Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 23:8

"Who hath purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?" — Isaiah 23:8 (ASV)

Who has taken this counsel? - To whom is this to be traced? Is this the work of man, or is it the plan of God? These are 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 over cities and kingdoms.

The crowning city - The distributor 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 Phoenician colonies, and derived their origin from Tyre, and were still its tributaries and dependents .

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

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