Chapter 23

  The word about Tyre. Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish, because your strong place is made waste; on the way back from the land of Kittim the news is given to them.  

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  Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land, traders of Zidon, who go over the sea, whose representatives are on great waters;  

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  Who get in the seed of Shihor, whose wealth is the trade of the nations.  

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  Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins.  

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  When the news comes to Egypt they will be bitterly pained at the fate of Tyre.  

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  Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the sea-land.  

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  Is this the town which was full of joy, whose start goes back to times long past, whose wanderings took her into far-off countries?  

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  By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning town, whose traders are chiefs, whose business men are honoured in the land?  

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  It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride to shame, to make sport of the glory of those who are honoured in the earth.  

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  Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer any harbour.  

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  His hand is stretched out over the sea, the kingdoms are shaking: the Lord has given orders about Canaan, to make waste its strong places.  

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  And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed virgin daughter of Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there you will have no rest.  

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  ...  

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  Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish: because your strong place is made waste.  

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  And it will be in that day that Tyre will go out of mind for seventy years, that is, the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the loose woman.  

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  Take an instrument of music, go about the town, O loose woman who has gone out from the memory of man; make sweet melody with songs, so that you may come back to men's minds.  

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  And it will be after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will have mercy on Tyre, and she will go back to her trade, acting as a loose woman with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.  

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  And her goods and her trade will be holy to the Lord: they will not be kept back or stored up; for her produce will be for those living in the Lord's land, to give them food for their needs, and fair clothing.  

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