Isaiah chapter 23 - Isaiah

Tyre was originally a small island off the coast of modern day Lebanon. Hiram, the king of Tyre connected the island kingdom to the mainland in the tenth century B.C. Alexander the Great conquered it in 322 B.C. It fell to Roman conquest in 64 B.C. and was taken by Islamic armies in 634 A.D. At the end of WWI, Tyre became part of Lebanon. It is still there today, but much of it is just ruins of the once-great island kingdom. Is this the subject of Isaiah chapter twenty-three?

Yes. The destruction of Tyre is very much the subject of this chapter, but notice that its demise was only to last for a finite period of time, in this case seventy years, and then it was to return to its former life. Some historian somewhere can probably point to that very period of time. It is not my purpose here to prove that the prophecy came true.

It is significant that the period where this political entity was to lay dormant consisted of seventy years. The Holy Spirit, speaking through Isaiah’s pen continually prophesied about Jerusalem, the apple of God’s eye, a city very familiar to Isaiah himself. Is this seventy-year period concerning a foreign city/kingdom somehow a ‘type’ of some particular seventy-year period from Israel’s history? This is almost always the case with prophecy, and Isaiah chapter 20 is no exception. Jerusalem’s seventy-year period of captivity in Babylon is, of course, what comes to mind. Does this mean that this chapter is a picture of the then future history of Jerusalem? I think it does.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.” (Isaiah 23:15)

Was this true of Jerusalem and her citizens? Absolutely. And, what happened at the end of the seventy years?

“And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:17)

Did Israel come back to their homeland after seventy years? Yes. Did the people rise to become a righteous people before the LORD? No. They returned to everything they had done previous to the Diaspora. How did the populace get from Jerusalem to Babylon. On foot. All of the men of Tyre were slaughtered by Alexander when he conquered that city, but Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews captive and marched them off to Babylon en masse. Note also that Tyre’s period of captivity was not permanent. It was a “sojourn”.

“Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.” (Isaiah 23:7)

Who made this happen to Tyre? Alexander.
Who made this happen to Judah/Jerusalem/Israel? Read it for yourself.

“The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9)

Was Tyre “the pride of all glory? No. But Jerusalem was/is the pride of God, the apple of His eye.

Was Tyre ever to see the land of the Chaldeans? No. And yet, the passage says; “Behold the land of the Caldeans.” That’s where Judah/Jerusalem was taken; to the land of the Chaldeans. Did they “behold” that land? Yeah. From the inside.

“Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.” (Isaiah 23:13)

Now, the final verse eliminates Tyre as being the ONLY subject of this prophecy.

“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.”

What shall be holiness to the LORD in the end of days? Certainly not the harlotry of Tyre. Other than here in this chapter of Isaiah, there is only one place where these words occur and that is in the description of the mitre of the high-priest. You can find that in the book of Exodus. I believe that the final verse of chapter twenty-three is speaking of a time in Israel that is yet future to us today; a time when Israel will again be Holiness to the LORD. This is certainly not speaking of Tyre except as Tyre in this chapter is a picture of Israel.

In this chapter four places are mentioned that are mentioned nowhere else in the book of Isaiah. That would mean that the book of Isaiah (twenty-third book of the Bible) has these four places in common with the twenty-third chapter of Isaiah and thus is consistent with the other connections we find between the books of the Bible and the chapters of Isaiah. The four places are found in other books of the Bible, but not in any other of the chapters of Isaiah. This does not define the connection, but rather it is consistent with our pattern. The four places are Tyre, Zidon, Chittim and Sihor.

Now what connection can we see between the prophecy of Isaiah chapter twenty-three and the book of Isaiah? This is it. Isaiah is a book of prophecy. Isaiah is not a book filled with prophecy about the Church, nor about the Gentiles. It is a book filled with prophecies about Israel, and that is what this prophecy in Isaiah chapter twenty-three is; a prophecy about Israel hidden behind a prophecy about Tyre.

This is the twenty-third chapter of Isaiah, and Isaiah is the twenty-third book in our Bible. They are connected.