An Oracle Concerning Tyre and Sidon

1The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbour!

From the land of Cyprus23:1 Hebrew Kittim; also verse 12

it is revealed to them.

2Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;

the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.

3And on many waters

your revenue was the grain of Shihor,

the harvest of the Nile;

you were the merchant of the nations.

4Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,

the stronghold of the sea, saying:

“I have neither laboured nor given birth,

I have neither reared young men

nor brought up young women.”

5When the report comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish23:5 Hebrew they will have labour pains over the report about Tyre.

6Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

7Is this your exultant city

whose origin is from days of old,

whose feet carried her

to settle far away?

8Who has purposed this

against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants were princes,

whose traders were the honoured of the earth?

9The LORD of hosts has purposed it,

to defile the pompous pride of all glory,23:9 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike

to dishonour all the honoured of the earth.

10Cross over your land like the Nile,

O daughter of Tarshish;

there is no restraint any more.

11He has stretched out his hand over the sea;

he has shaken the kingdoms;

the LORD has given command concerning Canaan

to destroy its strongholds.

12And he said:

“You will no more exult,

O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon;

arise, cross over to Cyprus,

even there you will have no rest.”

13Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not;23:13 Or that has become nothing Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

14Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your stronghold is laid waste.

15In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days23:15 Or lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

16“Take a harp;

go about the city,

O forgotten prostitute!

Make sweet melody;

sing many songs,

that you may be remembered.”

17At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the LORD. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.