Isaiah 17
17
God’s Message to Aram
1This is a message#17:1 message Or “burden.” about Damascus#17:1 Damascus A city in the country of Aram (Syria).:
“Damascus is now a city, but it will be destroyed.
Only ruined buildings will be left there.
2People will leave the cities of Aroer.#17:2 Aroer A place in the country of Aram (Syria).
Flocks of sheep will wander freely in those empty towns;
there will be no one to bother them.
3The fort cities of Ephraim will be destroyed.
The government in Damascus will be finished.
Those left in Aram will lose everything,
just like the people of Israel,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
4“At that time Jacob’s wealth will all be gone.
Yes, Israel will be like a sick man who has become weak and thin.
5“That time will be like the grain harvest in Rephaim Valley.#17:5 Rephaim Valley A valley southwest of Jerusalem. The workers gather the plants that grow in the field. Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants and collect the grain.
6“That time will also be like the olive harvest. People knock olives from the trees, but a few olives are usually left at the top of each tree. Four or five olives are left on some of the top branches. It will be the same for those cities,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
7Then the people will look up to the one who made them. Their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel. 8They will not trust the great things they have made. They will not go to the special gardens#17:8 special gardens Gardens where people worshiped false gods. and altars#17:8 altars These might be altars for burning incense, or they might be altars for worshiping a special false god. they made for false gods. 9At that time all the walled cities will be empty. They will be like the mountains and the forests#17:9 mountains and the forests With a minor change in the Hebrew, this could be “the Horites and Amorites.” in the land before the Israelites came. In the past, all the people ran away because the Israelites were coming. In the future, the country will be empty again. 10This will happen because you have forgotten the God who saves you. You have not remembered that God is your place of safety.
You brought some very good grapevines from faraway places. You might plant those grapevines, but they will not grow. 11You will plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow, and the next day they will blossom. But at harvest time, you will go to gather the fruit from the plants, and you will see that everything is dead. A sickness will kill all the plants.
12Listen to all these people!
Their loud crying sounds like the noise from the sea.
Listen, it is like the crashing of waves in the sea.
13And like the waves,
they will rush away when God speaks harshly to them.
They will be like chaff blown away by the wind.
They will be like weeds chased by a storm.
14That night, the people will be frightened.
By morning, nothing will be left.
So our enemies will get nothing.
They will come to our land, but nothing will be there.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 17: ERV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Isaiah 17
17
XVII
1THE ORACLE CONCERNING DAMASCUS.
Behold, Damascus is removed from being a city;
And it shall become a ruinous heap.
2The cities of Aroer are forsaken:
They shall be for flocks,
And they shall lie down, and none shall scare them away.
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 Jehovah of hosts.
4And in that day it shall come to pass,
That the glory of Jacob shall be diminished,
And the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
5And it shall be as when a reaper gathereth the standing corn,
And his arm reapeth the ears of corn;
Or as when one gleaneth the ears in the valley of Rephaim.
6A gleaning only shall be left in it, as in the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough;
Four or five on the fruitful branches thereof:
Saith Jehovah the God of Israel.
7In that day shall a man regard his Maker,
And toward the Holy One of Israel shall his eyes look:
8And he shall not regard the altars, the work of his hands;
And what his fingers have made he shall not respect;
Neither the idols, nor the images.
9In that day shall his strongly fenced cities become
Like the abandoned remains of a forest, and the topmost branches,
Which they left from before the children of Israel;
And there shall be utter desolation.
10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength;
Therefore thou shaft plant pleasant plants,
And engraft them with foreign shoots.
11In the day shalt thou make thy plants to grow,
And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish;
But the harvest, in the day of possession, flieth away;
And painful is the disaster.
12Ah! the noise of many people;
They make a noise like the noise of the seas:
And ah! the rushing of nations;
They make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters.
13 Ah! the rushing of nations; like the rushing of mighty waters do they rush:
But He shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far away;
And they shall be driven, like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And like the rolling dust before the whirlwind,
14At eveningtide, behold terror!
Before the morning he is no more!
This is the portion of those who spoil us;
And the lot of those who plunder us.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.