The Burden against Tyre

¹ This is the burden against Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste,

without house or harbor.

Word has reached them

from the land of Cyprus.

² Be silent,^* O dwellers of the coastland,

you merchants of Sidon,

whose traders have crossed the sea.

³ On 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.

⁴ Be 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.”

⁵ When the report reaches Egypt,

they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

⁷ Is this your jubilant city,

whose origin is from antiquity,

whose feet have taken her

to settle far away?

⁸ Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose traders are princes,

whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

⁹ The LORD of Hosts planned it,

to defile all its glorious beauty,

to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

¹⁰ Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;

there is no longer a harbor.

¹¹ The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea;

He has made kingdoms tremble.

He has given a command

that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

¹² He said, “You shall rejoice^* no more,

O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.

Get up and cross over to Cyprus—

even there you will find no rest.”

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans—

a people now of no account.

The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures;

they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces.

They brought it to ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your harbor has been destroyed!

¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years— the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:^*

¹⁶ “Take up your harp,

stroll through the city,

O forgotten harlot.

Make sweet^* melody,

sing many a song,

so you will be remembered.”

¹⁷ And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore^* Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute^* and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸ Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.