Isaiah 17:3-13

3 Efrayim will have no defenses, Dammesek will cease to rule, and Aram's survivors will share the fate of Isra'el's finest sons," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

4 "When that day comes, Ya'akov's glory will wane, and his full body grow thin,

5 as when the harvester collects the standing grain, reaping the ears of grain with his arm; yes, as when they glean the grain in the Refa'im Valley.

6 Yet gleanings will be left, as when beating an olive tree - two or three olives at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches," says ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.

7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra'el.

8 He will pay no heed to the altars made with his own hands, he will not turn toward what his fingers made, the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.

9 When that day comes, his strong cities, which others abandoned when Isra'el advanced, will be like abandoned woods and forests; they will be laid waste.

10 For you have forgotten the God who saved you, failed to remember the Rock of your strength; so you plant pagan-style gardens and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.

11 Though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and in the morning your seedlings flower; the crop will vanish the day disease comes, a day of incurable pain.

12 Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples, roaring like the roar of the seas, and the rushing about of nations, rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!

13 Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean, but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee, driven like chaff by a mountain wind, like whirling dust in advance of the storm.

Isaiah 17:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 17

This chapter contains a prophecy of the ruin of Syria and Israel, the ten tribes; who were in alliance; and also of the overthrow of the Assyrian army, that should come against Judah. The destruction of Damascus, the metropolis of Syria, and of other cities, is threatened, Isa 17:1,2 yea, of the whole kingdom of Syria, together with Ephraim or the ten tribes, and Samaria the head of them, Isa 17:3 whose destruction is expressed by various similes, as by thinness and leanness, and by the reaping and gathering of corn, Isa 17:4,5 and yet a remnant should be preserved, compared to gleaning gapes, and a few berries on an olive tree, who should look to the Lord, and not to idols, Isa 17:6-8 and the reason of the desolation of their cities, and of their fields and vineyards, was their forgetfulness of the Lord, Isa 17:9-11 and the chapter is closed with a prophecy of the defeat of the Assyrian army, who are compared for their multitude and noise to the seas, and to mighty waters, and the noise and rushing of them, Isa 17:12 and yet should be, at the rebuke of God, as chaff, or any small light thing, before a blustering wind, Isa 17:13 and who, in the evening, would be a trouble to the Jews, and be dead before morning; which was to be the portion of the spoilers and plunderers of the Lord's people, Isa 17:14.