Isaiah 23:1

The burden of Tyre,.... Or a prophecy concerning the destruction of it.

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 23 The destruction of Tyre, from God, for their pride, . The time of her rising again, , and conversion to God, . The burden of Tyre; the prophecy of the heavy calamity and destruction of Tyre; which now stood in its strength and glory, being seated in an island, upon a rock, abounding in riches, mighty in naval power, having lately conquered that navy which the Assyrians brought against them. Yet this city was, according to this prophecy, destroyed; and that twice, first by Nebuchadnezzar, and long afterward by Alexander the Great. And although this prophecy seem directly and properly to respect the former destruction, yet it seems to have some reference to the latter also; only it is intimated, that after seventy years Tyrus should recover her former power and glory, before her second and final destruction. Howl, ye ships; either, 1. Properly; to which howling and lamenting is ascribed by a known figure called prosopopoeia: or, 2. Metonymically, the merchants and owners of ships, who had much commerce with this illustrious mart. Of Tarshish; either, 1. Of Tarsus, a great port of Cilicia, which anciently had the dominion of that part of the sea; or, 2. Of the ocean, which is so called, . It is laid waste; it shall shortly be laid waste; which was fulfilled not by Shalmaneser, as some would have it; for though he straitened it for some time, yet he never took it; but by Nebuchadnezzar. No entering in; so effectually wasted, that there is not a house left in it, nor any merchants or others that go into it, either to trade in it, or to repair it. It is revealed to them: the sense of the words thus rendered may be this, it, i.e. this burden or destruction of Tyre, is, i.e. shall be, revealed, declared or made known, unto them; either, 1. To the Tyrians, to whom this notice should be sent concerning the preparations of their enemies against them: or, 2. To the ships, by which he means their owners or merchants, from the land of Chittim; which may be here mentioned, either because they first had and gave them notice of it, as was now said; or because their last and sorest destruction was brought upon them by Alexander, who was of the land of Chittim, as is affirmed by that very ancient and venerable, though apocryphal writer, /APC 1Ma 1:1 8:5.

Isaiah 23:1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.Ver. 1. The burden of Tyre.] Heb., Tsor, whence came Tyre. It was the chief city of Phoenicia, the chief market of the East, a very microcosm or epitome of the whole world, for its wealth and wickedness. It was not far from Judea - our Saviour went from Galilee into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon - in whose misery she made herself merry, and is therefore here threatened with utter destruction. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish,] i.e., Of Tartessus, in Spain, or of Tarsus, in Cilicia, St Paul’ s country, or of the main ocean. For it is laid waste,] viz., By Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards by Alexander the Great, who of an island made it part of the continent, and then razed it to the ground. So that there is no house.] Or thus: So that there is no house, nor coming in for those from Chittim, is made known to them. Plin., lib. v. cap. 19.

XXIII. (1) The burden of Tyre . . .—The chapter calls us to enquire into the political relations of Tyre at the time of Isaiah. These we learn, partly from Scripture itself, partly from Assyrian inscriptions. In the days of David and Solomon there had been an intimate alliance between Israel and Hiram, King of Tyre. Psalms 45:12 indicates at least the interchange of kingly gifts, if not the acknowledgment of sovereignty by payment of tribute. Psalms 83:7, which we have some reason to connect with the reign of Uzziah, shows that this alliance had passed into hostility. The position of Tyre naturally threw it into more intimate relations with the northern kingdom; “its country was nourished by the king’s country” then as in the days of Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:20), and there seems reason to believe that the son of Tabeal, whom Pekah and Rezin intended to place upon the throne of Judah, was the son of a Tyrian ruler. (See Note on Isaiah 7:6.) It was, at this time, the most flourishing of the Phœnician cities, and had succeeded to the older fame of Zidon. The action of Ahaz in inviting the help of Tiglath-pileser against Israel and the Syrians had tended to make Tyre also an object of attack by the Assyrian armies. The prophecy now before us would seem to have been connected with that attack, and foretells the issue of the conflict on which Tyre had rashly entered. Upon that issue light is thrown by the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings. Sargon records that he “plundered the district of Samaria and the whole house of Omri,” and “reigned from Yatnan (Cyprus), which is in the midst of the sea of the setting sun . . . from the great Phœnicia and Syria. . . . to all the cities of remote Media” (Records of the Past, vii. 27). Sennacherib boasts of a victory over the land of the Hatti (i.e., Hittites); “fear overwhelmed Luti, the king of Zidon,” and “he fled to Yatnan, which is in the midst of the sea,” and the Assyrian “placed Tubalu” (the Tabeal of Isaiah) on the throne of the kingdom (Records of the Past, vii. 61). In anticipation of these events, the prophet utters his note of warning to the great merchant city. It seems more natural to connect it with those events, which came within the horizon of his vision, than to refer it, as some interpreters have done, to the later siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. The mention of the Chaldeans as having been subdued by the Assyrians, which fits in with Sargon’s and Sennacherib’s victories over Merôdach-baladan (Records of the Past, vii. 45, 59), who endeavoured to establish an independent kingdom in Babylon (see Note on Isaiah 39:1), and is, of course, entirely inapplicable to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, seems, indeed, to be decisive as to this question. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish . . .—See Note on Isaiah 2:16.

