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Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

JPS Old Testament

Isaiah 23:10

Overflow thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish! there is no girdle any more.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Tarshish;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Girdles;   Rivers;   Tyre;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Tarshish;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Nile;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Preaching;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Brook;   Tarshish;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Haven;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Isaiah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Tarshish, Tharshish;   Zidon, Sidon ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Nile;   Tarshish;   Tyre;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Daughter;   Isaiah;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Metals;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Overflow your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish;there is no longer anything to restrain you.
Hebrew Names Version
Pass through your land as the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
King James Version
Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
English Standard Version
Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint anymore.
New American Standard Bible
Overflow your land like the Nile, you daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint.
New Century Version
Go through your land, people of Tarshish, like the Nile goes through Egypt. There is no harbor for you now!
Amplified Bible
Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; There is no more restraint [on you to make you pay tribute to Tyre].
World English Bible
Pass through your land as the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Passe through thy lande like a flood to the daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
Legacy Standard Bible
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish;There is no more restraint.
Berean Standard Bible
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
Contemporary English Version
People of Tyre, your harbor is destroyed! You will have to become farmers just like the Egyptians.
Complete Jewish Bible
People of Tarshish! Nothing restricts you now. You can flow freely over your land just like the Nile River.
Darby Translation
Overflow thy land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish: there is no more restraint.
Easy-to-Read Version
Ships from Tarshish, go back home. Cross the sea as if it were a river. No one will stop you now.
George Lamsa Translation
Pass through your land like a river, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no one to drive you away.
Good News Translation
Go and farm the land, you people in the colonies in Spain! There is no one to protect you any more.
Lexham English Bible
Cross over your own land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
Literal Translation
Pass through your land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no more strength.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Go thorow thy londe (o thou doughter of the see) as men go ouer the water, and there is not a gyrdle more.
American Standard Version
Pass through thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
Bible in Basic English
Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer any harbour.
King James Version (1611)
Passe through thy land as a riuer O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Get thee out of thy lande like a fludde vnto the daughter of Tharsis, for thou hast no more strength.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Till thy land; for ships no more come out of Carthage.
English Revised Version
Pass through thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no girdle about thee any more.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thou douyter of the see, passe thi lond as a flood; a girdil is no more to thee.
Update Bible Version
Pass through your land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint anymore.
Webster's Bible Translation
Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: [there is] no more strength.
New English Translation
Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile; there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre.
New King James Version
Overflow through your land like the River, [fn] O daughter of Tarshish;There is no more strength.
New Living Translation
Come, people of Tarshish, sweep over the land like the flooding Nile, for Tyre is defenseless.
New Life Bible
Flow over your land like the Nile, O people of Tarshish. There is nothing holding you back any more.
New Revised Standard
Cross over to your own land, O ships of Tarshish; this is a harbor no more.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Pass through thy land as the Nile, - O daughter of Tarshish, there is no restraint any longer!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a girdle no more.
Revised Standard Version
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
Young's Literal Translation
Pass through thy land as a brook, Daughter of Tarshish, there is no more a girdle.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint.

Contextual Overview

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 Kittim it is revealed to them. 2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the coast-land; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. 3 And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations. 4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: 'I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I reared young men, nor brought up virgins.' 5 When the report cometh to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre. 6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast-land. 7 Is this your joyous city, whose feet in antiquity, in ancient days, carried her afar off to sojourn? 8 Who hath devised this against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? 9 The LORD of hosts hath devised it, to pollute the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. 10 Overflow thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish! there is no girdle any more.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

O daughter: Isaiah 23:12

no more: Isaiah 23:14, 1 Samuel 28:20, Job 12:21, Lamentations 1:6, Haggai 2:22, Romans 5:6

strength: Heb. girdle, Psalms 18:32

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 10:22 - Tharshish 2 Kings 19:21 - the daughter Job 24:18 - swift Isaiah 23:6 - Pass Ezekiel 26:18 - at thy Ezekiel 27:12 - General Jonah 1:3 - Tarshish

