Isaiah 23:7
in Isaiah 23Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn?
KJV
Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
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This verse in Isaiah 23
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 6, 7.) Go to Carthage: howl, you who dwell in this island. Is this not your insult from the beginning before it was handed over? They will lead it far on foot to wander. That which follows: They will lead it far on foot to wander, is added from Hebrew, and is prenoted by an asterisk, that is, by illuminating stars.
This site's exposition
Cross over to Tarshish
on Isaiah 23:6-9
Tyre is the "jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity", whose "traders are princes" and whose merchants "are renowned on the earth". The oracle asks, "Who planned this", and answers, "The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned".
This site's exposition
Is this your jubilant city
Tyre's age was its boast. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that its priests in the time of Herodotus claimed the city was 2,300 years old. Henry reads that pride as false security, as if a city standing time out of mind must stand without end.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 7) Is this not yours, which boasted in its ancient days? Tyre, pride, has been rebuked because it boasted in its ancient state and did not look to God. Instead, it remembered the names of its ancestors, thinking itself eternal. He led her two hundred feet away for a pilgrimage. He says this to those who remained in the city, and the captives were led to Babylon.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, the ignominy of those who remain: is this not; and concerning this, he does two things. First, he foretells their ignominy, recalling first their former glory: is not this yours, namely, your city? Her feet shall carry her afar off, as to those taken …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Her antiquity likewise was of ancient days, and she was proud of that, and that helped to make her secure; as if because she had been a city time out of mind, and her antiquity had been of ancient days, therefore she must continue a city time without end, and her continuance must be to the days of eternity. She was a crowning city (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Is this your joyous city?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Is this your joyous city - Is this the city that was just now so full of happiness, of revelry, of business, of gaiety, of rejoicing? (see the note at Isa 22:2) Whose antiquity is of ancient days - Strabo (xvi. 756) says, ‘After Sidon, Tyre, a splendid and most ancient city, is to be compared in greatness, beauty, and antiquity, with Sidon.’ Curtius (Hist. Alex. iv. 4) says, ‘The city was taken, distinguished both by its antiquity, and its great variety of fortune.’ Arrian (ii.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Is this silent ruin all that is left of your once joyous city (Isa 23:12)? antiquity--The Tyrian priests boasted in HERODOTUS' time that their city had already existed 2300 years: an exaggeration, but still implying that it was ancient even then. her own feet--walking on foot as captives to an enemy's land.
Whose antiquity is of ancient days “Whose antiquity is of the earliest date” - Justin, in the passage above quoted, had dated the building of Tyre at a certain number of years before the taking of Troy; but the number is lost in the present copies. Tyre, though not so old as Sidon, was yet of very high antiquity: it was a strong city even in the time of Joshua. It is called עיר מבצר צר ir mibtsar tsor, “the city of the fortress of Sor,” Jos 19:29. Interpreters raise difficulties in regard to this passage, and will not allow it to have been so ancient; with what good reason I do not see, for it is called by the same name, “the fortress of Sor,” in the history of David, 2Sa 24:7, and the circumstances of the history determine the place to be the very same. See on Isa 23:1 (note). Whose antiquity is of ancient days, may refer to Palaetyrus, or Old Tyre. Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn - This may belong to the new or insular Tyre; her own feet, that is, her own inhabitants, shall carry her - shall transport the city, from the continent to the island. “But the text says it shall be carried far off, and the new city was founded only half a mile distant from the other.” I answer, מרחוק merachok does not always signify a great distance, but distance or interval in general; for in Jos 3:4 רחוק rachok is used to express the space between the camp and the ark, which we know to have been only two thousand cubits. Some refer the sojourning afar off to the extent of the commercial voyages undertaken by the Tyrians and their foreign connections.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲזֹ֥את | hazot | ¿ [is] this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| לָכֶ֖ם | lakhem | of you | ||
| עַלִּיזָ֑ה | ʾalizah | jubilant [city] | H5947 → | 7 times |
| מִֽימֵי־ | mimei- | [which is] from days of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| קֶ֤דֶם | kedem | antiquity | H6924 → | 87 times |
| קַדְמָתָהּ֙ | kadmatah | beginning its | H6927 → | |
| יֹבִל֣וּהָ | yoiluha | [which] they have carried it | H2986 → | 18 times |
| רַגְלֶ֔יהָ | ragleiha | feet its | H7272 → | 247 times |
| מֵֽרָח֖וֹק | merachok | from a distance | H7350 → | 84 times |
| לָגֽוּר׃ | lagur | to sojourn | H1481 → | 97 times |
הֲזֹ֥את¿ [is] this
hazotH2063 →603 times
לָכֶ֖םof you
lakhem
עַלִּיזָ֑הjubilant [city]
ʾalizahH5947 →7 times
מִֽימֵי־[which is] from days of
mimei-H3117 →2304 times
קֶ֤דֶםantiquity
kedemH6924 →87 times
קַדְמָתָהּ֙beginning its
kadmatahH6927 →
יֹבִל֣וּהָ[which] they have carried it
yoiluhaH2986 →18 times
רַגְלֶ֔יהָfeet its
ragleihaH7272 →247 times
מֵֽרָח֖וֹקfrom a distance
merachokH7350 →84 times
לָגֽוּר׃to sojourn
lagurH1481 →97 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Ecclesiastes 10:7I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.
it leads to
- Proverbs 19:10
Luxury is unseemly for a fool—how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!
- Esther 6:8
have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden—one with a royal crest placed on its head.
- Proverbs 30:22
a servant who becomes king, a fool who is filled with food,
- Proverbs 19:10
Through
Isaiah 22:2O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
it leads to
- Isaiah 32:13
and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- Isaiah 32:13
Through
Isaiah 32:13and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
it leads to
- Hosea 9:6
For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
- Isaiah 22:2
O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
- Isaiah 7:23
And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- Hosea 9:6
Through
Joshua 19:29The border then turned back toward Ramah as far as the fortified city of Tyre, turned toward Hosah, and came out at the Sea in the region of Achzib,
it leads to
- Judges 1:31
Asher failed to drive out the inhabitants of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob.
- Judges 1:31
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.