Isaiah 23:3-5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 23:3 tc The Hebrew text (23:2b-3a) reads literally, “merchant of Sidon, the one who crosses the sea, they filled you, and on the deep waters.” Instead of מִלְאוּךְ (milʾukh, “they filled you”) the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads מלאכיך (“your messengers”). The translation assumes an emendation of מִלְאוּךְ to מַלְאָכָו (malʾakhav, “his messengers”), taking the vav (ו) on וּבְמַיִם (uv^emayim) as improperly placed; instead it should be the final letter of the preceding word.
2. Isaiah 23:3 tn Heb “seed of Shihor.” “Shihor” probably refers to the east branch of the Nile. See Jer 2:18 and BDB 1009 s.v. שִׁיחוֹר.
3. Isaiah 23:3 tn Heb “the harvest of the Nile.”
4. Isaiah 23:3 tn Heb “[is] her revenue.”
5. Isaiah 23:3 tn Heb “merchandise”; KJV, ASV “a mart of nations”; NLT “the merchandise mart of the world.”
6. Isaiah 23:4 tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (maʿoz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.
7. Isaiah 23:4 tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).sn The sea is personified here as a lamenting childless woman. The foreboding language anticipates the following announcement of Tyre’s demise, viewed here as a child of the sea, as it were.
8. Isaiah 23:5 tn Heb “they will be in pain at the report of Tyre.”