Isaiah 23:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By stating that they were descendants of merchants, he indicated their humble beginnings, revealing that they came from a corrupt source, and that even their most ancient forebears were inclined toward greed. He emphasized that the number of those living such disreputable lives alongside them surpassed their own. He illustrates this by likening the Gentile merchants to those who gather the harvest. Just as when the grain is cut in the fields, numerous sheaves are collected from various places and taken to the threshing floor.

The traders from Sidon, the mariners who populated your activity, who drew from various waters the bounty of trade, enriching you with the fruits of the river. Those engaged in seafaring commerce, as though they were sowing their seed into the ocean, expect to reap from it the gains and profits; however, their acquisitions will ultimately become plunder for other peoples. The reference to the river pertains to the Nile in Egypt, and the harvest of the river signifies the terrestrial produce that nations benefit from due to the Nile's inundation.

Those who traverse the seas have enriched you, on the waters of many, the harvest of the Nile and the fruit of the river. The affinity of Tyre for trade and its status as a global marketplace is evident in contemporary times, as Ezekiel elaborates in his detailed accounts. It is undeniable that merchants ferrying goods across the waters play a significant role; the city’s wealth is not solely derived from the limited territories of its province, which are primarily in Galilee and Damascus, but significantly from maritime imports. The agricultural bounty of the Nile and Egypt flows into the vicinity of Tyre.