Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 23:6
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
6. The second strophe commences here with a summons to the Phnicians to betake themselves to their Spanish colony for refuge, their own country being at the mercy of the invader. So the Tyrians, when attacked by Alexander the Great, sent all those unfit for war to Carthage, another western colony. Gesenius instances also the projected emigration of the Dutch merchants to Batavia in 1672 if the independence of Holland should be overthrown.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pass ye over – That is, ye inhabitants of tyre. This is an address to Tyre, in view of her approaching destruction; and is designed to signify that when the city was destroyed, its inhabitants would flee to its colonies, and seek refuge and safety there. As Tarshish was one of its principal colonies, and as the ships employed by Tyre would naturally sail to Tarshish, the inhabitants are represented as fleeing there on the attack of Nebucbadnezzar. That the inhabitants of Tyre did fire in this manner, is expressly asserted by Jerome upon the authority of Assyrian histories which are now lost. We have read, says he, in the histories of the Assyrians, that when the Tyrians were besieged, after they saw no hope of escaping, they went on board their ships, and fled to Cartilage, or to some islands of the Ionian and AEgean Sea (Jerome in loc.) And again (on Ezek. 29) he says, When the Tyrians saw that the works for carrying on the siege were perfected, and the foundations of the walls were shaken by the battering rams, whatever precious things in gold, silver, clothes, and various kinds of furniture the nobility had, they put them on board their ships, and carried to the islands. So that the city being taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor. Diodorus (xvii. 41) relates the same thing of the Tyrians during the siege of Alexander the Great, where he says that they took their wives and children to Carthage.
Howl – Deep grief among the Orientals was usually expressed by a loud, long, and most dismal howl or shriek (see the note at Isa 15:2).
Ye inhabitants of the isle – Of Tyre. The word isle, however, may be taken as in Isa 20:6 (see the note on that place), in, the sense of coast, or maritime country in general, and possibly may be intended to denote Old Tyre, or the coast of Phenicia in general, though most naturally it applies to the city built on the island.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pass ye over to Tarshish; flee from your own country to Tarsus of Cilicia, and there bewail your calamities. Or rather, as others render the place, Pass over the sea, which is oft called Tarshish; of which See Poole “Isa 23:1“.
Of the isle; of Tyrus, as before, Isa 23:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Pass . . . overEscape fromTyre to your colonies as Tarshish (compare Isa23:12). The Tyrians fled to Carthage and elsewhere, both at thesiege under Nebuchadnezzar and that under Alexander.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Pass ye over to Tarshish,…. Either to Tartessus in Spain, or to Tarsus in Cilicia, which lay over against them, and to which they might transport themselves, families, and substance, with greater ease; or “to a province of the sea”, as the Targum, any other seaport; the Septuagint says to Carthage, which was a colony of the Tyrians; and hither the Assyrian u historians say they did transport themselves; though Kimchi thinks this is spoken, not to the Tyrians, but to the merchants that traded with them, to go elsewhere with their merchandise, since their goods could no more be disposed of in that city as usual.
Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle: of Tyre, as in Isa 23:2 or of every isle, as Aben Ezra, which traded here, because now their commerce was at an end; so Kimchi.
