Isaiah 23:1-18
Q.1. What made Tyre great? What was Isaiah’s prophecy about Tyre? Who was responsible for Tyre’s fall? Is their decline permanent? – (Isa.23:1-18)
The ships of Tarshish seemed to sail the world of Africa, India, and the Americas, beyond the Mediterranean Sea. These journeys were navigated regularly and brought with them great wealth – 2 Be silent, you inhabitants of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon; Your messengers crossed the sea 3 And were on many waters. The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue; And she was the market of nations … 7 Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet used to carry her to colonize distant places? 8 … whose merchants were princes whose traders were the honoured of the earth? (Isa.23:2-3, 7-8 c.f. 2 Chron.8:17-18; 9:21] The seafaring people of Tyre were merchants who not only brought wealth, but also idolatry from the heathen nations of the world. God would use Assyria in the land of the Chaldeans to crush Tyre (Isa.23:13 c.f. Isa.23:8-9). However, Tyre would rise again after seventy years (like Judah – Jer.29:10; Dan.9:2). She then would return to her wicked commerce, idolatry, and immorality – 17 It will come about at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot’s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her harlot’s wages will be set apart to the Lord; it will not be stored up or hoarded, but her gain will become sufficient food and choice attire for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord (Isa.23:17-18). Many believe that the activities and destructions recorded in Revelation chapters 17-18 apply not only to godless Babylon, but also to Tyre in modern-day Lebanon.