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The Fall of Tyre

¹ This is an oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus^(a).² Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.³ On the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre; she was the merchant of the nations.⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women.”⁵ When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.⁶ Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!⁷ Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?⁸ Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?⁹ The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.¹⁰ Overflow^(a) your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.¹¹ The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.¹² He said, “You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Cyprus—even there you will find no rest.”¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans^(a)—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.¹⁴ Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!

¹⁵ At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:¹⁶ Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.¹⁷ And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.¹⁸ Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.