u Apud Hieron. in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The inhabitants of Tyre, who desired to escape from death or transportation, are obliged to take refuge in the colonies, and the farther off the better: not in Cyprus, not in Carthage (as at the time when Alexander attacked the insular Tyre), but in Tartessus itself, the farthest off towards the west, and the hardest to reach. “Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast! Is this your fate, thou full of rejoicing, whose origin is from the days of the olden time, whom her feet carried far away to settle? Who hath determined such a thing concerning Tzor, the distributor of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the chief men of the earth? Jehovah of hosts hath determined it, to desecrate the pomp of every kind of ornament, to dishonour the chief men of the earth, all of them.” The exclamation “howl ye” ( heillu ) implies their right to give themselves up to their pain. In other cases complaint is unmanly, but here it is justifiable (compare Isa 15:4). In Isa 23:7 the question arises, whether allizah is a nominative predicate, as is generally assumed ( “Is this, this deserted heap of ruins, your formerly rejoicing city?”), or a vocative. We prefer the latter, because there is nothing astonishing in the omission of the article in this case (Isa 22:2; Ewald, 327, a); whereas in the former case, although it is certainly admissible (see Isa 32:13), it is very harsh (compare Isa 14:16), and the whole expression a very doubtful one to convey the sense of . To allizah there is attached the descriptive, attributive clause: whose origin ( kadmah , Eze 16:55) dates from the days of the olden time; and then a second “whose feet brought her far away ( raglaim construed as a masculine, as in Jer 13:16, for example) to dwell in a foreign land. This is generally understood as signifying transportation by force into an enemy’s country. But Luzzatto very properly objects to this, partly on the ground that (her feet carried her) is the strongest expression that can be used for voluntary emigration, to which lagur (to settle) also corresponds; and partly because we miss the antithetical , which we should expect with this interpretation. The reference is to the trading journeys which extended “far away” (whether by land or sea), and to the colonies, i.e., the settlements founded in those distant places, that leading characteristic of the Tyro-Phoenician people (this is expressed in the imperfect by yobiluah , quam portabant ; gur is the most appropriate word to apply to such settlements: for m erachok , see at Isa 17:13). Sidon was no doubt older than Tyre, but Tyre was also of primeval antiquity. Strabo speaks of its as the oldest Phoenician city “after Sidon;” Curtius calls it vetustate originis insignis ; and Josephus reckons the time from the founding of Tyre to the building of Solomon’s temple as 240 years ( Ant. viii. 3, 1; compare Herod. ii. 44). Tyre is called hammaeatirah , not as wearing a crown (Vulg. quondam coronata ), but as a distributor of crowns (Targum). Either would be suitable as a matter of fact; but the latter answers better to the hiphil (as hikrn , hiphrs , which are expressive of results produced from within outwards, can hardly be brought into comparison). Such colonies as Citium, Tartessus, and at first Carthage, were governed by kings appointed by the mother city, and dependent upon her. Her merchants were princes (compare Isa 10:8), the most honoured of the earth; acquires a superlative meaning from the genitive connection (Ges. 119, 2). From the fact that the Phoenicians had the commerce of the world in their hands, a merchant was called c enaani or c enaan (Hos 12:8; from the latter, not from c inani , the plural c inanim which we find here is formed), and the merchandise c inah . The verb c hillel , to desecrate or profane, in connection with the “pomp of every kind of ornament,” leads us to think more especially of the holy places of both insular and continental Tyre, among which the temple of Melkarth in the new city of the former was the most prominent (according to the Arrian, Anab. ii. 16, ). These glories, which were thought so inviolable, Jehovah will profane. “ To dishonour the chief men: ” l e hakel ( ad ignominiam deducere , Vulg.) as in Isa 8:22.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. Pass ye over to Tarshish. He addresses not only the inhabitants of Tyre, but foreigners who were connected with them by trading, and bids them go elsewhere and seek new harbours: and he mentions Cilicia, which was opposite to Tyre, as if he had said, “That shore, which was wont to be well supplied with harbours, will henceforth be forsaken, so that ships will sail in a very different direction;” for when a harbour or a mercantile city has been ruined, merchants commonly go in search of another.
Howl, ye inhabitants of the island. (107) “Island,” as we have formerly explained, is here put for “islands;” for the change of number is very customary with Hebrew writers. He foretells that they will lament, because their support depended entirely on that traffic, and because their accounts and reckonings (108) were scattered about in all directions.
