A Message about Phoenicia

23 ^(A)This is a message about Tyre.

Howl with grief, you sailors out on the ocean! Your home port of Tyre has been destroyed; its houses and its harbor are in ruins. As your ships return from Cyprus, you learn the news. ² Wail, you merchants of Sidon! You sent agents ³ across the sea to buy and sell the grain that grew in Egypt and to do business with all the nations.

⁴ City of Sidon, you are disgraced! The sea and the great ocean depths disown you and say, “I never had any children. I never raised sons or daughters.”

⁵ Even the Egyptians will be shocked and dismayed when they learn that Tyre has been destroyed.

⁶ Howl with grief, you people of Phoenicia! Try to escape to Spain! ⁷ Can this be the joyful city of Tyre, founded so long ago? Is this the city that sent settlers across the sea to establish colonies? ⁸ Who was it that planned to bring all this on Tyre, that imperial city, whose merchant princes were the most honored men on earth? ⁹ The Lord Almighty planned it. He planned it in order to put an end to their pride in what they had done and to humiliate their honored ones.

¹⁰ Go and farm the land, you people in the colonies in Spain! There is no one to protect you any more.^{[a] 11} The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea and overthrown kingdoms. He has commanded that the Phoenician centers of commerce be destroyed. ¹² City of Sidon, your happiness has ended, and your people are oppressed. Even if they escape to Cyprus, they will still not be safe.

¹³ (It was the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, who let the wild animals overrun Tyre. It was the Babylonians who put up siege towers, tore down the fortifications of Tyre, and left the city in ruins.^[b])

¹⁴ Howl with grief, you sailors out on the ocean! The city you relied on has been destroyed.

¹⁵ A time is coming when Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of a king. When those years are over, Tyre will be like the prostitute in the song:

¹⁷ When the seventy years are over, the Lord will let Tyre go back to her old trade, and she will hire herself out to all the kingdoms of the world. ¹⁸ The money she earns by commerce will be dedicated to the Lord. She will not store it away, but those who worship the Lord will use her money to buy the food and the clothing they need.

^4 (A)“What are you trying to do to me, Tyre, Sidon, and all of Philistia? Are you trying to pay me back for something? If you are, I will quickly pay you back! ⁵ You have taken my silver and gold and carried my rich treasures into your temples. ⁶ You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks. ⁷ Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them. ⁸ I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Tyre

^9 (A)The Lord says, “The people of Tyre have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They carried off a whole nation into exile in the land of Edom, and did not keep the treaty of friendship they had made. ¹⁰ So I will send fire upon the city walls of Tyre and burn down its fortresses.”

Judgment on Neighboring Nations

9 ^(A)This is the Lord's message:

He has decreed punishment for the land of Hadrach and for the city of Damascus. Not only the tribes of Israel but also the capital of Syria belong to the Lord. ² Hamath, which borders on Hadrach, also belongs to him, and so do the cities of Tyre and Sidon, with all their skill. ³ Tyre has built fortifications for herself and has piled up so much silver and gold that it is as common as dirt! ⁴ But the Lord will take away everything she has. He will throw her wealth into the sea, and the city will be burned to the ground.

^21 (A)“How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you too, Bethsaida! If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have long ago put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on themselves, to show that they had turned from their sins! ²² I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to the people of Tyre and Sidon than to you!