Chapter 23
((See the "stacked" notes from 2024 below. I think this is a really really good - accurate, correct - way to look at Chapter 23.))
The oracle concerning Tyre:
Isaiah 23
The wording for the first 12 verses seems more about how those who traded and grew rich on trade with Tyre will react when they hear it has fallen. These verses also make clear that what has happened is from God, and that His purpose is to bring down the haughty.
2021-Here is a key verse:
[Isa 23:9 ESV] The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
It almost seems that any place on the planet that grows to believe itself the top of the hierarchy becomes a target of God's wrath. He will not be usurped on the earth. He will bring about destruction as proof of His power over even the strongest or richest. The phrasing here reminds me a little of the phrasing about Babylon in Revelation, too. The POV is of those who were enriched by the doings of the city, rather than from the city as it was destroyed. The inhabitants of Tyre, or Babylon, are receiving the justice they deserve. Their terror, their demise, their sense of loss is not relevant. What does matter is that they ignored God, or maybe they shook their fists at His rules, and they receive, ultimately, the justice this requires.
2022 - 1 ...for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. [Isa 23:1 ESV]. Cyprus is offshore Lebanon. Would be a good first hop from Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coast! [Isa 23:6 ESV]. Most maps I looked at speculate that Tarshish was through the Strait of Gibraltar, and on the south coast of Spain. Perhaps the way to look at it is as the "far end" of the Mediterranean trade routes. The furthest point served by the port of Tyre. This is where Jonah headed when he was told to go to Ninevah. As far away as he could get.
2021 - This verse is interesting:
[Isa 23:11 ESV] He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.
So Tyre and Sidon, being cities and not nations, are being discussed as subsets of the true object of God's wrath here. It is Canaan that is going to fall. Israel and Judah, or Ephraim and Judah. This is just a small part of that larger purpose of God.
I think vs 13 says it will be Assyria or the Chaldeans that bring it down. I think Assyria is in view.
There is much in Barnes' commentary on this. I am just going to paste it in rather than summarize it:
"Behold the land of the Chaldeans - This is a very important verse, as it expresses the source from where these calamities were coming upon Tyre; and as it states some historical facts of great interest respecting the rise of Babylon. In the previous verses the prophet had foretold the certain destruction of Tyre, and had said that whoever was the agent, it was to be traced to the overruling providence of God. He here states distinctly that the agent in accomplishing all this would be the Chaldeans - a statement which fixes the time to the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, and proves that it does not refer to the conquest by Alexander the Great."
Barnes goes on to show that a very remarkable aspect of this prophecy is that at the time Isaiah says it is the Chaldeans who will take down Tyre, Babylon was just a backwater nothing inhabited by barbarians and nomads from the desert. It was a nothing place.
Prophecy about Tyre. Says that Tyre will fall, but after seventy years it will rise again. MSB says that with God's help, the city would return after 70 years. When it returns though, it will no longer store and hoard waiting for exorbitant prices, but will distribute - as a hub - the merchandise shipped through her to those "who dwell before the Lord". Sure don't know what this might mean. I have done some research on Tyre. 70 years is also the length of the exile of Judah. I know that some king destroyed the part of Tyre that is on the mainland, but it wasn't until Alexander the Great that the offshore island also fell, and great was the fall of it. There was massacre of those still living there when Alexander took it. MSB says the 70 year reference is "obscure", meaning he doesn't know to what it refer either. So we don't know when Tyre is to return to power. A good guess for me would be that it will happen when the Jews return to Zion. The rapid population increase, and the riches bestowed by God, will require a huge port to supply the needs of the new Israel. So I would think it is at that time that Tyre will return to power as a port. Other ideas - 70 nations in Genesis, 70 weeks of Daniel. Maybe the 70 years of Tyre refer also to the same 70 weeks in Daniel, meaning that Tyre comes back pretty much at the end of the Millennial? Or maybe at the end of the 7 years of Tribulation. So here is another prophecy that could be studied in far greater detail.
2021 - If the 70 years does refer to the time of the Millennial, when the Jews rule over the earth, perhaps Tyre will become a clearinghouse, a distribution center for food and goods to the entire world, not for profit but for justice. None will starve because they can't pay the price - Tyre will supply, via Canaan, which is Israel. But still, there is that 70 there. That's pretty specific.
