Yesaya 23:4

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ¹  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ² 

Yesaya 23:7

23:7 Is this really your boisterous city ³ 

whose origins are in the distant past, ⁴ 

and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

[23:4]  ¹ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

[23:4]  ² tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:4]  sn The sea is personified here as a lamenting childless woman. The foreboding language anticipates the following announcement of Tyre’s demise, viewed here as a child of the sea, as it were.

[23:7]  ³ tn Heb “Is this to you, boisterous one?” The pronoun “you” is masculine plural, like the imperatives in v. 6, so it is likely addressed to the Egyptians and residents of the coast. “Boisterous one” is a feminine singular form, probably referring to the personified city of Tyre.

[23:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the days of antiquity [is] her beginning.”