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Isaiah 23:1 - 23:14

An Oracle Concerning Tyre

The oracle concerning Tyre.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For Tyre is destroyed, without house or harbor;
It is revealed to them from the land of Cyprus.
2
Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon;
Your messengers crossed the sea
3
And were on many waters.
The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile was her revenue;
And she was the nations’ gain.
4
Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea speaks, the strong defense of the sea, saying,
“I have neither travailed nor given birth;
I have neither brought up choice men nor reared virgins.”
5
When the report reaches Egypt,
They will be in travail at the report of Tyre.
6
Pass over to Tarshish;
Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.
7
Is this your exultant city,
Whose origin is from days of old,
Whose feet used to lead her to sojourn in distant places?

8
Who has counseled this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
9
Yahweh of hosts has counseled it, to defile the pride of all beauty,
To make contemptuous all the honored of the earth.
10
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more restraint.
11
He has stretched His hand out over the sea;
He has made the kingdoms tremble;
Yahweh has given a command concerning Canaan to demolish its strong defenses.

12
So He said, “You shall exult no more, O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, pass over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”
13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria established it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin. 14
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
For your strong defense is destroyed.