Isaiah 17:11

11 In the day that thou shalt plant them, thou shalt make them to grow and shalt make thy seed to flourish early; but in the day of gathering, the harvest shall flee and shall be desperate sorrow.

Isaiah 17:11 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 17:11

In the day shall thou make thy plant to grow
Not that it is in the power of man to make it grow; but the sense is, that all means and methods should be used to make it grow, no cost nor pains should be spared: and in the morning shall thou make thy seed to flourish;
which may denote both diligence in the early care of it, and seeming promising success; and yet all should be in vain, and to no purpose: [but] the harvest [shall be] a heap in the day of grief;
or "of inheritance"; when it was about to be possessed and enjoyed, according to expectation, it shall be all thrown together in a heap, and be spoiled by the enemy: or, "the harvest" shall be "removed in the day of inheritance" F23; just when the fruit is ripe, and going to be gathered in, the enemy shall come and take it all away; and so, instead of being a time of joy, as harvest usually is, it will be a time of grief and trouble, and of desperate sorrow
too, or "deadly"; which will leave them in despair, without hope of subsistence for the present year, or of having another harvest hereafter, the land coming into the hands of their enemies.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 (hlxn Mwyb ryuq dn) "recedit messis in die hereditatis sive possessionis"; so some in Vatablus.

Isaiah 17:11 In-Context

9 In that day the cities of his strength shall be as the gleanings which remain on the shoots and on the branches, which were left of the sons of Israel; and there shall be desolation.
10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy saving health and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength; therefore thou shalt plant pleasant plants and set it with strange slips:
11 In the day that thou shalt plant them, thou shalt make them to grow and shalt make thy seed to flourish early; but in the day of gathering, the harvest shall flee and shall be desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many peoples, which shall make a noise like the noise of the sea; and the rushing of nations, that make an uprising like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The peoples shall make noise like the rushing of great waters, but God shall reprehend them, and they shall flee far off and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like the tumbleweed before the whirlwind.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010