Isaiah 23:4

“Be thou ashamed, O Zidon, &c.] A city near to Tyre, about twenty five miles from it; Jarchi says it was within a day’s walk of it; these two cities, as they were near to each other, so they were closely allied together, and traded much with one another, so that the fall of Tyre must be distressing and confounding to Zidon; and besides, Tyre was a colony of the Zidonians, and therefore, (<232312>Isaiah 23:12), is called the daughter of Zidon, and could not but be affected with its ruin, and the more, as it might fear the same would soon be its case: for the sea hath spoken; which washed the city of Tyre; or those that sailed in it; or rather Tyre itself, so called because its situation was by…”

“Zidon--called on, as being the parent country of Tyre (Isa 23:12), and here equivalent to PhÅ“nicia in general, to feel the shame (as it was esteemed in the East) of being now as childless as if she never had any. "I (no more now) travail, nor bring forth," &c. "Strength of the sea," that is, stronghold, namely, New Tyre, on a rock (as "Tyre" means) surrounded by the sea (Eze 26:4, Eze 26:14-17; so Venice was called "Bride of the sea"; Zac 9:3).”

“Be thou ashamed, O Zidon - Tyre was a colony of Sidon. Sidon is here addressed as the mother of Tyre, and is called on to lament over her daughter that was destroyed. In Isaiah 23:12, Tyre is called the ‘daughter of Sidon;’ and such appellations were commonly given to cities (see the note at Isaiah 1:8). Sidon is here represented as ashamed, or grieved - as a mother is who is bereft of all her children. The sea hath spoken - New Tyre was on a rock at some distance from the land, and seemed to rise out of the sea, somewhat as Venice does It is described here as a production of the sea, and the sea is represented as speaking by her. Even the strength of the sea - The fortress, or strong place…”

“Zidon - Zidon was a great city near Tyre, strongly united to her by commerce and league, and called by some the mother of Tyre, which they say, was built and first inhabited by a colony of the Sidonians. The sea - That part of the sea in which Tyre was, and from which ships and men were sent into all countries. The strength - Tyre might be called the strength of the sea, because it defendeth that part of the sea from piracies and injuries. I travel not - I, who was so fruitful, that I sent forth colonies into other countries (of which Carthage was one), am now barren and desolate. Isaiah 23:5”

“23:4 Part of the great port city of Tyre was on an island. The island city was a fortress of the sea, but it fell in 332 BC. • I am childless; I have no sons or daughters: This metaphor was a judgment on Tyre’s colonial ports around the Mediterranean Sea. In the ancient world, to reach old age without having children was considered a terrible fate (see 49:21; 54:1).”

“I travail: Jer 47:3, Jer 47:4; Eze 26:3-6; Hos 9:11-14; Rev 18:23 Isaiah 23:5”

“The address to the whole of the coast-land now passes into an address to the ancestral city. Isa 23:4 "Shudder, O Sidon; for the sea speaketh, the fortress of the sea, thus: I have not travailed, nor given birth, nor trained up young men, brought up maidens." The sea, or more closely considered, the fortress of the sea, i.e., the rock-island on which Neo-tyrus stood with its strong and lofty houses, lifts up its voice in lamentation. Sidon, the ancestress of Canaan, must hear with overwhelming shame how Tyre mourns the loss of her daughters, and complains that, robbed as she has been of her children, she is like a barren women. For the war to have murdered her young men and maidens, was…”