Isaiah · 18 verses
Isaiah 23
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Tyre is forgotten for seventy years, then summoned back with a harp, a stroll through the city, and the professional arrangements of a forgotten harlot.
The sea has no childrenvv. 1–14
The burden opens with ships wailing and Tyre stripped of house and harbor. Sidon is told to be silent, Egypt to writhe, and Tarshish to cross over and lament. The sea itself gives a most peculiar account of its family life: no labor, no birth, no young men, no young women. Behind the ruin stands the LORD of Hosts, who stretches out His hand over the sea and commands the strongholds of Canaan destroyed. Even Cyprus offers no rest, while the Assyrians have already made the land of the Chaldeans fit for desert creatures and stripped its palaces.
The forgotten songvv. 15–18
Tyre is forgotten for seventy years, precisely the span of a king’s life. Then comes the song: a forgotten harlot is to take up her harp, stroll through the city, and sing until memory returns. Tyre is restored to her trade among the kingdoms, but her profits are not to be stored away. They are set apart to the LORD, becoming abundant food and fine clothing for those who live before Him—a remarkably practical ending for a city recalled by a song about a harlot.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Isa 23:1This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.
Isa 23:2Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea.
Isa 23:3On 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.
Isa 23:4Be 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.”
Isa 23:5When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.
Isa 23:6Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!
Isa 23:7Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?
Isa 23:8Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?
Isa 23:9The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.
Isa 23:10Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
Isa 23:11The 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.
Isa 23:12He 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.”
Isa 23:13Look at the land of the Chaldeans—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.
Isa 23:14Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!
Isa 23:15At 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:
Isa 23:16“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”
Isa 23:17And 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.
Isa 23:18Yet 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 clothing.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 225 passages were voted onto 18 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 9Isaiah 13:11I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
- 9James 4:6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
- 1Joel 3:4–8Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads.
- 9Job 40:11–12Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.
- 1Genesis 10:4And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites.
- 1Amos 1:9–10This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom and broke a covenant of brotherhood.
- 9Isaiah 2:11The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
- 15Jeremiah 25:22all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;
- 17Nahum 3:4because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.
- 18Psalms 72:10May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
- 1Isaiah 2:16against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel.
- 7Isaiah 22:2O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
- 9Daniel 4:37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride.
- 11Zechariah 9:3–4Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.
- 12Revelation 18:22And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.
- 17Ezekiel 27:6–36Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; of wood from the coasts of Cyprus they made your deck, inlaid with ivory.
Onward