Isaiah 23:10

(Verse 10) Go through your land like a river, O daughter of the sea; you have no more restraint. Just as a river, or as the Hebrew more significantly has it, a stream, for this is called Jabbok, is easily crossed on foot, so you, O daughter of the sea, whether because you are an island or because it is written about you: 'The sea has spoken, the strength of the sea, I have not travailed, nor given birth.' And what he adds, 'you have no more restraint', Symmachus clearly teaches us the meaning: you will no longer be able to resist, that is, you will not have strength, nor will you gird your loins for battle, so that you may oppose your adversaries.

(Vers. 10, 11.) Work your land: for the ships do not come from Carthage at all, and your hand does not prevail, which provokes the kings in the sea. There is much disagreement among other interpreters, and the Septuagint edition diverges from the Hebrew itself in this place, but let us continue with the proposed argument. Above, he had said: Go to Carthage, howl you who dwell on the island. Now he speaks the opposite, because the ships no longer come from Carthage, work your land. For it is beneficial for Tyre that foreign ships perish, so that its people are forced to work their own land. As it is said in Proverbs: 'Whoever works his own land will have plenty of bread' (Prov. 21:11), so that he may live off the produce of his work without the uncertainty of shipwrecks and the danger of drowning, but instead with the fruits of his labor. Concerning this, it is sung in the Psalms to the righteous: 'You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands' (Ps. 128:2). It is written in Hosea that the ways of a prostitute are hedged with thorns by the Lord, so that she cannot pursue her lovers, and thus, compelled by this necessity, she may return to her original husband. And as we frequently observe in the affairs of the world, many who could not perceive the Lord through prosperity and the abundance of all things, came to understand through poverty, and turned to the works of justice, after the happiness of this world failed to prevail over the work of their hands, which formerly provoked kings in the sea, or disturbed them, as Symmachus puts it; whose heart is in the hand of God. And would that we too, despising the commerce of this sea, cultivate our own land, and not wait for the ships of Carthage, or the ships of Tyre, which used to go to Carthage, lest we be subjected to the power of the dragon who rules over the sea! But let us set a firm footing on the earth, rather hastening towards the heavens, let us work our own land, here sowing, there harvesting. Let our hand, which was previously engaged in the affairs of the world, and even capable of altering the state of kings, that is, the saints, according to its power and success, become weak in matters of the sea, so that it may be strong in the work of its own land.