Isaiah 17:4

4 “In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away.

Isaiah 17:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 17:4

And in that day it shall come to pass
It being much about the same time that both kingdoms were destroyed by the Assyrians: [that] the glory of Jacob shall be made thin;
the same with Ephraim and Israel, the ten tribes, whose glory lay in the superior number of their tribes to Judah; in the multitude of their cities, and the inhabitants of them; but now would be thinned, by the vast numbers that should be carried captive: and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean:
like a man in a consumption, that is become a mere skeleton, and reduced to skin and bones: the meaning is, that all their wealth and riches should be taken away; so the Targum,

``and the riches of his glory shall be carried away.''

Isaiah 17:4 In-Context

2 The towns of Aroer will be deserted. Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed, with no one to chase them away.

3 The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

4 “In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away.

5 The whole land will look like a grainfield after the harvesters have gathered the grain. It will be desolate, like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest.

6 Only a few of its people will be left, like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Jacob’s. See note on 14:1 .