23:1  An oracle concerning Tyre: Sound your sirens, O merchant ships! For Tyre is laid waste, stripped of warehouse and wharf. On their way from the land of Kittim they shall be informed of it.

Tyre and Sidon were, anciently, merchandising centers for the whole eastern area.
They were kind of the mercantile arm of Babylon. They were the port cities, shipping centers. From there the ships left for the islands of the Mediterranean and for Egypt, and even went, apparently, as far as Tzarfat and Sfarad, which is France and Spain, and perhaps, even the British Isles, in all those places that the Canaanites had colonies. And Isaiah draws upon that imagery of merchandising and seafaring and trade between nations. He draws upon that imagery to describe an aspect of Babylon. Like I said, John the Revelator’s Babylon the Great is kind of a composite of Isaiah’s Babylon, the Harlot, Babylon-- and here, in this case-- the Harlot Tyre, describing the merchandising aspect of Babylon. Look in the book of Revelation; it’s all about buying and selling, trading and shipping and all of that. Tyre is going to be laid waste.

23:2  Be dumbfounded, you inhabitants of the isles, who were amply replenished by the traders of Sidon crossing the seas.

23:3  The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her source of revenue upon the high seas when she became the merchant of nations.

She was a shipping empire. In other words not just one port, or two ports, necessarily, typologically speaking, but all shipping enterprises, in an end time scenario that would include Amsterdam, New York, or wherever you have port cities. This would be the scenario that would happen in that day of judgment.

23:4  Be dismayed, O Sidon, because the Sea, the mighty haven of the Sea, has declared, I no longer labor and bear children! I no longer rear young men or raise virgins!

The young men, children, and virgins, labor is the work of demand and supply, and also of establishing outlying ports and daughter cities, or daughter ports, out there among the colonies, or wherever merchandising and trafficking has reached.

23:5  When the news of Tyre reaches Egypt, men will be in anguish at the report.

That is, when we find out that the port cities have all been wiped out, you’ll know that trade is at an end.

23:6  Move on to Tarshish lamenting, you inhabitants of the isles.

23:7  Is this your festive city of ancient origin, whose feet led her to settle far-off lands?

23:8  Who devised this stratagem against Tyre, the imperial city, whose traders were princes, whose merchants the world’s celebrities?

Who devised this stratagem against Tyre, the imperial city, whose traders were princes, whose merchants the world’s celebrities?

23:9  The Lord of Hosts devised it, to make all glorying in excellence a profanity, and the world’s celebrities an utter execration.9  The Lord of Hosts devised it, to make all glorying in excellence a profanity, and the world’s celebrities an utter execration.

So, part of this whole scenario of the destruction of Tyre and merchandising, and port cities, is, again, to put down that which is exalted, or which exalts itself: the world’s celebrities, the wealthy merchants who are like kings among the people and among the nations; they are made an utter execration, and profanity. That which was lifted up will be put down. This is talking about her colonies, or vast merchandising and shipping empire, and the Lord of Hosts caused the end of it. It also says, that “glorying in excellence is a profanity. So once you’ve got glory in excellence, no matter how perfect or excellent, or admirable something is, one should not take pride in that. One should take pride in God. It says in chapter thirteen: “My anger is not upon those who take pride in me.” These people are taking pride in their wares, or in their successes, and in their wealth and in their popularity, or whatever it may be.

23:10  Overflow your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish: the harbor is no more.

When the harbor is destroyed, where else can they go, except onto the land?

23:11  The Lord will stretch out his hand over the Sea and distress kingdoms; he will give orders concerning the merchant city  that her ports of haven be destroyed.

So it is kind of like a city. It’s kind of like a single entity, but yet it’s really a conglomerate of entities, a whole empire, a whole system of ports throughout the world.
It stresses kingdoms; it’s a worldwide event. A world of celebrities, far-off lands, distant origins.
“Hand over the Sea--”again, are metaphors iff you read that two ways, the Lord’s left hand causing the destruction, or the Lord’s right hand having power over the king of Assyria. If we say the left hand, which is the king of Assyria, having power over the port cities, or over the sea-faring empire, that’s one scenario. Then, as an aside, we could say,
the Lord’s Servant has power over the king of Assyria, who is the Sea. Either way, that’s the double level of meaning, there.

23:12  He will say, You will frolic no more, O ravished virgin, Daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Kittim, though even there you will find no rest.

Like I said, he depicts her as a harlot, just as he does Babylon, in the book of Isaiah.

23:13  So too with the land of the Chaldeans, the people who founded Tyre for shipping. Was it not the Assyrians who set up observatories, exposed its fortifications, and caused her downfall?

23:14  Sound your sirens, O merchant ships; your haven is desolate!

The people who founded Tyre, for shipping, are the Chaldeans or Babylonians, so it’s part of the Babylon conglomerate. It’s part of Babylon, greater Babylon, Babylon the Great, or Arch-Babylon. But the Assyrians come in and set up spying devices, observatories of various kinds, and expose Tyre’s strengths and weaknesses, and fortifications. And they’re the ones who cause her downfall. They cause her to fall, just like Babylon falls. They’re the ones who destroy her with the actual destruction. Sounding of the sirens is like the wailing of those who mourn over this destruction. “Sound your sirens, O merchant ships; your haven is desolate!” Ships that are out there can’t even come home because there’s no place to dock.

23:15  In that day Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, the lifetime of a king. And at the end of seventy years, Tyre shall be as the harlot in the song:

So after the destruction the port cities will lay waste for about seventy years. That is probably just a figurative number.

23:16  Take a lyre and go about the town, O forgotten harlot. Play skillfully; sing song after song, that you may be remembered.

There’s some people who choose that lifestyle. Tyre was once a popular harlot and everyone wanted her. And now, in order to revive her standing in the community, she takes her guitar and goes out, singing, so that people will remember her. Maybe she’ll drum up some business again. So Isaiah’s using that imagery to describe ? Of the shipping empire after its kind of lain dormant for some time.

23:17  For after seventy years, the Lord will revisit Tyre. And she will return to her trade and hire herself out to all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

23:18  Her merchandise and hire shall be consecrated to the Lord; it shall not be hoarded or stored up. Her commerce shall provide for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord, that they may eat their fill and be elegantly clothed.

Her merchandise and hire shall be consecrated to the Lord.” This time it has a positive side to it. “It shall not be hoarded or stored up.” Like it has been, for profit and so on. “Her commerce shall provide for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord, that they may eat their fill and be elegantly clothed.” So it will be a beneficial system of shipping and merchandising. Not as it was for the self-aggrandizement of certain individuals, and the inequality that was the result. And “those who dwell in the presence of the Lord” are those that live on into the Millennium, especially those who serve him.