On the "70 years, like the days of one king," _Michaelis_ very pertinently remarks: "Not of one individual, but of one reign or empire, _i.e._ as long as the Babylonian empire shall last, which, after 70 years, was destroyed by Cyrus." The necessary qualification follows from ver. 13. According to that verse, the one king can be the king of the Chaldeans only. Parallel are the 70 years which, in Jer. xxv. 11, 12, are assigned to the Chaldean empire: "And these nations serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass, when the 70 years are accomplished, I will visit upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, saith the Lord, their iniquity." In the Commentary on Rev. ii. 1, p. 75, 200, it was proved that, in Scripture, kings are frequently _ideal_ persons; not individuals, but personifications of their kingdoms. _Gesenius'_ objection, that the time of the Babylonish dynasty, from the pretended destruction of Tyre to the destruction of Babylon, did not last 70 years, vanishes by the remark that the Prophet says "like the days;" that, hence, it is expressly intimated that the 70 years here, differently from what is the case in Jeremiah, are to be considered as a _round_ designation of the time. From a comparison of Jeremiah we learn that the Chaldean dominion will last 70 years _in all_. Into which point of that period the destruction of Tyre is to fall, Isaiah does not disclose. It is quite proper that in reference to Tyre the announcement should not be so definite, in point of chronology, as in reference to Judah. That the capture of [Pg 148] Tyre by the Chaldeans, which is here announced, really took place, has been more thoroughly established in my book: _De rebus Tyriorum_; and afterwards by _Drechsler_ in his Commentary on Isaiah, and by _Hävernick_ in his Commentary on Ezekiel. After the end of the 70 years. Tyre is to resume her trade of whoring, and is to carry it on to a wide extent, and with great success. "By the image of whoredom"--so we remarked in commenting upon Rev. xiv. 8--"in some passages of the Old Testament, that selfishness is designated which clothes itself in the garb of love, and, under its appearance, seeks the gratification of its own desires. In Is. xxiii. 15 ff., Tyre is, on account of her mercantile connections, called a whore, and the profit from trade is designated as the reward of whoredom. The point of comparison is the endeavour to please, to feign love for the sake of gain." Under the dominion of the Persians, Tyre again began to flourish. Tyre's reward of whoredom is consecrated to the Lord, and the bodily wants of His servants are provided from it,--quite in agreement with the words of the Apostle: εἰ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν τὰ πνευματικὰ ἐσπείραμεν, μέγα, εἰ ἡμεῖς ὑμῶν τὰ σαρκικὰ θερίσομεν; 1 Cor. ix. 11. Converted Tyre offers, in these gifts, its thanks for the noble gift which it received from the sanctuary.