Wail, Ships of Tarshish
Tyre's harbor is gone and her trading partners are told to wail; merchants who crowned kings and made the sea a marketplace fall silent. Our Father planned it, to bring down all glorious pride. Her later earnings become holy.
23 1The oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your harbor is destroyed, left without house or haven. From the land of Cyprus the news has reached them. 2Be silent, you who live on the coast, you merchants of Sidon, whose messengers cross the sea. 3Across the great waters came the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile—this was her revenue; and she became the marketplace of the nations. 4Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: "I have not labored nor given birth, I have not raised young men nor brought up young women." 5When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in anguish at the news about Tyre. 6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you who live on the coast. 7Is this your jubilant city, whose origins go back to ancient times, whose feet carried her to settle in distant lands? 8Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9The Father of heaven's armies has planned it—to defile all glorious pride, to humble all the honored of the earth. 10Flow over your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no harbor any longer. 11He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms. Our Father has given the command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds.
12He said, "You will no longer rejoice, violated virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest."
13Look at the land of the Babylonians! This is the people who are no more; Assyria gave it over to desert creatures. They raised their siege towers, they stripped its palaces bare, they made it a ruin. a a v13 Hebrew: the Chaldeans — the ruling people of ancient Babylon. 14Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is destroyed. 15In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, Tyre's fate will be like the song of the prostitute: 16"Take a harp, go about the city, forgotten prostitute; play sweetly, sing many songs, so that you may be remembered." 17At the end of seventy years, our Father will turn his attention to Tyre, and she will return to her earnings, prostituting herself with all the kingdoms of the world across the earth. 18But her profit and her earnings will be set apart as holy to our Father. It will not be stored up or hoarded; her profit will go to those who live before our Father, for abundant food and fine clothing.
