The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 377

'Od.,' iv. 84-1; xvii. 424) include the TyrianL Beeiues theil· renown In forest-craft, they were 8kilful workeril in brass and copper. In Solomon's time there waa close intercourse between Hebrews and Tyrians, the former exchanging their corn and oil for the cedar-wood and precious metals of the latter (1 Kings ix. 11-14, 26-28; x. 22). 'The denunciation of the prophets age.inst Tyre begin from the time when the Tyrlans and the Phcenicie.na began to buy Hebrew captives and sell them to the Greeks: "The children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border" (Joel iii. 6; cf. Amos i. 9, 10). A great comruercial people, they planted Carthage, and became possessed of Cyprus, We find one Luliya (or Elulreus) named in Josephus(' Ant.,' ix. 14. 2) as ruling over Tyre during this prosperous period; he seems to have been, in fact, king also of Zidon and suzerain of Phcenicia. He fled before Senne~herib to Cyprus(' Records of the Past,' ,,ii. 61). It is in the light of such relations-Phcenicia trembling before the advance of Assyria and warned by the fate of Babylonia-that we must read the prophecy or oracle. II. THE RUMOUR OF ILL. We see in this picture the trading-ships of the Phcenicians returning from their distant colonies in Spain on the Bretis (or Guadalquivir). Their last landing-place on the way home is Cyprus, the "land of Chittim" (or Citium). And here the news meets them that their harbour and their home is desolate. And a mighty howl arises from the fleet, while the dwellers Oll the Phcenician coast are dumb with grief. Egypt also is implicated in the fate of Tyre. In the description by Ezekiel of the wealth of Tyre, we read, " Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thoo spreadest forth to be thy sail" (xxvii. 7). 80 here the" seed of 8ihor n (the Nile) is on the ocean-highway, their trade being carried on for them by the Phcenicians. The Phcenician coast was the " barn for the corn of the Nile," and they distributed it to the nations. And now Phcenicia is addressed through Zidon, the ancient ancestral city. The city was thought of in antiquity as feminine-sometimes as a daughter, sometimes as a mother. So Tyriao coins bear the legend, "Of Tyre, mother of the Zidonians." The rocky stronghold of the sea speaks, and complains that she is like a barren woman; for the war has robbed her of her young men and maidens. In effect she aa.ys, " I am destroyed ; my wealth and resources gone, my commerce annihi- lated, 1 cease to plant cities and colonies, and to nourish and foster them by my trade." Tyre, a daughter of the sea, is denied by her own mother. As Tyre was an outpost of Egypt age.inst the Assyria.us, she, too, is "sore pained n at the sad tidings. III. THE LillENTATION OVER TYRE. The prophet advises the people to migrate to their Spanish colonies; for the capital can no longer shelter them. From later times we have a picture of a scene similar to that now passing before his mind's eye. When Alexander the Great besieged Tyre they at first laughed at the king and the mound which he built, "as if he thought to vanquish Poseidon," god of the sea; afterwards, as it grew surprisingly, they sent tbeir children, wives, and old people to Carthage" (Diod., xvii. 41). And the LXX. says that they fled thither on this occasion. 1. Luxu,y and pride ashamed. The prophet looks in vision upon a heap of ruins; it is like the corpse of a once beautiful and proud woman. Once she was the "joyous city, that dwelt carelessly" (Zeph. ii. 15), and felt herself to be without a rival. She boasted of her antiquity. The Tyrians told Herodotus (in the fifth century B.o.) that their city had already been founded two thousand three hundred years (ii. 44). Her traders, like those of Venice in the Middle Ages, had been reckoned the equals of princes and kings (Jer. xxv. 22). But greed, arrogance, oppressive conduct towards other natiom, bad brought her low. 2. Thejudgment of God. The hand of Jehovah must be traced and felt in all this. He brings the haughty low, that the meek and despised may be raised. Beauty, which has itself associations of sacredness to the imagination, is not beautiful when it gilds and glorifies infamy. 'fhen Jehovah desecrates it, and brings disgrace upon the grace and honour of the merely worldly great. "Whoever is the instrument, yet the overthrow of wicked, proud, and vicious cities and nations is to be traced to the God who rules in the empires and kingdoms of the earth; and be often selects the most distinguished and _important cities and men to make them exaroptes to others, and to show the ease with which he can bring all down to the earth.' 