February 2025

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 23: The Wonder of Seeing

Having discussed the Burden of Tyre and the Justice in Judgment in Isaiah chapters 23 and 24, we hope to have elucidated the history of the Phoenicians in relation to Scripture to the extent that the identity of the Phoenicians as a portion of the ancient children of Israel cannot be rationally denied. Although the context of chapter 24 is widened to include all of the children of Israel under these burdens, the city of Tyre is still the subject of the discourse where in chapter 24 there is a lamentation that “the city of confusion is broken down … the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction” (24:10-12). Then we read a little further on in the chapter, on account of the prophesied destruction of Tyre, a plea of encouragement which was an exhortation for the people who escaped that destruction: “15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.” The Tyrians had remained the subjects of the prophet’s discourse throughout both chapters, and those Tyrians who were described as having departed on the ships of Tarshish in chapter 23 (23:6 ff.) were indeed among the Israelites in the “isles of the sea” mentioned in chapter 24 (24:15). Later in this next chapter of Isaiah, chapter 25, Isaiah shall explain in further detail just why the destruction of one’s home city should bring one to glorify God, and that is the wonder of seeing.

The so-called “golden age” of Phoenicia is generally dated from about 1200 to 332 BC. This is from the middle of the period of the Judges to the time when Alexander of Macedon had conquered the island city of Tyre. While our assertion that the Phoenicians of this period were of Israel is absolutely contrary to the general narrative found among mainstream academic historians and theologians, in spite of their narrative, it is absolutely agreeable to all of the testimony in Scripture, both in the historical books and in the writings of the prophets. Here in Isaiah, our assertion concerning the identity of the ancient Phoenicians as Israel is incontrovertibly supported, and the views of the academics are refuted. Isaiah was a prophet of Yahweh, elucidating the Word of God for the children of Israel in his own time, and not only recording them for posterity but also announcing his prophecies as he himself had traveled throughout the land, and he was not simply fabricating lies in order to be fashionable. As we had seen in the early chapters of Isaiah, the prophet was a man of renown in Judah, who had access to kings and to the priests and other officers of the temple, and he even had them do his bidding when it was necessary, something which is fully revealed in the circumstances of the conception and birth of his son, Mahershalalhashbaz. The prophet Isaiah was an eye-witness to the glory of the Tyrians, and here he identified them as Israel, and that is also the wonder of seeing.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 22: The Justice in Judgment

With our last presentation here, The Burden of Tyre, concluding Isaiah chapter 23 the prophet seems to have finally come to the end of his long list of burdens concerning certain of the people of the ancient world of Israel. So, as we hope to have explained, the burdens of Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, the Desert of the Sea, Dumah – which much more likely should have been Edom, the burden of Arabia and the burden of Jerusalem in the Valley of Vision, and finally, the burden of Tyre, had all actually been directed at Israelites who had been in the process of being taken into captivity, or in the process of trying to avoid captivity. So even where statements are made concerning Babylonians, Egyptians or Arabians, they were made for the sake of the children of Israel, and not for the sake of those others. The entire Bible was written for the sake of the children of Israel, and the others are of no consequence unless Yahweh uses them to punish Israel. So each of the burdens were ominous warnings for Israel, but Israel was also granted some degree of hope or mercy throughout.

As we closed Isaiah chapter 23, concerning the Tyrians the promise of mercy was quite subtle, where, speaking of the merchandise of ancient Tyre, the Word of Yahweh declared that it would be “for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.” This message of hope for the Israelites of Tyre, those of the Tyrians who dwell before Yahweh, evokes the words of Christ in Luke chapter 12 where He told His disciples, in part: “27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.” Having food and raiment is enough of a blessing, and it is also probably better than one may expect in a time of judgment. The word for durable is עתיק or athiq (# 6266) and Strong’s defined it as “probably antique, i.e. venerable or splendid” so it is evident that Yahweh would even clothe them well. Likewise, He would also feed them well, as the word for sufficiently is שׂבעה or sobah (# 7654) which is defined as satiety, so that they would be satisfied with their victuals. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 21: The Burden of Tyre 

Since Isaiah chapter 13 and the burden of Babylon, the prophet has announced an entire series of burdens against what may be considered to have been the world of ancient Israel at this time in history, with the death of Ahaz and the first few years after Hezekiah had become king of Judah. In the course of these burdens, there is no mercy for Babylon, nor for the king of Babylon. But there is mercy for the Israel in the burdens of Moab and Damascus. There was also mercy for the Israelites of the “land shadowing with wings”, which are evidently those of the Assyrian deportations who were portrayed as making a future supplication to God. Then there were expressions of hope and mercy for the people of Judah who would flee into Egypt, although they would suffer for having done so, and plausibly also for those who would flee into Arabia. However in the course of those burdens, there was no hope or mercy extended to the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Edomites or Arabians. Then finally, in the Valley of Vision, which was an oracle against Jerusalem, there were continued expressions of hope for the people of Judah in the face of an ominous condemnation, even if that hope is expressed enigmatically in the promise of the Key of David. Now we come to the final burden of the series, and it is the burden of Tyre, and even though Tyre itself is condemned, as Jerusalem had been, there are still messages of hope and mercy for at least a portion of its people, as we shall see here in our discussion of Isaiah chapter 23.

So now, discussing the Burden of Tyre, we must first make an insistence, that the Phoenicians of the Judges and Kingdom periods of ancient Israel certainly had been Israelites, at least for the most part, in spite of the general insistence of modern Jewry that they had been Canaanites. So on most Bible maps which are published today, a land labeled as Phoenicia is demarcated in a manner where it appears to have been separate from the land of the tribes of Israel. But that is not true, and every Bible map which has done so has perpetuated a lie which is contrary to the actual text of Scripture. The evidence of this is seen as early as Judges chapter 5, where in the Song of Deborah the prophetess had lamented that “17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.”