Isaiah 17:11

11 You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow, and the next day you make them blossom. But at harvest time everything will be dead; a sickness will kill all the plants.

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 all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities the Hivites and the Amorites left when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.
10 You have forgotten the God who saves you; you have not remembered that God is your place of safety. You plant the finest grapevines and grapevines from faraway places.
11 You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow, and the next day you make them blossom. But at harvest time everything will be dead; a sickness will kill all the plants.
12 Listen to the many people! Their crying is like the noise from the sea. Listen to the nations! Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.
13 The people roar like the waves, but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away. They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind, or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.