13 This is the third time that I am coming to you. By the testimony of two or three witnesses must any charge and every accusing statement be sustained and confirmed.^(A)

² I have already warned those who sinned formerly and all the rest also, and I warn them now again while I am absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come back, I will not spare [them],

³ Since you desire and seek [perceptible] proof of the Christ Who speaks in and through me. [For He] is not weak and feeble in dealing with you, but is a mighty power within you;

⁴ For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He goes on living by the power of God. And though we too are weak in Him [as He was humanly weak], yet in dealing with you [we shall show ourselves] alive and strong in [fellowship with] Him by the power of God.

⁵ Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [^[a]not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?

⁶ But I hope you will recognize and know that we are not disapproved on trial and rejected.

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23 The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Tyre: Wail, you ships of [Tyre returning from trading with] Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, so that there is no house, no harbor; from the land of Kittim (Cyprus) they learn of it.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, ^[a]your messengers passing over the sea have replenished you [with wealth and industry],

³ And were on great waters. The seed or grain of the Shihor, the harvest [due to the overflow] of the Nile River, was [Tyre’s] revenue, and she became the merchandise of the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon [mother-city of Tyre, now a widow bereaved of her children], for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have neither travailed nor brought forth children; I have neither nourished and reared young men nor brought up virgins.

⁵ When the report comes to Egypt, they will be sorely pained over the report about Tyre.

⁶ Pass over to Tarshish [to seek safety as exiles]! Wail, you inhabitants of the [Tyre] coast!

⁷ Is this your jubilant city, whose origin dates back into antiquity, whose own feet are accustomed to carry her far off to settle [daughter cities]?

⁸ Who has purposed 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 purposed it [in accordance with a fixed principle of His government], to defile the pride of all glory and to bring into dishonor and contempt all the honored of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow your land like [the overflow of] the Nile River, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no girdle of restraint [on you] any more [to make you pay tribute or customs or duties to Tyre].

¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; the Lord has given a command concerning Canaan to destroy her strongholds and fortresses [Tyre, Sidon, etc.].

¹² And He said, You shall no more exult, you oppressed and crushed one, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim (Cyprus); but even there you will have no rest.

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans! That people and not the Assyrians designed and assigned [Tyre] for the wild beasts and those who [previously] dwelt in the wilderness. They set up their siege works, they overthrew its palaces, they made it a ruin!

¹⁴ Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold [of Tyre] is laid waste [your strength has been destroyed].

¹⁵ And in that day Tyre will be in obscurity and forgotten for seventy years, according to the days of one dynasty. After the end of seventy years will Tyre sing as a harlot [who has been forgotten but again attracts her lovers].

¹⁶ Take a harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot; play skillfully and make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷ And after the end of seventy years the Lord will remember Tyre; and she will return to her hire and will play the harlot [resume her commerce] with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸ But her gain and her hire [the profits of Tyre’s new prosperity] will be ^[b]dedicated to the Lord [eventually]; it will not be treasured or stored up, for her gain will be used for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord [the ministers], that they may eat sufficiently and have durable and stately clothing [suitable for those who minister at God’s altar].

24 Behold, the Lord will make the land and the ^[c]earth empty and make it waste and turn it upside down (twist the face of it) and scatter abroad its inhabitants.

² And it shall be—as [what happens] with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

³ The land and the earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly pillaged; for the Lord has said this.

⁴ The land and the earth mourn and wither, the world languishes and withers, the high ones of the people [and the heavens with the earth] languish.

⁵ The land and the earth also are defiled by their inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, disregarded the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.^(A)

⁶ Therefore a curse devours the land and the earth, and they who dwell in it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the land and the earth are scorched and parched [under the curse of God’s wrath], and few people are left.^(B)

⁷ The new wine mourns, the vine languishes; all the merrymakers sigh.

⁸ The mirth of the timbrels is stilled, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the lyre is stopped.

⁹ No more will they drink wine with a song; strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰ The wasted city of emptiness and confusion is broken down; every house is shut up so that no one may enter.

¹¹ There is crying in the streets for wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is banished and gone into captivity.

¹² In the city is left desolation, and its gate is battered and destroyed.

¹³ For so shall it be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking and beating of an olive tree, or as the gleaning when the vintage is done [and only a small amount of the fruit remains].

¹⁴ [But] these [who have escaped and remain] lift up their voices, they shout; for the majesty of the Lord they cry aloud from the [Mediterranean] Sea.

¹⁵ Wherefore glorify the Lord in the east [whether in the region of daybreak’s lights and fires, or in the west]; [glorify] the name of the Lord, the God of Israel in the isles and coasts of the [Mediterranean] Sea.

¹⁶ From the uttermost parts of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the Righteous One [and to the people of Israel]! But I say, Emaciated I pine away, I pine away. Woe is me! The treacherous dealers deal treacherously! Yes, the treacherous dealers deal very treacherously.

¹⁷ Terror and pit [of destruction] and snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

¹⁸ And he who flees at the noise of the terror will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of the heavens are opened [as in the deluge], and the foundations of the earth tremble and shake.

¹⁹ The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently.

²⁰ The earth shall stagger like a drunken man and shall sway to and fro like a hammock; its transgression shall lie heavily upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.

²¹ And in that day the Lord will visit and punish the host of the high ones on high [the host of heaven in heaven, celestial beings] and the kings of the earth on the earth.^(C)

²² And they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in a pit or dungeon; they will be shut up in prison, and after many days they will be visited, inspected, and punished or ^[d]pardoned.^(D)

²³ Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, when [they compare their ineffectual fire to the light of] the Lord of hosts, Who will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders will show forth His glory.