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.
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Isaiah 17: ERV
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Isaiah 17
17
Prophecy about Damascus
1The [mournful, inspired] oracle (#I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning Damascus [capital of Aram (Syria), and Israel’s defense against Assyria].
“Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted;
They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to make them afraid.
3The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram (Syria);
They will be like the [departed] glory of [her ally] the children of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.
4“Now in that day the [former] glory of Jacob [Israel—his might, his population, his prosperity] will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5And it will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears of grain;
Yes, it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the [fertile] Valley of Rephaim.
6Yet gleanings will be left in the land [of Israel] like the shaking of the olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the [outermost] branches of the fruitful tree,”
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7In that day man will have regard for his Maker,
And his eyes will regard the Holy One of Israel [with awe-inspired reverence].
8And he will not have regard for the [idolatrous] altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Neither the Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah) nor the incense altars.
9In that day the strong cities of Aram and Israel will be like #Greek reads, the deserted places of the Amorites and Hivites, which they abandoned.deserted places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the children of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
10Because you [Judah] have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the Rock of your Stronghold—
Therefore you plant #Or gardens of Adonis, a mythological god.lovely plants
And set the grounds with vine slips of a strange god,
11In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
Yet [promising as it is] the harvest will be a heap [of ruins that passes away]
In the day of sickness and incurable pain.
12Oh, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the noise of nations
Who roar like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13The nations roar on like the roaring of many waters,
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before the storm.
14At evening time, now look, sudden terror!
Before #The fulfillment of this prophecy (cf also Is 10:33, 34; 30:31; 31:8) is found in Is 37:36, following the repetition of the prophecy first recorded in 2 Kin 19:29-36. Just when an overwhelming victory by the Assyrian Sennacherib seemed inevitable, during a single night 185,000 of his army died, and Judah was spared—as the Lord through Isaiah had promised.morning the Assyrians are no more.
This is the portion (fate) of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who pillage us.
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