Isaiah 23:14 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

NIV: Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!

NASB: Wail, you ships of Tarshish, For your stronghold is destroyed.

CSB: Wail, ships of Tarshish, because your fortress is destroyed!

NLT: Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your harbor is destroyed!

KJV: Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

NKJV: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For your strength is laid waste.

The poem laid out against Tyre returns to where it started: a call for the ships of Tarshish to mourn (Isaiah 23:1). Isaiah pictures crews returning from the dangerous sea to the perceived safety of Tyre's harbor only to discover it is all gone. The high-walled fortress is no more. There is nobody waiting to unload their cargo. Everything and everyone they knew is gone. They have no more homes to go to. Life as they knew it was over and would not be the same as long as they lived. The Lord had spoken in judgment (Isaiah 23:9).

Even the most stable and protected of nations and peoples are not self-existing. Everything depends on the Lord of hosts to continue.

Isaiah 23:13–18 completes predictions about the future of Tyre and Sidon. Previous verses indicated the city would be destroyed. Here, Isaiah offers other examples of God's judgment. He then indicates that Tyre's ruin will last seventy years. After comes a form of restoration. However, this will not be the proud status of the past. Instead, the city will be like a prostitute returning to that role. In some way, the profit of Tyre's return will help God's people.

Isaiah's final oracle against the nations describes the aftermath of God's judgment on the port city of Tyre. This city was a great center of trade and shipping in the world. The sailors returning will mourn when they get the news the city and its port is wiped out. The mourning will extend to the Phoenician people, the sea itself, the Egyptian grain industry, and the people of Tarshish. The prophet is clear that the Lord has done this in judgment against Tyre's pride. After 70 years of being forgotten, Tyre will thrive again as a prostitute to the nations. The Lord's people will receive her wages.

Prior chapters included prophecies about the nations surrounding Israel. Most of these have been arranged to warn Israel not to assume those neighbors would make effective allies against God's judgment. Chapter 23 is the final of these "oracles." Tyre was a great center of shipping and trade on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel. When it is destroyed, it will be mourned all around the great sea. After this, the predictions expand to a worldwide focus, with implications for the end times.

Isaiah is among the most important prophetic books in the entire Bible. The first segment details God's impending judgment against ancient peoples for sin and idolatry (Isaiah 1—35). The second part of Isaiah briefly explains a failed assault on Jerusalem during the rule of Hezekiah (Isaiah 36—39). The final chapters predict Israel's rescue from Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 40—48), the promised Messiah (Isaiah 49—57), and the final glory of Jerusalem and God's people (Isaiah 58—66).

Accessed 4/28/2024 7:06:15 PM