Isaiah 23:15 - Exposition

Tyro shall be forgotten ; i.e. "shall cease to occupy men's thoughts, as a factor in politics—shall pass out of their calculations, and count for nothing." Seventy years . "Forty years" and "seventy years" are the chief representatives in Scripture of an indefinite time. The week of creation seems to have given to seven its quasi-sacred character, which passed from the primary number to the corresponding decimal one. The sacred use of "seventy" appears first in the "seventy elders" who accompanied Moses to the covenant-feast on Sinai ( Exodus 24:9 ). After this, "seventy 'talents are mentioned as the weight of the bronze offerings for the tabernacle ( Exodus 38:29 ), and "seventy" shekels as the weight of the silver bowls offered by the heads of tribes when the tabernacle was set up ( Numbers 7:13-85 ). The "indefinite" us, of "seventy" is most apparent in such expressions as that of Genesis 4:24 , "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, surely Lamech seventy and sevenfold;" and that of Matthew 18:22 , "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." "Seventy" seems also to be indefinite in Exodus 15:27 ; Numbers 33:9 ; 1:7 ; 12:13 ; 2 Samuel 24:15 ; 1 Kings 5:15 : 1 Chronicles 21:14 , etc. It is absurd to count the "seventy years" of the present passage, as some do, from the accession of Nebuchadnezzar to the death of Nabonidus, for neither did Tyro begin to be forgotten in the first year of the one prince, nor did she immediately recover herself on the death of the other. According to the days of one king ; or, like the days of one king . The period, whatever its length, should be to Type "like the days of one king;" i.e. unchanging, without hope. Oriental kings prided themselves on maintaining an unaltered policy (of. 2 Kings 25:27 ; Isaiah 14:17 ). Shall Tyre sing as an harlot ; literally, it shall be to Tyre as [ in ] the song of the harlot . A particular song seems to be meant, part of which the prophet proceeds to quote in the next verse.