Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 23:6

"Pass ye over to Tarshish; wail, ye inhabitants of the coast." — Isaiah 23:6 (ASV)

Pass over to Tarshish ... —The words have the ring of a keen irony. The Tyrians are told to go to Tarshish, the extreme point of their commerce; not, as before, to bring back their wealth, but to seek safety there as exiles. No nearer asylum would give them safety.

So, in the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great, the Tyrians sent their old men, women, and children to Carthage (Diodorus Siculus 17.41). So Layard (Nineveh, plate 71) represents enemies of the Assyrians taking refuge in ships (Cheyne). The “isle” or “coast” is, as before, Tyre and its neighborhoods.