adds here, that after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and after being taken by Alexander, Tyre recovered its commerce, and wealth, and grandeur. St. Paul found disciples here. Act 21:3-4. Christianity flourished in Tyre till the city was taken by the Turks, in the year 639. It was retaken by the Christians, in the crusade of 1124. But in 1280 it was conquered by the Mamelukes, and taken from them by the Turks in 1516. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay, and is a mere rock.A French traveller, who visited the place since the revolution, remarks, I saw fishermen spreading their nets on Tyre. See Eze 26:14. Surely then, the holy men who were allowed to see the fate of Tyre, beheld it with the eyes of heaven. Had the prophets speculated as merchants, or divined as wizards, their presumption had been their destruction.From Jeremiahs sending his scroll to Babylon, we may infer that Isaiah made his vision known to Tyre.

REFLECTIONS.

Alas, alas! Oh virgin daughter of the seas, and pride of all the east! Thy merchants were princes; thy armies guarded thy country. Eze 27:10-11. Thy ships swept the seas, the masts of thy harbour were like a forest of trees, thy commerce reached to Britain, and made the nations rich. The land and isles of Thule (Scotland and her isles) were visited by thy ships. Why, oh virgin, living on a rock, didst thou forget the rock of ages! Why wast thou deaf to the Hebrew prophets? Why didst thou forget thy relations to a God! Why wast thou blind to the vengeance which sported on all the western nations, till at last the destroyers appeared under thy walls? There is a point when national repentance is too late.

In the fall of Tyre the proud and licentious cities of the earth may see the cloud suspended over their heads, and they should read in every tempest which shakes their towers divine instruction. Tyre was in alliance with all the nations of the earth, except the king of Babylon, and this king she little feared because of her insular situation, and maritime strength. Yet mark how she fell from the summit of her splendour. God gave Nebuchadnezzar a heart to persevere in the siege till the heads of his soldiers were bald, and their shoulders peeled with burdens. Her riches, instead of saving her, were the boon which tempted the army to persevere; and all her allies, by supplying her with corn, did but prolong the sore calamities of the siege. How vain to take counsel against the Lord, and promise ourselves security out of his protection.

Rich and proud individuals ought to be instructed, as well as cities and nations; for though the scale be smaller, the principles of equity are the same. Let us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the sacred scriptures, that we may hence derive a thousand arguments for repentance, piety, and the fear of the Lord.

Above all, let us mark the glimmerings of mercy behind the dark cloud. When the Lord showed favour to Zion, he would show favour to Tyre, the first builders of his temple. Hear the gracious words: Her merchandise and her hire shall no more be prostituted in whoredom, and to her idols, but shall be holiness to the Lord. Temporal glory shall yet smile on her port and commerce, and the worship of Jehovah resound in her synagogues and churches. Let christians attend this tragic school; let them hearken to Jehovahs voice, that their peace may flow as a river, and their righteousness abound as the waves of the sea, in all the plenitude of covenant grace.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isaiah 23. Oracle on Tyre.The date and authorship are alike very uncertain. If by Isaiah, the occasion may be the siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser about 727722 (p. 59), the historicity of which, however, is questioned by some, or Sennacheribs invasion in 701. The text of 13 is very suspicious, and its interpretation very uncertain, or it might have helped to fix the date. Isa 23:15-18 is probably a post-exilic appendix. Isa 23:1-14 is perhaps best referred to Nebuchadnezzars siege of Tyre, 585577 (p. 61).

