Isaiah 23 · a question people ask
Does the chapter say why Tyre is brought low?
It gives one answer. It asks, "Who has planned this against Tyre" (23:8), and answers, "The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth" (23:9). Tyre is described in the question itself: "the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth" (23:8). Before it, the chapter says, "She was the market of nations" (23:3), and asks, "Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days" (23:7). The chapter gives no other reason and names no attacker; 23:13 names the land of the Chaldeans and the Assyrians and doesn't say what part they have. These notes read the chapter as it stands, add no history of Tyre from outside the Bible, and apply nothing in it to any city, nation, trade or people today.
The verses
“On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.”
“Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel? Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.”
“Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people didn’t exist. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.”