Isaiah 23:8

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

Who hath: Deuteronomy 29:24-28, Jeremiah 50:44, Jeremiah 50:45, Revelation 18:8

the crowning: Ezekiel 28:2-6, Ezekiel 28:12-18

merchants: Isaiah 10:8, Isaiah 36:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:19 - honourable Psalms 107:40 - poureth Isaiah 23:3 - she is Ezekiel 26:12 - thy merchandise Ezekiel 26:17 - strong Ezekiel 27:3 - a merchant Ezekiel 28:5 - and by Ezekiel 28:7 - I will Zechariah 9:3 - heaped Revelation 18:18 - What Revelation 18:23 - thy merchants

Cross-References

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 23:3
Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,

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 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

1 Kings 2:17
Adonijah replied, "Please speak to King Solomon, since he will not turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."

Hebrews 7:26
Such a high priest truly befits us-One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning [city],.... Which had a king over it, to whom it gave a crown; and which crowned its inhabitants with riches and plenty, and even enriched the kings of the earth, Ezekiel 27:33 this is said as wondering who could lay a scheme to destroy such a city, or ever think of succeeding in it; who could take it into his head, or how could it enter into his heart, or who could have a heart to go about it, and still less power to effect the ruin of such a city, which was the queen of cities, and gave laws and crowns, riches and wealth, to others; surely no mere mortal could be concerned in this; see Revelation 13:3:

whose merchants [are] princes; either really such, for even princes and kings of the earth traded with her, Ezekiel 27:21 or they were as rich as princes in other countries were:

whose traffickers [are] the honourable of the earth; made rich by trafficking with her, and so attained great honour and glory in the world; see Revelation 18:3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who hath taken this counsel? - To whom is this to be traced? Is this the work of man, or is it the plan of God? - questions which would naturally arise at the contemplation of the ruin of a city so ancient and so magnificent. The object of this question is to trace it all to God; and this perhaps indicates the scope of the prophecy - to show that God reigns, and does all his pleasure ever cities and kingdoms.

The crowning city - The distributer of crowns; or the city from which dependent towns, provinces, and kingdoms had arisen. Many colonies and cities had been founded by Tyre. Tartessus in Spain, Citium in Cyprus, Carthage in Africa, and probably many other places were Phenician colonies, and derived their origin from Tyre, and were still its tributaries and dependants (compare Ezekiel 27:33).

Whose merchants are princes - Princes trade with thee; and thus acknowledge their dependence on thee. Or, thy merchants are splendid, gorgeous, and magnificent like princes. The former, however, is probably the meaning.

Whose traffickers - (כנעניה kı̂n^e‛âneyhâ, Canaanites). As the ancient inhabitants of Canaan were “traffickers or merchants,” the word came to denote merchants in general (see Job 41:6; Ezekiel 17:4; Hosea 12:7; Zephaniah 1:1 l). So the word Chaldean came to mean astrologers, because they were celebrated for astrology.