A Prophecy against Tyre
(Isaiah 23:1–18)

1And it came to pass in the eleventh month of the twelfth year,† on the first of the month, that came the word of YHWH to me, saying: 2“Son of man, because that Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples—she is turned over to me; I will be filled; she is destroyed,’ 3therefore thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up against you many nations, as the sea brings up its waves. 4And they will destroy the walls of Tyre, and they will throw down her towers; and I will scrape her dust from her, and will give her as a clear place of a rock. 5She will be a spreading place of nets in the midst of the sea—for I have spoken, says the Lord YHWH—and she will become as plunder for the nations, 6and her daughters who are on her mainland will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am YHWH.’

7For thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Behold, I am bringing against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar† king of Babylon from the north, the king of kings, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, even an assembly, and a numerous people. 8Your daughters on the mainland he will slay with the sword, and he will set against you a siege mound, and he will build against you a wall and raise against you a buckler; 9and the blow of his battering ram he will place against your walls, and your towers he will tear down with his swords.

10From the abundance of his horses will cover you their dust, and from the noise of the horsemen, and the wagons, and the chariots, your walls will shake in his coming in your gates, like those entering a city having been breached. 11With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; your people he will slay with the sword, and the pillars of your strength will come down to the ground. 12And they will plunder your riches, and they will seize your merchandise; they will throw down your walls, and the houses of your desire they will tear down; and your stones and your timber and your soil they will put in the midst of the waters.

13And the roar of your songs I will make cease, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 14And I will give you as a clear place of a rock; you will be a spreading place of nets; you will not be rebuilt anymore! For I, YHWH, have spoken,’ a declaration of the Lord YHWH.

15Thus says the Lord YHWH to Tyre: ‘Will not—at the sound of your downfall, with the groaning of the wounded, with the great slaughter in your midst—the coastlands quake?

16And will come down from upon their thrones all the princes of the sea, and they will lay aside their robes, and the garments of their embroidery they will strip off; with trembling they will clothe themselves, and upon the ground they will sit and tremble at every moment, and they will be appalled over you. 17And they will take up over you a lamentation, and they will say to you:

“How you have perished, one inhabited from the seas,

O city renowned,

who was strong on the sea—she and those dwelling in her,

who gave out their terror to all those dwelling by her!

18Now the coastlands tremble

on the day of your downfall,

and are dismayed the islands that are in the sea,

at your going out.”’

19For thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘In My making you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, in bringing up upon you the deep, that the great waters should cover you, 20I will bring you down with those going down to the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell within the earth, in the places below, like the ruins of old—with those going down to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or set in splendor† in the land of the living. 21I will make you a terror, and you will be no more; and you will be sought, and you will not be found anymore forever,’ a declaration of the Lord YHWH.”