Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.
10. For there is not any longer a girdle. {Bogus footnote} מזח (mēzăch) is translated by some a girdle, and by others strength. Those who translate it girdle, suppose the meaning to be that Tyre will be so completely plundered, that she will not even have a girdle left; and that the allusion is to the vast wealth laid out in merchandise, for the poorest of the merchants sell girdles.
Tyre being a sea-port town, this prophecy of its overthrow fitly begins and ends with, Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for all its business, wealth, and honour, depended upon its shipping; if that be ruined, they will be all undone. Observe, I. Tyre flourishing. This is taken notice of that her fall may appear the more dismal. 1.
Commenting on Isaiah 23:1-14
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...