Isaiah 23:15 - Meaning and Application

Here is the time God fixed for Tyre’s devastation. It would not last forever: “Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years” (Isaiah 23:15). For that long, it would lie neglected and hidden in ruin. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it around the same time he destroyed Jerusalem, and Tyre stayed in ruins for about as long as Jerusalem did.

See the foolishness of that proud and ambitious conqueror. What did he gain by taking Tyre if all its people were driven out and he had no subjects to rebuild it? It is shocking to see how much joy people can take in destroying cities and erasing their memory with them (Psalm 9:6). He crushed Tyre’s pride and, without knowing it, served God’s purpose. Yet he did it with even greater pride, and God soon humbled him for that.

After seventy years, Tyre would be restored to its former place. The text calls it the years of “one king,” meaning one dynasty, the family line of Nebuchadnezzar. When that period ended, Tyre’s desolation would end too. We may assume that Cyrus, who released the Jews and encouraged them to rebuild Jerusalem, also released the Tyrians and helped them rebuild Tyre.

This shows how God sets prosperity and hardship side by side, both for cities and for people. The most glorious cities should not feel secure, and the most ruined should not lose hope. God’s providence would look kindly on this ruined city again. “The Lord will visit Tyre” in mercy (Isaiah 23:17). Though he may contend with a people, he does not contend forever.

It is not said that her old trading partners would return first, or that the colonies she had planted would remember her, because they had forgotten her. Instead, the Lord would visit her by an unexpected turn. He would cause his anger against her to stop, and then life would begin to flow again in its old channels.

Tyre would also do all it could to recover its trade. The text says she would “sing as a prostitute,” using a picture of a woman who had been under discipline for her sin and is now set free. Once released, she returns to her old ways of attraction and business. In the same way, the Tyrians, after their captivity, would work hard to regain customers. They would seek the best goods, sell cheaply, and win people over with courtesy.

The comparison includes singing, playing the harp, and going about the city with sweet music. These things are harmless when used modestly and soberly. But those who value virtue should not become too proud of such skills, because in earlier times they were among the tools used to lure the foolish. Tyre would slowly become a great market of the nations again. She would return to her “hire,” her trade, and carry on dealings with the kingdoms she had once traded with in her days of prosperity.

The love of worldly wealth is a kind of spiritual unfaithfulness. That is why greedy people are called adulterers and adulteresses (James 4:4), and why greed is spiritual idolatry. Tyre would return to her traffic, but the prophet keeps using the same picture of a prostitute to show her old habits of gain-seeking.

Yet Tyre’s later prosperity would be used better than before. This was the good that would come from her suffering. “Her merchandise and her hire will be holy to the Lord” (Isaiah 23:18). The profits of her trade would be set apart for God’s honor and used in his service. They would no longer be stored up to feed pride or carnal confidence, but spent on worship and mercy.

What they could spare from their own households would go to those who dwell before the Lord, meaning the priests, the Lord’s ministers, who served in the temple at Jerusalem. The goal was not to keep them in luxury, but to give them enough to live on. They should have food fit for them, with as little worry as possible, so they could focus on their ministry. They should also have durable clothing, plain and lasting, clothing fit even for older men. Some understand this as a call for simple, grave dress, such as older men wore.

This assumes that true religion would be established in New Tyre. They would come to know the true God and join themselves to the people of God. Perhaps living as fellow captives with the Jews in Babylon, where prophets were among them, helped the Tyrians join in Jewish worship and turn from idols. That would be much like the Jews themselves being cured of idolatry. Then, when they were freed and settled again in Tyre, they would send gifts and offerings to the temple and presents to the priests.

We even find men from Tyre living in Judah later on (Nehemiah 13:16). Tyre and Sidon were more open to religion in Christ’s time than many cities in Israel, for Christ said that if he had gone there, they would have repented (Matthew 11:21). We also meet Christians in Tyre (Acts 21:3, Acts 21:4), and Christianity flourished there many years later. Some rabbis even understood this prophecy as pointing to the days of the Messiah.

This also teaches those who have wealth to use it in God’s service and for religion, and to count it best laid up when it is so used. Both the trader’s goods and the laborer’s wages should be devoted to God. The work we do and the money we earn should be “holiness to the Lord,” echoing the words engraved on the high priest’s forehead plate (Exodus 39:30) and the law of the tithe (Leviticus 27:30). A promise like this for gospel times appears again in Zechariah 14:20, Zechariah 14:21.

We must first give ourselves to be holy to the Lord before anything we do, own, or earn can truly be holy in this way. When we live faithfully in our callings, do ordinary tasks in a godly way, give generously to the poor, support the ministry, and encourage the gospel, then our merchandise and our hire are holiness to the Lord, if we truly seek his glory in them. Then our wealth does not need to be stored up on earth, because it is being stored in heaven, in bags that do not grow old (Luke 12:33).