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Isaiah 23:12

12 et dixit non adicies ultra ut glorieris calumniam sustinens virgo filia Sidonis in Cetthim consurgens transfreta ibi quoque non erit requies tibi

Isaiah 23:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 23:12

And he said, thou shalt no more rejoice
Not meaning that she should never more rejoice, but not for a long time, as Kimchi interprets it; when her calamity should come upon her, her jovial time, her time of mirth, jollity, and revelling, would be over for a time; for, at the end of seventy years, she should take her harp, and sing again, ( Isaiah 23:15 Isaiah 23:16 ) for the words seem to be spoken of Tyre, concerning whom the whole prophecy is; though some think Zidon is here meant, which, being near, suffered at the same time with Tyre, or quickly after:

O thou oppressed virgin!
Tyre is called a "virgin", because of her beauty, pride, and lasciviousness, and because never before subdued and taken: and "oppressed", because now deflowered, ransacked, plundered, and ruined, by Nebuchadnezzar:

daughter of Zidon:
some think Zidon itself is meant, just as daughter of Zion means Zion herself; but it may be also observed, that such cities that have sprung from others, or have their dependence on them, are called their daughters; so we read of Samaria and her daughters, and Sodom and her daughters, ( Ezekiel 16:46 Ezekiel 16:48 ) and so Tyre is called the daughter of Zidon, because it was a colony of the Zidonians F6; and at first built and supported by them, though now grown greater than its mother:

arise, pass over to Chittim;
to the isle of Cyprus, which was near them, and in which was a city called Citium; or to Macedonia, which was called the land of Chittim, as in the Apocrypha:

``And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,'' (1 Maccabees 1:1)

or to the isles of the Aegean and Ionian seas; or to Greece and Italy; which latter sense is approved by Vitringa, who thinks the islands of Corsica, and Sardinia, and Sicily, are meant, which were colonies of the Tyrians; and so in ( Isaiah 23:1 Isaiah 23:6 ) :

there also shalt thou have no rest;
since those countries would also fall into the enemy's hands, either the Babylonians, or the Medes and Persians, or the Romans; into whose hands Macedonia, Carthage, and other colonies of the Tyrians fell, so that they had no rest in any of them.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Justin ex Trogo, l. 18. c. 3.

Isaiah 23:12 In-Context

10 transi terram tuam quasi flumen filia maris non est cingulum ultra tibi
11 manum suam extendit super mare conturbavit regna Dominus mandavit adversum Chanaan ut contereret fortes eius
12 et dixit non adicies ultra ut glorieris calumniam sustinens virgo filia Sidonis in Cetthim consurgens transfreta ibi quoque non erit requies tibi
13 ecce terra Chaldeorum talis populus non fuit Assur fundavit eam in captivitatem transduxerunt robustos eius suffoderunt domos eius posuerunt eam in ruinam
14 ululate naves maris quia devastata est fortitudo vestr
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.