Isaiah 23:6,7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Pass ye over to Tarshish— The prophet now turns his discourse to Tyre itself; and commands or exhorts such of the inhabitants, not of insular Tyre only, but of the whole maritime coast subject to the dominion of Tyre, as should remain from this overthrow, to go to Tartessus or Gades, that there they might deplore the fate of their city, and mutually lament its destruction with those who would feel their grief, as deriving their original from the same city. Whenever the prophets denounce the downfal of a city or kingdom, they usually describe, by way of contrast, its present flourishing condition, to shew, in a stronger point of view, how Providence shifteth the scene, and ordereth all events. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel observe the same method with regard to Tyre. Isaiah speaks of it here as a place of great antiquity: Is this your triumphant city, whose antiquity is of the earliest date? and it is mentioned as a strong place as early as in the days of Joshua: Joshua 19:29. Strabo mentions it as, next to Sidon, the greatest and most ancient city of the Phoenicians. Quintus Curtius says, it is a city remarkable to posterity, both for the antiquity of its origin, and for its frequent change of fortune. The ironical expression of the prophet, Is this your triumphant city, &c.? implies that the Tyrians were apt to boast of their antiquity; and from Herodotus's account it appears that they did so. Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician historian, who is reckoned to have lived about the time of Gideon, has mentioned in his Fragments that part of Tyre which stood upon the continent. Vitringa renders the last clause of the seventh verse, Whose feet have carried her afar off to sojourn; which he thinks to be strongly descriptive, not only of the Tyrian navigations into distant countries, but also of the variety of colonies which they were so remarkable for planting.