Isaiah 23
About IsaiahWritten by AI
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and one of the books the New Testament quotes most often. Isaiah son of Amoz preached in Jerusalem from about 740 to 700 BC, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, while the Assyrian empire threatened the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later writers in the time of the exile and return. Many Christians hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, noting that the New Testament quotes both halves under his name.
The book moves from judgment to comfort. Chapters 1 to 39 confront Judah's sin and the proud nations, with the history of King Hezekiah at the center. From chapter 40 the tone changes: “Comfort, comfort My people.” God promises to bring His people home, and the book ends with new heavens and a new earth.
Watch for God's title, the Holy One of Israel, and for the promised King from David's line and the Servant of the LORD who suffers for others. Christians see both fulfilled in Jesus, though some prophecies are read differently among believers.
Before you read Isaiah 23Written by AI
The last of the burdens against the nations, aimed at Tyre, the great trading port on the coast. Its fall shocks the ships and merchants who depended on it. Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, then return to trade, but in the end its profits will be set apart for the LORD.
The Burden against Tyre
This is the burden against Tyre:
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste,
without house or harbor.
Word has reached them
from the land of Cyprus.
Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland,
you merchants of Sidon,
whose traders have crossed the sea.
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.”
When the report reaches Egypt,
they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.
Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!
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.
Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;
there is no longer a harbor.
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.
Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for your harbor has been destroyed!
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 clothing.