Discovery BoxIsaiah 23:1 
Context23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:
Wail, you large ships, 1
for the port is too devastated to enter! 2
From the land of Cyprus 3 this news is announced to them.
Isaiah 33:21
Context33:21 Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. 4
Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; 5
no war galley will enter; 6
no large ships will sail through. 7
1 tn Heb “ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.
2 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for it is destroyed, from a house, from entering.” The translation assumes that the mem (מ) on בַּיִת (bayit) was originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. This assumption allows one to take בַּיִת as the subject of the preceding verb. It is used in a metaphorical sense for the port city of Tyre. The preposition min (מִן) prefixed to בּוֹא (bo’) indicates negative consequence: “so that no one can enter.” See BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b.
3 tn Heb “the Kittim,” a designation for the people of Cyprus. See HALOT 504-05 s.v. כִּתִּיִּים.
4 tn Heb “But there [as] a mighty one [will be] the Lord for us.”
5 tn Heb “a place of rivers, streams wide of hands [i.e., on both sides].”
6 tn Heb “a ship of rowing will not go into it.”
7 tn Heb “and a mighty ship will not pass through it.”
