A prophecy against Tyre

1A prophecy against Tyre:

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!

For Tyre is destroyed

and left without house or harbour.

From the land of Cyprus

word has come to them.

2Be silent, you people of the island

and you merchants of Sidon,

whom the seafarers have enriched.

3On the great waters

came the grain of the Shihor;

the harvest of the Nile23:2,3 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls Sidon, / who cross over the sea; / your envoys 3 are on the great waters. / The grain of the Shihor, / the harvest of the Nile, was the revenue of Tyre,

and she became the market-place of the nations.

4Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

‘I have neither been in labour nor given birth;

I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.’

5When word comes to Egypt,

they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

6Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, you people of the island.

7Is this your city of revelry,

the old, old city,

whose feet have taken her

to settle in far-off lands?

8Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are renowned in the earth?

9The Lord Almighty planned it,

to bring down her pride in all her splendour

and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

10Till23:10 Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts; Masoretic Text Go through your land as they do along the Nile,

Daughter Tarshish,

for you no longer have a harbour.

11The 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.

12He said, ‘No more of your revelling,

Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed!

‘Up, cross over to Cyprus;

even there you will find no rest.’

13Look at the land of the Babylonians,23:13 Or Chaldeans

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.

14Wail, you ships of Tarshish;

your fortress is destroyed!

15At 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:

16‘Take up a harp, walk through the city,

you forgotten prostitute;

play the harp well, sing many a song,

so that you will be remembered.’

17At the end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18Yet 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.