Isaiah 23
Isaiah's long sequence of burdens against the nations - Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, and the rest - comes to its close here, with Tyre. Unlike the empires that fill the earlier oracles, Tyre was not a great army. She was a great market. Built on the rocky Phoenician coast, with a sister-city in Sidon, Tyre commanded the sea-trade of the whole Mediterranean; her ships ranged as far as Tarshish in the distant west, and her merchants grew so rich and so honoured that the prophet calls them princes (v. 8). She was the world's storehouse, a mart of nations (v. 3). And it is precisely this city - secure, prosperous, glittering with the wealth of the seas - that the oracle now lays in the dust.3
The chapter opens with a sound rather than an argument: Howl, ye ships of Tarshish. Tyre's own fleets, returning from the far coasts, are summoned to wail over a homeport that is no longer there - laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in (v. 1). Sidon is shamed, Egypt is shaken, and the joyous city whose roots run back to ancient days is carried off to wander far from home (vv. 4-7). Then comes the question on which the whole chapter turns - Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre? - and an answer that lifts the eye from every visible cause to the throne of heaven: The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory.
But the burden of Tyre does not end where most of the oracles end, in silence and ruin. After seventy years the city returns to her trade (vv. 15-17), and the chapter closes on a line no reader sees coming: her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD… for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing (v. 18). The same wealth that once fed the pride of all glory is, in the end, set apart for God and spent on His people. The chapter that begins by staining every proud thing closes by sanctifying it - a quiet hint, this early in Isaiah, of a day when the riches of the nations themselves are carried into the kingdom of God.1
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Isaiah 23:1-7Howl, Ye Ships of Tarshish
1The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. 2Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. 3And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations. 4Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. 5As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. 6Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle. 7Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
The oracle opens with a single heavy word and a sound: The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish (v. 1). A burden, in the prophets, is a weighty utterance - a word laid on the prophet that must be carried and spoken, and that lands like a load on the nation it names. And Isaiah does not begin with an argument; he begins with a wail. The ships of Tarshish were the great ocean-going merchant vessels, the largest of their day, named for the distant western port they could reach. These were the very ships that made Tyre rich, returning home heavy with the cargo of the world. Now they are told to howl - because the homeport they are sailing toward is gone. It is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. The sailors learn it before they arrive; word reaches them from the land of Chittim (Cyprus), the last stop before home. Picture the scene: a fleet rounding the last headland, expecting the busy harbor that has always been there, and finding ruin. The chapter sets its tone in that image - the wealthiest city on the sea, suddenly empty, and her own ships left to mourn.3
Verses 2 and 3 fill in who Tyre was, and the portrait is one of staggering reach. Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle - Tyre sat on a rocky island just off the coast, all but unassailable, the secret of her long security. The merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished her: the whole Phoenician coast, Tyre and her sister Sidon together, lived by crossing the water and trading. And her commerce drank from far-off rivers: by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue. Sihor is the Nile; the grain of Egypt itself flowed through Tyre's markets. The line lands on a title that says everything: she is a mart of nations - the marketplace of the world, the place where the produce of every land changed hands. There is no hint here that Tyre was wicked in the way Babylon was, no army on the march, no idol named. Her greatness was simply commercial: she was rich, she was central, she was the envy of every coast. That is what makes the oracle so arresting. It is not aimed at an obvious monster. It is aimed at success itself - at the most admired city on the sea.
The grief now spreads outward and turns strange. Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children (v. 4). It is a haunting image: the sea itself - the source of all Tyre's life and trade - speaks as a mother who has borne no children, as if to say that the teeming, fruitful coast has gone barren overnight. The shock of it travels: As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre (v. 5) - the news strikes the nations the way a blow against mighty Egypt would. Pass ye over to Tarshish (v. 6): the survivors are told to flee to the farthest colony, all the way across the sea. And then the prophet turns and asks, with something almost like astonishment, Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? (v. 7). Tyre was old - her roots ran back beyond memory - and she was joyous, a place of festivity and confidence. Both her age and her gladness made her seem permanent. Surely a city this old, this happy, this established, would always be here. And the verse answers its own wondering: her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. The settled, ancient, joyous city is now a wanderer.
Isaiah 23:8-14The LORD of Hosts Hath Purposed It
8Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? 9The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. 10Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. 11He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof. 12And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest. 13Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin. 14Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
Now comes the question that is the hinge of the whole chapter: Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? (v. 8). Isaiah does not let the city's fall be filed away as bad luck or mere geopolitics. He stops and asks: who did this? And he piles up Tyre's honours in the asking, as if to heighten the mystery. She is the crowning city - the maker of royalty, the bestower of crowns. Her merchants are princes; her traders rank among the honourable of the earth. Who could topple a power like that - not a city under siege by a visible enemy in these verses, but the very engine of the world's commerce? The question is built to make the reader reach for the usual answers: a rival empire, a shift in trade routes, the rise of Babylon. And the next verse sweeps every one of those answers aside. Behind whatever army or accident the eye can see stands a hand the eye cannot. The chapter has been describing an effect; now it names the cause, and the cause is not on any map.
The answer lands with full weight: The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth (v. 9). Every word matters. It is the LORD of hosts - the commander of all heaven's armies - who stands behind Tyre's fall, not as a reaction but as a settled purpose. And the aim of that purpose reaches far past one city. He acts to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Tyre is the occasion; the target is wider. Wherever human glory swells until it forgets the God who lends it, that glory is marked for staining. Verse 11 makes the same point in the language of action: He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city. The sea that was Tyre's strength is now under the LORD's outstretched hand; the kingdoms that traded with her are shaken at His word. And verse 13 supplies a sobering exhibit - Behold the land of the Chaldeans - pointing to another people the Assyrian raised up and then brought to ruin. The lesson is plain: the rise and fall of even the mightiest is not finally in the hands of armies. It is in the hands of God. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste (v. 14). The fleet's lament returns, and this time the reader knows whose word it answers.