The ships of Tarshish (Isa 2:16*) are on their way back to Tyre, and after they have left Kittim, i.e. Cyprus (Num 24:23 f.*), they hear the news of Tyres fate from ships in flight from that city. Let the inhabitants of Phnicias coastland (mg.) be dumb with grief and terror, she that has been enriched by the maritime trade of Zidon. The corn harvest of Egypt, whose fertility was created by the overflow of the Nile, was her revenue, and this revenue was the gain of the nations. The sea disowns her children, and Egypt is sorely troubled at the tidings of Tyres fall, whether from the loss of her market, or from foreboding that Tyres fate may be her own, is uncertain. Let the Phnicians emigrate to Tarshish, their most distant colony. Can this be the prosperous and ancient State whose enterprise had taken her citizens to such distant lands to trade and settle in them? Who has purposed this against Tyre? Tyre, the giver of crowns, who appointed the kings that governed her colonies, whose merchants are princes. It is Yahweh, whose design it is to humble those who are exalted in the earth. (The text and meaning of Isa 23:10 are uncertain.) Yahweh has stretched His hand over the sea, since it is by the sea that Tyre has relation with her colonies. He has commanded that the strongholds of Phnicia shall be destroyed. No more shall captured Zidon rejoice. Let her pass over to Cyprus; even there she will find no rest, for the long arm of the conqueror will reach her. (On Isa 23:13, see below.) The poem closes much as it began.

Isa 23:3. Shihor: i.e. the Nile (Jer 2:18).mart: render gain.

Isa 23:4. Omit stronghold of the sea as a gloss.

Isa 23:10. Heb. seems to mean, Just as the Nile in time of flood flows over the land, unhindered by its banks, so now Tyres colonies may assert their independence, the restraint of Tyre being removed. Usually the girdle is explained as a symbol of restraint, but generally its removal is a symbol of weakness. But this is very dubious, and the LXX read differently. Duhm emends Wail, fleet of Tarshish, there is no haven any more.

Isa 23:11. Canaan: i.e. Phnicia.

Isa 23:13. Extremely difficult. Heb. may be translated in various ways. Of these RV is perhaps the best, but it involves some violence. The best suggestion perhaps is that of E. Meier, that we should read Kittim for Chaldeans. The general sense is then that no rest in Kittim is possible because the Assyrians have laid it also waste. The detailed interpretation is still very uncertain.

Isa 23:15-18. For seventy years Tyre will sink out of notice and carry on her lucrative trade no longer. At the end of that period she will return to her former commercial activity. Yahweh will visit her, and she will make great gain by trading with all nations, but the treasure thus acquired will be dedicated to Yahweh to support His servants.

Isa 23:15. seventy years: from Jer 25:11 f; Jer 29:10.the days of one king: while the throne is held by one king, there is a continuity in policy, the state of things remains settled and unchanged, whereas on his death his successor may change everything.

Isa 23:16. A quotation from the song mentioned in Isa 23:15.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

23:1 The {a} burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of {b} Tarshish; for {c} it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of {d} Chittim it is {e} revealed to them.

(a) Read Geneva “Isa 13:1”

(b) You of Cilicia that come here for merchandise.

(d) By Chittim they meant all the isles and countries west of Palestine.

(e) All men know of this destruction.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The prophet described news of Tyre’s total destruction reaching sailors on ships of Tarshish moored in Cyprus. The Tarshish (lit. refinery) in view here was probably in Spain, but "ships of Tarshish" was a term that described the largest ships of the day capable of the longest voyages (cf. Isa 2:16). Tyre was a very important Mediterranean seaport north of Israel, and its destruction would impact maritime trade everywhere.

"It is not improbable that the whole of the Mediterranean may have been called ’the sea of Tarshish;’ and hence the rendering adopted by the Targum, Jerome, Luther, and others, naves maris . . ." [Note: Delitzsch, 1:406.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XVIII

TYRE; OR, THE MERCENARY SPIRIT

702 B.C.

Isa 23:1-18

THE task, which was laid upon the religion of Israel while Isaiah was its prophet, was the task, as we have often told ourselves, of facing the worlds forces, and, of explaining how they were to be led captive and contributory to the religion of the true God. And we have already seen Isaiah accounting for the largest of these forces: the Assyrian. But besides Assyria, that military empire, there was another power in the world, also novel to Israels experience and also in Isaiahs day grown large enough to demand from Israels faith explanation and criticism. This was Commerce, represented by the Phoenicians, with their chief seats at Tyre and Sidon, and their colonies across the seas. Not even Egypt exercised such influence on Isaiahs generation as Phoenicia did; and Phoenician influence, though less visible and painful than Assyrian, was just as much more subtle and penetrating as in these respects the influence of trade exceeds that of war. Assyria herself was fascinated by the glories of Phoenician commerce. The ambition of her kings, who had in that century pushed south to the Mediterranean, was to found a commercial empire. The mercenary spirit, as we learn from prophets earlier than Isaiah, had begun also to leaven the life of the agricultural and shepherd tribes of Western Asia. For good or for evil commerce had established itself as a moral force in the world.

