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The oracle concerning Tyre.
1 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your fortress
is destroyed. When they came in from Cyprus they learned of it.
2 Be still, O inhabitants of the coast, O merchants
of Sidon, your messengers crossed over the sea
3 and were on the mighty waters; your revenue
was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant
of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the fortress of
the sea, saying: "I have neither labored nor given birth, I have
neither reared young men nor brought up young women."
5 When the report comes to Egypt, they will
be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish—wail, O inhabitants of
the coast!
7 Is this your exultant city whose origin is
from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?
8 Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower
of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored
of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts has planned it—to defile the
pride of all glory, to shame all the honored of the earth.
10 Cross over to your own land, O ships of Tarshish;
this is a harbor no more.
11 He has stretched out his hand over the sea,
he has shaken the kingdoms; the Lord has given command concerning
Canaan to destroy its fortresses.
12 He said: You will exult no longer, O oppressed virgin
daughter Sidon; rise, cross over to Cyprus—even there you will
have no rest.
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is
the people; it was not Assyria. They destined Tyre for wild animals.
They erected their siege towers, they tore down her palaces, they
made her a ruin.
14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your fortress
is destroyed.
15 From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy
years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will
happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:
16 Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten
prostitute! Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre,
and she will return to her trade, and will prostitute herself with all
the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
18 Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated
to the Lord; her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise
will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in
the presence of the Lord.
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