Isaiah 23:6

Isa 23:6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

Ver. 6. Pass ye over to Tarshish.] Tyrii migrate coloni, be packing any whither, and make any shift to save your lives, Ultra Sauromatas fugite hinc, &c. To Carthage many of them went, say some; and the Septuagint; for ships of Tarshish {Isa 23:1} have ships of Carthage.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 23:6-7. Pass ye over to Tarshish — Flee from your own country to Tartessus in Spain, and there bewail your calamity. Or, betake yourselves for refuge to some of the parts to which you used to traffic. The LXX. say, εις Καρχηδονα, to Carthage, which was a colony transplanted from Tyre. Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle — Of Tyre, as Isa 23:2. Is this your joyous city? — That formerly lived in so much pomp, and pleasure, and security? Whose antiquity is of ancient days — See on Isa 23:1. Tyre, though not so old as Zidon, yet certainly was of very high antiquity. Justin, in the passage above quoted, had dated the building of it at a certain number of years before the taking of Troy; but the number is lost in the present copies. Her own feet shall carry her — Whereas before, like a delicate lady, she would not set her foot to the ground, but used to be carried in stately chariots; afar off to sojourn — To seek for new habitations.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyre willeth other merchants to go to Cilicia, and to come no more there.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Pass . . . over--Escape from Tyre to your colonies as Tarshish (compare Isa 23:12). The Tyrians fled to Carthage and elsewhere, both at the siege under Nebuchadnezzar and that under Alexander.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(6) Pass ye over to Tarshish . . .—The words have the ring of a keen irony. The Tyrians are told to go to Tarshish, the extreme point of their commerce; not, as before, to bring back their wealth, but to seek safety there as exiles. No nearer asylum would give them safety. So, in the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great, the Tyrians sent their old men, women, and children to Carthage (Diod. Sic. xvii. 41). So Layard (Nineveh, plate 71) represents enemies of the Assyrians taking refuge in ships (Cheyne). The “isle” or “coast” is, as before, Tyre, and. its neighbourhoods.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. The second strophe commences here with a summons to the Phœnicians to betake themselves to their Spanish colony for refuge, their own country being at the mercy of the invader. So the Tyrians, when attacked by Alexander the Great, sent all those unfit for war to Carthage, another western colony. Gesenius instances also the projected emigration of the Dutch merchants to Batavia in 1672 if the independence of Holland should be overthrown.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pass ye over to Tarshish,.... Either to Tartessus in Spain, or to Tarsus in Cilicia, which lay over against them, and to which they might transport themselves, families, and substance, with greater ease; or "to a province of the sea", as the Targum, any other seaport; the Septuagint says to Carthage, which was a colony of the Tyrians; and hither the Assyrian (u) historians say they did transport themselves; though Kimchi thinks this is spoken, not to the Tyrians, but to the merchants that traded with them, to go elsewhere with their merchandise, since their goods could no more be disposed of in that city as usual.

Howl, ye inhabitants of the isle: of Tyre, as in Isa 23:2 or of every isle, as Aben Ezra, which traded here, because now their commerce was at an end; so Kimchi.

(u) Apud Hieron. in loc.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Pass ye over - That is, ye inhabitants of tyre. This is an address to Tyre, in view of her approaching destruction; and is designed to signify that when the city was destroyed, its inhabitants would flee to its colonies, and seek refuge and safety there. As Tarshish was one of its principal colonies, and as the ships employed by Tyre would naturally sail to Tarshish, the inhabitants are represented as fleeing there on the attack of Nebucbadnezzar. That the inhabitants of Tyre did fire in this manner, is expressly asserted by Jerome upon the authority of Assyrian histories which are now lost. ‘We have read,’ says he, ‘in the histories of the Assyrians, that when the Tyrians were besieged, after they saw no hope of escaping, they went on board their ships, and fled to Cartilage, or to some islands of the Ionian and AEgean Sea’ (Jerome in loc.) And again (on Ezek. 29) he says, ‘When the Tyrians saw that the works for carrying on the siege were perfected, and the foundations of the walls were shaken by the battering rams, whatever precious things in gold, silver, clothes, and various kinds of furniture the nobility had, they put them on board their ships, and carried to the islands. So that the city being taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor.’ Diodorus (xvii. 41) relates the same thing of the Tyrians during the siege of Alexander the Great, where he says that they took their wives and children to Carthage.

Howl - Deep grief among the Orientals was usually expressed by a loud, long, and most dismal howl or shriek (see the note at Isa 15:2).

Ye inhabitants of the isle - Of Tyre. The word ‘isle,’ however, may be taken as in Isa 20:6 (see the note on that place), in, the sense of coast, or maritime country in general, and possibly may be intended to denote Old Tyre, or the coast of Phenicia in general, though most naturally it applies to the city built on the island.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Seas. The rich Tyrians did so. (St. Jerome) --- Septuagint, "to Carthage." Hebrew Tharsis, is Cilicia. (Calmet) --- Hence Nabuchodonosor did not find a sufficient reward, Ezechiel xxix. 18.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Pass ye over to Tarshish; flee from your own country to Tarsus of Cilicia, and there bewail your calamities. Or rather, as others render the place, Pass over the sea, which is oft called Tarshish; of which See Poole "Isa 23:1".

