Isaiah 23:16-18
New English Translation
16 “Take the harp,
go through the city,
forgotten prostitute!
Play it well,
play lots of songs,
so you’ll be noticed.”[a]
17 At the end of seventy years[b] the Lord will revive[c] Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms.[d] 18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes.[e]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Isaiah 23:16 tn Heb “so you will be remembered.”
- Isaiah 23:17 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
- Isaiah 23:17 tn Heb “visit [with favor]” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “will deal with.”
- Isaiah 23:17 tn Heb “and she will return to her [prostitute’s] wages and engage in prostitution with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the earth.”
- Isaiah 23:18 tn Heb “for eating to fullness and for beautiful covering[s].”sn The point of this verse, which in its blatant nationalism comes precariously close to comparing the Lord to one who controls or manages a prostitute, is that Tyre will become a subject of Israel and her God. Tyre’s commercial profits will be used to enrich the Lord’s people.
Isaiah 23:16-18
New International Version
16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city,
you forgotten prostitute;(A)
play the harp well, sing many a song,
so that you will be remembered.”
17 At the end of seventy years,(B) the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution(C) and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.(D) 18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord;(E) they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord,(F) for abundant food and fine clothes.(G)
Isaiah 23:16-18
King James Version
16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
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