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Bible study · Isaiah 23:1-18

Isaiah 23: The burden of Tyre

Read Isaiah 23:1-18 before you meet.

In a few lines

"Who has planned this against Tyre?" The answer uses the question's own words: the LORD of Armies planned "to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth" (23:9). And the burden that begins with howling ships ends with Tyre's wages "holiness to the LORD" (23:18), in Hebrew the words engraved on the high priest's gold plate (Exodus 28:36).

The verse to carry

“The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.”

Isaiah 23:9

To talk about

  1. 1. Tyre's merchants were princes and its traders "the honorable of the earth" (23:8), and the LORD of Armies planned "to stain the pride of all glory" (23:9). What kinds of glory are easiest for you to take pride in?

  2. 2. The chapter asks, "Who has planned this against Tyre" (23:8), and answers, "The LORD of Armies has planned it" (23:9). How does that answer change the way you read the rest of the chapter?

  3. 3. Tyre will be "forgotten seventy years" (23:15), and then "the LORD will visit Tyre" (23:17). What stands out to you about a burden that doesn't end with the ruin?

Prayer requests