23
A message about Tyre’s punishment
1 I received this message from Yahweh about Tyre city:
You sailors on [APO] ships from Tarshish,
weep, because the harbor of Tyre and all the houses in the city have been destroyed.
The reports that you heard in Cyprus island about Tyre are true.
2 You people who live along the coast near Tyre, and merchants of Sidon city, mourn silently.
Your sailors went across the seas to many places like Tyre.
3 They sailed across deep seas
to buy grain in Egypt
and other crops that are grown along the Nile River.
Tyre became the city where people from all nations bought and sold goods.
4 But now you people in Sidon should be ashamed,
because you trusted in Tyre, which has been a strong fortress on an island in the sea.
Tyre is like a woman who is saying,
“Now it is as though I have not given birth to any children,
or raised any sons or daughters.”
5 When the people of Egypt hear what has happened to Tyre,
they will grieve very much.
6 Sail to Tarshish and tell them what happened;
weep, you people who live along the coast.
7 The people in the very old city of Tyre were [RHQ] previously joyful.
Traders [PRS] from Tyre established colonies in many distant nations.
8 People from Tyre appointed kings over other places;
their traders were wealthy;
they were as powerful and wealthy as [MET] kings.
So, who [RHQ] caused the people of Tyre to experience this disaster?
9 It was the Commander of the armies of angels who did it;
he did it in order to cause you people in Tyre not to be proud any more,
to humiliate you men who are honored all over the world.
10 You people of Tarshish, you must grow crops in your land instead of trading;
spread out over your land like [SIM] the Nile River spreads over the land of Egypt when it floods,
because there is no harbor in Tyre for your ships now.
11 It is as though Yahweh stretched out his hand over the sea
and shook the kingdoms of the earth.
He commanded that in Phoenicia/Canaan
all its fortresses must be destroyed.
12 He said to the people of Sidon,
“You will never rejoice again, because you will be crushed;
even if you flee to Cyprus island,
you will not escape destruction.”
13 Think about what happened in Babylonia:
the people who were in that land have disappeared.
The armies of Assyria have caused that land to become a place where wild animals from the desert live.
The Assyrians built dirt ramps to the top of the walls of the city of Babylon;
then they entered the city and tore down the palaces
and caused the city to become a heap of rubble.
14 So wail, you sailors on the ships of Tarshish,
because the harbor in Tyre where your ships stop is destroyed!
15 For seventy years, which is as long as kings usually live, people will forget about Tyre. But then it will be rebuilt. What will happen there will be like what happened to a prostitute in this song:
16 “You harlot, whom people had forgotten,
play your harp well,
and sing many songs,
in order that people will remember you again.”
17 It is true that after seventy years Yahweh will restore Tyre. Their merchants will again earn a lot of money by buying things from and selling things to many other nations [HYP].
18 But their profits will be given to Yahweh.
The merchants will not hoard their money;
instead, they will give it to Yahweh’s priests
in order that they can buy food and nice clothes.