CHAPTER 23
This is an oracle
concerning Tyre:
Wail,
O ships
of Tarshish,
for
Tyre is laid waste,
without house
or harbor.
Word has reached
them
from the land
of Cyprus.
On the great
waters
came the grain
of Shihor;
the harvest
of the Nile
was the revenue of Tyre;
she was
the merchant
of the nations.
Be ashamed,
O Sidon,
the stronghold
of the sea,
for
the sea
has spoken:
“I have not
been in labor
or given birth.
I have not
raised
young men
or brought up
young women.”
Is this
your jubilant city,
whose origin
is from antiquity,
whose feet
have taken her
to settle
far away?
Who
planned
this
against
Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose
traders
are princes,
whose merchants
are renowned
on the earth?
The LORD
of Hosts
planned it,
to defile
all
its glorious
beauty,
to disgrace
all
the renowned
of the earth.
The LORD has stretched out
His hand
over
the sea;
He has made kingdoms
tremble.
He
has given a command
that
the strongholds
of Canaan
be destroyed.
He said,
“You shall rejoice
no
more,
O oppressed
virgin
daughter
of Sidon.
Get up
and cross over
to Cyprus—
even
there
you will find no
rest.”
Look at
the land
of the
Chaldeans—
a people
now
of no account.
The Assyrians
destined it
for the desert creatures;
they set up
their siege towers
and stripped
its palaces.
They brought it
to ruin.
At that
time
Tyre
will be forgotten
for seventy
years—
the span
of a
king’s life.
But at the end
of seventy
years,
it will happen
to Tyre
as in the song
of the harlot:
Take up
your harp,
stroll through
the city,
O forgotten
harlot;
make sweet
melody,
sing many
a song,
so you will be remembered.
And at
the end
of seventy
years,
the LORD
will restore
Tyre.
Then she will return
to hire
as a prostitute
and sell herself
to all
the kingdoms
on
the face
of the earth.
Yet her profits
and wages
will be
set apart
to the LORD;
they will not
be stored
or saved,
for
her
profit
will go to those who live
before
the LORD,
for abundant
food
and fine
clothes.