Isaiah 23

¹The oracle concerning Tyre . Wail , O ships of Tarshish , for Tyre is laid waste , without house or harbor ! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.

²Be still , O inhabitants of the coast ; the merchants of Sidon , who cross the sea , have filled you.

³And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor , the harvest of the Nile ; you were the merchant of the nations .

⁴Be ashamed , O Sidon , for the sea has spoken , the stronghold of the sea , saying : I have neither labored nor given birth , I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women .

⁵When the report comes to Egypt , they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre .

⁶Cross over to Tarshish ; wail , O inhabitants of the coast !

⁷Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old , whose feet carried her to settle far away ?

⁸Who has purposed this against Tyre , the bestower of crowns , whose merchants were princes , whose traders were the honored of the earth ?

⁹The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory , to dishonor all the honored of the earth .

¹⁰Cross over your land like the Nile , O daughter of Tarshish ; there is no restraint anymore .

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea ; he has shaken the kingdoms ; the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds .

¹²And he said : You will no more exult , O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon ; arise , cross over to Cyprus , even there you will have no rest .

¹³Behold the land of the Chaldeans ! This is the people that was not ; Assyria destined it for wild beasts . They erected their siege towers , they stripped her palaces bare , they made her a ruin .

¹⁴Wail , O ships of Tarshish , for your stronghold is laid waste .

¹⁵In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years , like the days of one king . At the end of seventy years , it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute :

¹⁶Take a harp ; go about the city , O forgotten prostitute ! Make sweet melody ; sing many songs , that you may be remembered .

¹⁷At the end of seventy years , the Lord will visit Tyre , and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth .

¹⁸Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored or hoarded , but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.