Isaiah 23 — Dead Sea Scrolls
18 verses • 6 variants • Columns XVIII–XIX of 1QIsaiah-a
Scroll Overview
Summary
Chapter 23 concludes the Oracles against the Nations with a prophecy against Tyre, the great Phoenician trading city. The 18 verses contain mostly orthographic variants in place names and maritime terminology.
Notable Variants
Verse 13 has a moderate variant involving the reference to the Chaldeans. Verse 17 has the striking metaphor of Tyre playing the harlot preserved identically in both traditions.
Scroll Condition
Well preserved; fully legible.
The burden of Tyre: Wail, O Ships of Tarshish, for it is destroyed — no house, no harbor! From the land of Cyprus the news was revealed to them.
Masoretic (WLC)
תַּרְשִׁישׁ
Tarshish
Dead Sea Scroll
תרשיש
Tarshish
Identical consonantal text. The ships of Tarshish wail because Tyre is destroyed. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 13
Be silent, O inhabitants of the coastland, you whom the merchants of Sidon, crossing the sea, once filled with goods.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 14
Over the great waters came the grain of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile — her revenue. She was the marketplace of nations.
Masoretic (WLC)
שִׁחוֹר
Shihor
Dead Sea Scroll
שיחור
Shihor
1QIsaiah-a writes שיחור with a yod mater lectionis. Shihor is a branch of the Nile — Tyre's grain came via Egyptian trade routes. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 15
Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken — the fortress of the sea: "I have not labored in birth, I have not given birth, I have not raised young men or brought up young women."
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 16
When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in anguish at the news of Tyre.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 17
Cross over to Tarshish! Wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 18
Is this your jubilant city whose origin is from ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to settle?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 19
Who planned this against Tyre, the crown-bestowing city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honored of the earth?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 20
The LORD of Hosts has planned it — to defile the pride of all splendor, to bring low all the honored of the earth.
Masoretic (WLC)
צְבָאוֹת
hosts/armies
Dead Sea Scroll
צבאות
hosts/armies
Identical consonantal text. 'The LORD of hosts has purposed it' — the divine council behind Tyre's fall. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 21
Overflow your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish — there is no restraint anymore.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 22
He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms. The LORD has given a command against Canaan to destroy her fortresses.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 23
He said: "You will rejoice no more, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Rise, cross over to Cyprus — but even there you will find no rest."
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XVIII, line 24
Look at the land of the Chaldeans — this people that was nothing! Assyria assigned it to desert creatures. They raised their siege towers, stripped bare her palaces, and made her a ruin.
Masoretic (WLC)
כַּשְׂדִּים
Chaldeans
Dead Sea Scroll
כשדים
Chaldeans
1QIsaiah-a reads כשדים identically. This verse is textually difficult: 'Behold the land of the Chaldeans — this people that did not exist — Assyria founded it for wild beasts.' The historical reference may point to Babylon's rise under Assyrian sponsorship. The DSS text preserves the same difficult reading, suggesting the obscurity is original rather than a later corruption.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 1
Wail, O Ships of Tarshish, for your fortress is destroyed!
Masoretic (WLC)
מָעֻזְּכֶן
your stronghold
Dead Sea Scroll
מעוזכן
your stronghold
1QIsaiah-a writes מעוזכן with plene spelling. The lament for Tyre's destroyed stronghold is preserved identically. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 2
On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years — the span of one king's life. At the end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre as in the song of the prostitute.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 3
"Take up the harp, walk through the city, O forgotten prostitute! Play sweetly, sing many songs, so that you may be remembered."
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 4
At the end of seventy years the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages. She will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the ground.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 5
But her profits and her wages will be holy to the LORD. They will not be stored up or hoarded, for her profits will go to those who dwell before the LORD — to eat their fill and to be clothed in fine garments.
Masoretic (WLC)
סַחְרָהּ
her trade/profit
Dead Sea Scroll
סחרה
her trade/profit
1QIsaiah-a writes סחרה without the mappiq he. The remarkable conclusion — that Tyre's trade will eventually be 'holy to the LORD' — is preserved identically. This universalist vision, where even pagan commerce is consecrated, matches the Egypt oracle's inclusive theology in ch. 19.
1QIsaᵃ col. XIX, line 6