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Isaiah 23: What the Passage Says

66 claims across 18 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Isaiah 23 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a pronouncement against Tyre, the great trading port on the coast. Her harbor is laid waste, the ships of Tarshish are told to wail, Sidon is told to be ashamed, and the news travels to Cyprus and Egypt. The LORD of Hosts is named as the one who planned it, to bring down the pride of all that is glorious and to disgrace the honored of the earth. After seventy years Tyre will go back to her trade, described here as a prostitute's pay, and her earnings will then be set apart for the LORD, going to those who live before him for plenty of food and lasting clothing.

Claim by Claim

  1. 23:1
    • This is a burden concerning Tyre.
    • The ships of Tarshish are commanded to wail.
    • Tyre has been laid waste.
    • Tyre is left without house and without entry, the last word meaning either a way in or a harbor.
    • News of this was revealed to them from the land of Kittim.
  2. 23:2
    • The inhabitants of the coastland are commanded to be silent.
    • The merchants of Sidon are those who cross the sea.
    • The merchants of Sidon filled the coastland.
  3. 23:3
    • The grain of Shihor came over great waters.
    • The harvest of the Nile was Tyre's revenue.
    • Tyre was the merchant of the nations.
  4. 23:4
    • Sidon is commanded to be ashamed.
    • The sea, the stronghold of the sea, has spoken.
    • The sea said it has not been in labor.
    • The sea said it has not given birth.
    • The sea said it has not raised young men.
    • The sea said it has not brought up young women.
  5. 23:5
    • When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in anguish at the report about Tyre.
  6. 23:6
    • They are commanded to cross over to Tarshish.
    • The inhabitants of the coastland are commanded to wail.
  7. 23:7
    • A question is asked whether this is their exultant city.
    • The city's origin is from ancient days.
    • The city's own feet carry her far away to sojourn.
  8. 23:8
    • A question is asked who planned this against Tyre.
    • Tyre is the one that bestows crowns.
    • Tyre's merchants are princes.
    • Tyre's traders are the honored of the earth.
  9. 23:9
    • The LORD of hosts planned it.
    • He planned it to profane the pride of all beauty.
    • He planned it to bring into contempt all the honored of the earth.
  10. 23:10
    • The daughter of Tarshish is commanded to pass over her land like the Nile.
    • There is no longer a restraint, the word meaning either a girdle or a harbor.
  11. 23:11
    • He stretched out his hand over the sea.
    • He made kingdoms tremble.
    • The LORD has given a command concerning Canaan.
    • The command is to destroy Canaan's strongholds.
  12. 23:12
    • He said that she shall rejoice no more.
    • He addressed her as the oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
    • He commanded her to arise and cross over to Kittim.
    • He said that even there she will have no rest.
  13. 23:13
    • Attention is called to the land of the Chaldeans.
    • This people did not exist.
    • Assyria founded it for desert creatures.
    • They set up their siege towers.
    • They stripped its palaces bare.
    • He made it a ruin.
  14. 23:14
    • The ships of Tarshish are commanded to wail.
    • Their stronghold has been laid waste.
  15. 23:15
    • In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years.
    • The seventy years are according to the days of one king.
    • At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the harlot.
  16. 23:16
    • She is commanded to take a harp.
    • She is commanded to go about the city.
    • She is addressed as a forgotten harlot.
    • She is commanded to play well.
    • She is commanded to sing many songs.
    • The purpose is that she may be remembered.
  17. 23:17
    • At the end of seventy years the LORD will visit Tyre.
    • She will return to her hire.
    • She will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
  18. 23:18
    • Her merchandise and her hire will be holy to the LORD.
    • It will not be stored up.
    • It will not be hoarded.
    • Her merchandise will belong to those who dwell before the LORD.
    • It will be for eating to satisfaction.
    • It will be for fine clothing.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

23:1
"Burden" is the King James word for a prophetic oracle, usually one announcing doom; the Hebrew term can mean both a load to be carried and an utterance. Tyre was the richest Phoenician seaport, on the coast of what is now Lebanon, built partly on an island just offshore and partly on the mainland. Tarshish was a distant port reached by long ocean voyages, probably in southern Spain; "ships of Tarshish" became a standard phrase for the large deep-water merchant vessels that made such runs. Chittim (Cyprus) lay on the sea route home, so returning Tyrian crews would hear of the disaster there before reaching port.
23:2
The "isle" or coastland is Tyre's own territory: the main city stood on a rocky island a short distance from shore. Sidon was the other great Phoenician port, about twenty-five miles up the coast; its name is often used, as here, for Phoenicia and its merchants generally.
23:3
Shihor is a name for the Nile, or for an eastern branch of it near Egypt's border. Egypt was the grain basket of the region, and Tyre grew wealthy shipping and reselling that grain, hence "the marketplace of the nations."
23:4
"The fortress of the sea" is Tyre. The sea is imagined speaking as a mother who denies ever having borne the children now lost: with Tyre destroyed, the sea can claim no offspring at all. In this culture childlessness was a public disgrace, which is why Sidon is told to be ashamed.
23:5
The Hebrew allows two readings, and translators split between them: either that people will react to Tyre's fall as they once reacted to news of Egypt's, or that the news will reach Egypt itself and cause anguish there. Egypt was Tyre's chief trading partner.
23:7
To "sojourn" is to live somewhere as a resident foreigner, housed, but without land, kin, or legal standing. The proud city becomes a refugee on foot.
23:8
"The crowning city" or "bestower of crowns": Tyre founded colonies around the Mediterranean (Carthage among them) and installed their rulers. Calling merchants "princes" was pointed, in most ancient societies rank came from land and warfare, not trade.
23:9
"The LORD of hosts" renders a Hebrew title meaning commander of armies. Printed in small capitals, LORD stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which readers of the Hebrew did not pronounce aloud.
23:10
The Nile flooded each year and spread across the land with nothing to hold it in. The final Hebrew word is uncertain: it can mean a restraining belt (hence "no more strength" to hold you in) or a harbor, which is why other translations read "there is no longer a harbor." "Daughter of Tarshish" is a normal Hebrew way of saying the people of that city.
23:11
The Hebrew word here is "Canaan," the wider land Phoenicia belonged to; the same word was also used to mean "trader," which is why the King James renders it "the merchant city."
23:12
A "virgin daughter" of a city means a city never yet captured, the image is of a town whose walls have never been forced. "Daughter of Sidon" again means the people of Sidon.
23:13
This verse is unusually obscure in the Hebrew and translations differ widely. The Chaldeans were the people of southern Babylonia. The gist is a warning example: a nation Assyria built up, besieged, and left in ruins, the same could happen to Tyre.
23:15
Seventy years is a round figure for a long, complete span. "The days of one king" means the length of a single reign or a king's lifetime, i.e. a whole generation would pass with Tyre out of business.
23:16
The picture is an aging prostitute no longer sought out, walking the streets with an instrument and singing to draw customers back. Applied to Tyre, it means the city must court its old trading partners all over again.
23:17
"Visit" in the King James means to turn attention to someone, for help or for punishment; here it is for restoration. Prophets routinely described a city's trade and treaty dealings with many foreign nations as prostitution: partners courted for payment. "Her hire" is the prostitute's fee, and stands for Tyre's commercial profits.
23:18
"Holiness to the LORD" was the phrase engraved on the gold plate worn on the high priest's turban; it marks something set apart for God's exclusive use rather than describing a moral quality. "Not treasured nor laid up" means not banked in Tyre's vaults but spent as it comes in. "Those that dwell before the LORD" are the people serving at the temple in Jerusalem, who lived on what worshipers brought.

Read Isaiah 23