Isaiah 23:6

THE MESSAGE

Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast. Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears! Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive, bustling with activity, this historic old city, Expanding throughout the globe, buying and selling all over the world? And who is behind the collapse of Tyre, the Tyre that controlled the world markets? Tyre's merchants were the business tycoons. Tyre's traders called all the shots. God -of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash to show the sordid backside of pride and puncture the inflated reputations. Sail for home, O ships of Tarshish. There are no docks left in this harbor. God reached out to the sea and sea traders, threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil. God ordered the destruction of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce. God said, "There's nothing left here to be proud of, bankrupt and bereft Sidon. Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus? Don't count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Cross over to Tarshish;wail, inhabitants of the coastland!

Hebrew Names Version
Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.

King James Version
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

English Standard Version
Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

New American Standard Bible
Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland.

New Century Version
You ships should return to Tarshish. You people living near the sea should be sad.

Amplified Bible
Cross over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles]; Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland [of Tyre].

World English Bible
Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Goe you ouer to Tarshish: howle, yee that dwell in the yles.

Legacy Standard Bible
Pass over to Tarshish;Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

Berean Standard Bible
Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

Contemporary English Version
All of you along the coast had better cry and sail far across the ocean.

Complete Jewish Bible
Cross over to Tarshish! Howl, you who live on the coast!

Darby Translation
Pass over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast!

Easy-to-Read Version
You ships, try to escape to Tarshish! Cry out, you people living near the sea!

George Lamsa Translation
Pass over to Tarshish; howl, O you inhabitants of the islands.

Good News Translation
Howl with grief, you people of Phoenicia! Try to escape to Spain!

Lexham English Bible
Cross over to Tarshish! Wail, inhabitants of the coast!

Literal Translation
Pass over Tarshish; howl, people of the coast!

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Go ouer the see, Mourne ye yt dwel in the Iles.

American Standard Version
Pass ye over to Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the coast.

Bible in Basic English
Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the sea-land.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast-land.

King James Version (1611)
Passe ye ouer to Tarshish, howle ye inhabitants of the yle.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Get you to Tharsis, mourne you that dwell in the Isle.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Depart ye to Carthage; howl, ye that dwell in this island.

English Revised Version
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Passe ye the sees; yelle ye, that dwellen in the ile.

Update Bible Version
Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.

Webster's Bible Translation
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

New English Translation
Travel to Tarshish! Wail, you residents of the coast!

New King James Version
Cross over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!

New Living Translation
Send word now to Tarshish! Wail, you people who live in distant lands!

New Life Bible
Pass over to Tarshish. Cry out in sorrow, O people of the islands.

New Revised Standard
Cross over to Tarshish— wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Pass ye over to Tarshish, - Howl ye inhabitants of the Coast:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.

Revised Standard Version
Pass over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast!

Young's Literal Translation
Pass over to Tarshish, howl, ye inhabitants of the isle,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Pass over to Tarshish; Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland.

Contextual Overview

¹ Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins! When the ships returned from Cyprus, they saw the destruction. Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast, merchants of Sidon. Your people sailed the deep seas, buying and selling, Making money on wheat from Shihor, grown along the Nile— multinational broker in grains! Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up, the powerhouse of the ocean says, "I've never had labor pains, never had a baby, never reared children to adulthood, Never gave life, never worked with life. It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss." ⁵ When Egypt gets the report on Tyre, what wailing! what wringing of hands! ⁶Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast. Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears! Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive, bustling with activity, this historic old city, Expanding throughout the globe, buying and selling all over the world? And who is behind the collapse of Tyre, the Tyre that controlled the world markets? Tyre's merchants were the business tycoons. Tyre's traders called all the shots. God -of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash to show the sordid backside of pride and puncture the inflated reputations. Sail for home, O ships of Tarshish. There are no docks left in this harbor. God reached out to the sea and sea traders, threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil. God ordered the destruction of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce. God said, "There's nothing left here to be proud of, bankrupt and bereft Sidon. Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus? Don't count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either." ¹³ Look at what happened to Babylon: There's nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble. ¹⁴ Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Pass: Isaiah 23:10, Isaiah 23:12, Isaiah 21:15

howl: Isaiah 23:1, Isaiah 23:2, Isaiah 16:7

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 10:22 - Tharshish Isaiah 23:14 - General Jeremiah 49:3 - Howl Ezekiel 27:12 - General Ezekiel 27:35 - the inhabitants Ezekiel 30:2 - Howl Jonah 1:3 - Tarshish

Cross-References

Genesis 21:22
At about that same time, Abimelech and the captain of his troops, Phicol, spoke to Abraham: "No matter what you do, God is on your side. So swear to me that you won't do anything underhanded to me or any of my family. For as long as you live here, swear that you'll treat me and my land as well as I've treated you."

