ISAIAH 23 (NIV)
- An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without hose or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.
- Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafares have enriched.
- On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.
- Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have neither been in labor nor give birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters."
- When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.
- Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.
- Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?
- Who planned this against Trye, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?
- The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.
- Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.
- 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.
- He said, "No more of your reveling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! "Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest."
- 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.
- Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!
- 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:
- "Take up a harp, walk through the city, P prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered."
- At the end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
- 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.
