Isaiah 23:1 - Meaning and Application

Tyre was a seaport city, so this prophecy about its ruin fittingly begins and ends with, “Howl, you ships of Tarshish.” All of Tyre’s business, wealth, and honor depended on shipping. If its sea trade was destroyed, everything else would fall with it.

Tyre’s rise is noticed first, because that makes her fall seem even worse. The merchants of Zidon, an older city on the same coast, had at first filled Tyre with people and trade (Isaiah 23:2). Tyre began as a colony of Zidon, but the daughter city grew larger than its mother. It is a humbling thing for great cities to remember how small their beginnings were.

Egypt also helped Tyre grow rich (Isaiah 23:3). “Sihor” means the river of Egypt, the Nile, by which Egypt traded with Tyre. The profits from the sea and from buying and selling goods were Tyre’s harvest, just as grain is a farmer’s harvest. Sometimes a river’s trade brings in more than the land itself.

Tyre had become the market center of the nations, the great trading hub of that part of the world. People from many known nations could be found there, especially at times when merchants gathered together. Another prophet explains this more fully in Ezekiel 27:2-3 and following. This shows how steady work, under God’s blessing, can make people rich.

Tyre became great through industry, even though her only plows were the ships that worked the waters. She was also a cheerful, pleasure-loving city, known for joy and entertainment (Isaiah 23:7). That kind of life made the people proud and careless. They were too busy enjoying themselves to listen to God’s warnings.

Her ancient history also made her feel secure. Because Tyre had existed for a very long time, she acted as if she would last forever. She thought that because she had stood so long, she must continue without end. That is a common mistake of proud cities and proud people.

Tyre was also a crowning city, meaning she honored herself and gave honor to those tied to her (Isaiah 23:8). Her merchants lived with the ease and dignity of princes. Her traders were respected wherever they went. In earlier times, and among wise nations, merchants and men of business were often counted among the honorable people of the earth.

Now the prophecy turns to Tyre’s fall. It does not seem that she brought this trouble on herself by attacking others. Rather, her wealth tempted her enemies. Nebuchadnezzar attacked Tyre, but even he did not get all he wanted. After a siege of thirteen years, the city could hold out no longer, and the people escaped by sea with their families and goods, leaving him only the empty city.

The destruction is foretold plainly. The harbor would no longer be a safe place for the ships of Tarshish, but would be laid waste (Isaiah 23:1). There would be no house, no dock, no inns for sailors, and no entrance into the port. It may have been blocked by sand or by enemy action. Or it may mean that, since Tyre was ruined, the ships that once came there from Tarshish and Chittim would no longer come, because they had heard the bad news that Tyre was destroyed. This is often how the world works, people who are ruined by enemies are quickly forgotten by old friends.

The people of Tyre would be struck with shock. Tyre was an island city, full of loud life and constant movement, but now its people would sit in silence and mourning (Isaiah 23:2). Their proud speeches and bold threats would stop. God can quickly silence the loud and busy people of this world. “Be still,” for God will do his work (Psalm 46:10; Zechariah 2:13), and no one can stand against him.

The neighboring nations would be deeply troubled too. Zidon, which had once supplied Tyre with people, would be ashamed (Isaiah 23:4). News of Tyre’s ruin would reach her across the sea, and the sea itself is pictured as grieving over a city that once drew life from it. Egypt also would be pained to hear of Tyre’s fall, because it would lose trade with that city and see a warning of its own danger (Isaiah 23:5). When a neighbor’s house is on fire, your own house is at risk.

The merchants would do what they could to save themselves. They would carry their goods elsewhere and abandon Tyre, the city where they had built their wealth and thought it secure (Isaiah 23:6). The message is, “Howl, you who have long lived on this island. It is time to leave, and go over to Tarshish.”

The best course for Tyre’s people would be to make their way to Tarshish, that is, to the sea. Some take Tarshish to mean Carthage or another distant colony in Spain. Those who think their strong mountain cannot be moved will find, in the end, that they have no lasting city. The mountains will leave their place, and the hills will be removed.

Those who cannot escape must expect captivity. In those days, conquerors often took the people they defeated and made them slaves in their own land, while sending their own people to live freely in the conquered land (Isaiah 23:7). Tyre’s own feet will carry her far away to live as a stranger. They will be forced to march on foot into captivity, taking many weary steps toward their own ruin. People who have lived in great wealth and splendor do not know what hardships they may face before they die.