'l'he dispersion of the people ill strongly contrasted with their own belief in their rooted and immemorial origin in the soil of Phcenicia. cm. xxru.1-18.) 1'11E BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAil. IV. EMANOJPATJON OF THE TrnIAN OOLONIEB, Harshly treated, perhaps, they take the first opportunity of throwing off the yoke of the mother-city. Especially Tartessus is mentioned. She mny now freely and unhindered overflow the land, even as, in the time of the inundation, Nile's waters overspread Egypt (Amos viii. 8; ix. 5). There is no" girdle;" perhaps no bridle in the hand of Tyre any longer to restrain her colony'8 defiant independence. For all the kingdoms that border upon the sea, especially Phre- nicia and Syria, have been convulsed with alarm, as Jehovah's hand was stretched out, and the order was given to destroy the strong places of Canaan. Then, under the favourite figure of the woman, the city appears no longer an inviolate maiden, but dishonoured and defiled. Cyprus will afford no refuge for the fugitives, for she will be rejoicing at deliverance from the Phrenician yoke, and will not welcome them ; or the "long arm" of the Assyrian will reach them there. No power, however well founded and far-extending, can endure against the.fiat of the Almighty, It might seem impossible that a city so celebrated and so powerful, so well defended and fortified, and associated wHh many allies and confederates, should be destroyed and oYerturned; but "all that appears permanent in the world stands or falis according to the will of God, and there is no need of the instruments of war for overturning the best fortified place, bnt the mere expression of the will of God is enough" (Calvin). Warning from the/ate oj the Kasdim. We know little about this people, who are, perhaps, used to denote Babylon in general, conquered by Sargon. This land has been turned into a desert and haunt of wild beasts. The battering-engines of the A.ssyrians have reduced their forts to ruin. All around denotes the impending ruin to Tyre. V. THE RESTORATION OF TYBE. At the end of" seventy years," probably put for a long period, it appears that commerce will revive, "but only as the handmaid of reli- gion.'' This is the main truth to be dwelt· on, and the obscurity of the passage must be left to the exegetes. Recurring to the city under the image of the woman-now a singing-woman-the prophet looks forward to the time ,vhen there will be the mirth of restored prosperity in the seats of Tyre. "When it begins again to make love to all the world, it will get rich again from the profit acquired by this worldly intercourse. Wealth will no longer be stored up and capitalized as formerly, but tributes and presents will be given to Israel, and thus help to sustain in abundance and clothe in stately dress the nation which dwelt before Jehovah, i.e. whose true dwelling-place was in the temple before the presence of God (Ps. xxvii. 4; lx:.xxiv. 5)" (Delitzsch). In Christian times there was a Church at Tyre, visited by St. Paul (Acts :ui. 3, 4), and 10 its trade was connected with the spread of the gospel. • LEssoNB. 1. God mingles compassion with his chastisements of cities, peoples, and individuals. If so towards the wicked, how much more towards the children of his adoption and love I Restoration, revivals of prosperity, are from him who, as the proverb says, "never smites with both hands." 2. There is a selfish and ccrn1pt and a true and generous spirit in trade. A time is contemplated when riches will be no longer absorbed by a few enormous capitalists, but be diffused for the common good. The narrow-minded in trade is the sign of the narrow heart; the best traders are those whom love to their kind has taught to unite personal interest with the general good. The accumulation of immense wealth can hardly be the object of a Christian ambi- tion. Let us hasten, by prayer, by teaching, by example, the tirue when wealth shall not be treasured nor laid up- " No more shall rest in mounded heaps, But emit with freer light shull slowly melt In many streams to fatten lower l,mde, And light shall spread, a.nd mo.n be liker man Thro' all the _season of the golden year." 3, <Jammer~ and <Jhristianity should go hand-in-hand. Our sailors o.nd our merchants should be the best pioneers of the gospel, and our missionaries the most enlightened friends of commerce and civilization. So may our " Happy sails , . , Knit land to l11nd, and blowing havenwnrcl With silks, and fruits, e.nd spices, clear of toll, Eurioh the markets of ihe golden year." J. 378 'l'I.IE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. xxm.1-1a.