Context No. 2685 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 23:13-18: in context

13Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin. 14Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste! 15It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. 16Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. 17It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. 18Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

This is the close of Isaiah's oracle against Tyre, the great trading port whose ships and wealth reached across the sea. The prophet foretells seventy years of being forgotten, the city sung about like a discarded singer trying to be remembered. Its commerce, its whole reason for being, is brought low.

Then the ending turns unexpected. After the seventy years the Lord will visit Tyre again, and her trade will become "holiness to the LORD," set aside to feed and clothe those who dwell before him. Gain that once served only itself is not simply erased. It is redirected. The same enterprise that fed the city's pride can be handed over to holy use once God has humbled it.

Is there some part of my own work that trades only for itself, that God might yet turn toward him?

Sources

Isaiah 23:9: "The LORD of Hosts has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth."
Psalm 45:12: "The daughter of Tyre will be there with a gift. The rich among the people will entreat your favor."
Matthew 11:21: "For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago."