Isaiah 17:9

9 When that day comes, his strong cities, which others abandoned when Isra'el advanced, will be like abandoned woods and forests; they will be laid waste.

Isaiah 17:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 17:9

In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough,
and an uppermost branch
Meaning the strong cities of Ephraim or Jacob, the ten tribes, which should be forsaken of their inhabitants; having fled from before the enemy, or being slain or carried captive; like a bough of a tree, that is forsaken stripped of its leaves, and an uppermost branch of a tree that is dead and dry, and has nothing on it: which they left;
or "as they left", or "were left": because of the children of Israel;
"from the face of" them; or for fear of them; that is, the same cities which the Canaanites left; and as they left them, or were left by them, for fear of the Israelites; the same, and in the same manner, shall they be left by the Israelites, for fear of the Assyrians; and so the Septuagint version reads the words,

``in that day thy cities shall be forsaken, in like manner as the Amorites and Hivites left them, from the face of the children of Israel;''

and this sense is given by Aben Ezra and Kimchi: though some interpret it of some places being spared and left for the remnant to dwell in; but what follows in this verse, and in the next ( Isaiah 17:10 ) , shows the contrary sense: and there shall be desolation;
over all those cities, and in all the land; though Aben Ezra particularly applies it to Samaria, the royal city. Jerom interprets the whole of the cities of Judea being forsaken of their inhabitants, when the Romans besieged Jerusalem, and made the land desolate; which calamity came upon them, for their neglect and forgetfulness of Jesus the Saviour.

Isaiah 17:9 In-Context

7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra'el.

8 He will pay no heed to the altars made with his own hands, he will not turn toward what his fingers made, the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.

9 When that day comes, his strong cities, which others abandoned when Isra'el advanced, will be like abandoned woods and forests; they will be laid waste.

10 For you have forgotten the God who saved you, failed to remember the Rock of your strength; so you plant pagan-style gardens and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.

11 Though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and in the morning your seedlings flower; the crop will vanish the day disease comes, a day of incurable pain.