Isaiah 23:4 - Prayer Tents



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Isaiah 23
The Message Help

It Was All Numbers, Dead Numbers, Profit and Loss

23Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins! When the ships returned from Cyprus, they saw the destruction.H4853H6865H3213H591H8659H7703H1004H935H776H3794H1540 2Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast, merchants of Sidon. Your people sailed the deep seas, buying and selling,H1826H3427H339H5503H6721H5674H3220H4390 3Making money on wheat from Shihor, grown along the Nile— multinational broker in grains!H7227H4325H2233H7883H7105H2975H8393H5505H1471 4Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up, the powerhouse of the ocean says, "I've never had labor pains, never had a baby, never reared children to adulthood, Never gave life, never worked with life. It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss."H954H6721H3220H559H4581H3220H559H2342H3205H1431H970H7311H1330 5When Egypt gets the report on Tyre, what wailing! what wringing of hands!H8088H4714H2342H8088H6865

Nothing Left Here to Be Proud Of

6Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast. Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears!H5674H8659H3213H3427H339 7Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive, bustling with activity, this historic old city, Expanding throughout the globe, buying and selling all over the world?H5947H6927H6924H3117H7272H2986H7350H1481 8And who is behind the collapse of Tyre, the Tyre that controlled the world markets? Tyre's merchants were the business tycoons. Tyre's traders called all the shots.H3289H6865H5849H5503H8269H3667H3513H776 9GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash to show the sordid backside of pride and puncture the inflated reputations.H3068H6635H3289H2490H1347H6643H7043H3513H776 10Sail for home, O ships of Tarshish. There are no docks left in this harbor.H5674H776H2975H1323H8659H4206 11GOD reached out to the sea and sea traders, threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil. GOD ordered the destruction of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce.H5186H3027H3220H7264H4467H3068H6680H3667H8045H4581H4581 12GOD said, "There's nothing left here to be proud of, bankrupt and bereft Sidon. Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus? Don't count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either."H559H3254H5937H6231H1330H1323H6721H6965H5674H3794H5117 13Look at what happened to Babylon: There's nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble.H776H3778H5971H804H3245H6728H6965H971H6209H759H7760H4654 14Wail, ships of Tarshish, your strong seaports all in ruins!H3213H591H8659H4581H7703 15For the next seventy years, a king's lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song:H3117H6865H7911H7657H8141H3117H259H4428H7093H7657H8141H6865H7892H2181 16"Take a harp, circle the city, unremembered whore. Sing your old songs, your many old songs. Maybe someone will remember."H3947H3658H5437H5892H2181H7911H3190H5059H7235H7892H2142 17At the end of the seventy years, GOD will look in on Tyre. She'll go back to her old whoring trade, selling herself to the highest bidder, doing anything with anyone—promiscuous with all the kingdoms of earth—for a fee.H7093H7657H8141H3068H6485H6865H7725H868H2181H4467H776H6440H127 18But everything she gets, all the money she takes in, will be turned over to GOD. It will not be put in banks. Her profits will be put to the use of GOD-Aware, GOD-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing.H5504H868H6944H3068H686H2630H5504H3427H6440H3068H398H7654H6266H4374


The Message (MSG). All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. More details.
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