Isaiahs chapter on Tyre is, therefore, of the greatest interest. It contains the prophets vision of commerce the first time commerce had grown vast enough to impress his peoples imagination, as well as a criticism of the temper of commerce from the standpoint of the religion of the God of righteousness. Whether as a historical study or a message, addressed to the mercantile tempers of our own day, the chapter is worthy of close attention.

But we must first impress ourselves with the utter contrast between Phoenicia and Judah in the matter of commercial experience, or we shall not feel the full force of this excursion which the prophet of a high, inland tribe of shepherds makes among the wharves and warehouses of the great merchant city on the sea.

The Phoenician empire, it has often been remarked, presents a very close analogy to that of Great Britain: but even more entirely than in the case of Great Britain the glory of that empire was the wealth of its trade, and the character of the people was the result of their mercantile habits. A little strip of land, one hundred and forty miles long, and never more than fifteen broad, with the sea upon one side and the mountains upon the other, compelled its inhabitants to become miners and seamen. The hills shut off the narrow coast from the continent to which it belongs, and drove the increasing populations to seek their destiny by way of the sea. These took to it kindly, for they had the Semites born instinct for trading. Planting their colonies all round the Mediterranean, exploiting every mine within reach of the coastland, establishing great trading depots both on the Nile and the Euphrates, with fleets that passed the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb into the Indian Ocean, the Phoenicians constructed a system of trade, which was not exceeded in range or influence till, more than two thousand years later, Portugal made the discovery of America and accomplished the passage of the Cape of Good Hope. From the coasts of Britain to those of Northwest India, and probably to Madagascar, was the extent of Phoenician credit and currency. Their trade tapped river basins so far apart as those of the Indus, the Euphrates, probably the Zambesi, the Nile, the Rhone, the Guadalquivir. They built ships and harbours for the Pharaohs and for Solomon. They carried Egyptian art and Babylonian knowledge to the Grecian archipelago, and brought back the metals of Spain and Britain. No wonder the prophet breaks into enthusiasm as he surveys Phoenician enterprise! “And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.”

But upon trade the Phoenicians had built an empire. At home their political life enjoyed the freedom, energy, and resources which are supplied by long habits of an extended commerce with other peoples. The constitution of the different Phoenician cities was not, as is sometimes supposed, republican, but monarchical; and the land belonged to the king. Yet the large number of wealthy families at once limited the power of the throne, and saved the commonwealth from being dependent upon the fortunes of a single dynasty. The colonies in close relation with the mother country assured an empire with its life in better circulation and with more reserve of power than either Egypt or Assyria. Tyre and Sidon were frequently overthrown, but they rose again oftener than the other great cities of antiquity, and were still places of importance when Babylon and Nineveh lay in irreparable ruin. Besides their native families of royal wealth and influence and their flourishing colonies, each with its prince, these commercial states kept foreign monarchs in their pay, and sometimes determined the fate of a dynasty. Isaiah entitles Tyre “the giver of crowns, the maker of kings, whose merchants are princes, and her traffickers are the honourable of the earth.”

But trade with political results so splendid had an evil effect upon the character and spiritual temper of the people. By the indiscriminating ancients the Phoenicians were praised as inventors; the rudiments of most of the arts and sciences, of the alphabet and of money have been ascribed to them. But modern research has proved that of none of the many elements of civilisation which they introduced to the West were they the actual authors. The Phoenicians were simply carriers and middlemen. In all time there is no instance of a nation so wholly given over to buying and selling, who frequented even the battlefields of the world that they might strip the dead and purchase the captive. Phoeninician history-though we must always do the people the justice to remember that we have their history only in fragments-affords few signs of the consciousness that there are things which a nation may strive after for their own sake, and not for the money they bring in. The world, which other peoples, still in the reverence of the religious youth of the race, regarded as a house of prayer, the Phoenicians had already turned into a den of thieves. They trafficked even with the mysteries and intelligences; and their own religion is largely a mixture of the religions of the other peoples with whom they came into contact. The national spirit was venal and mercenary-the heart of a hireling, or, as Isaiah by a baser name describes it, the heart of “a harlot.” There is not throughout history a more perfect incarnation of the mercenary spirit than the Phoenician nation.

