Commentaria in Isaiam
15. Thou shalt be forgotten, O Tyre! for seventy years.—For seventy years thou shalt remain laid waste and desolate; then thou shalt be rebuilt, as is plain from 2 Esdras 13:16, and from the fact that Alexander the Great afterwards stormed Tyre again. By whom and how Tyre was restored neither sacred nor profane history relates: for long after the destruction of Jerusalem Tyre was destroyed, and therefore the Tyrians did not return from Babylon with the Jews, but long after, as I shall show on Ezechiel 29:17.
You will say: in Ezechiel 26:14 it is said to Tyre: “Thou shalt be built no more.” Leo de Castro replies that this is true because after 70 years not the same Tyre, but another, was built in another place: hence the former is called Palaetyrus, that is, Old Tyre. But that both Tyre and Palaetyrus existed before Nabuchodonosor, under Salmanasar, Josephus teaches, Antiquities, book 9, chapter 15.
Secondly, others reply: “Thou shalt be built no more,” that is, in such and so great glory as thou hadst before, to rule, namely, because thou shalt be subject and shalt perish under the Chaldeans, Greeks and Romans. So St. Jerome on Ezechiel 26, Emmanuel Sa and others.
Thirdly, and most easily, “no more” means for a long time, namely for 70 years: thou shalt not be built.
As the days of one king,—as long as a man is wont to live, especially one who lives joyfully and liberally, as a king does, that is, 70 years; for this is the age and life of man, Psalm 89:10. He alludes to the most famous king David, who lived 70 years.
After seventy years there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.—Tyre, by show, display and crying of her wares, will allure merchants to herself, as a harlot allures lovers with a seductive song.
Note: Isaias calls the merchandise of Tyre harlotry; on the contrary, St. John, Apocalypse 18:3, calls the harlotry, that is, the idolatry of Babylon, that is, of Rome as it will be at the end of the world, pagan again, merchandise. For thus he says: “And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; and the merchants of the earth have been made rich by the power (that is, by the abundance: for this the Hebrew chel signifies, to which answers the Greek dynamis, and the Latin virtus or potentia) of her delicacies.” Where he calls Rome first a fornicatress or harlot, secondly a merchant, who enriches her merchants, thirdly, a tavern-keeper, who with her delights and wine intoxicates all. The reason is that the Hebrew zonah signifies a woman who keeps an inn, who prostitutes house and food or herself or her goods, and who conducts business, keeps an inn, gives banquets, plays the wanton; or who earns either by prepared meals as an innkeeper, or by wares set out as a merchant, or by prostitution of the body as a harlot, who is by antonomasia called meretrix; though the name is common to all the aforesaid: for meretrix is the same as a woman who makes gain, a seller, a merchant; so also the Greek pornē signifies both harlot and seller: for it descends from pernēmi, that is, I sell. So then Babylon, Apocalypse 17 and 18, is brought in as innkeeper, harlot and merchant. For this reason also the merchandise of Tyre is here called by Isaias harlotry, namely because of the Hebrew zonah, which is general and common, and because of the common analogy of both: for both the harlot and the merchant earn, and set out and sell their wares. Again, because not seldom then, as even now sometimes happens, the same women were innkeepers, harlots and merchants; whence the laws presume that a woman who serves in an inn or tavern is not honest. Hence also Plato, Laws, book 4, teaches that maritime and mercantile cities, such as Tyre was, are ill-mannered; because from wealth and the confluence of men they pass into luxury and vices. As therefore Cicero, On Duties, book 1, says: “Hostis was formerly the name of a stranger or guest; but the manners of strangers and guests brought it about that now hostis is taken for enemy”: so also it seems to have happened in the name of innkeeper and harlot. Tyre therefore is called zonah because she was wholly intent on gain, and as the common emporium of the whole world, so also was she a lodging-house. Wherefore she could be called the “hostess of the world,” a tavern-keeper or shopkeeper, to whom guests as well as merchants bring great gain. So Sanchez.
