_The burden of Tyre_ THE PROPHECY AGAINST TYRE: LESSONS The Tarshish of this chapter is Spain. Chittim is the island of Cyprus. The word “merchant” is the same word that is rendered in other places “Canaanite.” The Canaanites were the most energetically commercial men of their time. To be a merch... [ Continue Reading ]
_The harvest of the river_ THE HARVEST OF THE RIVER The valley of the Nile was the field for sowing and reaping. The ships of Tyre trafficked far and wide, and by purchase or by barter the corn supplies of Egypt were fetched in to fill the barns and granaries of the merchant city, and were thence... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea_ THE VOICE OF THE SEA God, through the wildly wailing winds, and loudly surging waves, has often uttered a voice of warning and of woe to cities filled with corruption and vice. And how, too, through these winds and waves, has the sea spoken in i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes_ TYRE, “THE CROWNING CITY” The speaker cannot drop his satire: he has got accustomed to it now; he is in his best vein of mockery. The crowning city was Tyre because she distributed crowns to the Phoenician colonies,--so to say, she kept a who... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory_ GOD ABASES PRIDE In this message there is a revelation of the Divine method in dealing with men and nations. For here the Divine purpose is to show how stained is all human pride, and how contemptible are those whose honour com... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years_ TYRE FORGOTTEN SEVENTY YEARS Tyre shall be forgotten “seventy years, like the days of one king”;--a Hebrew idiom, obscure to us, though probably plain enough to Isaiah’s hearers; but of which the most probable sense is, that the round number here, as elsewhe... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre_ THE REVIVAL OF TYRE In the fourth and last strophe, the prophet dwells upon the revival of Tyre in the ideal future. After seventy years of enforced retirement and quiescence, Tyre will resume her previous a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord_ MERCANTILE LIFE I. We are reminded that THE MARKET IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION. In this chapter it is not commerce that is doomed to destruction but commercialists. When one thinks of the innate tendency of human nature to exchange commod... [ Continue Reading ]