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Mourn in silence,
you shop owners of Sidon,[a]
    you people on the coast.
Your sailors crossed oceans,
    making your city rich.
Your merchants sailed the seas,
making you wealthy by trading
    with nation after nation.
They brought back grain
    that grew along the Nile.[b]
Sidon, you are a mighty fortress
    built along the sea.
But you will be disgraced
like a married woman
    who never had children.[c]

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Footnotes

  1. 23.2 Sidon: A coastal city just north of Tyre.
  2. 23.3 along the Nile: The Hebrew text has “grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile,” but Shihor is probably a name for a region near the lower part of the Nile.
  3. 23.4 children: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

Be silent,(A) you people of the island
    and you merchants(B) of Sidon,(C)
    whom the seafarers have enriched.
On the great waters
    came the grain of the Shihor;(D)
the harvest of the Nile[a](E) was the revenue of Tyre,(F)
    and she became the marketplace of the nations.

Be ashamed, Sidon,(G) and you fortress of the sea,
    for the sea has spoken:
“I have neither been in labor nor given birth;(H)
    I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 23:3 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls Sidon, / who cross over the sea; / your envoys are on the great waters. / The grain of the Shihor, / the harvest of the Nile,