A Prophecy concerning Tyre and Sidon

¹A prophecy for Tyre and Sidon :

Wail, you cargo ships of Tarshish!

For Tyre , your port city , has fallen without a house or a harbor!

Word has come to them from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, you inhabitants of the coast

and you merchants of Sidon, once thronged by seafarers.

³On the great waters your revenue

was the grain from the Nile basin.

The harvest of the Nile was your revenue.

You were merchants who traded with the nations.

⁴Sidon, be ashamed,

for the sea, the stronghold of the sea, declares,

“I have never gone into labor to give birth to children,

nor have I raised up sons or daughters.”

⁵When the Egyptians hear it, they will be stunned

over the destruction of Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish.

Wail, you inhabitants of the coast.

⁷Is this your once boisterous city, founded so long ago?

Is this the city that once sent settlers over the sea?

⁸Who has planned this for imperial Tyre, who once wore her crown?

Your merchants were nobles,

and your traders were honored by the world.

⁹Yahweh , the Commander of Angel Armies, has planned it!

His plan is to eliminate the pride of your presumed splendor

and to humiliate the honored of the world.

¹⁰Daughter Tarshish, cross over your land[#23:10 Or “farm your land.”]

as one crosses the Nile,

for there is no more harbor marketplace.

¹¹Yahweh has stretched out his hand over the sea of humanity

and has shaken the kingdoms of this world.

He has given his command to destroy Phoenicia’s fortresses.

¹²He said, “Fair Sidon, the oppressed one,

your celebrating is over.

Rise and cross over to Cyprus;

even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Behold the land of the Babylonians.

They are a people who have lost their identity.

The Assyrians have made her a home for wild animals.

They erected siege towers against her,

demolished her palaces,

and made her a heap of ruins.

¹⁴Wail, you merchant ships of Tarshish,

for your fortress is destroyed.

¹⁵In that day, Tyre will remain forgotten for seventy years, equal to the life span of a king. After seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:

¹⁶Take a harp and go about the city,

you prostitute long forgotten.

Make your sweet melody and sing many songs

so that you will be remembered again.

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the Lord Yahweh will restore Tyre, but she will return to her trade. She will prostitute herself again with every kingdom of the world.

¹⁸But her merchandise and earnings will be set apart as holy to the Lord Yahweh . They will neither be stored nor hoarded, but they will supply abundant food and splendid garments for those who live in the presence of the Lord Yahweh ![#23:18 See John 10:10; 3 John 2.; #23:18 Or “for those on whom ’s face shines.” Or “for those who live before ’s face.”]