Frameworks:
Isaiah 23: Against
Tyre
Context:
1.2.2
Second wave Ch.21-23
Ch.21
– Against
Babylon, against Edom & against Arabia
Ch.22
– Against Jerusalem
Ch.23
– Against
Tyre
This
Chapter:
v.1-3
Tyre's fall prophesied
v.4-6
The effect of her fall on other trading partners
v.7-12
This is clearly a judgment of God
v.13-16
Learn from the recent past, this will happen – and last!
v.17,18
She will eventually be restored and yet her profits will go
to God's people
[Introductory
Comment: Ezekiel had brought words and
lament over Tyre that had taken up three chapters [Ezek 26-28],
but this of course comes many years before his words. See our
Ezek 26 ‘Preliminary Comments' for description etc. of Tyre that
also comes out below. Ezek 27:12-23 shows the extent of Tyre's
trading.
Isaiah
speaks of Tyre's destruction [v.1] after having been for so long
a prosperous trading port [v.2] for the nations [v.3] along with
her mother city [that had originally founded Tyre], Sidon [v.4].
Prophetic reference to the sea may mean the peoples of the world
[as the term often is used prophetically], and the implication
of v.4 may be the world saying Sidon is childless now. This will
impact her trading partners across the world [v.5,6] but it is
clearly an act of God [v.7-12], a destruction that will last for
seventy years [v.13-16] before the Lord restores her for His own
purposes [v.17,18]. A chapter of severe warning.]
v.1-4
Tyre's fall prophesied
v.1 (The
spotlight shines on that coastal trading centre of Tyre) A
prophecy against Tyre:
Wail,
you ships of Tarshish!
For Tyre is destroyed
and left without house or harbour.
From the land of Cyprus
word has come to them.
v.2
(The sounds of the prosperous
will be ended) Be
silent, you people of the island
and you merchants of Sidon,
whom the seafarers have enriched.
v.3 (She
had been a great trading place) On
the great waters
came the grain of the Shihor;
the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre,
and she became the market-place of the
nations
v.4
(The mother port of Tyre,
about 25 miles north, now made childless – see above) Be
ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,
for the sea has spoken:
‘I have neither been in labour nor given birth;
I have neither reared sons nor brought
up daughters.'
v.5-6
The effect of her fall on other trading partners
v.5 (When
Egypt hears of their downfall of their trading partner they will
be in anguish) When
word comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish at the report
from Tyre.
v.6 (Up
in Tarshish in Spain, similarly) Cross
over to Tarshish;
wail, you people of the island.
v.7-12
This is clearly a judgment of God
v.7
(No longer a city of
merriment) Is
this your city of revelry,
the old, old city,
whose feet have taken her
to settle in far-off lands?
v.8 (How
did this comer to powerful Tyre?) Who
planned this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants are princes,
whose traders are renowned in the earth?
v.9 (It
was God! He has brought down her pride) The
Lord Almighty planned it,
to bring down her pride in all her splendour
and to humble all who are renowned on
the earth.
v.10
(Similarly the Spanish
port – you'll have to work harder to trade) Till
your land as they do along the Nile,
Daughter Tarshish,
for you no longer have a harbour.
v.11
(The Lord decrees this fall)
The Lord
has stretched out his hand over the sea
and made its kingdoms tremble.
He has given an order concerning Phoenicia
that her fortresses be destroyed.
v.12
(There will be no escaping
it) He
said, ‘No more of your revelling,
Virgin Daughter Sidon,
now crushed!
‘Up,
cross over to Cyprus;
even there you will find no rest.'
v.13
-16 Learn from the recent past, this will happen – and last!
v.13
(Learn from what the
Assyrians did in Babylonia) Look
at the land of the Babylonians,
this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians have made it
a place for desert creatures;
they raised up their siege towers,
they stripped its fortresses bare
and turned it into a ruin.
v.14 (Travellers
from Spain, your trading link is gone) Wail,
you ships of Tarshish;
your fortress is destroyed!
v.15
(She will be destroyed
for seventy years) At
that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy
years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy
years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
v.16
(It will be a source
of lament) ‘Take
up a harp, walk through the city,
you forgotten prostitute;
play the harp well, sing many a song,
so that you will be remembered.'
v.17,18
She will eventually be restored and yet her profits will go to
God's people
v.17
(God will restore her….)
At the
end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return
to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all
the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
v.18
(…. yet use her profits
for His people) Yet
her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord; they
will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those
who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothes.
CONTINUE
TO CHAPTER 24