13 Look at what happened to Babylon: There’s nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble.

14 Wail, ships of Tarshish,
    your strong seaports all in ruins!

* * *

15-16 For the next seventy years, a king’s lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song:

“Take a harp, circle the city,
    unremembered whore.
Sing your old songs, your many old songs.
    Maybe someone will remember.”

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13 Look at the land of the Babylonians,[a](A)
    this people that is now of no account!
The Assyrians(B) have made it
    a place for desert creatures;(C)
they raised up their siege towers,(D)
    they stripped its fortresses bare
    and turned it into a ruin.(E)

14 Wail, you ships(F) of Tarshish;(G)
    your fortress is destroyed!(H)

15 At that time Tyre(I) will be forgotten for seventy years,(J) the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 23:13 Or Chaldeans