Isaiah 23:7

"Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!"

Key Reflection

In the context of Isaiah 23:7, the ancient city of Tyre, a powerful maritime trading center, faces impending destruction and exile as predicted by Isaiah. The command to "pass over to Tarshish!" echoes the fate of Tyre's coastal inhabitants, who must flee or face devastation, invoking a sense of urgency and despair among those familiar with Tyre’s strategic importance in commerce and defense. This verse reflects the dire economic and military consequences that would befall Tyre, understood by Isaiah’s original audience as a fulfillment of divine judgment against this significant trading power.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Is this your joyous city -Is this the city that was just now so full of happiness, of revelry, of business, of gaiety, of rejoicing? (see the note atIsaiah 22:2) Whose antiquity is of ancient days -Strabo (xvi. 756) says, ‘After Sidon, Tyre, a splendid and most ancient city, is to be compared in greatness, beauty, and antiquity, with Sidon.’ Curtius (Hist. Alex. iv. 4) says, ‘The city was taken, distinguished both by its antiquity, and its great variety of fortune.’ Arrian (ii. 16) says, that ‘the Temple of Hercules at Tyre was the most ancient of those which the memory of people have preserved.’ And Herodotus (ii.

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