Isaiah
23:16
16 Take [laqach] an harp [kinnowr], go about [cabab] the city [`iyr], thou harlot [zanah] that
hast been forgotten [shakach]; make sweet [yatab] melody [nagan], sing many [rabah] songs [shiyr], that thou
mayest be remembered [zakar]. KJV-Interlinear
16 “Take a harp; go about the city, O
forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be
remembered.” ESV
Isaiah continues
the description that was begun in the previous verse, calling to the prostitute,
which is otherwise a reference to Tyre, or the old ways and the old habits of
life.
This is a
chiding of sorts. Go ahead and sing, and
dance and go around calling out to anyone who is able to listen. Maybe someone will remember your glamor. Maybe someone will recall your
enticements. Maybe your old ways will
return. Maybe others will remember and
resume their interactions, as go the interactions of prostitutes.
But it is not to
be. Tyre is gone, never to return. And in
just a couple of verses, we will see that all of her efforts, all of her
production, all of her possessions, will go to others. Others that had nothing to do with her
original activity. Others that rejected
her activity. Others who will inherit the fruits of her labor.
And that of
course will be those who survive and enter into the Millennium with Christ.
Evil will try to
make itself remembered, but that will not happen.
