Isaiah 23

¹ Proclamation about Tyre: Howl, ships of Tarshish, for al has been destroyed- no more houses, no wayof getting in: the news has reached them from Kittim.

² Be struck dumb, inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, whose messengers cross the sea

³ to the wide ocean. The grain of the Canal, the harvest of the Nile, formed her revenue. She was themarket for the nations.

⁴ Blush, Sidon (citadel of the seas), for this is what the sea has said, 'I have felt no birth-pangs, nevergiven birth, never reared boys nor brought up girls.'

⁵ When the news reaches Egypt, they wil tremble to hear Tyre's fate.

⁶ Cross to Tarshish, howl, inhabitants of the coast.

⁷ Is this your proud city founded far back in the past, whose steps led her far afield to found her colonies?

⁸ Who took this decision against Tyre, who used to hand out crowns, whose traders were princes, whose merchants, men honoured in the city?

⁹ Yahweh Sabaoth took this decision to wither the pride of al beauty and humiliate those honoured in thecity.

¹⁰ Cultivate your country like the Delta, daughter of Tarshish, for your marine docks are no more.

¹¹ He has raised his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms, Yahweh has ordained thedestruction of the fortresses of Canaan.

¹² He has said, 'Exult no more, il -treated virgin daughter of Sidon! Get up, cross to Kittim, no respite foryou there, either.'

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldaeans, a people who used not to exist! Assyria assigned it to thecreatures of the wilds; they raised their siege-towers against it, demolished its bastions, reduced it to ruin.

¹⁴ Howl, ships of Tarshish, for your fortress has been destroyed.

¹⁵ When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the length of one king's life. But whenthe seventy years are over, Tyre wil become like the whore in the song:

¹⁶ 'Take your harp, walk the town, whore whom men have forgotten! Play sweetly, song after song, tomake them remember you.'

¹⁷ At the end of the seventy years Yahweh wil visit Tyre. She wil receive her pay again and play thewhore with al the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

¹⁸ But her profits and wages wil be dedicated to Yahweh. They will not be stored or hoarded, but herprofits wil go to those who live in Yahweh's presence, for them to have as much food as they want and splendidclothes.