CHAPTER XXIII.

THE BURDEN UPON TYRE.

In the view of Sennacherib's invasion, the eyes of the Prophet are opened, so that he beholds the future destinies of the nations within his horizon. It is under these circumstances that it is revealed to him that Tyre also, which, not long before, had successfully resisted the attack of Asshur, and had imagined herself to be invincible, would not, for any length of time, be able to resist the attack of the Asiatic world's power.

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.

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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.