The threatening goes on to ver. 14; it is, in ver. 13, concentrated in the words: "Behold the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not, which Asshur assigns to the beasts of the wilderness,--they set up their watch-towers, they arouse her palaces, they bring them to ruin." The correct explanation of this verse has been given by Delitzsch in his Commentary on Habakkuk, S. xxi. Before the capture of Tyre could be assigned to the Chaldeans, it was necessary to point out that they should overthrow Asshur, the representative of the world's power in the time of the Prophet. The Chaldeans, a people which, up to that time, were not reckoned in the list of the kingdoms of the world, destroy, in some future period, the Assyrian power, and shall then inflict upon Tyre that destruction which Asshur intended in vain to bring upon it.
Upon the threatening there follows the promise. Ver. 15. "And it shall come to pass in that day, and Tyre is forgotten seventy years like the days of one king. After the end of seventy years, it shall be unto Tyre according to the song of the harlot. Ver. 16. Take the harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Ver. 17. And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she returneth to her hire of whoredom, and whoreth with all the kingdoms of the earth upon the surface of the earth. Ver. 18. And her gain and hire of whoredom shall be holy unto the Lord; not is it treasured and laid up, but to those who sit before the Lord its gain shall be, that they may eat and be satisfied, and for durable clothing."
On the "70 years, like the days of one king," Michaelis very pertinently remarks: "Not of one individual, but of one reign or empire, i.e. as long as the Babylonian empire shall last, which, after 70 years, was destroyed by Cyrus." The necessary qualification follows from ver. 13. According to that verse, the one king can be the king of the Chaldeans only. Parallel are the 70 years which, in Jer. xxv. 11, 12, are assigned to the Chaldean empire: "And these nations serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass, when the 70 years are accomplished, I will visit upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, saith the Lord, their iniquity." In the Commentary on Rev. ii. 1, p. 75, 200, it was proved that, in Scripture, kings are frequently ideal persons; not individuals, but personifications of their kingdoms. Gesenius' objection, that the time of the Babylonish dynasty, from the pretended destruction of Tyre to the destruction of Babylon, did not last 70 years, vanishes by the remark that the Prophet says "like the days;" that, hence, it is expressly intimated that the 70 years here, differently from what is the case in Jeremiah, are to be considered as a round designation of the time. From a comparison of Jeremiah we learn that the Chaldean dominion will last 70 years in all. Into which point of that period the destruction of Tyre is to fall, Isaiah does not disclose. It is quite proper that in reference to Tyre the announcement should not be so definite, in point of chronology, as in reference to Judah. That the capture of Tyre by the Chaldeans, which is here announced, really took place, has been more thoroughly established in my book: De rebus Tyriorum; and afterwards by Drechsler in his Commentary on Isaiah, and by Hävernick in his Commentary on Ezekiel.
After the end of the 70 years. Tyre is to resume her trade of whoring, and is to carry it on to a wide extent, and with great success. "By the image of whoredom"--so we remarked in commenting upon Rev. xiv. 8--"in some passages of the Old Testament, that selfishness is designated which clothes itself in the garb of love, and, under its appearance, seeks the gratification of its own desires. In Is. xxiii. 15 ff., Tyre is, on account of her mercantile connections, called a whore, and the profit from trade is designated as the reward of whoredom. The point of comparison is the endeavour to please, to feign love for the sake of gain." Under the dominion of the Persians, Tyre again began to flourish.
Tyre's reward of whoredom is consecrated to the Lord, and the bodily wants of His servants are provided from it,--quite in agreement with the words of the Apostle: εἰ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν τὰ πνευματικὰ ἐσπείραμεν, μέγα, εἰ ἡμεῖς ὑμῶν τὰ σαρκικὰ θερίσομεν; 1 Cor. ix. 11. Converted Tyre offers, in these gifts, its thanks for the noble gift which it received from the sanctuary.
Vitringa, who remarks that the Prophet was fully aware of "the great interval of time that would intervene betwixt the restoration of Tyre, and her dedication of herself, with her gains, to the Lord," is right, while Drechsler, who is of opinion that the doings of consecrated Tyre also are represented under the image of whoring, is wrong. Whoring designates a sinful conversation which is irreconcilable with conversion to the Lord. It does not designate trade, as such, but trade as it is earned on by those who, with unrenewed hearts, serve the god Mammon. We have here before us two stages, strictly separated. First, she resumes her old whorings; then, she consecrates her gain to the Lord. The severe catastrophe intervening, the new capture of Tyre, as it took place by Alexander, is not yet beheld by Isaiah. The announcement of it was reserved for the post-exilic Prophet Zechariah, chap. ix. 3.
The announcement of the future conversion of Tyre received, in the time of Christ, a symbolical representation as it were, in the Canaanitish woman. Vitringa says: "The first fruits of this grace were received by that wise Canaanitish woman, who had been taught, as if she had been in the school of Christ, to ask for divine grace; whom Matth. xv. 22, calls a woman of Canaan, Mark vii. 26, a Syrophenician; but who was no doubt a Tyrian, inasmuch as she obtained mercy from Christ the Lord himself, while He sojourned in the territory of Tyre and Sidon. Paul found at Tyre a congregation of disciples of Christ already in existence, Acts xxi. 3 ff."
At a subsequent period, there existed at Tyre a flourishing and wealthy church. Eusebius and Jerome describe to us, from their own experience, the fulfilment of this prophecy.
[CHAPTERS XXIV.-XXVII.]
Upon the ten single "burdens" as they were called forth by the threatening Assyrian catastrophe, there follows here a comprehensive description of the judgments of God upon His people, and upon the world's power hostile to His Kingdom, The characteristic feature in it is, that the Prophet abstains from all details.