Isaiah 23:1-14 - Exposition

THE BURDEN OF TYRE . We hero reach the last of the "burdens"—the concluding chapter of the series of denunciatory prophecies which commenced with Isaiah 13:1-22 . It is an elegy "in three stanzas, or strophes" (Cheyne)—the first extending from Isaiah 13:1 to Isaiah 13:5 ; the second, thence to Isaiah 13:9 ; and the third from Isaiah 13:10 to Isaiah 13:14 . An undertone of sadness, and even of commiseration, prevails throughout it, the prophet viewing Tyre as a fellow-sufferer with Israel, persecuted and oppressed by the fame enemy, Assyria, which was everywhere pushing her conquests, and had recently extended her dominion even over Babylon ( Isaiah 13:13 ). This last allusion fixes the date of the prophecy to a time subsequent to B.C. 710, when the Assyrian monarch, Sargon, first conquered the country, and took the title of king.