1 An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them. |
2 Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. |
3 On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations. |
4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters." |
5 When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre. |
6 Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island. |
7 Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands? |
8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth? |
9 The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. |
10 Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor. |
11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed. |
12 He said, "No more of your reveling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! "Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest." |
13 Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin. |
14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed! |
15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: |
16 "Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered." |
17 At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. |
18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes. |