Isaiah 7:23
◄  Isaiah 7:23  ►
New International Version (©2011)
In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns.

New Living Translation (©2007)
In that day the lush vineyards, now worth 1,000 pieces of silver, will become patches of briers and thorns.

English Standard Version (©2001)
In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
And on that day every place where there were 1,000 vines, worth 1,000 pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.

International Standard Version (©2012)
"At that time, every place where once there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briars and thorns will grow.

NET Bible (©2006)
At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
On that day, in every place where there were 1,000 vines (worth 1,000 pieces of silver), there will be briars and thorns.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there could be a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, it shall even be briers and thorns.

American King James Version
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand sliver coins, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

American Standard Version
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall be for briers and thorns.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall become thorns and briers.

Darby Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces, shall become briars and thorns:

English Revised Version
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall even be for briers and thorns.

Webster's Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand pieces of silver, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

World English Bible
It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.

Young's Literal Translation
And it hath come to pass, in that day, Every place where there are a thousand vines, At a thousand silverlings, Is for briers and for thorns.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it shall come to pass in that day; that every place shall be,.... Barren and unfruitful, for want of men to till the ground:

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Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet repeats this three times in Isaiah 7:23-25 : "And it will come to pass in that day, every place, where a thousand vines stood at a thousand silverlings, will have become thorns and thistles. With arrows and with bows will men go, for the whole land will have become thorns and thistles. And all the hills that were accustomed to be hoed with the hoe, thou wilt not go to them for fear of thorns and thistles; and it has become a gathering-place for oxen, and a treading-place for sheep." The "thousand silverlings" ('eleph ceseph, i.e., a thousand shekels of silver) recall to mind Sol 8:11, though there it is the value of the yearly produce, whereas here the thousand shekels are the value of a thousand vines, the sign of a peculiarly valuable piece of a vineyard. At the present time they reckon the worth of a vineyard in Lebanon and Syria according to the value of the separate vines, and generally take the vines at one piastre (from 2nd to 3rd) each; just as in Germany a Johannisberg vine is reckoned at a ducat. Every piece of ground, where such valuable vines were standing, would have fallen a prey to the briers. People would go there with bow and arrow, because the whole land had become thorns and thistles (see at Isaiah 5:12), and therefore wild animals had made their homes there. And thou (the prophet addresses the countryman thus) comest not to all the hills, which were formerly cultivated in the most careful manner; thou comest not thither to make them arable again, because thorns and thistles deter thee from reclaiming such a fallow. They would therefore give the oxen freedom to rove where they would, and let sheep and goats tread down whatever grew there. The description is intentionally thoroughly tautological and pleonastic, heavy and slow in movement. The writer's intention is to produce the impression of a waste heath, or tedious monotony. Hence the repetitions of hâyâh and yihyeh. Observe how great the variations are in the use of the future and perfect, and how the meaning is always determined by the context. In Isaiah 7:21, Isaiah 7:22, the futures have a really future sense; in Isaiah 7:23 the first and third yihyeh signify "will have become" (factus erit omnis locus), and the second "was" (erat); in Isaiah 7:24 יבוא means "will come" (veniet), and tihyeh "will have become" (facta erit terra); in Isaiah 7:25 we must render yē‛âdērūn, sarciebantur (they used to be hoed). And in Isaiah 7:21, Isaiah 7:22, and Isaiah 7:23, hâyâh is equivalent to fiet (it will become); whilst in Isaiah 7:25 it means factum est (it has become). Looked at from a western point of view, therefore, the future tense is sometimes a simple future, sometimes a future perfect, and sometimes an imperfect or synchronistic preterite; and the perfect sometimes a prophetic preterite, sometimes an actual preterite, but the sphere of an ideal past, or what is the same thing, of a predicted future.

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Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The remainder of this chapter is a description of great desolation produced by the invasion of the Assyrians. "Where there were a thousand vines." Where there was a valuable vineyard. In every place, that is, that was well cultivated and valuable.

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Geneva Study Bible

And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

Wesley's Notes

7:23 Of silver - Each of the thousand vineyards might have been sold or let for a thousand shekels, which was the yearly rent of some excellent vineyards.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. where there were, &c.-where up to that time there was so valuable a vineyard as to have in it a 1000 vines, worth a silverling (shekel, about 2s. 3d.; a large price) each, there shall be only briers (So 8:11). Vineyards are estimated by the number of the vines, and the goodness of the kind of vine. Judea admits of a high state of cultivation, and requires it, in order to be productive; its present barrenness is due to neglect.

Isaiah 7:23 Parallel Commentaries
Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Judgment to Come
…22And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand sliver coins, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

Song of Solomon 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver.
Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."
Isaiah 5:10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine; a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain."
Isaiah 7:24 Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.
Isaiah 32:10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
Isaiah 32:13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers-- yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
Isaiah 32:14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
Ezekiel 12:20 The inhabited towns will be laid waste and the land will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"
Hosea 2:12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.
Hosea 9:6 Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.