Isaiah 23:6

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is an oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus. ²Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. ³On the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre; she was the merchant of the nations. ⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women." ⁵When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre. ⁶Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!⁷Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away? ⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth? ⁹The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth. ¹⁰Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

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 13:2
And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

Genesis 14:14
And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.

Genesis 18:12
So she laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"

Genesis 21:22
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

Genesis 23:1
Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.

Genesis 23:2
She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.

Genesis 23:4
"I am a stranger and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead."

Genesis 23:5
The Hittites replied to Abraham,

Genesis 24:18
"Drink, my lord," she replied, and she quickly lowered her jar to her hands and gave him a drink.

Genesis 24:35
"The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.

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.