Isaiah 17
17
1A message about Damascus. Look, Damascus will cease to exist as a city. Instead it will become a pile of ruins. 2The towns of Aroer will be abandoned. Flocks will live in the streets and rest there, because there won't be anyone to chase them away. 3The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,#17:3. In other words, Samaria, capital city of the northern tribes symbolized by Ephraim, will be destroyed. Damascus will no longer be a kingdom, and those that are left of the Arameans will be like the lost glory of Israel, declares the Lord Almighty.
4At that time the glory of Jacob will fade away; he will lose his strength.#17:4. “He will lose his strength”: literally, “the fat of his flesh will become lean.” 5It will look as empty as fields after reapers have harvested the grain, gathering up the grain in their arms. It will be like when people pick the heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. 6Yet there will be some left behind, like an olive tree that has been shaken—two or three ripe olives are left at the top of the tree, four or five on its lower branches, declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7At that time people will pay attention to their Creator and look to the Holy One of Israel. 8They won't believe in the altars they built and the idols they made; they will not look to the Asherah poles or the altars of incense.
9At that time their fortified cities will be like places left to be taken over by bushes and trees, just as they were previously abandoned when the Israelites invaded.#17:9. The reference is made to the time when the Israelites conquered the land. This is made explicit in the Septuagint which states that the cities will be abandoned just as the Amorites and the Hivites had done when confronted by the Israelites. The country will become completely desolate.
10You have forgotten the God who saves you; you have not remembered the Rock who protects you. So, even though you plant beautiful plants and grow exotic vines, 11even though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and have them blossom in the morning that you sow them,#17:11. Clearly an impossibility, and is to be taken as a symbol of the rapid “cultivation” of pagan fertility religions. your harvest will heap of trouble on a day of grief and pain that cannot be cured.
12Disaster is coming to the many nations that growl, growling like the raging sea! Disaster is coming to the peoples who roar, roaring like thundering waters!#17:12. While the nation is not named, this prophecy probably applies to Assyria. 13The nations roar like the roaring of crashing waves. But he#17:13. “He”: referring to the Lord. confronts them, and they run far away, blown by the wind like chaff on the mountains, like tumbleweeds driven by a storm. 14Sudden terror comes in the evening! By morning, they're gone! This is what happens to those who loot us, the fate of those who plunder us.
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Isaiah 17: FBV
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Isaiah 17
17
Proclamation Against Syria and Israel
1The #Gen. 14:15; 15:2; 2 Kin. 16:9; Jer. 49:23; Amos 1:3–5; Zech. 9:1; Acts 9:2burden against Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
2The cities of #Num. 32:34Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and #Jer. 7:33no one will make them afraid.
3#Is. 7:16; 8:4The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
4“In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will wane,
And #Is. 10:16the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
5#Is. 17:11; Jer. 51:33; Joel 3:13; Matt. 13:30It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
6#Deut. 4:27; Is. 24:13; Obad. 5Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the Lord God of Israel.
7In that day a man will #Is. 10:20; Hos. 3:5; Mic. 7:7look to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his #Is. 2:8; 31:7fingers have made,
Nor the wooden images nor the incense altars.
9In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough
And an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.
10Because you have forgotten #Ps. 68:19; Is. 51:13the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
11In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.
12Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise #Is. 5:30; Jer. 6:23; Ezek. 43:2; Luke 21:25like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will #Ps. 9:5; Is. 41:11rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And #Ps. 83:13; Hos. 13:3be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.