Yeshayah 23:9

9 Hashem Tzva’os hath devised it, to demean the ga’on (pride) of every beauty, and to humble all the nikhbadei Eretz.

Yeshayah 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) .

Yeshayah 23:9 In-Context

7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own raglayim shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8 Who hath devised this against Tzor, the crowning city, whose sokharim (merchants) are sarim (princes), whose traders are the nikhbadei Eretz (honored of the Earth).
9 Hashem Tzva’os hath devised it, to demean the ga’on (pride) of every beauty, and to humble all the nikhbadei Eretz.
10 Pass through thy land like the Nile, O Bat Tarshish; there is no more restraint.
11 He stretched out His Yad over the yam, He shook the mamlakhot (kingdoms); Hashem hath given a commandment against Kena’an, to destroy her ma’a’uzim (fortresses).
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