1 The oracle about Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is destroyed, left without house or harbor! Word of it reached them from the land of Kittim.
2 Be still, you who live on the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, sailing over the sea, have made rich.
3 Over the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was her income, and she became the trading center of the nations.
4 Be ashamed, Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the fortress of the sea: "I have not been in labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women."
5 When the news reaches Egypt, they will be in anguish over the news about Tyre.
6 Cross over to Tarshish; howl, you who live on the coast!
7 Is this your merry city, whose beginnings go back to ancient times, whose feet took her to settle in faraway lands?
8 Who planned this against Tyre, the city that handed out crowns, whose traders were princes and whose merchants were honored throughout the earth?
9 The LORD of hosts planned it, to bring down the pride of all her glory and to humble all who were honored on earth.
10 Overflow your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer any restraint.
11 The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and shaken kingdoms; he has given an order concerning Canaan, to destroy its fortresses.
12 He said, "You will celebrate no more, crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. Get up, cross over to Kittim; even there you will find no rest."
13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans, this people that no longer exists! Assyria has turned it over to the creatures of the desert. They put up their siege towers, tore down her palaces and made her a heap of ruins.
14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is destroyed!
15 On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of one king's life. At the end of those seventy years Tyre will be like the prostitute in the song:
16 "Pick up a harp and walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play it well, sing song after song, so that you will be remembered."
17 At the end of seventy years the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will go back to earning her wages and will sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
18 But her profits and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD. They will not be stored away or hoarded; her profits will go to those who live in the LORD's presence, to give them plenty of food and fine clothing.