Isaiah 17
17
Damascus
1Oracle on Damascus:#Damascus: capital of Aram or Syria, conquered by Tiglath-pileser III at the end of the Syro-Ephraimite War in 732 B.C.
See, Damascus shall cease to be a city
and become a pile of ruins;#2 Kgs 16:9; Jer 49:23; Am 1:3; Zec 9:1.
2Her cities shall be forever abandoned,
for flocks to lie in undisturbed.
3The fortress shall vanish from Ephraim#Ephraim: Israel, leagued with Aram against Judah in the Syro-Ephraimite War. Assyria ravaged and captured most of Israelite territory in 734–733 B.C. Like the glory of the Israelites: the remnant of Aram will be no more impressive than the pitiful remnant of the Northern Kingdom.
and dominion from Damascus;
The remnant of Aram shall become like the glory
of the Israelites—
oracle of the Lord of hosts.
4On that day
The glory of Jacob shall fade,
and his full body shall grow thin.#Is 10:16.
5Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,
when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.#Valley of Rephaim: a fertile plain just to the southwest of Jerusalem (cf. Jos 15:8; 2 Sm 5:18). Since it was near a large population center, the fields there would be thoroughly gleaned by the poor after the harvest, leaving very few ears of grain.
6#Olives not easily picked by hand were knocked from the tree by means of a long stick; cf. 24:13. Only gleanings shall be left in it,
as when an olive tree has been beaten—
Two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its most fruitful branches—
oracle of the Lord, the God of Israel.#Is 24:13.
7On that day people shall turn to their maker,
their eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.#Is 5:12.
8They shall not turn to the altars, the work of their hands,
nor shall they look to what their fingers have made:
the asherahs#Asherahs: see note on Ex 34:13. Incense stands: small altars on which incense was burned; cf. Is 27:9; Lv 26:30. or the incense stands.
9On that day his strong cities shall be
like those abandoned by the Hivites and Amorites
When faced with the Israelites;
and there shall be desolation.#Is 27:10.
10Truly, you have forgotten the God who saves you,
the Rock, your refuge, you have not remembered.#Ps 106:13, 21; Jer 2:32; Hos 8:14.
Therefore, though you plant plants for the Pleasant One,#The Pleasant One: an epithet for a foreign god of fertility, probably Adonis, in whose honor saplings were planted.
and set out cuttings for a foreign one,#Is 1:29–31.
11Though you make them grow the day you plant them
and make them blossom the morning you set them out,
The harvest shall disappear on a day of sickness
and incurable pain.
12Ah! the roaring of many peoples—#Many peoples: the hordes that accompanied the invading Assyrians, whom God repels just as he vanquished the primeval waters of chaos; see notes on Jb 3:8; 7:12; Ps 89:11.
a roar like the roar of the seas!
The thundering of nations—
thunder like the thundering of mighty waters!#Ps 46:3–7; 93:3–4.
13#The passage seems to evoke the motif of invincibility, part of the early Zion tradition that Jerusalem could not be conquered because God protected it (Ps 48:1–8). But God shall rebuke them,
and they shall flee far away,
Driven like chaff on the mountains before a wind,
like tumbleweed before a storm.#Ps 76:7; 83:14.
14At evening, there is terror,
but before morning, they are gone!
Such is the portion of those who despoil us,
the lot of those who plunder us.#Is 29:8.
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Isaiah 17: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
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.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.