Isaiah 23

1. The burden against Tyre: Howl, you 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, inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, who pass over the sea. They have filled you.

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

4. Be ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed nor brought forth children. I have not nourished young men nor raised up virgins.”

5. As the report comes to Egypt, so they shall be grieved at the report of Tyre.

6. Pass over Tarshish. Howl, inhabitants of the coast!

7. Is this your joyous city whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands.

8. Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

9. The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

10. Pass through your land like a river, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more power to restrain.

11. He stretched out His hand over the sea; He shook kingdoms. The LORD has made a decree against the merchant city, to destroy its strongholds.

12. And He said, “You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed one, virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Chittim; also there you shall have no rest.”

13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people which was not. Assyria destined it for wild beasts who live in the desert. They set up their siege towers; they stripped its palaces. They made it a ruin.

14. Howl, ships of Tarshish! For your stronghold is laid waste.

15. And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will be as in the song of a harlot to Tyre.

16. “Take a lyre, go about the city, O harlot who has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs so that you may be remembered.”

17. And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18. And her goods and her wages shall be holiness to the LORD. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her goods shall be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat enough, and for choice clothing.