After the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: "Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered." The image of the forgotten harlot establishing herself through song creates a powerfully ironic judgment: Tyre, having lost its power and place, will be reduced to seeking favor through entertainment. The harlot imagery, drawing on familiar biblical associations of unfaithfulness and degradation, suggests that Tyre's commercial relationships represented a fundamental betrayal of covenant. Yet the song and melody suggest a kind of restoration, though a degraded one. The oracle thus presents a future for Tyre but one utterly reversed from its former glory.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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