Isaiah 23:16
in Isaiah 23“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
KJV
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
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This verse in Isaiah 23
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Take an harp - This is a continuation of the figure commenced in the previous verse, a direct command to Tyre as an harlot, to go about the city with the usual expressions of rejoicing. Thus Donatus, in Terent. Eunuch., iii. 2, 4, says: ‘Fidicinam esse meretricum est;’ And thus Horace: ‘Nec meretrix tibicina, cujus Ad strepitum salias.’ 1 Epis. xiv. 25. Thou harlot that hast been forgotten - For seventy years thou hast lain unknown, desolate, ruined.
This site's exposition
Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years
on Isaiah 23:15-18
"Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years", the span Jeremiah fixes for Babylon. The harlot's song is sung again, and she returns "to all the kingdoms". Her "profits and wages will be set apart", which Henry and Delitzsch set beside the wealth of the nations in chapter 60.
This site's exposition
Take up your harp
The harlot takes up her harp, and Barnes cites the Roman writer Donatus, who counted the harp girl among the harlots of the city. Wesley gives the reason for the figure: Tyre drew merchants to her by every art. Her song invites trade back.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 16.) After seventy years, Tyre will be like the song of a prostitute. Take up the lyre, go around the city, forgotten prostitute, sing well, sing often, so that there will be a memory of you. Because you have prostituted yourself with many nations, and you have been left desolate, naked, and filthy with the filth of captivity, your former lovers have despised you.
(Verse 15 and following) And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years, Tyre shall sing as a harlot. Take a harp, go about the city, O harlot that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. After seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
The Medieval Church1 voice
And he sets out the song as to the instrument: take a harp; as to the place: about the city; as to the manner: sing well; as to the number, sing many a song. He also sets out the fruit: that you mayst be remembered: …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? 9 The L ORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. 10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:97%@v8-10
Go about - As harlots use to do. Thou harlot - So he calls Tyre, because she enticed the merchants to deal with her by various artifices, and even by dishonest practices, and because of the great and general uncleanness which was committed in it.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Take a harp, go about the city,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Same figure [Isa 23:15] to express that Tyre would again prosper and attract commercial intercourse of nations to her, and be the same joyous, self-indulging city as before.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| קְחִ֥י | kechi | take | H3947 → | 966 times |
| כִנּ֛וֹר | khinor | a harp | H3658 → | 42 times |
| סֹ֥בִּי | sobi | go around | H5437 → | 161 times |
| עִ֖יר | ʾir | [the] city | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| זוֹנָ֣ה | zonah | O prostitute | H2181 → | 94 times |
| נִשְׁכָּחָ֑ה | nishkachah | forgotten | H7911 → | 102 times |
| הֵיטִ֤יבִי | heitivi | do well | H3190 → | 117 times |
| נַגֵּן֙ | nagen | to play | H5059 → | |
| הַרְבִּי־ | harbi- | multiply | H7235 → | 227 times |
| שִׁ֔יר | shir | song | H7892 → | 59 times |
| לְמַ֖עַן | lemaan | so that | H4616 → | 272 times |
| תִּזָּכֵֽרִי׃ | tizakheri | you may be remembered | H2142 → | 230 times |
קְחִ֥יtake
kechiH3947 →966 times
כִנּ֛וֹרa harp
khinorH3658 →42 times
סֹ֥בִּיgo around
sobiH5437 →161 times
עִ֖יר[the] city
ʾirH5892 →1090 times
זוֹנָ֣הO prostitute
zonahH2181 →94 times
נִשְׁכָּחָ֑הforgotten
nishkachahH7911 →102 times
הֵיטִ֤יבִיdo well
heitiviH3190 →117 times
נַגֵּן֙to play
nagenH5059 →
הַרְבִּי־multiply
harbi-H7235 →227 times
שִׁ֔ירsong
shirH7892 →59 times
לְמַ֖עַןso that
lemaanH4616 →272 times
תִּזָּכֵֽרִי׃you may be remembered
tizakheriH2142 →230 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 30:14All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:6
Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be…
- Job 30:21
You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
- Lamentations 1:2
She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
- Jeremiah 22:20
Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.
- Jeremiah 2:36
How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
- Jeremiah 5:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.