Isaiah 23:16-18

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot; play skillfully and make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷And after the end of seventy years the Lord will remember Tyre; and she will return to her hire and will play the harlot [resume her commerce] with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

¹⁸But her gain and her hire [the profits of Tyre’s new prosperity] will be ^[a]dedicated to the Lord [eventually]; it will not be treasured or stored up, for her gain will be used for those who dwell in the presence of the Lord [the ministers], that they may eat sufficiently and have durable and stately clothing [suitable for those who minister at God’s altar].

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Footnotes

Isaiah 23:18 This whole prophecy (Isa. 23:14-18) was literally fulfilled in following centuries. Tyre was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 572 b.c. and lay desolate for seventy years. The new city built on the island was taken by Alexander the Great in 332 b.c. (see footnotes on Ezek. 26:4, 14). Eventually the true religion prevailed at Tyre. Jesus visited there (Matt. 15:21) and so did Paul (Acts 21:3-6). Eusebius (Hist. 10:4) says that “when the church of God was founded in Tyre..., much of its wealth was consecrated to God... and was presented for the support of the ministry.” Jerome, also writing in the fourth century a.d., says that the wealth of the churches of Tyre “was not treasured up or hidden but was given to those who dwelt before the Lord.”