(107) Bogus footnote
(108) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Pass ye over to Tarshish . . .The words have the ring of a keen irony. The Tyrians are told to go to Tarshish, the extreme point of their commerce; not, as before, to bring back their wealth, but to seek safety there as exiles. No nearer asylum would give them safety. So, in the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great, the Tyrians sent their old men, women, and children to Carthage (Diod. Sic. xvii. 41). So Layard (Nineveh, plate 71) represents enemies of the Assyrians taking refuge in ships (Cheyne). The isle or coast is, as before, Tyre, and. its neighbourhoods.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Tarshish Tyre’s remote colonies, especially Tartessus, near the Straits of Gibraltar. In the stress upon Tyre her people are advised to seek refuge there. The siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and still more by Alexander, was sufficient occasion for such advice.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 23:6-7. Pass ye over to Tarshish The prophet now turns his discourse to Tyre itself; and commands or exhorts such of the inhabitants, not of insular Tyre only, but of the whole maritime coast subject to the dominion of Tyre, as should remain from this overthrow, to go to Tartessus or Gades, that there they might deplore the fate of their city, and mutually lament its destruction with those who would feel their grief, as deriving their original from the same city. Whenever the prophets denounce the downfal of a city or kingdom, they usually describe, by way of contrast, its present flourishing condition, to shew, in a stronger point of view, how Providence shifteth the scene, and ordereth all events. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel observe the same method with regard to Tyre. Isaiah speaks of it here as a place of great antiquity: Is this your triumphant city, whose antiquity is of the earliest date? and it is mentioned as a strong place as early as in the days of Joshua: Jos 19:29. Strabo mentions it as, next to Sidon, the greatest and most ancient city of the Phoenicians. Quintus Curtius says, it is a city remarkable to posterity, both for the antiquity of its origin, and for its frequent change of fortune. The ironical expression of the prophet, Is this your triumphant city, &c.? implies that the Tyrians were apt to boast of their antiquity; and from Herodotus’s account it appears that they did so. Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician historian, who is reckoned to have lived about the time of Gideon, has mentioned in his Fragments that part of Tyre which stood upon the continent. Vitringa renders the last clause of the seventh verse, Whose feet have carried her afar off to sojourn; which he thinks to be strongly descriptive, not only of the Tyrian navigations into distant countries, but also of the variety of colonies which they were so remarkable for planting.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 23:6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
Ver. 6. Pass ye over to Tarshish. ] Tyrii migrate coloni, be packing any whither, and make any shift to save your lives, Ultra Sauromatas fugite hinc, &c. To Carthage many of them went, say some; and the Septuagint; for ships of Tarshish Isa 23:1 have ships of Carthage.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pass: Isa 23:10, Isa 23:12, Isa 21:15
howl: Isa 23:1, Isa 23:2, Isa 16:7
Reciprocal: 1Ki 10:22 – Tharshish Isa 23:14 – General Jer 49:3 – Howl Eze 27:12 – General Eze 27:35 – the inhabitants Eze 30:2 – Howl Jon 1:3 – Tarshish
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 23:6-7. Pass ye over to Tarshish Flee from your own country to Tartessus in Spain, and there bewail your calamity. Or, betake yourselves for refuge to some of the parts to which you used to traffic. The LXX. say, , to Carthage, which was a colony transplanted from Tyre. Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle Of Tyre, as Isa 23:2. Is this your joyous city? That formerly lived in so much pomp, and pleasure, and security? Whose antiquity is of ancient days See on Isa 23:1. Tyre, though not so old as Zidon, yet certainly was of very high antiquity. Justin, in the passage above quoted, had dated the building of it at a certain number of years before the taking of Troy; but the number is lost in the present copies. Her own feet shall carry her Whereas before, like a delicate lady, she would not set her foot to the ground, but used to be carried in stately chariots; afar off to sojourn To seek for new habitations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:6 Pass ye over to {l} Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the isle.
(l) Tyrus wills other merchants to go to Cilicia, and to come no more there.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Isaiah advised refugees to flee from Tyre to Tarshish. How the course of Tyre’s fate would change! She had for centuries been a world power, not as an empire but as a broker of international trade. Her ambitions were not political, to rule others, but commercial, to grow rich. As such, Tyre symbolizes one aspect of worldly endeavor.