Isaiah 23 · a question people ask
How can a prostitute's wages be "holiness to the LORD" (23:18)?
The question is a real one, because the Law says, "You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute … into the house of the LORD your God for any vow" (Deuteronomy 23:18). In Hebrew Deuteronomy's hire and Isaiah's wages are one word, etnan (tap wages). Here is what Isaiah 23 says. It likens Tyre to a prostitute: "it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute" (23:15). It says, "She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth" (23:17). And it says, "Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (23:18). The chapter doesn't say how its last verse fits with Deuteronomy 23:18, and doesn't speak of the house of the LORD or of a vow. These notes set the two verses side by side, leave them as the text has them, and apply neither to anyone's money or work today.
The verses
“You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.”
“It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.”
“It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.”