Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 106
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
23:6-16
Send word now to Tarshish!
Wail, you people who live in distant lands!
Is this silent ruin all that is left of your once joyous city?
What a long history was yours!
Think of all the colonists you sent to distant places.
Who has brought this disaster on Tyre,
that great creator of kingdoms?
Her traders were all princes,
her merchants were nobles.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has done it
to destroy your pride
and bring low all earth’s nobility.
Come, people of Tarshish,
sweep over the land like the flooding Nile,
for Tyre is defenseless.
The Lord held out his hand over the sea
and shook the kingdoms of the earth.
He has spoken out against Phoenicia,
ordering that her fortresses be destroyed.
He says, “Never again will you rejoice,
O daughter of Sidon, for you have been
crushed.
Even if you flee to Cyprus,
you will find no rest.”
Look at the land of Babylonia—
the people of that land are gone!
The Assyrians have handed Babylon over
to the wild animals of the desert.
They have built siege ramps against its walls,
torn down its palaces,
and turned it to a heap of rubble.
Wail, you ships of Tarshish,
for your harbor is destroyed!
For seventy years, the length of a king’s life, Tyre will be forgotten. But
then the city will come back to life as in the song about the prostitute:
Take a harp and walk the streets,
you forgotten harlot.
Make sweet melody and sing your songs
so you will be remembered again.
