Isaiah · chapter 23 of 66
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Isaiah 23 is the last of the oracles against the nations and announces judgment on Tyre, the Phoenician port and merchant city. The ships of Tarshish wail, Sidon is put to shame, and the Lord of hosts declares that he himself planned the fall of this proud city. After seventy years of being forgotten, Tyre will trade again, but its profits will be devoted to the Lord.
Isaiah 13-23 gathers oracles against Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Egypt and other nations. Isaiah 23 closes that section with Tyre, the sea power of the eastern Mediterranean. The message to Judah is clear: no power, military or economic, lies beyond the Lord's reach, and the nations do not have the last word in history.
The chapter opens with a lament addressed to the ships of Tarshish: Tyre has been destroyed, with no houses and no harbor left. The news reaches them from the land of Cyprus, so the sailors learn of it on the way home. The people of the coast fall silent, and Sidon, the sister city that grew rich from the merchants of the sea, is told to be ashamed. Egypt is also anguished at the report, because its grain and the harvest of the Nile had fed Tyre's trade.
The central question comes in vv. 8-9: who planned this against Tyre, the city that handed out crowns and whose merchants were princes? The answer is that the Lord of hosts planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory. He stretched out his hand over the sea and shook kingdoms. The people are told to flee to Tarshish, and Sidon, drained of strength, will find no rest even in Cyprus. Verses 13-14 recall the fate of the land of the Chaldeans, which Assyria turned into ruins, and repeat the lament for the ships of Tarshish.
Verses 15-18 add a turn. Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, a span like the days of one king. Then the Lord will visit her and she will return to her trade, pictured as a prostitute who goes back to her wages and deals with all the kingdoms. But the ending is surprising: her profits will be devoted to the Lord. They will not be stored up but will provide food and fine clothing for those who live in his presence.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The prophet calls the ships of Tarshish to wail because Tyre is destroyed, with no house and no harbor. The chapter opens with the picture of a trading power that seemed unbeatable and falls all at once.
Isaiah asks who planned this against Tyre and answers that it was the Lord of hosts, to bring low the pride of all glory. The judgment is no political accident: the Lord rules even the richest and mightiest nations.
Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of a single king. The text marks a period of commercial silence without spelling out when it begins or ends, and it points ahead to a new start.
Tyre's profits will be devoted to the Lord and will serve those who live in his presence, giving them food and clothing. What was pride and selfish gain becomes, by God's grace, provision for his people.
5 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The ships of Tarshish, because Tyre is destroyed and has no harbor. — Isaiah 23:1
Answer: Sidon, which had grown rich through the merchants of the sea. — Isaiah 23:2-4
Answer: The Lord of hosts, to bring low the pride of all glory. — Isaiah 23:8-9
Answer: Seventy years, like the days of one king. — Isaiah 23:15
Answer: They will be devoted to the Lord and will serve those who live in his presence. — Isaiah 23:18
Isaiah 23 reminds us that wealth, trade and prestige cannot give final security. Tyre trusted in its harbor and its merchants, and the Lord showed that no human stronghold is absolute. A small group can ask where we look for security: a job, savings, recognition. Scripture does not condemn work or money, but it does condemn the pride that turns them into idols.
The end of the chapter offers a practical lesson: what we earn can be put at the service of God and others. A Sunday school class can talk about how to use resources so that they feed the needy and advance the gospel, rather than piling them up only for ourselves.
Isaiah 23 ends the oracles against the nations with a note that joins judgment and hope: even the proudest city will end up laying its wealth before the Lord. With chapter 24 a different section begins, the judgment of the whole earth, sometimes called the apocalypse of Isaiah.
Tyre was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast, famous for its sea trade and wealth. Isaiah mentions it because its pride stands for every human power that trusts in itself, and because its fall shows that the Lord rules over the nations.
The text says Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of a king, and then return to its activity. Interpreters take it as a period of subjection and commercial silence, though the passage does not pin it to an exact point in history. It should not simply be equated with the seventy years of Judah's exile mentioned in Jeremiah.
It is an image the prophets used for relationships built only on profit. Here it describes Tyre's trade with all the kingdoms, not a particular sexual behavior. The surprise is that those earnings end up devoted to the Lord.