Be thou ashamed, O Zidon
A city near to Tyre, about twenty five miles from it; Jarchi says
it was within a day's walk of it; these two cities, as they were
near to each other, so they were closely allied together, and
traded much with one another, so that the fall of Tyre must be
distressing and confounding to Zidon; and besides, Tyre was a
colony of the Zidonians, and therefore, ( Isaiah 23:12
) , is called the daughter of Zidon, and could not but be
affected with its ruin, and the more, as it might fear the same
would soon be its case:
for the sea hath spoken;
which washed the city of Tyre; or those that sailed in it; or
rather Tyre itself, so called because its situation was by the
sea, the island was encompassed with it:
[even] the strength of the sea;
which was enriched by what was brought by sea to it, and was
strengthened by it, being surrounded with the waters of it as
with a wall, and had the sovereignty over it:
saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do
I nourish up
young men, [nor] bring up virgins;
either the sea itself, which now no more brought great numbers of
young people to Tyre, children to be educated, young men to be
instructed in trade and business, and virgins to be given in
marriage, the city being destroyed; or Tyre, which before was
very populous, full of children, young men, and maidens, but now
desolate; and which formerly sent out colonies abroad, and was a
mother city to many, as Pliny says F19; it was famous for the
birth of many cities, as Lepti, Utica, Carthage, and Gades or
Cales; but now it was all over with her. Some render it as a
wish, "O that I had never travailed" and so the Targum.
F19 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19.