Many who try to flee will still be hunted down and fall into the enemy’s hands. Tyre will pass through her land like a river (Isaiah 23:10), with company after company flowing down into the sea, or into the deep pit of misery. Or the thought may be that, though they hurry away like a river and try to outrun danger, they soon lose strength and cannot go on. Then they fall, easy prey to the enemy. Tyre will have no more strength, and her sister Zidon, a nearby Phoenician city, will have no more joy either (Isaiah 23:12). “You will no longer rejoice, oppressed virgin daughter of Zidon, now that the victorious Babylonians are ready to overpower you. Your turn is next. So rise up and cross over to Chittim, that is, to lands across the sea, perhaps Greece or Italy. Go anywhere you can for safety, yet even there you will find no rest. Your enemies will disturb you, and your own fears will trouble you, where you hoped to find peace.” We deceive ourselves if we promise ourselves rest anywhere in this world. If people are uneasy in one place, they will often be uneasy in another. When God’s judgments follow sinners, they will catch up with them.

But where will all this trouble come from? God himself will send it. It is a destruction from the Almighty. People will ask (Isaiah 23:8), “Who planned this against Tyre? Who arranged it? Who decided on it? Who could even bring himself to tear down such a grand and beautiful city? And how could its ruin happen?” The answer is this: God designed it, and he is infinitely wise and just. He never does any wrong to his creatures (Isaiah 23:9). The Lord of hosts, who has all things under his rule and does not owe an account for any of his actions, has purposed it. It will happen according to the counsel of his will. His aim is to stain the pride of all glory, to dishonor it, and to cast it down so that it is trampled underfoot. He wants to bring low all the honored people of the earth, so they will no longer admire themselves or be admired by others as before.

God did not bring these troubles on Tyre simply to show raw power. He did it to punish the Tyrians for their pride. Many other sins were surely among them, such as idolatry, lust, and oppression. Still, pride is named as the special reason God dealt with Tyre, because he resists the proud. As the whole world watched Tyre’s ruin with surprise, this passage explains it. God is telling the world what he meant by it. First, he intended to teach people how vain and uncertain all earthly glory is, to show that it fades and passes away even when it seems strongest. It would be good if people learned this lesson, even if it cost a city so great a loss. Are learning, wealth, pomp, power, influence, fine houses, rich furnishings, and outward splendor what men call glory? Look at Tyre’s ruins and see that glory stained, dirty, and buried in the dust. The honored people of heaven will always remain so. But look at Tyre’s great men, some driven into exile, others forced into captivity, and all of them ruined, and you will see that the honored people of the earth, even the most honored, may soon be brought low.

Second, God meant this to keep people from being proud of such glory or confident that it would last. Let Tyre’s ruin warn every place and every person to guard against pride. It announces to the whole world that whoever exalts himself will be brought low. God also did this by his great power and could carry it out fully (Isaiah 23:11). He stretched out his hand over the sea. He had done that before, as in the dividing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh there. He has often shaken kingdoms that seemed secure, and now he has given the order concerning this merchant city to destroy its strongholds. Its beauty will not save it, because that beauty will be stained. Its strength will not protect it, because that strength will be broken. If anyone thinks it strange that a city so well fortified, and with so many powerful allies, should be utterly ruined, let them remember that the Lord of hosts has commanded the destruction of its strongholds. Who can oppose his orders or stop them from being carried out?

The Chaldeans will be the tools God uses for this judgment (Isaiah 23:13). Look at the land of the Chaldeans, and see how easily they and their land were destroyed by the Assyrians. Though they built it with their own hands, raised Babylon’s towers, and set up its palaces, the Assyrians brought it to ruin. Tyre could learn from this that, just as the old Chaldeans were overpowered by the Assyrians, so the new Chaldeans will easily defeat Tyre. Babel was built by the Assyrians for those who lived in the wilderness. It may also mean that they built it for ships, because Babylon had trade by the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, reaching toward the Persian and Indian seas. It is also called the desert of the sea (Isaiah 21:1). In the same way, Tyre was built by the sea for a similar purpose. But the Assyrians, as Dr. Lightfoot notes, brought that city to ruin not long before, in Hezekiah’s time, and so Tyre will later be brought down by Nebuchadnezzar. If we looked more often at how others fall and fade, we would not be so sure, as we often are, that our own good condition will last.