Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 23 mourns the fall of Tyre, using sea imagery to describe the collapse of a trading power. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan updates the scene by naming the attackers as Kittim, an anachronistic word for Rome.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 23:1
Hebrew Bible
1 This is an oracle about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, for the port is too devastated to enter! From the land of Cyprus this news is announced to them. 2 Lament, you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over 3 the deep waters. Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations.
Jonathan Isaiah 23:1
Targum
1 The burden of the cup of cursing, to give Tyre to drink. Wail, you who embark in ships of the sea, because their harbors are laid waste, so that none can enter in. From the land of Chittim it is coming upon them. 2 The inhabitants of the coastland are destroyed, the merchants who crossed the sea, who used to supply you. 3 She was the abundant marketplace for many nations; the harvest of the increase of the river was her revenue, and she became the marketplace of the nations.
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Notes and References
"... Those of Tyre, “who go down in ships of the sea” (compare Psalm 107:23, and 2:16 in the Apparatus), are the next object of the curse formula (verse 1, compare 13:4; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; 21:11, 13). The military disaster is said to come from the Romans, who are referred to under the well-known cipher of “Kittim” (verses 1, 12). The noun actually refers to Cyprus, but in rabbinic literature it came to denote Rome's threat from the sea ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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