Isaiah 23:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years-the span of a king's life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: ¹⁶Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot; make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered. ¹⁷And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.¹⁸Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

visit: Jeremiah 29:10, Zephaniah 2:7, Acts 15:14

and she shall: Deuteronomy 23:18, Ezekiel 16:31, Ezekiel 22:13, Ezekiel 27:6-36, Hosea 12:7, Hosea 12:8, Micah 1:7, Micah 3:11, 1 Timothy 3:3, 1 Timothy 3:8, 1 Peter 5:2

shall commit: Nahum 3:4, Revelation 17:2-5, Revelation 18:9-14, Revelation 19:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 41:56 - the face Joshua 6:19 - all the silver Psalms 45:12 - And the Isaiah 18:7 - shall the Jeremiah 12:15 - after Ezekiel 26:12 - thy merchandise Ezekiel 28:16 - the multitude Ezekiel 29:11 - forty Acts 21:3 - Tyre

Cross-References

Genesis 23:7
Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.

Genesis 23:10
Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham,

Genesis 23:14
Ephron answered Abraham,

Genesis 23:20
So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

Psalms 112:5
It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice.

Matthew 10:16
Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Acts 7:16
Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.

Ephesians 5:15
Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years,.... When the seventy years before mentioned are ended:

that the Lord will visit Tyre; not in judgment, as before, but in mercy:

and she shall return to her hire; trade and merchandise; that shall revive, and be as in times past:

and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world, upon the face of the earth; be a mart of nations again, as in

Isaiah 23:3 that is, trade and traffic with all nations of the earth, in the most ample and public manner; this is called committing fornication, in agreement with the simile of a harlot before used, whereunto Tyre is compared; as well as to observe the illicit ways and methods used in her commerce. The Targum is,

"and her merchandise shall be sufficient to all the kingdoms of the people, which are upon the face of the earth;''

and so the Septuagint,

"and shall be a mart to all the kingdoms of the world, upon the face of the earth.''

The phrase is used of mystical Tyre or Babylon, and of her merchants, in Revelation 18:3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Lord will visit Tyre - He will restore her to her former wealth and magnificence.

And she shall turn to her hire - The word ‘hire’ here denotes the wages or reward that is given to an harlot; and the idea which was commenced in the previous verses is here continued - of Tyre as an harlot - frivolous, splendid, licentious, and holding intercourse with strangers and foreigners. The gains of that commerce with other nations are here represented as her hire.

And shall commit fornication ... - Shall again be the mart of commerce Isaiah 23:3; shall have contact with all the nations, and derive her support, splendor, luxury, from all. The idea is, that she would be restored to her former commercial importance, and perhaps, also, the prophet intends to intimate that she would procure those gains by dishonest acts, and by fraudulent pretexts. After the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, it remained desolate until the close of the Babyloian monarchy. Then a new city was built on the island, that soon rivaled the former in magnificence. That new city was besieged and taken by Alexander the Great, on his way to the conquests of the East.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 23:17. After the end of seventy years — Tyre, after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, recovered, as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Christian early with the rest of the neighbouring countries. St. Paul himself found many Christians there, Acts 21:4. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishoprics under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians in 1124; but in 1280 was conquered by the Mamelukes, and afterwards taken from them by the Turks in 1517. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay; is now a mere ruin, a bare rock, "a place to spread nets upon," as the Prophet Ezekiel foretold it should be, Ezekiel 26:14. See Sandy's Travels; Vitringa on the place; Bp. Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. xi.