Isaiah 23:2

Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished. BE STILL - struck dumb with awe. Addressed to those already in the country, eye-witnesses of its ruin (); or, in contrast to the busy din of commerce once heard in Tyre, now all is hushed and still. YE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLE - strictly applicable to New Tyre: in the sense coast, to the mainland city, Old Tyre (cf. ; ). ZIDON - of which Tyre was a colony, planted when Zidon was conquered by the Philistines of Ascalon (Justin, 18: 3). Zidon means a fishing station: this was its beginning. REPLENISHED - with wealth and an in...

2._Be silent, ye inhabitants of the islands. _This is intended to place in a more striking light the ruin of Tyre. There is a change of number in the word _island; _for although he uses the singular number, yet he means the islands of the Mediterranean sea, and the countries beyond the sea, especially the neighbors who frequently performed voyages to Tyre, and traded with it. He enjoins on them silence and stillness, because they will perform no more voyages to Tyre. He bids them “be silent” like persons who are stunned, on account of the grievous calamity which has befallen them, so that they do not even venture to open their mouth; for it was impossible that the nations who traded there should not feel it to be a heavy stroke, when a mercantile city like this was ruined, just as at the present day Venice or Antwerp could not be destroyed without inflicting great injury on many nations....

1-14 Tyre was the mart of the nations. She was noted for mirth and diversions; and this made her loth to consider the warnings God gave by his servants. Her merchants were princes, and lived like princes. Tyre being destroyed and laid waste, the merchants should abandon her. Flee to shift for thine own safety; but those that are uneasy in one place, will be so in another; for when God's judgments pursue sinners, they will overtake them. Whence shall all this trouble come? It is a destruction from the Almighty. God designed to convince men of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly glory. Let the ruin of Tyre warn all places and persons to take heed of pride; for he who exalts himself shall be abased. God will do it, who has all power in his hand; but the Chaldeans shall be the instruments....

Verse Isaiah 23:2. _BE STILL _- "Be silent"] Silence is a mark of grief and consternation. See Isaiah 47:5. Jeremiah has finely expressed this image: - "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they are silent: They have cast up dust on their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground." Lamentations 2:10....

BE STILL - This is the description of a city which is destroyed, where the din of commerce, and the sound of revelry is no longer heard. It is an address of the prophet to Tyre, indicating that it would be soon still, and destroyed. YE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLE - (of Tyre). The word ‘isle’ (אי _'iy_) is sometimes used to denote a “coast or maritime region” (see the note at Isaiah 20:6), but there seems no reason to doubt that here it means the island on which New Tyre was erected. This may have been occupied even before Old Tyre was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, though the main city was on the crest. THOU WHOM THE MERCHANTS OF ZIDON - Tyre was a colony from Sidon; and the merchants of Sidon would trade to Tyre as well as to Sidon....

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 23:1 THE BURDEN OF TYRE. We hero reach the last of the "burdens"—the concluding chapter of the series of denunciatory prophecies which commenced with Isaiah 13:1. It is an elegy "in three stanzas, or strophes" (Cheyne)—the first extending from Isaiah 13:1 to Isaiah 13:5; the second, thence to Isaiah 13:9; and the third from Isaiah 13:10 to...

BE STILL, YE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLE,.... Either the isles of Chittim, or other islands that traded with Tyre, the singular being put for the plural, called upon to grieve and mourn, because the city of their merchandise was destroyed, as Kimchi; or of Tyre itself, which being situated at some distance from the shore, was an island itself, until it was joined to the continent by Alexander q; and even old Tyre might be so called, it being usual in Scripture to call places by the seashore isles; and besides, old Tyre included in it new Tyre, the island, as Pliny r suggests; who are instructed to be silent as mourners, and to cease from the hurries of business, which they would be obliged to, and not boast of their power and wealth, as they had formerly done, or attempt to defend themselves, which would be in vain: THOU WHOM THE MERCHANTS OF ZIDON, THAT PASS OVER THE SEA, HAVE REPLENISHED;...

CHAPTER 23 The Burden of Tyre 1. _Tyre's great disaster (Isaiah 23:1)_ 2. _The complete overthrow (Isaiah 23:6)_ 3. _Tyre's future restoration and degradation (Isaiah 23:15)_ Tyre typifies the commercial expansion and glory of the world. Behind this commercial glory stands Satan, the god of this age. Read Ezekiel 28:11. Nebuchadnezzar carried out judgment upon Tyre Ezekiel 29:17. A revival of Tyre is also predicted. We call attention to a statement in the beautiful Forty-fifth Psalm, a millennial Psalm. When the Kin

ISAIAH 23. ORACLE ON TYRE. The date and authorship are alike very uncertain. If by Isaiah, the occasion may be the siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser about 727- 722 (p. 59), the historicity of which, however, is questioned by some, or Sennacherib's invasion in 701. The text of 13 is very suspicious, and its interpretation very uncertain, or it might have helped to fix the date. Isaiah 23:15 is probably a post-exilic appendix. Isaiah 23:1 is perhaps best referred to Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Tyre, 585- 577 (p. 61). The ships of Tarshish (Isaiah 2:16 *) are on their way back to Tyre, and after they have left Kittim, _i.e._ Cyprus (Numbers

ISLE. Here, Tyre itself. THOU WHOM. which. PASS OVER. cross, in trading. In verses: Isaiah 23:2; Isaiah 23:3; Isaiah 23:6; Isaiah 23:10; Isaiah 23:12, imperative, implying flight....