Isaiah 23:13

Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

Behold the land of the Chaldeans. Calling attention to the fact so humiliating to Tyre, that a people of yesterday, like the Chaldees, should, first as mercenaries in the Assyrian king's army, then as the army of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, in the next siege, destroy the most ancient of cities, Tyre.

This people was not - had no existence as a recognized nation; the Chaldees were previously but a rude predatory people (Job 1:17.)

(Till) the Assyrian founded it. The Chaldees ("them that dwell in the wilderness") lived a nomadic life in the mountains of Armenia originally (The name "Arphaxad," in Genesis 10:22, refers to such a region of Assyria near Armenia; from Arabic, 'arap, to bind, and kard, kurd - i:e., the stronghold of the Chaldees) north and east of Assyria proper. Some may have settled in Mesopotamia and Babylonia very early, and given origin to the astrologers, called Chaldees in later times. But most of the people had been transferred only a little before the time of this prophecy from their original seats in the North to Mesopotamia, and soon afterward to South Babylonia. "Founded it," means, 'assigned it (the land) to them who had (heretofore) dwelt in the wilderness' as a permanent settlement (so in Psalms 104:8) (Maurer). It was the Assyrian policy to infuse into their own population of the plain the fresh blood of hardy mountaineers, for the sake of recruiting their armies. Ultimately the Chaldees, by their powerful priest-caste, gained the supremacy, and established the later or Chaldean empire.

They set up the towers thereof - namely, of Babylon. Herodotus (I 84) says its towers were 'set up' by the Assyrians (Barnes). Rather, 'the Chaldees set up their siege-towers' against Tyre, made for the attack of high walls, from which the besiegers hurled missiles, as depicted in the Assyrian sculptures (Maurer).

They raised up the palaces thereof - rather [`owrªruw, from `aarar (H6209)], 'They lay bare,' namely, the foundations of her (Tyre's) palaces - i:e., they utterly overthrow them (Psalms 137:7).

And he brought it to ruin - and this same Chaldean people bring Tyre to ruin.