Genesis 23:1
Sarah lived 127 years. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham mourned for Sarah and wept.

Genesis 23:5
The Hittites responded, "Why, you're no mere outsider here with us, you're a prince of God! Bury your dead wife in the best of our burial sites. None of us will refuse you a place for burial."

Genesis 24:18
She said, "Certainly, drink!" And she held the jug so that he could drink. When he had satisfied his thirst she said, "I'll get water for your camels, too, until they've drunk their fill." She promptly emptied her jug into the trough and ran back to the well to fill it, and she kept at it until she had watered all the camels. The man watched, silent. Was this God 's answer? Had God made his trip a success or not?

Genesis 42:10
"No, master," they said. "We've only come to buy food. We're all the sons of the same man; we're honest men; we'd never think of spying."

Exodus 32:22
Aaron said, "Master, don't be angry. You know this people and how set on evil they are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. This Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.'

Ruth 2:13
She said, "Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don't deserve it. You've touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don't even belong here!"

Isaiah 45:14
God says: "The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia, and those statuesque Sabeans Will all come over to you—all yours. Docile in chains, they'll follow you, Hands folded in reverence, praying before you: ‘Amazing! God is with you! There is no other God—none.'"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Pass ye over to Tarshish,.... Either to Tartessus in Spain, or to Tarsus in Cilicia, which lay over against them, and to which they might transport themselves, families, and substance, with greater ease; or "to a province of the sea", as the Targum, any other seaport; the Septuagint says to Carthage, which was a colony of the Tyrians; and hither the Assyrian u historians say they did transport themselves; though Kimchi thinks this is spoken, not to the Tyrians, but to the merchants that traded with them, to go elsewhere with their merchandise, since their goods could no more be disposed of in that city as usual.

Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle: of Tyre, as in Isaiah 23:2 or of every isle, as Aben Ezra, which traded here, because now their commerce was at an end; so Kimchi.

u Apud Hieron. in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pass ye over - That is, ye inhabitants of tyre. This is an address to Tyre, in view of her approaching destruction; and is designed to signify that when the city was destroyed, its inhabitants would flee to its colonies, and seek refuge and safety there. As Tarshish was one of its principal colonies, and as the ships employed by Tyre would naturally sail to Tarshish, the inhabitants are represented as fleeing there on the attack of Nebucbadnezzar. That the inhabitants of Tyre did fire in this manner, is expressly asserted by Jerome upon the authority of Assyrian histories which are now lost. ‘We have read,’ says he, ‘in the histories of the Assyrians, that when the Tyrians were besieged, after they saw no hope of escaping, they went on board their ships, and fled to Cartilage, or to some islands of the Ionian and AEgean Sea’ (Jerome in loc.) And again (on Ezekiel 29:0) he says, ‘When the Tyrians saw that the works for carrying on the siege were perfected, and the foundations of the walls were shaken by the battering rams, whatever precious things in gold, silver, clothes, and various kinds of furniture the nobility had, they put them on board their ships, and carried to the islands. So that the city being taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor.’ Diodorus (xvii. 41) relates the same thing of the Tyrians during the siege of Alexander the Great, where he says that they took their wives and children to Carthage.

Howl - Deep grief among the Orientals was usually expressed by a loud, long, and most dismal howl or shriek (see the note at Isaiah 15:2).

Ye inhabitants of the isle - Of Tyre. The word ‘isle,’ however, may be taken as in Isaiah 20:6 (see the note on that place), in, the sense of coast, or maritime country in general, and possibly may be intended to denote Old Tyre, or the coast of Phenicia in general, though most naturally it applies to the city built on the island.