Leo Castrius adds that those flattering allurements of merchants, and the praises with which they commend and extend their wares, can be called the song of a harlot. And Forerius: “You see,” he says, “that merchandise is compared to harlotry; for there is the greatest likeness between the concupiscence of the flesh and that of riches.” And Isidorus Clarius: The display of wealth and wares, he says, is called song and harp; but the trade is called fornication.
16. Take a harp,—as if to say: As a harlot uses harps, songs and all enticements to allure youths, so Tyre will use every allurement and invitation, that wares and merchants may flock to her.
17. She shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms.—That is, she shall make commerce and trade with all nations, and receive them in hospitality: for this is the Hebrew zanah and zonah, of which I have already spoken.
18. And her merchandise, and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord.—First, Sanchez: “Sanctified,” he says, that is, polluted and execrable to the Lord; for they are the hire of a harlot, of which it is ordained, Deuteronomy 23:18: “Thou shalt not offer the hire of a harlot, etc., because it is an abomination.” Hence follows, “they shall not be kept,” that is, these offerings of the harlot shall not be accepted so as to be laid up in the temple. So “to sanctify” is taken by antiphrasis for “to pollute,” Deuteronomy 22:9, and elsewhere.
Secondly, the same Sanchez takes this properly, and thinks that the discourse is of the Machabees, by whom the Tyrians were overcome, and the prey taken and dedicated to God, as Josephus tells, Antiquities, book 12, chapter 12; and in 1 Machabees 11:59 Jonathan is said to have commanded from the borders of Tyre to the boundary of Egypt. Hence the Septuagint render: His merchandise and hire shall be holy to the Lord: it shall not be gathered for them, but all his merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat and drink and be filled for a memorial, a remembrance before the Lord; as if to say: This the Tyrians aim at by their merchandise, that they may have something to feed on; but God thinks otherwise, namely that they being despoiled, others may enjoy their wealth and delights.
Thirdly, St. Jerome thinks that after the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple the Tyrians made a treaty with the Jews, and often sent gifts for the cost of the temple, and this is gathered from 1 Paralipomenon 22:4, and Zacharias 14:16.
Fourthly and most perfectly, these things were done in the time of Christ, says St. Jerome; for to him, as deliverer and consoler, the Prophet flies from the sad disaster, as is his way, as if to say: The Tyrians shall be converted to Christ and Christians, and then they shall consecrate their wealth to the Lord, nor avariciously hoard it, but her merchandise, that is, her gain, shall go to the temple of God and its ministers, and to the poor, “that they may eat to fulness (that is, even to satiety), and be clothed even to old age,” that is, with good and strong garments, to last for many years even to old age. Vatablus renders, for the covering of the aged, that is, that they may be clothed with honest and becoming raiment, such as befits old men and elders. This is what the Psalmist foretold, Psalm 44: “The daughters of Tyre with gifts shall worship thy countenance,” etc. For Christ sojourned in the borders of Tyre preaching and working miracles, and there healed the daughter of the Chanaanite woman, Matthew 15:21; and three hundred years after Christ Christianity greatly flourished in Tyre for six hundred years: then Tyre was occupied by the Saracens, and again by the Christians, namely by the Venetians and the people of Jerusalem, under Guaremundus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the Holy War, in the year of the Lord 1124, was stormed and recovered, and for 105 years shone in the faith: until in the year 1289, taken by the Saracens and Egyptians, at last it came into the power of the Turks. So from William of Tyre, Adrichomius and others.
You will say: These are the gains of a harlot; therefore they are to be abominated by God.
I answer, they are the gains of a harlot, that is, of a merchant, as I said. Secondly, they are the gains of a harlot, that is, of one who was formerly a harlot, that is, an idolater: but now through Christ she is made chaste and a virgin, in the faith and worship of the true God, of whom the Apostle says: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ”; whence her offering, once unwelcome, is now welcome to God.