Now let us turn to the experience of the Jews, whose faith had to face and account for this world-force.

The history of the Jews in Europe has so identified them with trade that it is difficult for us to imagine a Jew free from its spirit or ignorant of its methods. But the fact is that in the time of Isaiah Israel was as little acquainted with commerce as it is possible for a civilised nation to be. Israels was an inland territory. Till Solomons reign the people had neither navy nor harbour. Their land was not abundant in materials for trade-it contained almost no minerals, and did not produce a greater supply of food than was necessary for the consumption of its inhabitants. It is true that the ambition of Solomon had brought the people within the temptations of commerce. He established trading cities, annexed harbours and hired a navy. But even then, and again in the reign of Uzziah, which reflects much of Solomons commercial glory, Israel traded by deputies, and the mass of the people remained innocent of mercantile habits. Perhaps to moderns the most impressive proof of how little Israel had to do with trade is to be found in their laws of money-lending and of interest. The absolute prohibition which Moses placed upon the charging of interest could only have been possible among a people with the most insignificant commerce. To Isaiah himself commerce must have appeared alien. Human life, as he pictures it, is composed of war, politics, and agriculture; his ideals for society are those of the shepherd and the farmer. We moderns cannot dissociate the future welfare of humanity from the triumphs of trade.

“For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.”

But all Isaiahs future is full of gardens and busy fields, of irrigating rivers and canals:-

“Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

Blessed are ye, that sow beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.”

“And He shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal, and bread-corn, the increase of the ground; and it shall be juicy and fat: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.”

Conceive how trade looked to eyes which dwelt with enthusiasm upon scenes like these! It must have seemed to blast the future, to disturb the regularity of life with such violence as to shake religion herself! With all our convictions of the benefits of trade, even we feel no greater regret or alarm than when we observe the invasion by the rude forces of trade of some scene of rural felicity: blackening of sky and earth and stream; increasing complexity and entanglement of life; enormous growth of new problems and temptations; strange knowledge, ambitions and passions that throb through life and strain the tissue of its simple constitution, like novel engines, which shake the ground and the strong walls, accustomed once to re-echo only the simple music of the mill-wheel and the weavers shuttle. Isaiah did not fear an invasion of Judah by the habits and the machines of trade. There is no foreboding in this chapter of the day when his own people were to take the place of the Phoenicians as the commercial “harlots” of the world, and a Jew was to be synonymous with usurer and “publican.” Yet we may employ our feelings to imagine his, and understand what this prophet-seated in the sanctuary of a pastoral and agricultural tribe, with its simple offerings of doves, and lambs, and sheaves of corn, telling how their homes, and fields and whole rustic manner of life were subject to God-thought, and feared, and hoped of the vast commerce of Phoenicia, wondering how it also should be sanctified to Jehovah.

First of all, Isaiah, as we might have expected from his large faith and broad sympathies, accepts and acknowledges this great world-force. His noble spirit shows neither timidity nor jealousy before it. Before his view what an unblemished prospect of it spreads! His descriptions tell more of his appreciation than long laudations would have done. He grows enthusiastic upon the grandeur of Tyre; and even when he prophesies that Assyria shall destroy it, it is with the feeling that such a destruction is really a desecration, and as if there lived essential glory in great commercial enterprise. Certainly from such a spirit we have much to learn. How often has religion, when brought face to face with the new forces of a generation – commerce, democracy, or science-shown either a base timidity or baser jealousy, and met the innovations with cries of detraction or despair! Isaiah reads a lesson to the modern Church in the preliminary spirit with which she should meet the novel experiences of Providence. Whatever judgment may afterwards have to be passed, there is the immediate duty of frankly recognising greatness wherever it may occur. This is an essential principle, from the forgetfulness of which modern religion has suffered much. Nothing is gained by attempting to minimise new departures in the worlds history; but everything is lost if we sit down in fear of them. It is a duty we, owe to ourselves, and a worship which Providence demands from us, that we ungrudgingly appreciate every magnitude of which history brings us the knowledge.

