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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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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.
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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.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Isaiah 7:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 5:6 I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
- Song of Solomon 8:11-12 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit. My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon, two hundred for those who tend its fruit.
- Matthew 21:33 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
- Isaiah 32:12-14 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks,
- Jeremiah 4:26 I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger.
- Hebrews 6:8 but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 7:23 And it shall come to pass in…
Isa 7:23 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.
Ver. 23. Where there were a thousand vines.] Which once were to the sensual Jews an occasion of drunkenness and forgetfulness of God. {Isa 5:11-12} A Lapide on Isa 5:2, telleth us that at Herbipolis in Germany there are abundance of vineyards, so that they have more wine there than water; and such huge wine vessels, that the vintners have doors in the sides of them whereby they enter, as Diogenes did into his tub, to make them clean and fit for their use.
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Shall be briers and thorns.] Agri quondam vitibus consiti, erunt obsiti vepribus, et dumetis densissimis hirsuti.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A thousand vines at a thousand silverings; or, pieces…
A thousand vines at a thousand silverings; or, pieces of silver, as the same word is commonly rendered. Whereby we may understand either,
1. So many pounds; a pound for each vineyard, to wit, for the annual rent. Or,
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2. So many shekels, which word is most commonly understood, when no particular kind of coin is expressed, as 2Sa 18:11,12; Mt 26:15; and then the meaning is, not that the thousand vineyards were let for a thousand shekels, a vineyard for a shekel, which is a contemptible price; but that each of the thousand vineyards might have been sold or let for a thousand shekels, which was the yearly rent of some excellent vineyards, as may be gathered from Son 8:11; except we understand this not of so many vineyards, as other interpreters do, but of so many single vines, as the word properly and generally signifies, planted together in one large vineyard, which may be here meant by the place of the river, and then each vine may be valued at a shekel. But this place may possibly be otherwise rendered, and that exactly according to the Hebrew text, every place where there are a thousand vines, shall be for a thousand pieces of silver, i.e. it shall be valued or offered, either to be let, or rather to be sold, at that price; which was a very low price, and therefore fitly signifies the greatness of the desolation.
It shall even be for briers and thorns, because it shall be utterly neglected, and therefore overspread with them. Or, yea,
it shall be for briers and thorns. No man will either buy or hire it upon any terms.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it shall come to pass in that day;…
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:
where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings; which were so good, as to be sold or let out for so many silver shekels (m); or the fruit of them came to such a price; see Sol 8:11,
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it shall even be for briers and thorns; for want of persons to stock the ground and cultivate it.
(m) Which was about two shillings and sixpence of our money.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Of silver - Each of the thousand vineyards might…
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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The remainder of this chapter is a description of…
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.
At a thousand silverlings - The word rendered ‘silvertings’ here - כסף keseph - denotes, properly, silver, of any amount. But it is also used to denote the silver coin which was in use among the Jews, the shekel. Perhaps this was the only silver coin which, in early times, they possessed, and hence, the word shekel is omitted, and so many pieces of silver are mentioned. Thus, in Gen 20:16, Abimelech says, that he had given Abraham, a thousand of silver’ - that is, a thousand shekels. The shekel was worth about two shillings of our money. It is probable that a vineyard would be valued, in proportion to the number of vines that could be raised on the smallest space; and the meaning is here, that the land that was most fertile, and that produced the most, would be desolate, and would produce only briers and thorns. The land in Judea admits of a high state of cultivation, and requires it, in order to make it productive. When neglected, it becomes as remarkably sterile. At present, it generally bears the marks of great barrenness and sterility. It is under the oppression of Turkish power and exactions; and the consequence is, that, to a traveler, it has the appearance of great barrenness. But, in the high state to which the Jews brought it, it was eminently fertile, and is capable still of becoming so, if it should be placed under a government that would encourage agriculture and bestow freedom. This is the account which all travelers give of it now.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Pieces. Sicles. This was the price of the best…
Pieces. Sicles. This was the price of the best vineyards, Canticle of Canticles viii. 2. (Calmet) --- Now people may hunt in them. (Haydock) --- The subjects of Achaz were much reduced. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain where there were, &c.--where up to that time there…
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 (Sol 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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 23. Where there were, etc. — Where there were…
23. Where there were, etc. — Where there were abundant and flourishing vineyards, and one vineyard had a thousand vines, worth each a silverling, or silver shekel, (about fifty-five or sixty cents.) Vineyards were estimated by the number of the vines and the quality of wine they produced. All these vineyards shall be overrun with briers, etc. — a wild waste for the fierce animals. And because of this fact hunters shall flock here with their weapons; or, perhaps the better meaning is, that men — the few men that are left — cannot go out into the fields in safety without their bows and arrows. Isa_7:25 adds the hilltops, hitherto fully cultivated with the hoe, (inaccessible to the plough,) as also to be neglected and going to briers and thorns in the coming time of depopulation, and only cattle shall venture upon them in search of pasturage; and lesser cattle, that is, sheep and goats, shall join them.
