Bible Strands
Isaiah 23:15
At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces judgment against the maritime merchant city of Tyre, marking a specific period of national obscurity following the destruction of its harbor.
The words — The Hebrew נִשְׁכַּחַת (nishkaḥat) means actively forgotten, and שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה (shiv‘im shānâ) literally fixes the duration at seventy years.
The thread — This oracle against Tyre parallels the broader warning to coastal kings in Jeremiah 25:22 and the historical fulfillment involving Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 25:9.
Why it lands — The text states that Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years and then restored to commercial activity, requiring readers to acknowledge that human empires rise and fall according to a fixed divine schedule rather than their own permanence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 25:22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 27:3 Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
- Jeremiah 29:10 For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- Ezekiel 27:25 The ships of Tarshish carried your merchandise. And you were filled with heavy cargo in the heart of the sea.
- Ezekiel 29:11 No foot of man or beast will pass through, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.
- Daniel 7:14 And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
- Daniel 8:21 The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king.
- Hosea 2:15 There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
- Revelation 17:10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. But when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.