Isaiah 23 :: New International Version (NIV)

A Prophecy Against Tyre

Isa 23:1A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.

Isa 23:2

Isa 23:2Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.

Isa 23:3

Isa 23:3On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile[fn] was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.

Isa 23:4

Isa 23:4Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

Isa 23:5

Isa 23:5When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

Isa 23:6

Isa 23:6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.

Isa 23:7

Isa 23:7Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?

Isa 23:8

Isa 23:8Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?

Isa 23:9

Isa 23:9The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

Isa 23:10

Isa 23:10Till[fn] your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.

Isa 23:11

Isa 23:11The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.

Isa 23:12

Isa 23:12He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

Isa 23:13

Isa 23:13Look at the land of the Babylonians,[fn] this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.

Isa 23:14

Isa 23:14Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!

Isa 23:15

Isa 23:15At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

Isa 23:16

Isa 23:16“Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”

Isa 23:17

Isa 23:17At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

Isa 23:18

Isa 23:18Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(23:2)

Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls Sidon, / who cross over the sea; / your envoys 3 are on the great waters. / The grain of the Shihor, / the harvest of the Nile,

(23:3)

Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls Sidon, / who cross over the sea; / your envoys 3 are on the great waters. / The grain of the Shihor, / the harvest of the Nile,

(23:10)

Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts; Masoretic Text Go through

(23:13)

Or Chaldeans

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.