The Hebrew Prophets

By the great water the grain of Shichor, the harvest of the Nile, brought you profits. She was marketplace for the nations.

Shame, Tzidon, for the sea speaks; the fortress of the sea says, "I no longer have labor pains or bear children, yet I have raised neither boys nor girls.

When the report reaches Egypt, they will be in anguish at the fate of Tzor.

Cross over to Tarshish! Howl, you who live on the coast!

Is this your boisterous city, whose feet long ago in antiquity carried her off to found distant colonies?

Who planned this against Tzor, the city that once bestowed crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are honored throughout the earth?

ADONAI-Tzva'ot planned it to break the pride of all the arrogant, to humiliate all those who are honored everywhere on earth.

People of Tarshish! Nothing restricts you now. You can flow freely over your land just like the Nile River.

He has stretched out his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms; ADONAI has ordered that Kena'an's fortresses be destroyed.

He has said, "Exult no more, oppressed virgin daughter of Tzidon. Arise, cross to Kittim; even there you will find no rest."

Look at the land of the Kasdim! This was the people who did not exist when Ashur destined it for desert creatures. They erected their siege towers and tore down her palaces, so that it has been made a ruin.

Howl, you "Tarshish" ships, because your fortress is destroyed

When that day comes, Tzor will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of a king. After seventy years, its fate will be the same as that of the prostitute in this song:

"Take a lyre, walk the city, you poor, forgotten whore! Play sweetly, sing all your songs, so that they will remember you!"

After seventy years are over ADONAI will remember Tzor. She will receive her wages again and prostitute herself to all the world's kingdoms on the face of the earth.

But her merchandise and profits will be dedicated to ADONAI; they will not be stored up or hoarded, because her profits will be for those living in ADONAI's presence, so that they can eat their fill and wear fine clothing.

Look! ADONAI is stripping and destroying the land, turning it upside down and scattering its inhabitants

cohen and commoner, slave and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

The land will be completely stripped, completely plundered, for ADONAI has spoken this word.

The land fades and withers, the world wilts and withers, the exalted of the land languish.

The land lies defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the teachings, changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore a curse is devouring the land, and its inhabitants are punished for their guilt. It is why those living there waste away, and the people left are few.

The new wine fails, the vines wilt, all the revelers sigh,

the happy sound of tambourines ceases, the shouts of merrymakers are stilled, the joy of the lyre ends.

They no longer sing as they drink their wine, strong liquor tastes bitter to those drinking it.