Isaiah 23:15-18Her Merchandise Shall Be Holiness to the LORD
15And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. 16Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. 17And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. 18And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
The burden takes its first surprising turn: Tyre's ruin is not the end of her. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot (v. 15). Seventy years is a long span - a full lifetime, the days of one king - long enough for the proud city to drop out of the world's memory entirely. But it is a span, not a finality. After it, Tyre returns, and the prophet pictures her comeback with a sharp and unflattering image: an aging, forgotten singer taking up her harp again to win back a crowd. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered (v. 16). The figure of the harlot is deliberate and stings: Tyre's trade is portrayed as a selling of herself to any buyer, her commerce a courting of every nation for gain. Her recovery, in other words, is real but not yet clean. She comes back to the same business, by the same means, working the streets of the world's markets to be noticed and paid once more. The point is sober: judgment humbled her, but it did not, of itself, change her heart. She returns to exactly what she was.
Verse 17 carries the picture forward and then verse 18 breaks it open. After the end of seventy years… the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world (v. 17). Tyre resumes her trade with every kingdom - the same restless commerce, the same selling to all comers. But notice the new actor in the sentence: it is now the LORD who will visit her. The God who purposed her fall also superintends her return. And that divine visitation produces an ending no one reading verse 16 could have predicted: And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing (v. 18). The very wealth that defined Tyre's pride - her merchandise, her hire, the profit of the harlot-city - is now declared holiness to the LORD. It is no longer hoarded (not treasured nor laid up) but spent: it goes to them that dwell before the LORD, to feed and clothe God's people. The wealth is not destroyed; it is sanctified - lifted out of the service of pride and set apart for God. The riches that crowned the merchants are at last laid at the feet of the One who lent them.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Isaiah 23 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for ma'atirah (v. 8, the “crowning” or crown-bestowing city), for the verb ya'ats (vv. 8-9, “taken counsel” / “purposed”), and for the much-discussed close in verse 18 where Tyre's merchandise becomes qodesh, “holiness to the LORD.”
- Isaiah 23 ↔ Matthew 11 · Ezekiel 27-28 · Revelation 21Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Isaiah 23 to the rest of Scripture - the burden of Tyre read alongside Ezekiel's great lament over the same city (Ezek. 27-28), Jesus naming Tyre as more ready to repent than the unrepentant cities (Matt. 11:21-22), and the wealth made holiness to the LORD (v. 18) read beside the nations bringing their glory into the city of God (Rev. 21:24-26).
- Isaiah 23 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Isaiah 23 - the geography of Tarshish, Chittim, Sidon, and Sihor in verses 1-3, the difficult imagery of the barren sea in verse 4, the reach of the divine purpose in verses 8-9, and the figure of the forgotten harlot whose songs return in verses 15-16.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Howl, Ye Ships of Tarshish
- Ezekiel 27:1-3O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.Ezekiel’s great lament over the same merchant city - the fullest portrait in Scripture of the Tyre Isaiah names in verses 1-8.
- Matthew 11:21-22if the mighty works... had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented... It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment.Jesus naming Tyre - the proud city of this chapter - as more ready to repent than the unrepentant cities that saw His works.
- Matthew 15:21-28Jesus... departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon... O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.The Lord walking the very coast of this burden, and finding there a faith He praised above any at home.
- Zechariah 9:3-4Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust... the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea.The same fall foretold - Tyre’s heaped-up wealth and island stronghold brought down, as in verses 1-7.
- Proverbs 16:18Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.The principle beneath the whole oracle - the crowning city’s pride going before her fall.
The LORD of Hosts Hath Purposed It
- Isaiah 2:11-12The lofty looks of man shall be humbled... the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud.The same purpose stated as a principle - the day when all proud glory is stained and the LORD alone exalted (v. 9).
- Isaiah 14:24The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.The same verb as verses 8-9 - the counsel of the LORD that stands when every human plan fails.
- James 4:6God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.The New Testament echo of verse 9 - God set against the pride of all glory, but giving grace to the lowly.
- Philippians 2:8-9he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death... Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.The reversal of Tyre’s logic - the One who went low and was therefore exalted, while proud glory is brought into contempt (v. 9).
- Daniel 4:35he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand.The truth beneath verse 11 - the LORD’s hand stretched over the sea and the kingdoms, which none can stay.
Her Merchandise Shall Be Holiness to the LORD
- Exodus 28:36thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.The very phrase set over Tyre’s gold in verse 18 - the words once engraved on the high priest’s crown.
- Isaiah 60:5-6the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee... they shall bring gold and incense.The wider promise glimpsed in verse 18 - the wealth of the nations brought in and devoted to God.
- Revelation 21:24-26the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it... And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.The end toward which verse 18 points - the riches of the nations carried at last into the city of God.
- Haggai 2:8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.The truth behind the sanctifying of Tyre’s merchandise (v. 18) - the wealth was always the LORD’s to reclaim.
- Psalm 72:10-11The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents... yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.The isles and ships of Tarshish - Tyre’s own world - bringing their wealth in homage, as her merchandise does in verse 18.