Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 2:16

"and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant imagery." — Isaiah 2:16 (ASV)

And upon all the ships of Tarshish. —The words point to the commerce in the Red Sea carried on by the fleets of Uzziah and Jotham (1 Kings 22:48); perhaps also to that in the Mediterranean with Tarshish, or Tartessus (Spain), as in Jonah 1:3. The “ships of Tarshish” had come to be used generically for all ships of the class used in such commerce, whether crossing the Mediterranean to Spain, or circumnavigating Africa, or passing over the Persian Gulf to Ophir.

Upon all pleasant pictures. —Literally, upon all imagery of delight (Numbers 33:52). The combination of the phrase with “the ships of Tarshish” suggests the inference that it includes the works of art which were brought by them from East and West. For these, it would seem, there was a mania among the higher classes in Jerusalem, like that which in later times has fastened upon china, or pictures, or carvings in ivory. So the ships of Solomon brought gold and silver, and ivory and apes and peacocks (1 Kings 10:22).

The ivory beds of Amos 6:4, the gold rings set with the beryl, the ivory overlaid with sapphires, the pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold of Song of Solomon 5:14–15, the precious things in the treasury of Hezekiah (Isaiah 39:2), may be taken as examples of this form of luxury. The aestheticism of the Roman Empire, of the Renaissance of the fifteenth century, of the age of Louis XIV., of our own time and country, presents obvious parallels.