Isaiah 23:16

“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The prophet addresses Tyre, personified as a forgotten prostitute, at the end of a seventy-year period of divine judgment.

The words — קְחִ֥י (ke.Chi) = take and זוֹנָ֣ה (zo.Nah) = O prostitute anchor the command to revive public memory through musical performance.

The thread — This motif appears in Proverbs 7:10, Jeremiah 30:14, and frames the seventy-year cycle detailed in Isaiah 23:15 and 23:17.

Why it lands — It demands recognition that commercial power and human reputation are temporary, and that historical restoration follows divine appointment rather than human strategy.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

קְחִ֥יke.Chitake כִנּ֛וֹרkhi.Nora harp סֹ֥בִּיSo.bigo around עִ֖יר'ir[the] city זוֹנָ֣הzo.NahO prostitute נִשְׁכָּחָ֑הnish.ka.Chahforgotten הֵיטִ֤יבִיhei.Ti.vido well נַגֵּן֙na.Gento play הַרְבִּי־har.bi-multiply שִׁ֔ירShirsong לְמַ֖עַןle.Ma.'anso that תִּזָּכֵֽרִי׃ti.za.Khe.riyou may be remembered

King James Version

Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

Cross-references

Proverbs 7:10 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
Jeremiah 30:14 All 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 sins.