2022 - Barnes again: Seventy years, according to the days of one king - 'That is, of one kingdom (see Daniel 7:17; Daniel 8:20).' (Lowth) The word 'king' may denote dynasty, or kingdom. The duration of the Babylonian monarchy was properly but seventy years. Nebuchadnezzar began his conquest in the first year of his reign, and from thence to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus was seventy years. And at that time the nations that had been conquered and subdued by the Babylonians would be restored to liberty. Tyre was, indeed, taken toward the middle of that period, and its subjugation referred to here was only for the remaining part of it. So glad I found this source yesterday. Many many things that I'd never have figured out on my own are right there in plain sight. So it does not tie to the 70 weeks...though that could be a far fulfilment.
2024 - Or maybe all the above is just overthinking what is there. This is "The oracle concerning Tyre..." Think of it as a forecast of what is to come. If we do this, then the following verses will be chronological. A future history. We get one big "step" in this history. It comes in vs. 15, which starts with "Now in that day..." We have seen this sort of "break" in the narrative before, where we looked at "day of the Lord" vs "in that day".
In vss 1-7 we get a lament for the loss of Tyre, as though it is already gone. In vs. 1 we have two verbs. "Wail", which is imperative. Wail, as in right now. Wail that Tyre is gone. Second verb, and I believe the main verb is "destroyed" in NASB95, or laid waste, or gone. All these translations indicate severe loss. I don't think they indicate that only the foundations are left, so much as that the place has been overrun, no longer has the infrastructure to carry on commerce, and is just a sort of a "wide spot in the road" now. The Mediterranean sea trade seems to run from Egypt to Tarshish. From the east end of the Med, through Gibraltar, to Tarshish in Spain. Sidon is also prominently mentioned. Sidon is about 10 miles up the coast north of Tyre. Why is it mentioned here? Did it benefit directly from the trade in Tyre? Perhaps as an overflow port?
2024 - And then from vs 8 - 12, we get the "cause" of Tyre's demise. God has caused Tyre to fall, and I do still think we see the reason He did so in vs 11b. This was a part of the weakening of Canaan. We know that Assyria was coming, and Babylon not long after that. Perhaps we are to see Tyre as the bigger prize in this whole area. No one would bother with Israel and Judah with Tyre - a MUCH wealthier prize - sitting right there. Tyre had to fall first. So we can look at details. Wikipedia says Neb II besieged Tyre for 13 years, from 586-73 BC. He took the land part of Tyre, but not the offshore island fortress. According to MSB, Isaiah prophesied from 739-686 BC. So, if we look at vss 1-12 as a prophecy of Neb's siege of Tyre, we are looking out about 100 years. But...does it fit? Was Tyre destroyed by Neb? Wiki also says this: "After 13 years of siege, the Tyrians negotiated a surrender with the Babylonians.[1] Nebuchadnezzar II was never able to take control of Tyre by military means, leaving the result of the siege as militarily inconclusive.[15][1][16] The King of Tyre, Ithobaal III, either died near the end of the siege or was replaced as part of the surrender. He was succeeded by Baal II, who ruled as a vassal to Babylon.[1]" So as an independent maritime kingdom, Tyre ended with Neb. So that does seem to fit. Then vss 13-14 tell us that it won't be Assyria, which was the current dominant power in Isaiah's time, but their successor Babylon, that will take out Tyre. And, if we take the dates for the siege into account, Tyre was besieged the same year that Jerusalem fell to Babylon. Israel could receive no help from Tyre with Babylon surrounding that city. I wonder just how dependent upon Tyre Jerusalem had become at that time.
2024 - And then we get to vs 15, which opens with "Now in that day...". Can we determine whether this is an indicator that the following verses are a prophecy of a separate time than was in view in 1-14? There is the reference above from Barnes, that says Babylon only really lasted about 70 years before falling to the Medo-Persians under Cyrus. Cyrus sent the Jews home after their 70 years of captivity in Babylon. His decree occurred in 539 BC. It is not a big stretch to think that Babylonian control over Tyre "went away" when Babylon fell, and she began to "market" herself again as an international port of trade. She was never again what she once was. She was an aging harlot, advertising her wares instead of being well known - a full generation had passed really, and Tyre's former glory would need to be recounted, people would need to be reminded. Her glory days were gone. But with the return of the Jews to Israel, Tyre would have a ready local market once again. Even an international seaport must have markets to supply, and there really wasn't one close by while Jerusalem was in ruins. So "in that day" indeed points us to the next phase in the history of Tyre. It's restoration as a port city, though far from the glory it once had. Recall though, that it becomes a big enough prize to attract the attention of Alexander the Great a few hundred years later.
2024 - So IN CONCLUSION, we can, I think, support the idea that all the prophecy of Isaiah about Tyre was fulfilled in the past. I see no connection to Revelation. No near/far. Not a mystery anymore, just a straightforward prophecy and fulfilment.