Isaiah 23:10
in Isaiah 23Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Pass through thy land as the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.
KJV
Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
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This verse in Isaiah 23
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 10) Go through your land like a river, O daughter of the sea; you have no more restraint. Just as a river, or as the Hebrew more significantly has it, a stream, for this is called Jabbok, is easily crossed on foot, so you, O daughter of the sea, whether because you are an island or because it is written about you: 'The sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, I have not travailed, nor given birth.'
This site's exposition
Pass through thy land as a river
on Isaiah 23:10-14
The middle unit names the instrument: behold the land of the Chaldeans, a people that was not until the Assyrian founded it, raised to ruin others and brought to ruin itself, which the commentators track through Babylon's own later fall. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the God of Israel commands the element Tyre thought she owned. The unit closes the frame it opened, howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste, the oracle's first line returned as its refrain.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vers. 10, 11.) Work your land: for the ships do not come from Carthage at all, and your hand does not prevail, which provokes the kings in the sea. There is much disagreement among other interpreters, and the Septuagint edition diverges from the Hebrew itself in this place, but let us continue with the proposed argument. Above, he had said: Go to Carthage, howl you who dwell on the island. Now he speaks the opposite, because the ships no longer come from Carthage, work your land. For it is beneficial for Tyre that foreign ships perish, so that its people are forced to work their own land. As it is said in Proverbs: 'Whoever works his own land will have plenty of bread' (Prov. 21:11), so that he may live off the produce of his work without the uncertainty of shipwrecks and the danger of drowning, but instead with the fruits of his labor. Concerning this, it is sung in the Psalms to the righteous: 'You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands' (Ps. 128:2). It is written in Hosea that the ways of a prostitute are hedged with thorns by the Lord, so that she cannot pursue her lovers, and thus, compelled by this necessity, she may return to her original husband. And as we frequently observe in the affairs of the world, many who could not perceive the Lord through prosperity and the abundance of all things, came to understand through poverty, and turned to the works of justice, after the happiness of this world failed to prevail over the work of their hands, which formerly provoked kings in the sea, or disturbed them, as Symmachus puts it; whose heart is in the hand of God. And would that we too, despising the commerce of this sea, cultivate our own land, and not wait for the ships of Carthage, or the ships of Tyre, which used to go to Carthage, lest we be subjected to the power of the dragon who rules over the sea! […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
Pass your land. Here he exhorts them to flee quickly. And first, he sets out the exhortation: pass your land as a river, which is crossed quickly by boat: furnish yourself to go into exile, you daughter inhabitant of Egypt (Jer 46:19). Second, he assigns …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
), running down, one company after another, into the ocean or abyss of misery. Or, though they hasten away as a river, with the greatest swiftness, hoping to outrun the danger, yet there is no more strength; they are quickly tired, and cannot get forward, but fall an easy prey into the hands of the enemy.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
As a river - Swiftly, lest you be prevented. Tarshish - O Tyre, which might well be called daughter of Tarshish, that is, of the sea, as that word is used, ver. 1, and elsewhere, because it was an island, and therefore as it were, born of the sea, and nourished and brought up by it.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-1-anchored-10-10
Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish,.... Or, "of the sea", as the Vulgate Latin; meaning Tyre, which was situated in the sea, and did, as it were, spring from it, and was fortified by it, and supported by ships of merchandise on it, from various places; but now, being about to be destroyed, the inhabitants of it are called upon to pass through it, and get out of it as fast as they could, even as swiftly as a river runs, and in great abundance or multitudes.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
O daughter of Tarshish - Tyre is called the daughter of Tarshish; perhaps because, Tyre being ruined, Tarshish was become the superior city, and might be considered as the metropolis of the Tyrian people; or rather because of the close connection and perpetual intercourse between them, according to that latitude of signification in which the Hebrews use the words son and daughter to express any sort of conjunction and dependence whatever. מזח mezach, a girdle, which collects, binds, and keeps together the loose raiment, when applied to a river, may mean a mound, mole, or artificial dam, which contains the waters and prevents them from spreading abroad.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Rather, Tarshish, or Tartessus and its inhabitants, as the phrase usually means: they had been kept in hard bondage, working in silver and lead mines near Tarshish, by the parent city (Eze 26:17): but now "the bond of restraint" (for so "strength," Margin, "girdle," that is, bond, Ps 2:3, ought to be translated) is removed, since Tyre is no more.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Pass through thy land as a river - This verse has been very variously understood. Vitringa supposes that it means that all that held the city together - its fortifications, walls, etc., would be laid waste, and that as a river flows on without obstruction, so the inhabitants would be scattered far and near. Everything, says he, would be leveled, and the field would not be distinguishable from the city. Grotius thus renders it: ‘Pass to some one of thy colonies; as a river flows from the fountain to the sea, so do you go to the ocean.’ Lowth understands it also as relating to the time of the destruction of Tyre, and to the escape which the inhabitants would then make. ‘Overflow thy land like a river, O daughter of Tarshish; the mound (that kept in thy waters) Is no more.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘Cultivate (Ἐργάζον Ergazon) thy land, for the ships shall no more come from Carthage’ (Καρχηδόνος Karchēdonos) Probably the true meaning is that which refers it to the time of the siege, and to the fact that the inhabitants would seek other places when their defense was destroyed. That is, ‘Pass through thy territories, thy dependent cities, states, colonies, and seek a refuge there; or wander there like a flowing stream.’ As a river - Perhaps the allusion is to the Nile, as the word יאר ye'or is usually given to the Nile; or it may be to any river that flows on with a mighty current when all obstructions are removed. The idea is, that as waters flow on when the barriers are removed, so the inhabitants of Tyre would pour forth from their city. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Remove from thy land, as the waters of a river; flee to a province of the sea: there is no more strength.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עִבְרִ֥י | ʾivri | pass over | H5674 → | 556 times |
| אַרְצֵ֖ךְ | ʾartzekh | land your | H776 → | 2504 times |
| כַּיְאֹ֑ר | kayor | like the River | H2975 → | 65 times |
| בַּת־ | bat- | O daughter of | H1323 → | 588 times |
| תַּרְשִׁ֕ישׁ | tarshish | Tarshish | H8659 → | 28 times |
| אֵ֖ין | ʾein | there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| מֵ֥זַח | mezach | [is] a restraint | H4206 → | |
| עֽוֹד׃ | od | still | H5750 → | 490 times |
עִבְרִ֥יpass over
ʾivriH5674 →556 times
אַרְצֵ֖ךְland your
ʾartzekhH776 →2504 times
כַּיְאֹ֑רlike the River
kayorH2975 →65 times
בַּת־O daughter of
bat-H1323 →588 times
תַּרְשִׁ֕ישׁTarshish
tarshishH8659 →28 times
אֵ֖יןthere not
ʾeinH369 →789 times
מֵ֥זַח[is] a restraint
mezachH4206 →
עֽוֹד׃still
odH5750 →490 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 18:32It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way clear.
it leads to
- Isaiah 45:5
I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,
- 2 Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
- 2 Samuel 22:33
God is my strong fortress and He makes my way clear.
- Psalms 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.
- Psalms 91:2
I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
- Isaiah 45:5
Through
Haggai 2:22I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and their riders; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his…
it leads to
- Micah 5:10
“In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will remove your horses from among you and wreck your chariots.
- Judges 7:22
And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the…
- Micah 5:10
Through
Job 12:21He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
it leads to
- Psalms 107:40
He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- Psalms 107:40
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.