Isaiah 23:18

And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord - her traffic and gains shall at last (long after the restoration mentioned, in ) be consecrated to Yahweh. Eusebius, 'History,' 10:, Isaiah 4:1, says, 'When the Church of God was founded in Tyre, much of its wealth was consecrated to God, and was brought as an offering to the Church for the support of the ministry.' Jesus Christ visited the neighbourhood of Tyre (): Paul found disciples there (Acts 21:3): it early became a Christian bishopric; but the full evangelization of that whole race, as of the Ethiopians (Isaiah 18:1), of the Egyptians and Assyrians (Isaiah 19:1), is yet to come ().

It shall not be treasured - but freely expended in His service.

Her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord - the ministers of religion. But Horsley translates, 'for them that sit before Yahweh' as disciples.

And for durable clothing. Changes of raiment constituted much of the wealth of former days.

Remarks: The 'prince-merchants' of our commercial nation have much to learn from the doom of Tyre, once the "mart of nations." Commerce is, doubtless, one earthly basis of national prosperity; but it affords no safeguard against national ruin, when the favour of the Lord does not accompany it. The largest 'revenue' comes to nought at the command of the Almighty. In vain did Tyre look for help to her many colonies, as well as to the mother city, Zidon, in the day of her distress. Zidon herself was put to shame, so that she could afford no succour; and the Tyrians could only flee to Tarshish and elsewhere, as exiled fugitives. Tyre, that was once so "joyous," as now "still," and void of national life. "Antiquity" will not avail when it has arrayed against it, "the Ancient of days." So far are "the honourable of the earth" from being able to counteract the "purpose" of "the Lord of hosts," that it is their very pride which brings down His wrath; for his 'purpose' is "to stain" or pollute "the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth." Let us learn that the true blessedness of the possession of wealth, great or small, consists in the dedication of it to the glory of God, the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, and the temporal and spiritual relief of our fellow-men.

The four chapters, 24-27, form one continuous poetical prophecy, descriptive of the dispersion and successive calamities of the Jews (Isaiah 24:1); the preaching of the Gospel by the first Hebrew converts throughout the world (Isaiah 24:13); the judgments on the adversaries of the Church, and its final triumph (Isaiah 24:16); thanksgiving for the overthrow of the apostate faction (Isaiah 25:1), and establishment of the righteous in lasting peace (Isaiah 26:1); judgment on leviathan and entire purgation of the Church, (Isaiah 27:1.) Having treated of the several nations in particular-Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (the miniature representative of all, as all kingdoms flocked into it) - he passes to the last times of the world at large, and of Judah, the representative and future head of the Churches.