Cross-References

Genesis 23:1
And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years; these were the years of the life of Sarah.
Genesis 23:3
And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke unto the children of Heth, saying:
Genesis 23:4
'I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.'
Genesis 23:18
unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
Genesis 24:10
And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed; having all goodly things of his master's in his hand; and he arose, and went to Aram-naharaim, unto the city of Nahor.
Genesis 34:20
And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying:
Genesis 34:24
And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
Job 29:7
When I went forth to the gate unto the city, when I prepared my seat in the broad place,
Isaiah 28:6
And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn back the battle at the gate.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish,.... Or, "of the sea", as the Vulgate Latin; meaning Tyre, which was situated in the sea, and did, as it were, spring from it, and was fortified by it, and supported by ships of merchandise on it, from various places; but now, being about to be destroyed, the inhabitants of it are called upon to pass through it, and get out of it as fast as they could, even as swiftly as a river runs, and in great abundance or multitudes. Kimchi thinks the Tyrians are bid to pass to the daughter of Tarshish, that is, to Tarshish itself, to make their escape out of their own land, and flee thither for safety; this the accents will not admit of, there being an "athnach" upon the word "river"; rather the merchants of Tarshish, that were in Tyre, are exhorted to depart to their own land with all possible haste, lest they should be involved in its ruin; though the Targum inclines to the other sense,

"pass out of thy land, as the waters of a river flee to a province of the sea:''

[there is] no more strength; in Tyre, to defend themselves against the enemy, to protect their trade, and the merchants that traded with them; or, "no more girdle" e; about it; no more girt about with walls, ramparts, and other fortifications, or with soldiers and shipping, or with the sea, with which it was encompassed, while an island, but now no more, being joined to the continent by the enemy. Some think, because girdles were a part of merchandise, Proverbs 31:24, that this is said to express the meanness and poverty of the place, that there was not so much as a girdle left in it; rather that it was stripped of its power and authority, of which the girdle was a sign; see Isaiah 22:21.

e אין מזח עוד "nulla est zona amplius", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "non est cingulum amplius", Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pass through thy land as a river - This verse has been very variously understood. Vitringa supposes that it means that all that held the city together - its fortifications, walls, etc., would be laid waste, and that as a river flows on without obstruction, so the inhabitants would be scattered far and near. Everything, says he, would be leveled, and the field would not be distinguishable from the city. Grotius thus renders it: ‘Pass to some one of thy colonies; as a river flows from the fountain to the sea, so do you go to the ocean.’ Lowth understands it also as relating to the time of the destruction of Tyre, and to the escape which the inhabitants would then make.

‘Overflow thy land like a river,

O daughter of Tarshish; the mound (that kept in thy waters)

Is no more.’

The Septuagint renders it, ‘Cultivate (Ἐργάζον Ergazon) thy land, for the ships shall no more come from Carthage’ (Καρχηδόνος Karchēdonos) Probably the true meaning is that which refers it to the time of the siege, and to the fact that the inhabitants would seek other places when their defense was destroyed. That is, ‘Pass through thy territories, thy dependent cities, states, colonies, and seek a refuge there; or wander there like a flowing stream.’

As a river - Perhaps the allusion is to the Nile, as the word יאר ye'or is usually given to the Nile; or it may be to any river that flows on with a mighty current when all obstructions are removed. The idea is, that as waters flow on when the barriers are removed, so the inhabitants of Tyre would pour forth from their city. The idea is not so much that of rapidity, as it is they should go like a stream that has no dikes, barriers, or obstacles now to confine its flowing waters.

O daughter of Tarshish - Tyre; so called either because it was in some degree sustained and supplied by the commerce of Tarshish; or because its inhabitants would become the inhabitants of Tarshish, and it is so called by anticipation. The Vulgate renders this, “Filia marias” - ‘Daughter of the sea. Juntos supposes that the prophet addresses those who were then in the city who were natives of Tarshish, and exhorts them to flee for safety to their own city.

There is no more strength - Margin, ‘Girdle.’ The word מזח mēzach means properly a girdle Job 12:31. It is applied to that which binds or secures the body; and may be applied here perhaps to that which secured or bound the city of Tyre; that is, its fortifications, its walls, its defenses. They would all be leveled; and nothing would secure the inhabitants, as they would flow forth as waters that are pent up do, when every barrier is removed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 23:10. O daughter of Tarshish — Tyre is called the daughter of Tarshish; perhaps because, Tyre being ruined, Tarshish was become the superior city, and might be considered as the metropolis of the Tyrian people; or rather because of the close connexion and perpetual intercourse between them, according to that latitude of signification in which the Hebrews use the words son and daughter to express any sort of conjunction and dependence whatever. מזח mezach, a girdle, which collects, binds, and keeps together the loose raiment, when applied to a river, may mean a mound, mole, or artificial dam, which contains the waters and prevents them from spreading abroad. A city taken by siege and destroyed, whose walls are demolished, whose policy is dissolved, whose wealth is dissipated, whose people is scattered over the wide country, is compared to a river whose banks are broken down, and whose waters, let loose and overflowing all the neighbouring plains, are wasted and lost. This may possibly be the meaning of this very obscure verse, of which I can find no other interpretation that is at all satisfactory. - L.


 
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