Bible Commentaries

Isa 23:1-18.

PROPHECY RESPECTING TYRE.

MENANDER, the historian, notices a siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser, about the time of the siege of Samaria. Sidon, Acco, and Old Tyre, on the mainland, were soon reduced; but New Tyre, on an island half a mile from the shore, held out for five years. Sargon probably finished the siege. Sennacherib does not, however, mention it among the cities which the Assyrian kings conquered (thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters). The expression, "Chaldeans"

(Isa 23:13),

may imply reference to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years. Alexander the Great destroyed New Tyre after a seven months' siege.

1. Tyre--Hebrew, Tsur, that is, "Rock."

ships of Tarshish--ships of Tyre returning from their voyage to Tarshish, or Tartessus in Spain, with which the Phœnicians had much commerce

(Eze 27:12-25).

"Ships of Tarshish" is a phrase also used of large and distant-voyaging merchant vessels

(Isa 2:16; 1Ki 10:22; Ps 48:7).

no house--namely, left; such was the case as to Old Tyre, after Nebuchadnezzar's siege.

no entering--There is no house to enter

(Isa 24:10)

[G. V. SMITH]. Or, Tyre is so laid waste, that there is no possibility of entering the harbor [BARNES]; which is appropriate to the previous "ships."

Chittim--Cyprus, of which the cities, including Citium in the south (whence came "Chittim"), were mostly Phœnician

(Eze 27:6).

The ships from Tarshish on their way to Tyre learn the tidings ("it is revealed to them") of the downfall of Tyre. At a later period Chittim denoted the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean

(Da 11:30).

2. Be still--"struck dumb with awe." Addressed to those already in the country, eye-witnesses of its ruin

(La 2:10);

or, in contrast to the busy din of commerce once heard in Tyre; now all is hushed and still.

isle--strictly applicable to New Tyre: in the sense coast, to the mainland city, Old Tyre (compare

Isa 23:6; Isa 20:6).

Zidon--of which Tyre was a colony, planted when Zidon was conquered by the Philistines of Ascalon. Zidon means a "fishing station"; this was its beginning.

replenished--with wealth and an industrious population

(Eze 27:3, 8, 23).

Here "Zidon," as the oldest city of Phœnicia, includes all the Phœnician towns on the strip of "coast." Thus, Eth-baal, king of Tyre [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 8.3,2], is called king of the Sidonians

(1Ki 16:31);

and on coins Tyre is called the metropolis of the Sidonians.

3. great waters--the wide waters of the sea.

seed--"grain," or crop, as in

1Sa 8:15; Job 39:12.

Sihor--literally, "dark-colored"; applied to the Nile, as the Egyptian Jeor, and the Greek Melas, to express the "dark, turbid" colors given to its waters by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its yearly overflow

(Jer 2:18).

harvest of the river--the growth of the Delta; the produce due to the overflow of the Nile: Egypt was the great granary of corn in the ancient world

(Ge 41:1-57; 42:1-38; 43:1-34).

her revenue--Tyrian vessels carried Egyptian produce obtained in exchange for wine, oil, glass, &c., into various lands, and so made large profits.

mart--

(Eze 27:3).

No city was more favorably situated for commerce.

4. Zidon--called on, as being the parent country of Tyre

(Isa 23:12),

and here equivalent to Phœnicia in general, to feel the shame (as it was esteemed in the East) of being now as childless as if she never had any. "I (no more now) travail, nor bring forth," &c. "Strength of the sea," that is, stronghold, namely, New Tyre, on a rock (as "Tyre" means) surrounded by the sea

(Eze 26:4, 14-17;

so Venice was called "Bride of the sea";

Zec 9:3).

5. As, &c.--rather, "When the report (shall reach) the people of Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report concerning Tyre" (namely, its overthrow). So JEROME, "When the Egyptians shall hear that so powerful a neighboring nation has been destroyed, they must know their own end is near" [LOWTH, &c.].

6. Pass . . . over--Escape from Tyre to your colonies as Tarshish (compare

Isa 23:12).

The Tyrians fled to Carthage and elsewhere, both at the siege under Nebuchadnezzar and that under Alexander.

7. Is this silent ruin all that is left of your once joyous city

(Isa 23:12)?

antiquity--The Tyrian priests boasted in HERODOTUS' time that their city had already existed 2300 years: an exaggeration, but still implying that it was ancient even then.

her own feet--walking on foot as captives to an enemy's land.

8. Who--answered in

Isa 23:9,

"The Lord of hosts."

crowning--crown-giving; that is, the city from which dependent kingdoms had arisen, as Tartessus in Spain, Citium in Cyprus, and Carthage in Africa

(Eze 27:33).

traffickers--literally, "Canaanites," who were famed for commerce (compare

Ho 12:7,

Margin).