Isaiah 17:10

10 Israel, you have forgotten God, who saves you. You have not remembered the Rock, who keeps you safe. You might set out the finest plants. You might plant vines from other lands.

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.

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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 won't trust in the altars they made with their own hands. They won't pay any attention to the poles they used to worship the goddess Asherah. And they won't depend on the incense altars they made with their own fingers.

9 At that time the strong cities in Israel will be deserted. They will be as they were when the Israelites drove the Canaanites out of them. They will be like places that are taken over by bushes and weeds. The whole land will become dry and empty.

10 Israel, you have forgotten God, who saves you. You have not remembered the Rock, who keeps you safe. You might set out the finest plants. You might plant vines from other lands.

11 The plants might start to grow on the day you set them out. The vines might begin to bud on the morning you plant them. But even if they do, there won't be any harvest. Instead, there will be sickness and pain that won't go away.

12 How terrible it looks for us! Many nations are marching against us. The noise of their armies is like the sound of the ocean. They are making a lot of noise. It sounds like huge waves crashing on the shore.