John Gill Commentary Isaiah 23

The burden of Tyre
Or a prophecy concerning the destruction of it. The Targum is, "the burden of the cup of cursing, to give Tyre to drink." This was a famous city in Phoenicia, which exceeded in renown and grandeur all the cities of Syria and Phoenicia ^F8, and was much known for its trade and navigation, for which it was well situated by the sea; and indeed new Tyre stood in it, about half a mile from the shore, before it was joined to the continent by Alexander the great: but this seems to be old Tyre, and, was upon the continent.

It was built by the Phoenicians before the Trojan war ^F9, and two hundred and forty years before the temple of Solomon ^F11. It had its name (rwu) , "Tzur", in the Hebrew language, from which it is called Tyre, from the rock on which it was built, that word so signifying. It is written here without a vau; and it is a rule with the Jews ^F12, that whenever this word is written full, with all its letters, it is to be understood of the city of Tyre; but if wanting, it designs Rome; and Cocceius interprets the whole prophecy of the antichristian city.

Howl, you ships of Tarshish;
not of Carthage, as the Septuagint version; but of Tartessus in Spain, which traded with Tyre, and from which the Phoenicians are said to have large quantities of gold and silver. Some interpret it Tarsus, a seaport in Cilicia, which lay nearer to Tyre, the same place the Apostle Paul was of, (Acts 22:3) though by Tarshish may be meant the sea, as it sometimes is, and as the Targum and Jarchi here interpret it, and so designs ships in general; or, as the Targum, those that go down in the ships of the sea; or all sorts of persons, from every quarter, that sailed in ships to Tyre, and traded with it; these are now called to mourning and lamentation, because their commerce with it was now over:

for it is laid waste;
not Tarshish, but Tyre; and this was done, not by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who indeed besieged it for the space of five years, but took it not; the Tyrians with twelve ships scattered his fleet, and took five hundred of his men, this was when Elulaeus was king of Tyre ^F13; nor by Alexander the great; for though it was besieged and taken by him, yet before his time it had been besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years, and at last was taken by him, when Ithobalus was king of it ^F14: and this seems rather intended here, since seventy years after this it was to be restored again, which best accords with those times, as will be seen hereafter:

so that there is no house, no entering in;
no port or haven open to go in at, no shops to vend their goods in, no warehouses to lay them up in, nor inns to lodge at, as well as no private houses for the inhabitants to dwell in, all being destroyed by the enemy:

from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them;
Chittim was one of the sons of Javan, as was also Tarshish, by whom the isles of the Gentiles were divided, (Genesis 10:4Genesis 10:5) from whom the Ionians or Grecians descended; so that Chittim seems to design some part of Greece, or isles belonging to it. The Macedonians are called by this name; and Alexander the Macedonian is said to come out of the land of Chittim, as in the Apocrypha:

``And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,''

``Beside this, how they had discomfited in battle Philip, and Perseus, king of the Citims, with others that lifted up themselves against them, and had overcome them:''

Hence some think he is designed here, and the destruction of Tyre by him; and the words may be rendered, "from the land of Chittim he is revealed", or "appears unto them"; that is, as Jarchi glosses it, the destroyer to the men of Tyre, though he by Chittim understands the Cuthites. Josephus says ^F15 Chittim the son of Javan possessed the island Chethima, now called Cyprus, and from which all islands, and most maritime places, are called Chittim by the Hebrews; and observes, that one of the cities of Cyprus is called Citium. And in the lamentation for Tyre, (Ezekiel 27:6) , we read of the isles of Chittim; by which are meant perhaps the isles in the Aegean and Ionian seas, who traded with Tyre, and from these first came the tidings of Tyre's destruction to the ships or merchants of Tarshish; which agrees with a Hebrew exposition mentioned by Jarchi, ``from the land of Chittim is revealed to the men of Tarshish the destruction of Tyre; for the inhabitants of Tyre fled to Chittim, and from there the rumour was heard.''

The sense which R. Joseph Kimchi gives of the passage, as his son David relates, is this, ``Chittim were merchants that went to Babylon, and told them that they might go to Tyre, and would be able to take it, and they would help them, and carry them there by sea.'' But it seems more likely that those trading people, by going from one country to another, got knowledge of the design of the Babylonians against Tyre, and acquainted that city with it.

Some join the words, "from the land of Chittim", to the preceding, thus, "no entering in from the land of Chittim, it is revealed", or made known; that is, it is some way or other made known to the merchants of Chittim ^F16 that there is no entrance into Tyre, the city being laid waste and its port ruined, so that it is in vain for them to send their ships; to which the Septuagint in some measure agrees, ``because it perishes, and there are none come from the land of Chittim, it is carried captive.'' The Targum is, ``they shall come from the land of Chittim against them;'' which seems to favour the first sense.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: Curt. l. 4. sect. 2.
• F9: Justin, l. 18. c. 3.
• F11: Joseph. Antiqu. I. 8. c. 3. sect. 1.
• F12: Bereshit Rabba, sect. 61. fol. 54. 2.
• F13: Joseph. Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 2.
• F14: Ib. l. 10. c. 11. sect. 1. & contr. Apion, I. 1. sect. 21.
• F15: Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
• F16: So some in Vatablus.

Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle
Either the isles of Chittim, or other islands that traded with Tyre, the singular being put for the plural, called upon to grieve and mourn, because the city of their merchandise was destroyed, as Kimchi; or of Tyre itself, which being situated at some distance from the shore, was an island itself, until it was joined to the continent by Alexander ^F17 ; and even old Tyre might be so called, it being usual in Scripture to call places by the seashore isles; and besides, old Tyre included in it new Tyre, the island, as Pliny ^F18 suggests; who are instructed to be silent as mourners, and to cease from the hurries of business, which they would be obliged to, and not boast of their power and wealth, as they had formerly done, or attempt to defend themselves, which would be in vain:

thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have
replenished ;
Zidon was a very ancient city of Phoenicia, more ancient than Tyre; for Tyre was a colony of the Zidonians, and built by them, and so might be said to be replenished by them with men from the first, as it also was with mariners, (Ezekiel 27:8) and likewise with merchants and wares, they being a trading and seafaring people; wherefore they are spoken of as merchants, and as passing over the sea: or this may be understood of the isles replenished with goods by the merchants of Tyre and Zidon, but now no more, and therefore called to mourning.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19.
• F18: Ibid.

And by great waters the seed of Sihor
Sihor is the river Nile in Egypt; it had its name from the black colour of its waters, as in (Jeremiah 2:18) hence called by the Greeks Melas, and by the Latins Melo: the "seed" of it intends what was sown and grew upon the banks of it, or was nourished by the overflow of this river throughout the land, and includes corn, flax, paper with which Egypt abounded; and when this is said to be "by great waters", the meaning either is, that it grew by great waters, the waters of the Nile, and through the influence of them; or that it came by great waters to Tyre; that is, by the waters of the sea, the Mediterranean Sea:

the harvest of the river [is] her revenue ;
this clause is the same with the former, and serves to explain it; the river is the river Nile, the harvest is the seed that was sown and grew by it, and which at the proper season, when ripe, was gathered from it, and carried in ships to Tyre, with which that city was supplied and enriched, as if it had been its own produce:

and she is a mart of nations ;
Tyre was a city to which all nations traded, it was a mart for them all, and where they brought their wares to sell, and always found a market for them, here they had vent. The twenty seventh chapter of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:1–13) is a proper commentary on this clause.

Be you ashamed, O Zidon
A city near to Tyre, about twenty five miles from it; Jarchi says it was within a day's walk of it; these two cities, as they were near to each other, so they were closely allied together, and traded much with one another, so that the fall of Tyre must be distressing and confounding to Zidon; and besides, Tyre was a colony of the Zidonians, and therefore, (Isaiah 23:12), is called the daughter of Zidon, and could not but be affected with its ruin, and the more, as it might fear the same would soon be its case:

for the sea has spoken ;
which washed the city of Tyre; or those that sailed in it; or rather Tyre itself, so called because its situation was by the sea, the island was encompassed with it:

[even] the strength of the sea ;
which was enriched by what was brought by sea to it, and was strengthened by it, being surrounded with the waters of it as with a wall, and had the sovereignty over it:

saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up
young men, [nor] bring up virgins ;
either the sea itself, which now no more brought great numbers of young people to Tyre, children to be educated, young men to be instructed in trade and business, and virgins to be given in marriage, the city being destroyed; or Tyre, which before was very populous, full of children, young men, and maidens, but now desolate; and which formerly sent out colonies abroad, and was a mother city to many, as Pliny says ^F19; it was famous for the birth of many cities, as Lepti, Utica, Carthage, and Gades or Cales; but now it was all over with her. Some render it as a wish, "O that I had never travailed" and so the Targum.

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19.

As at the report concerning EgyptIts future destruction prophesied of, (Isaiah 19:1–25) or what had in times past befallen it when the ten plagues were inflicted on it, and Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea; the report of which filled the neighbouring nations with fear and trembling, and put them into a panic; so the Targum, "as they heard the plague with which the Egyptians were smitten:"

[so] shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre ;of the destruction of that; this should have the like effect upon the nations round about them, especially such as traded with them, as the judgments on Egypt had upon their neighbours; for, as for what was to come, the destruction of Tyre was before the destruction of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar: though some read the words, and they will bear to be read thus, "when the report" was made, or came "to the Egyptians, they will be in pain at", or "according to the report of Tyre" ^F20 ; "when it was heard in Egypt, pain shall take them for Tyre;" as soon as the Egyptians heard of the taking and ruin of Tyre, they were in pain, as a woman in travail, partly fearing their own turn would be next, Tyre lying in the way of the Chaldeans unto them; and partly because of the loss of trade they sustained through the destruction of that city.

In like pain will be the kings or merchants of the earth, at the destruction of Rome, (Revelation 18:9Revelation 18:10Revelation 18:15–17) and, according to an exposition mentioned by Jarchi, Tyre here is Edom; that is, Rome, for that with the Jews is commonly meant by Edom.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: So the Septuagint, Vatbalus, and others.