Isaiah 17:11

11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.

Isaiah 17:11 in Other Translations

KJV
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
ESV
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.
NLT
11 They may sprout on the day you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.
MSG
11 And even though you make them grow so well, bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms, Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest you'll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.
CSB
11 On the day that you plant, you will help them to grow, and in the morning you will help your seed to sprout, [but] the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.

Isaiah 17:11 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 17:11

In the day shall thou make thy plant to grow
Not that it is in the power of man to make it grow; but the sense is, that all means and methods should be used to make it grow, no cost nor pains should be spared: and in the morning shall thou make thy seed to flourish;
which may denote both diligence in the early care of it, and seeming promising success; and yet all should be in vain, and to no purpose: [but] the harvest [shall be] a heap in the day of grief;
or "of inheritance"; when it was about to be possessed and enjoyed, according to expectation, it shall be all thrown together in a heap, and be spoiled by the enemy: or, "the harvest" shall be "removed in the day of inheritance" F23; just when the fruit is ripe, and going to be gathered in, the enemy shall come and take it all away; and so, instead of being a time of joy, as harvest usually is, it will be a time of grief and trouble, and of desperate sorrow
too, or "deadly"; which will leave them in despair, without hope of subsistence for the present year, or of having another harvest hereafter, the land coming into the hands of their enemies.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 (hlxn Mwyb ryuq dn) "recedit messis in die hereditatis sive possessionis"; so some in Vatablus.

Isaiah 17:11 In-Context

9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.

Cross References 5

  • 1. Psalms 90:6
  • 2. S ver 5
  • 3. S Leviticus 26:20; Hosea 8:7; Joel 1:11; Haggai 1:6
  • 4. Jeremiah 10:19; Jeremiah 30:12
  • 5. S Deuteronomy 28:39; S Job 4:8
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