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.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 17: FBV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
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
1The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. 4And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing corn, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
6Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith the LORD, the God of Israel. 7In that day shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. 8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he have respect to that which his fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.
9In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel: and it shall be a desolation. 10For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips: 11In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom: but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12Ah, the uproar of many peoples, which roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. 14At eventide behold terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society