It is almost an unnecessary task to apply Isaiahs meaning to the commerce of our own day. But let us not miss his example in this: that the right to criticise the habits of trade and the ability to criticise them healthily are alone won by a just appreciation of trades world-wide glory and serviceableness. There is no use preaching against the venal spirit and manifold temptations and degradations of trade, until we have realised the indispensableness of trade and its capacity for disciplining and exalting its ministers. The only way to correct the abuses of “the commercial spirit,” against which many in our day are loud with indiscriminate rebuke, is to impress its victims, having first impressed yourself, with the opportunities and the ideals of commerce. A thing is great partly by its traditions and partly by its opportunities-partly by what it has accomplished and partly by the doors of serviceableness of which it holds the key. By either of these standards the magnitude of commerce is simply overwhelming. Having discovered the world-forces, commerce has built thereon the most powerful of our modern empires. Its exigencies compel peace; its resources are the sinews of war. If it has not always preceded religion and science in the conquest of the globe, it has shared with them their triumphs. Commerce has recast the modern world, so that we hardly think of the old national divisions in the greater social classes which have been its direct creation. Commerce determines national policies; its markets are among the schools of statesmen; its merchants are still “princes, and its traffickers the honourable of the earth.”

Therefore let all merchants and their apprentices believe, “Here is something worth putting our manhood into, worth living for, not with our brains only or our appetites, but with our conscience, with our imagination, with every curiosity and sympathy of our nature. Here is a calling with a healthy discipline, with a free spirit, with unrivalled opportunities of service, with an ancient and essential dignity.” The reproach which is so largely imagined upon trade is the relic of a barbarous age. Do not tolerate it, for under its shadow, as under other artificial and unhealthy contempts of society, there are apt to grow up those sordid and slavish tempers, which soon make men deserve the reproach that was at first unjustly cast upon them. Dissipate the base influence of this reproach by lifting the imagination upon the antiquity and world-wide opportunities of trade-trade, “whose origin,” as Isaiah so finely puts it, “is of ancient days; and her feet carry her afar off to sojourn.”

So generous an appreciation of the grandeur of commerce does not prevent Isaiah from exposing its besetting sin and degradation.

The vocation of a merchant differs from others in this, that there is no inherent nor instinctive obligation in it to ends higher than those of financial profit-emphasised in our days into the more dangerous constraint of immediate financial profit. No profession is of course absolutely free from the risk of this servitude; but other professions offer escapes, or at least mitigations, which are not possible to nearly the same extent in trade. Artist, artisan, preacher, and statesman have ideals which generally act contrary to the compulsion of profit and tend to create a nobility of mind strong enough to defy it. They have given, so to speak, hostages to heaven- ideals of beauty, of accurate scholarship, or of moral influence, which they dare not risk by abandoning themselves to the hunt for gain. But the calling of a merchant is not thus safeguarded. It does not afford those visions, those occasions of being caught away to the heavens, which are the inherent glories of other lives. The habits of trade make this the first thought-not what things of beauty are in themselves, not what men are as brothers, not what life is as Gods discipline, but what things of beauty, and men, and opportunities are worth to us-and in these times what they are immediately worth-as measured by money. In such an absorption art, humanity, morals, and religion become matters of growing indifference.

To this spirit, which treats all things and men, high or low, as matters simply of profit, Isaiah gives a very ugly name. We call it the mercenary or venal spirit. Isaiah says it is the spirit of “the harlot.”

The history of Phoenicia justified his words. Today we remember her by nothing that is great, by nothing that is original. She left no art nor literature, and her once brave and skilful populations degenerated till we know them only as the slave-dealers, panders, and prostitutes of the Roman empire. If we desire to find Phoenicias influence on the religion of the world, we have to seek for it among the most sensual of Greek myths and the abominable practices of Corinthian worship. With such terrible literalness was Isaiahs harlot-curse fulfilled.