CHAPTER XXIII Prophecy denouncing the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, delivered upwards of one hundred and twenty years before its accomplishment, at a period when the Tyrians were in great prosperity, and the Babylonians in abject subjection to the Assyrian empire; and, consequently, when an event of so great magnitude was improbable in the highest degree, 1-14. Tyre shall recover its splendour at the termination of seventy years, the days of ONE king, or kingdom, by which must be meant the time allotted for the duration of the Babylonish empire, as otherwise the prophecy cannot be accommodated to the event, 15-17. Supposed reference to the early conversion of Tyre to Christianity, 18. NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII Verse 1. The burden of Tyre] Tyre, a city on the coast of Syria, about lat. 32° N. was built two thousand seven hundred and sixty years before Christ. There were two cities of this name; one on the continent, and the other on an island, about half a mile from the shore; the city on the island was about four miles in circumference. Old Tyre resisted Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years; then the inhabitants carried, so to speak, the city to the forementioned island, Isaiah 23:4. This new city held out against Alexander the Great for seven months; who, in order to take it, was obliged to fill up the channel which separated it from the main land. In A.D. 1289 it was totally destroyed by the sultan of Egypt; and now contains only a few huts, in which about fifty or sixty wretched families exist. This desolation was foretold by this prophet and by Ezekiel, one thousand nine hundred years before it took place! Howl, ye ships of Tarshish] This prophecy denounces the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It opens with an address to the Tyrian negotiators and sailors at Tarshish, (Tartessus, in Spain,) a place which, in the course of their trade, they greatly frequented. The news of the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; "for the Tyrians," says Jerome on Isaiah 23:6, "when they saw they had no other means of escaping, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage and in the islands of the Ionian and AEgean sea." From whence the news would spread and reach Tarshish; so also Jarchi on the same place. This seems to be the most probable interpretation of this verse.

1. The returning ships are apprised, at the last stage of their voyage, of the disaster that has overtaken their mother-country. Ships of Tarshish may mean here, literally, “ships trading with Tarshish” (Tartessus) at the mouth of the Guadalquivir in Spain. See on Isaiah 2:16. it is laid waste] The unexpressed subject is best left indefinite,—“a destruction has been wrought.” no house, no entering in] i.e. “no house (harbour) to enter in.” Cf. ch. Isaiah 24:10 “every house is shut up so that none can enter.” The last word, however, might be joined with the following clause, which would then run: since leaving the land of Chittim, &c. The vessels learn of the fall of Tyre, not at Cyprus, but on their voyage thence. The Chittim are the inhabitants of Kition, in the south of Cyprus, rounded by the Phœnicians. The name was extended to the whole island, and ultimately in biblical usage to the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean (Daniel 11:30). it is revealed to them] whether by rumour from flying vessels, or by eye-sight as they approached the shore, does not appear.

The burden of Tyre - (see the note at Isaiah 13:1) Howl - This is a highly poetic description of the destruction that was coming on Tyre.

1. Ships of Tarshish — The Mediterranean fleet, especially the larger vessels which plied between the Phoenician coast (for all cities and towns on the coast were sea-faring,) and Tartessus in Spain.