Isaiah 17:10

10 because you forgot the God who saves you, and didn't remember the rock who shelters you. Therefore, plant your pleasant plants, and set out exotic sprouts;

Isaiah 17:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 17:10

Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation
Who had been the author of salvation to them many a time, in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in various instances since; and yet they had forgot his works of mercy and goodness, and had left his worship, and gone after idols; and this was the cause of their cities being forsaken, and becoming a desolation: and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength;
or strong Rock, who had supplied and supported them, protected and defended them: therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants;
or "plants of pleasant fruit" ^F19, or "plants of Naamanim"; and so Aben Ezra takes it to be the proper name of a plant in the Arabic language, and which he says is a plant that grows very quick; perhaps he means "Anemone", which is so called in that language ^F20, and is near to it in sound; though rather, not any particular plant is meant, but all sorts of pleasant plants, flowers, and fruit trees, with which the land of Israel abounded: and shall set it with strange slips;
with foreign ones, such as are brought from other countries, and are scarce and dear, and highly valued; and by "plants" and "slips" may be meant false and foreign doctrines, inculcating idolatry and superstition, which are pleasing to the flesh ^F21.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 (Mynmen yejn) "plantas amaenorum [fructuum]", Piscator.
F20 <arabic> Alnaaman "Anemone", in Avicenna, l. 256. 1. "vel a colore sanguineo, vel quod ab illo adamaretur rege", Golius, col. 2409. Castel. col. 2346.
F21 So Vitringa.

Isaiah 17:10 In-Context

8 They will have no regard for altars, the work of their hands, or look to what their fingers made: sacred poles and incense stands.

9 On that day, their strong cities will be like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites; abandoned because of the Israelites. They will be a wasteland,

10 because you forgot the God who saves you, and didn't remember the rock who shelters you. Therefore, plant your pleasant plants, and set out exotic sprouts;

11 make them grow the day you plant them, and make them bloom the morning you start them. But the harvest will disappear on a day of sickness and incurable pain.

12 Doom to the raging of many peoples; like the thundering seas they thunder. Doom to the roar of nations, like the roaring of mighty waters.