Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
Isaiah 23:6 falls within the section of Isaiah containing a series of prophecies, or burdens, concerning nations and peoples. It belongs to the burden of Tyre, one of the judgments pronounced against various nations and peoples. Tyre was a great Phoenician commercial city built on an island, one of the cities about which the prophets spoke. The surrounding passage describes Chittim, identified as the descendants of Javan and their country, thought to be Cyprus.
The verse calls the inhabitants of the island to lament and flee by sea across toward Tarshish, expressing the distress accompanying Tyre's downfall. No lasting rest would be found in those places of refuge. The flight by sea happened when no other means of escape remained, with the Tyrians taking refuge in Carthage and on islands of the Ionian and Aegean seas.
The prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. That destruction was distinct from its later destruction by Alexander. In that later destruction its stones and timber and dust were thrown into the sea to make a bridge to New Tyre.
Isaiah 23:6 falls within the section of Isaiah containing a series of prophecies, or burdens, concerning nations and peoples. It belongs to the burden of Tyre, one of the judgments pronounced against various nations and peoples. Tyre was a great Phoenician commercial city built on an island, one of the cities about which the prophets spoke. The surrounding passage describes Chittim, identified as the descendants of Javan and their country, thought to be Cyprus.
The verse calls the inhabitants of the island to lament and flee by sea across toward Tarshish, expressing the distress accompanying Tyre's downfall. No lasting rest would be found in those places of refuge. The flight by sea happened when no other means of escape remained, with the Tyrians taking refuge in Carthage and on islands of the Ionian and Aegean seas.
The prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. That destruction was distinct from its later destruction by Alexander. In that later destruction its stones and timber and dust were thrown into the sea to make a bridge to New Tyre.