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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Isaiah 23:1 - 23:1
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Isa 23:1-18. Prophecy respecting Tyre.
Menander, the historian, notices a siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser, about the time of the siege of Samaria. Sidon, Acco, and Old Tyre, on the mainland, were soon reduced; but New Tyre, on an island half a mile from the shore, held out for five years. Sargon probably finished the siege. Sennacherib does not, however, mention it among the cities which the Assyrian kings conquered (thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters). The expression, “Chaldeans” (Isa 23:13), may imply reference to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years. Alexander the Great destroyed New Tyre after a seven months’ siege.
Tyre - Hebrew, Tsur, that is, “Rock.”
ships of Tarshish - ships of Tyre returning from their voyage to Tarshish, or Tartessus in Spain, with which the Phoenicians had much commerce (Eze 27:12-25). “Ships of Tarshish” is a phrase also used of large and distant-voyaging merchant vessels (Isa 2:16; 1Ki 10:22; Psa 48:7).
no house - namely, left; such was the case as to Old Tyre, after Nebuchadnezzar’s siege.
no entering - There is no house to enter (Isa 24:10) [G. V. Smith]. Or, Tyre is so laid waste, that there is no possibility of entering the harbor [Barnes]; which is appropriate to the previous “ships.”
Chittim - Cyprus, of which the cities, including Citium in the south (whence came “Chittim”), were mostly Phoenician (Eze 27:6). The ships from Tarshish on their way to Tyre learn the tidings (“it is revealed to them”) of the downfall of Tyre. At a later period Chittim denoted the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean (Dan 11:30).