Isaiah 23 - Introduction

Chapter 23 The Burden of Tyre

Tyre lay to the north along the sea coast. Combined with Sidon and the surrounding country it was an ancient seafaring nation. Its ships travelled the ancient world, trading, establishing colonies, and making it rich and powerful, and sometimes overbearing (Isaiah 23:10). Having a great sense of its own importance it was regularly involved with the intrigues of the area. The city was split into two, the island section and the mainland section, united by a causeway. But Tyre too was not dependable. She too would be laid waste by Assyria. Apart from Yahweh there was really nowhere else for Judah to turn.

Amos 1:9 tells us that Tyre in fact betrayed her covenant with Judah and did nothing to prevent the Edomites from taking advantage of Judah's weak state.

Like many of Isaiah's prophecies the future is spoken of as though it has happened using the Hebrew tense to indicate something already completed in the mind of God, although awaiting completion on earth. When the detailed prophecy was literally fulfilled we cannot date accurately, but what we do know is that the island of Tyre was finally totally destroyed by Alexander the Great who was the first to capture the island city.