Isaiah 23

Isaiah 23:1-18 . PROPHECY RESPECTING TYRE.

MENANDER, the historian, notices a siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser, about the time of the siege of Samaria. Sidon, Acco, and Old Tyre, on the mainland, were soon reduced; but New Tyre, on an island half a mile from the shore, held out for five years. Sargon probably finished the siege. Sennacherib does not, however, mention it among the cities which the Assyrian kings conquered (thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters). The expression, "Chaldeans" ( Isaiah 23:13 ), may imply reference to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years. Alexander the Great destroyed New Tyre after a seven months' siege.

1. Tyre--Hebrew, Tsur, that is, "Rock."
ships of Tarshish--ships of Tyre returning from their voyage to Tarshish, or Tartessus in Spain, with which the Phoenicians had much commerce ( Ezekiel 27:12-25 ). "Ships of Tarshish" is a phrase also used of large and distant-voyaging merchant vessels ( Isaiah 2:16 , 1 Kings 10:22 , Psalms 48:7 ).
no house--namely, left; such was the case as to Old Tyre, after Nebuchadnezzar's siege.
no entering--There is no house to enter ( Isaiah 24:10 ) [G. V. SMITH]. Or, Tyre is so laid waste, that there is no possibility of entering the harbor [BARNES]; which is appropriate to the previous "ships."
Chittim--Cyprus, of which the cities, including Citium in the south (whence came "Chittim"), were mostly Phoenician ( Ezekiel 27:6 ). The ships from Tarshish on their way to Tyre learn the tidings ("it is revealed to them") of the downfall of Tyre. At a later period Chittim denoted the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean ( Daniel 11:30 ).

2. Be still--"struck dumb with awe." Addressed to those already in the country, eye-witnesses of its ruin ( Lamentations 2:10 ); or, in contrast to the busy din of commerce once heard in Tyre; now all is hushed and still.
isle--strictly applicable to New Tyre: in the sense coast, to the mainland city, Old Tyre (compare Isaiah 23:6 , Isaiah 20:6 ).
Zidon--of which Tyre was a colony, planted when Zidon was conquered by the Philistines of Ascalon. Zidon means a "fishing station"; this was its beginning.
replenished--with wealth and an industrious population ( Ezekiel 27:3 Ezekiel 27:8 Ezekiel 27:23 ). Here "Zidon," as the oldest city of Phoenicia, includes all the Phoenician towns on the strip of "coast." Thus, Eth-baal, king of Tyre [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 8.3,2], is called king of the Sidonians ( 1 Kings 16:31 ); and on coins Tyre is called the metropolis of the Sidonians.

3. great waters--the wide waters of the sea.
seed--"grain," or crop, as in 1 Samuel 8:15 , Job 39:12 .
Sihor--literally, "dark-colored"; applied to the Nile, as the Egyptian Jeor, and the Greek Melas, to express the "dark, turbid" colors given to its waters by the fertilizing soil which it deposits at its yearly overflow ( Jeremiah 2:18 ).
harvest of the river--the growth of the Delta; the produce due to the overflow of the Nile: Egypt was the great granary of corn in the ancient world ( Genesis 41:1-57 , 42:1-38 , 43:1-34 ).
her revenue--Tyrian vessels carried Egyptian produce obtained in exchange for wine, oil, glass, &c., into various lands, and so made large profits.
mart--( Ezekiel 27:3 ). No city was more favorably situated for commerce.