Isaiah 23:9

9 The LORD of the hosts has purposed it to stain the pride of all glory and to bring down all those who are exalted in the earth.

Isaiah 23:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 23:9

The Lord of hosts hath purposed it
To destroy Tyre; who is wonderful in counsel, capable of forming a wise scheme, and able to put it in execution; being the Lord of armies in heaven and in earth: and his end in it was,

to stain the pride of all glory;
Tyre being proud of its riches, the extent of its commerce, and the multitude of its inhabitants, God was resolved, who sets himself against the proud, to abase them; to pollute the glorious things they were proud of; to deal with them as with polluted things; to trample upon them:

[and] to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth:
or, "to make light all the heavy ones of the earth" F4; all such, who are top heavy with riches and honour, God can, and sometimes does, make as light as feathers, which the wind carries away, and they fall into contempt and disgrace with their fellow creatures; and the Lord's thus dealing with Tyre was not merely on their account, to stain their pride and glory, and disgrace their honourable ones; but for the sake of others also, that the great ones of the earth might see and learn, by this instance of Tyre, how displeasing to the Lord is the sin of pride; what a poor, vain, and perishing thing, worldly honour and glory is; and what poor, weak, feeble creatures, the princes and potentates of the earth are, when the Lord takes them in hand.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (Ura ydbkn lk lqhl) .

Isaiah 23:9 In-Context

7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8 Who has decreed this against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honourable of the earth?
9 The LORD of the hosts has purposed it to stain the pride of all glory and to bring down all those who are exalted in the earth.
10 Pass by as a river from thy land, O daughter of Tarshish; for thou shalt have no more strength.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea; he shook the kingdoms; the LORD commanded upon Canaan that her strength should be weakened.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010