< Esias 23 >
1 THE WORD CONCERNING TYRE. Howl, ye ships of Carthage; for she has perished, and [men] no longer arrive from the land of the Citians: she is led captive.
2 To whom are the dwellers in the island become like, the merchants of Phoenice, passing over the sea
3 in great waters, a generation of merchants? as when the harvest is gathered in, [so are] these traders with the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon: the sea has said, yea, the strength of the sea has said, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor have I brought up young men, nor reared virgins.
5 Moreover when it shall be heard in Egypt, sorrow shall seize them for Tyre.
6 Depart ye to Carthage; howl, ye that dwell in this island.
7 Was not this your pride from the beginning, before she was given up?
8 Who has devised this counsel against Tyre? Is she inferior? or has she no strength? her merchants were the glorious princes of the earth.
9 The Lord of hosts has purposed to bring down all the pride of the glorious ones, and to disgrace every glorious thing on the earth.
10 Till thy land; for ships no more come out of Carthage.
11 And thy hand prevails no more by sea, which troubled kings: the Lord of hosts has given a command concerning Chanaan, to destroy the strength thereof.
12 And [men] shall say, Ye shall no longer at all continue to insult and injure the daughter of Sidon: and if thou depart to the Citians, neither there shalt thou have rest.
13 And [if thou depart] to the land of the Chaldeans, this also is laid waste by the Assyrians, for her wall is fallen.
14 Howl, ye ships of Carthage: for your strong hold is destroyed.
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] Tyre shall be left seventy years, as the time of a king, as the time of a man: and it shall come to pass after seventy years, [that] Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot.
16 Take a harp, go about, O city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; play well on the harp, sing many [songs], that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the seventy years, [that] God will visit Tyre, and she shall be again restored to her primitive state, and she shall be a mart for all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
18 And her trade and her gain shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be gathered for them, but for those that dwell before the Lord, [even] all her trade, to eat and drink and be filled, and for a covenant [and] a memorial before the Lord.