The threat to Ahaz is ideally fulfilled. The desolation, when it comes, shall be wrought in a short time; in just as short a time as the striking down of Rezin and Pekah is to be done — a time measured by the morally unconscious years of the typical child-life in Isa_7:15-16; a picture, too, in anticipation of the poverty-struck condition as to means of subsistence, in that coming awful final time of Jewish nationality, A.D. 70.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23. a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings] i.e.…
23. a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings] i.e. “silver shekels.” Schrader reckons the silver shekel as equal to about half-a-crown of our money, which would make the price of the vineyard about £125. But the estimate neglects the important element of variation in the purchasing power of money. The traveller Burckhardt, who found it the custom in Syria to estimate the value of a vineyard according to the number of vines, tells us that good vines are valued at less than three pence each.
23–25. The most costly vineyards, requiring the most sedulous cultivation, are overrun by thorns and thistles, cf. ch. Isa_5:6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (23) Where there were a thousand vines at a…
(23) Where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings.—The words seem to contain an allusive reference to Son_8:11, and are therefore worth noting as bearing on the date of that book. There, however, the sum represents the annual produce of the vineyard, here the rent of the vines at a shekel each, a high rent apparently, and indicating a choice quality of vine. The costly vineyards of the hills of Judah should be left to run wild without a keeper (Isa_5:10), and thorns and briers would rapidly cover it. “Silverling” was an old English word for any silver coin, and appears in Tyndale’s version of Act_19:19, and Coverdale’s of Jdg_9:4; Jdg_16:5; here it stands for “shekel.” The modern rent is said to be a piastre (2d.) for each vine; the shekel was worth 2s. 3 d. (Kay).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A thousand vines at a thousand silverlings. By "silverlings"…
A thousand vines at a thousand silverlings. By "silverlings" our translators mean "pieces of silver," probably shekels. "A thousand vines at a thousand shekels" may mean either a thousand vines worth that amount, or a thousand vines rented at that sum annually. (comp. Son_8:11) The latter would point to vineyards of unusual goodness, since the shekel is at least eighteen pence, and the present rent of a vineyard in Palestine is at the rate of a piastre for each vine, or 2 The general meaning would seem to be that not even the best vineyards would be cultivated, but would lie waste, and grow only "briers and thorns."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah continues to describe the time when the army from Assyria will attack the land of Israel.
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there were a thousand vines ... briers and thorns
"there were 1,000 vines." That is, when Isaiah wrote, there were vineyards, in some of which were 1,000 vines or more each. He says that these vineyards will become full of briers and thorns. (See: Numbers)
a thousand silver shekels
"1000 silver shekels." A shekel is a silver coin worth 4 days wage. AT: "1,000 silver coins" (See: Numbers and Biblical Money)
briers and thorns
The words "briers" and "thorns" both refer to useless, thorny plants. It is not necessary to translate both words. AT: "thorn bushes" or "brier bushes" (See: Doublet)
because all the land will be briers and thorns
Why the hunters come to these lands can be made explicit. AT: "because there will be nothing in these lands but briers, thorns, and wild animals" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated with the hoe
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will stay away from the hills where they once prepared the soil to plant crops" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
vine
silver
bow and arrow
ewe
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 7:23-25 Farmers faced near total disaster. Fertile agricultural fields…
7:23-25 Farmers faced near total disaster. Fertile agricultural fields (lush vineyards) would revert to wild grazing lands dominated by worthless plants (briers and thorns; see 5:6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.