Yeshayah 17:4

4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the kavod Ya’akov shall fade, and the fatness of his basar shall waste away.

Yeshayah 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.''

Yeshayah 17:4 In-Context

2 The cities of Aroer are deserted; they shall be for adarim (flocks), which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

3 The fortified city also shall cease from Ephrayim, and the mamlechah from Damascus, and the remnant of Aram (Syria); they shall be like the kavod Bnei Yisroel, saith Hashem Tzva’os.

4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the kavod Ya’akov shall fade, and the fatness of his basar shall waste away.

5 And it shall be as when the katzir (reaper, harvester) gathereth the standing grain, and reapeth the heads of grain with his zero’a; and it shall be as when one gleans heads of grain in the Emek Rephaim.

6 Yet a remnant of gleanings shall be left in it, as the beating of a zayit (olive tree), two or three olives in the rosh of the uppermost olive branch, four or five in the poriyyah (fruitful) olive branches thereof, saith Hashem Elohei Yisroel.