Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, for the port is too devastated to enter! From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them.

Lament, you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile; there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre.

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song:

the deep waters! Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations.

He said, "You will no longer celebrate, oppressed virgin daughter Sidon! Get up, travel to Cyprus, but you will find no relief there."

Who planned this for royal Tyre, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the dignitaries of the earth?

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, demolished its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins.

"Take the harp, go through the city, forgotten prostitute! Play it well, play lots of songs, so you'll be noticed!"

At the end of seventy years the Lord will revive Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth's kingdoms.

Travel to Tarshish! Wail, you residents of the coast!

Wail, you large ships, for your fortress is destroyed!

The Lord who commands armies planned it -- to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord's presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes.

When the news reaches Egypt, they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre.

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea says this, O fortress of the sea: "I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women."

The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook kingdoms; he gave the order to destroy Canaan's fortresses.

Is this really your boisterous city whose origins are in the distant past, and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?