Isaiah 17:10

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:

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 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands; neither shall he look upon that which his fingers have made, either the groves or the images of the sun.

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!