Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
Parallel translations
- WEB Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.
- KJV Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
- NKJV Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; There is no more strength.
- NASB Overflow your land like the Nile, you daughter of Tarshish, There is no more restraint.
- NLT Come, people of Tarshish, sweep over the land like the flooding Nile, for Tyre is defenseless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Tyre's colony is told to spread freely over her land like the overflowing Nile, for the restraining mother-city is gone. The protective power has been removed.
Overview
With Tyre fallen, her dependent settlements such as Tarshish are no longer bound or restrained by her. The image of an unchecked river pictures the loosening of a former order. The verse marks the collapse of Tyre's controlling dominion over her trade network.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 12:21He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
- Ps 18:32It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way clear.
- 1 Sam 28:20Immediately Saul fell flat on the ground, terrified by the words of Samuel. And his strength was gone, because he had not eaten anything all that day and night.
- Isa 23:14Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed!
- Lam 1:6All the splendor has departed from the Daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; they lack the strength to flee in the face of the hunter.
- Hag 2:22I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and their riders; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.
- Rom 5:6For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 23:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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