CHAPTER 17

(741 B.C.)

AN ORACLE CONCERNING THE RUIN OF DAMASCUS

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. (The defeat of Rezin and the destruction of Damascus was fulfilled by the Assyrians [II Ki. 16:5-8].)

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. (The destruction of these cities was to be so complete that cattle would pasture on their former sites; there would be no man to drive them away.)

³The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of Hosts. (The Prophecy was that Ephraim was to be destroyed. Sargon did not destroy Samaria on the occasion of his first capture, but he says that he reduced it to a heap of ruins on the occasion of his second capture.

In effect, when the Lord speaks of the remnant of Syria being as the glory of the Children of Israel, He is using irony.)

⁴And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. (The Holy Spirit continues to speak of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.)

⁵And it shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn, and reaps the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he who gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim. (Death is the harvestman here and gathers the Israelites by shocks or sheaves into his garner. It is a dire Prophecy.)

⁶Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, says the LORD God of Israel. (Due to the great destruction by the Assyrians, the remnant of Syria and Ephraim would be small.)

⁷At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. (After the terrible chastisement, the remnant left had a tendency to look to the Lord instead of their idols. This took place about 75 years after Isaiahs Prophecy.)

⁸And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. (In this Verse, we are told that Israel finally ceased their idol-worship.)

⁹In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the Children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. (Normally the phrase, in that day, applies to the Endtime, and especially the Millennium; however, it rather applied here to the destruction by the Assyrians, which would take place not too many years distant.)

¹⁰Because you have forgotten the God of your Salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore shall you plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips (the reasons are here given for the great chastisement of the Northern Kingdom of Israel):

¹¹In the day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. (Again, the Holy Spirit speaks of this coming time when even the crops would be destroyed.)

¹²Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! (The Prophecy, although continuing, no longer refers to Israels present problems, but to a later time; actually, Verses 12 through 14 refer to the coming Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, and the Battle of Armageddon.)

¹³The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

¹⁴And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them who spoil us, and the lot of them who rob us. (This pictures the gathering of many nations against Israel at the Battle of Armageddon. It will be at that time when God will rebuke them and fight for Israel [Ezek., Chpts. 38-39; Joel, Chpt. 3; Zech., Chpt. 14; Rev., Chpt. 19].)