Isaiah 17:3-13

3 The fortress will disappear from ¹Ephraim, and the kingdom from ²Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like ³the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.

4 And in that day ⁴the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and ⁵the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5 And it shall be ⁶as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in ⁷the Valley of Rephaim.

6 ⁸Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten-- two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.

7 ⁹In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.

8 ¹⁰He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the ¹¹Asherim or the altars of incense.

9 ¹²In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10 For ¹³you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the ¹⁴Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

11 though you make them grow^[a] on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away^[b] in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12 Ah, ¹⁵the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

13 ¹⁶The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, ¹⁷but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased ¹⁸like chaff on the mountains before the wind and ¹⁹whirling dust before the storm.

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Isaiah 17:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 17

This chapter contains a prophecy of the ruin of Syria and Israel, the ten tribes; who were in alliance; and also of the overthrow of the Assyrian army, that should come against Judah. The destruction of Damascus, the metropolis of Syria, and of other cities, is threatened, Isa 17:1,2 yea, of the whole kingdom of Syria, together with Ephraim or the ten tribes, and Samaria the head of them, Isa 17:3 whose destruction is expressed by various similes, as by thinness and leanness, and by the reaping and gathering of corn, Isa 17:4,5 and yet a remnant should be preserved, compared to gleaning gapes, and a few berries on an olive tree, who should look to the Lord, and not to idols, Isa 17:6-8 and the reason of the desolation of their cities, and of their fields and vineyards, was their forgetfulness of the Lord, Isa 17:9-11 and the chapter is closed with a prophecy of the defeat of the Assyrian army, who are compared for their multitude and noise to the seas, and to mighty waters, and the noise and rushing of them, Isa 17:12 and yet should be, at the rebuke of God, as chaff, or any small light thing, before a blustering wind, Isa 17:13 and who, in the evening, would be a trouble to the Jews, and be dead before morning; which was to be the portion of the spoilers and plunderers of the Lord's people, Isa 17:14.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 19

1. Isaiah 7:16; Isaiah 8:4
2. Isaiah 7:16; Isaiah 8:4
3. [1 Samuel 4:21]
4. [See ver. 3 above]
5. Isaiah 10:16
6. [Isaiah 24:1]
7. See 2 Samuel 5:18
8. Isaiah 24:13
9. [Hosea 8:14]
10. Isaiah 27:9; Micah 5:13, 14
11. Exodus 34:13; See Deuteronomy 16:21
12. [Isaiah 27:10]
13. Psalms 106:21
14. Isaiah 26:4; [Deut. 32:4, 18, 31]
15. See Isaiah 22:5-7
16. [Isaiah 33:3]
17. Psalms 9:5; [Joel 3:2]
18. See Psalms 1:4
19. Psalms 83:13

Footnotes 2

[a]. Or though you carefully fence them
[b]. Or will be a heap

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.