What is true of Phoenicia may become true of Britain, and what has been seen on the large scale of a nation is exemplified every day in individual lives. The man who is entirely eaten up with the zeal of gain is no better than what Isaiah called Tyre. He has prostituted himself to covetousness. If day and night our thoughts are of profit, and the habit, so easily engendered in these times, of asking only, “What can I make of this?” is allowed to grow upon us, it shall surely come to pass that we are found sacrificing, like the poor unfortunate, the most sacred of our endowments and affections for gain, demeaning our natures at the feet of the world for the sake of the worlds gold. A woman sacrifices her purity for coin, and the world casts her out. But some who would not touch her have sacrificed honour and love and pity for the same base wage, and in Gods sight are no better than she. Ah, how much need is there for these bold, brutal standards of the Hebrew prophet to correct our own social misappreciations!

Now for a very vain delusion upon this subject! It is often imagined in our day that if a man seek atonement for the venal spirit through the study of art, through the practice of philanthropy, or through the cultivation of religion, he shall surely find it. This is false-plausible and often practised, but utterly false. Unless a man see and reverence beauty in the very workshop and office of his business, unless he feel those whom he meets there, his employees and customers, as his brethren, unless he keep his business methods free from fraud, and honestly recognise his gains as a trust from the Lord, then no amount of devotion elsewhere to the fine arts, nor perseverance in philanthropy, nor fondness for the Church evinced by ever so large subscriptions, will deliver him from the devil of mercenariness. This is a plea of alibi that shall not prevail on the judgment day. He is only living a double life, whereof his art, philanthropy, or religion is the occasional and dilettante portion, with not nearly so much influence on his character as the other, his calling and business, in which he still sacrifices love to gain. His real world-the world in which God set him, to buy and sell indeed, but also to serve and glorify his God-he is treating only as a big warehouse and exchange. And so much is this the case at the present day, in spite of all the worship of art and religion which is fashionable in mercantile circles, that we do not go too far when we say that if Jesus were now to visit our large markets and manufactories, in which the close intercourse of numbers of human persons renders the opportunities of service and testimony to God so frequent, He would scourge men from them, as He scourged the traffickers of the Temple, for that they had forgotten that here was their Fathers house, where their brethren had to be owned and helped, and their Fathers glory revealed to the world.

A nation with such a spirit was of course foredoomed to destruction. Isaiah predicts the absolute disappearance of Tyre from the attention of the world. “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years. Then,” like some poor unfortunate whose day of beauty is past, she shall in vain practise her old advertisements on men. “After the end of seventy years it shall be unto Tyre as in the song of the harlot: Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.”

But Commerce is essential to the world. Tyre must revive; and the prophet sees her revive as the minister of Religion, the purveyor of the food of the servants of the Lord, and of the accessories of their worship. It must be confessed, that we are not a little shocked when we find Isaiah continuing to apply to Commerce his metaphor of a harlot, even after Commerce has entered the service of the true religion. He speaks of her wages being devoted to Jehovah, just in the same manner as those of certain notorious women of heathen temples were devoted to the idol of the temple. This is even against the directions of the Mosaic law. Isaiah, however, was a poet; and in his flights we must not expect him to carry the whole Law on his back. He was a poet, and probably no analogy would have more vividly appealed to his Oriental audience. It will be foolish to allow our natural prejudice against what we may feel to be the unhealthiness of the metaphor to blind us to the magnificence of the thought which he clothes in it.

All this is another proof of the sanity and far sight of our prophet. Again we find that his conviction that judgment is coming does not render his spirit morbid, nor disturb his eye for things of beauty and profit in the world. Commerce, with all her faults, is essential, and must endure, nay shall prove in the days to come Religions most profitable minister. The generosity and wisdom of this passage are the more striking when we remember the extremity of unrelieved denunciation to which other great teachers of religion have allowed themselves to be hurled by their rage against the sins of trade. But Isaiah, in the largest sense of the expression, is a man of the world-a man of the world because God made the world and rules it. Yet even from his far sight was hidden the length to which in the last days Commerce would carry her services to man and God, proving as she has done, under the flag of another Phoenicia, to all the extent of Isaiahs longing, one of Religions most sincere and profitable handmaids.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

Disfruta de miles de canciones cristianas en exclusiva sólo en Bibles