1-4. Wail, ships of Tarshish,your strong seaports all in ruins!When the ships returned from Cyprus,they saw the destruction.Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast,merchants of Sidon.Your people sailed the deep seas,buying and selling,Making money on wheat from Shihor,grown along the Nile—multinational broker in grains!Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up,the powerhouse of the ocean says,“I’ve never had labor pains, never had a baby,never reared children to adulthood,Never gave life, never worked with life.It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss.”
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.”