Of the isle; of Tyrus, as before, Isa 23:2.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Tarshish — Tyre’s remote colonies, especially Tartessus, near the Straits of Gibraltar. In the stress upon Tyre her people are advised to seek refuge there. The siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and still more by Alexander, was sufficient occasion for such advice.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pass ye over to Tarshish. The advice was good, and may, perhaps, have been followed to some extent. When Sennacherib attacked Elulaeus of Sidon (B.C. 701), that monarch fled across the sea ("Records of the Past," vol. 1. p. 35), probably to Cyprus. When Alexander finally ruined Tyre, a part of the population made its escape on shipboard to Carthage (Arrian," Exp. Alex.," 2:24, An escape of the kind is represented in the Assyrian sculptures (Layard, "Monuments of Nineveh," first series, pl. 71).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The inhabitants of Tyre, who desired to escape from death or transportation, are obliged to take refuge in the colonies, and the farther off the better: not in Cyprus, not in Carthage (as at the time when Alexander attacked the insular Tyre), but in Tartessus itself, the farthest off towards the west, and the hardest to reach. "Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the coast! Is this your fate, thou full of rejoicing, whose origin is from the days of the olden time, whom her feet carried far away to settle? Who hath determined such a thing concerning Tzor, the distributor of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the chief men of the earth? Jehovah of hosts hath determined it, to desecrate the pomp of every kind of ornament, to dishonour the chief men of the earth, all of them." The exclamation "howl ye" (hēillu) implies their right to give themselves up to their pain. In other cases complaint is unmanly, but here it is justifiable (compare Isa 15:4). In Isa 23:7 the question arises, whether ‛allizâh is a nominative predicate, as is generally assumed ("Is this, this deserted heap of ruins, your formerly rejoicing city?"), or a vocative. We prefer the latter, because there is nothing astonishing in the omission of the article in this case (Isa 22:2; Ewald, 327, a); whereas in the former case, although it is certainly admissible (see Isa 32:13), it is very harsh (compare Isa 14:16), and the whole expression a very doubtful one to convey the sense of לכם אשר עליזה קריה הזאת. To ‛allizâh there is attached the descriptive, attributive clause: whose origin (kadmâh, Eze 16:55) dates from the days of the olden time; and then a second "whose feet brought her far away (raglaim construed as a masculine, as in Jer 13:16, for example) to dwell in a foreign land. This is generally understood as signifying transportation by force into an enemy's country. But Luzzatto very properly objects to this, partly on the ground that רגליה יבלוּה (her feet carried her) is the strongest expression that can be used for voluntary emigration, to which lâgūr (to settle) also corresponds; and partly because we miss the antithetical ועתּה, which we should expect with this interpretation. The reference is to the trading journeys which extended "far away" (whether by land or sea), and to the colonies, i.e., the settlements founded in those distant places, that leading characteristic of the Tyro-Phoenician people (this is expressed in the imperfect by yobiluâh, quam portabant; gur is the most appropriate word to apply to such settlements: for mērâchōk, see at Isa 17:13). Sidon was no doubt older than Tyre, but Tyre was also of primeval antiquity. Strabo speaks of its as the oldest Phoenician city "after Sidon;" Curtius calls it vetustate originis insignis; and Josephus reckons the time from the founding of Tyre to the building of Solomon's temple as 240 years (Ant. viii. 3, 1; compare Herod. ii. 44). Tyre is called hammaēatirâh, not as wearing a crown (Vulg. quondam coronata), but as a distributor of crowns (Targum). Either would be suitable as a matter of fact; but the latter answers better to the hiphil (as hikrı̄n, hiphrı̄s, which are expressive of results produced from within outwards, can hardly be brought into comparison). Such colonies as Citium, Tartessus, and at first Carthage, were governed by kings appointed by the mother city, and dependent upon her. Her merchants were princes (compare Isa 10:8), the most honoured of the earth; נכבּדּי acquires a superlative meaning from the genitive connection (Ges. 119, 2). From the fact that the Phoenicians had the commerce of the world in their hands, a merchant was called cena‛ani or cena‛an (Hos 12:8; from the latter, not from cin‛âni, the plural cin‛ânim which we find here is formed), and the merchandise cin‛âh. The verb chillēl, to desecrate or profane, in connection with the "pomp of every kind of ornament," leads us to think more especially of the holy places of both insular and continental Tyre, among which the temple of Melkarth in the new city of the former was the most prominent (according to the Arrian, Anab. ii. 16, παλαιότατον ὧν μνήμη ἀνθρωπίνη διασώζεται). These glories, which were thought so inviolable, Jehovah will profane. "To dishonour the chief men:" lehâkēl (ad ignominiam deducere, Vulg.) as in Isa 8:22.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

“Pass over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle (or coast).” The mother country is exhorted to take refuge in her distant colonies.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cross over to Tarshish

"Make your way to Tarshish." Tarshish was the farthest land the people of Tyre traveled to do business. It will be the only place of safety for those who escape from Tyre.

Has this happened to you, the joyful city, whose origin is from ancient times ... to settle?

Yahweh uses a question to mock Tyre. This rhetorical questions can be translated as a statement. AT: "This has indeed happened to you who were full of joy in the ancient city of Tyre ... to settle." (See: Rhetorical Question)

the joyful city

Here "city" represents the people. AT: "the joyful people who live in the city of Tyre" (See: Metonymy)

whose feet carried her far away to foreign places to settle

Here "feet" represents the whole person. AT: "who went to distant places to live and make money" (See: Synecdoche)

her far away

Here "her" refers to the city of Tyre which represents the people of Tyre. (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Tarshish

joy

alien

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Proceed you inhabitants of Tyre, to flee to Tarshish.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

אל תרשיש ═ תרשישה To Tarshish.

כל אי ═ אי Every island.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.