Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 17:1

Clarke's Commentary

CHAPTER XVII

Judgments of God upon Damascus, 1-3;

and upon Israel, 4-6.

Good effects of these judgments on the small remnant or

gleaning that should escape them, 7, 8.

The same judgments represented in other but stronger terms,

and imputed to irreligion and neglect of God, 9-11.

The remaining verses are a distinct prophecy, a beautiful

detached piece, worked up with the greatest elegance,

sublimity, and propriety; and forming a noble description of

the formidable invasion and sudden overthrow of Sennacherib,

exactly suitable to the event, 12-14.

This prophecy by its title should relate only to Damascus; but it full as much concerns, and more largely treats of, the kingdom of Samaria and the Israelites, confederated with Damascus and the Syrians against the kingdom of Judah. It was delivered probably soon after the prophecies of the seventh and eighth chapters, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; and was fulfilled by Tiglath-pileser's taking Damascus, and carrying the people captives to Kir, (2 Kings 16:9,) and overrunning great part of the kingdom of Israel, and carrying a great number of the Israelites also captives to Assyria; and still more fully in regard to Israel, by the conquest of the kingdom, and the captivity of the people, effected a few years after by Shalmaneser. - L.

NOTES ON CHAP. XVII

Verse Isaiah 17:1. The burden of Damascus. — Which is, according to the common version, The cities of Aroer are forsaken. It has already been observed by the learned prelate that the prophecy, as it relates to Damascus, was executed in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, probably about the third year. If we credit Midrash, the Damascenes were the most extensive and flagrant of all idolaters. "There were in Damascus three hundred and sixty-five streets, in each of these was an idol, and each idol had his peculiar day of worship; so that the whole were worshipped in the course of the year." This, or any thing like this, was a sufficient reason for this city's destruction.

A ruinous heap — For מעי mei, "a ruinous heap," the Septuagint reads לעי lei, "for a ruin," the Vulgate כעי kei, "as a ruin." I follow the former.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Syria and Israel condemned (17:1-14)

This message belongs to the time of Ahaz, when Israel and Syria joined forces to attack Judah. The two attackers will themselves be destroyed (17:1-3). Israel in particular will suffer, because the nation has turned away from God. Throughout the nation, however, the scattered few remain faithful to God and these will be spared. They are likened to the odd pieces of fruit that remain on the trees after the harvest has been gathered (4-6).
The judgments will be so severe that some of the people will turn from their idolatry and cry to God for help. But for Israel as a whole there will be no help. The nation has followed Canaanite religious practices, and its destruction will be a fitting divine punishment (7-9). People plant sacred gardens and dedicate them to foreign gods, in the hope that this will bring rapid growth in their crops. But if they succeed in getting quick crops, those crops will be trampled and destroyed by the invading army (10-11).
By contrast the nation that remains faithful to God will be protected. Enemies may come against it like a flood, but (to change the illustration) they will be turned back like chaff blown by the wind (12-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. And the fortress 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, saith Jehovah of hosts. And it shall come to pass in that day that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvester gathereth the standing grain, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall be as when one gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the utmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith Jehovah the God of Israel.”

The first three verses here announce “the imminent ruin of Damascus, in which Israel also will be involved.”J. R. Dummelow Commentary,. p. 428. Ephraim, the leading tribe of the Ten Northern Tribes loved to refer to his part of the nation as “Israel”; but it was never so. Those tribes were called “Ephraim” some three dozen times in the prophecy of Hosea.

“The cities of Aroer are forsaken” This could be synonymous with “Transjordan,” “there being two cities of that name east of the Jordan, one on the north bank of the Arnon overlooking its deep gorge, and (2) the one before `Rabbah’ (Joshua 13:25, KJV).”K. A. Kitchen, New Bible Dictionary, p. 85. A third city of the same name was “in the Negeb (Negeb: southland) 12 miles south-east of Beersheba.”Ibid., p. 86. Of course, what is meant by a reference like this is that all of the cities and villages that would be traversed by the invaders from Assyria would be treated to the “scorched earth” policy of warring nations in antiquity. All of the cities of Jerusalem, for example, were totally destroyed by Sennacherib’s invasion that ended in his terrible disaster before the walls of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.

The connective word that looms in the background of every line of this chapter is “Assyrian.” The Assyrian destruction of the entire Palestinian area is the subject here.

The mention of the terrible immediate prospect confronting Israel, all of it, applied also to Damascus and all of the other cities overrun by the cruel Assyrians.

“Those prospects are described under these three figures: (1) that of an emaciated body (Isaiah 17:4); that of a harvest field already harvested (Isaiah 17:5); and (3) that of an olive-tree already threshed (or beaten) (Isaiah 17:6).”T. K. Cheyne’s Commentary, p. 106.

The mention here of a few olives that were left and the gleanings from a harvest field indicate the oft-repeated promise of the Lord that “a remnant shall return” or a remnant shall survive, as symbolized and memorialized in the name of Isaiah’s first son Shear-jashub.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The burden of Damascus - The oracle indicating calamity or destruction to Damascus (see the note at Isaiah 13:1). “Damascus is taken away.” That is, it shall be destroyed. It was represented to the prophet in vision as destroyed (see the note at Isaiah 1:1).

And it shall be a ruinous heap - See Isaiah 35:2. This took place under the kings of Assyria, and particularly under Tiglath-pileser. This was in the fourth year of Ahaz 2 Kings 16:9.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

1.The burden of Damascus. Here he prophesies against the kingdom of Syria, and mentions the chief city in which the seat of the kingdom lay. It was proper that this calamity, like others which came before it, should be described, that the righteous might confidently believe that God would one day assist them, and would not always permit them to be oppressed by the wicked without end. The king of Syria had formed an alliance with Israel against Judah, as we saw formerly in the seventh chapter; and as the Jews were not able to contend with him, and were deprived of other aids, they might also entertain doubts about God’s assistance, as if he had utterly abandoned them. To free them, therefore, from these doubts, he threatens the destruction of that kingdom, from which they would readily conclude that God fought in defense of his people.

It is uncertain at what time Isaiah uttered this prophecy, for, as I have already remarked, he does not follow the order of time in threatening against each nation the punishment which it deserved. But, as far as I am able to conjecture, he foretold those events at the time when those two kings, that is, the kings of Israel and Syria, invaded Judea, and entered into a league to destroy it and the whole Church, (Isaiah 7:1;) for, by joining together the Israelites and the Syrians, he summons them to a mutual judgment, in order to show that the only advantage which they had derived from the wicked and disgraceful conspiracy was, to be involved in the same destruction. In this manner Isaiah intended to comfort godly persons who were of the tribe of Judah; for he has his eye chiefly on them, that they may not be discouraged, and not on the Syrians, or even the Israelites, whose destruction he foretells.

Behold, Damascus is taken away. The demonstrative particle, Behold, seals the certainty of the prophecy. When he expressly mentions Damascus, it does not follow from this that the other parts of the kingdom are exempted, but it was customary with the prophets to take a part for the whole, so as to include under the destruction of the metropolis the fate of the whole nation; for what must ordinary towns expect when the citadel of the kingdom has been stormed? Yet there is another reason why the Prophets pronounce heavier threatenings on the chief and royal cities, and especially direct their discourse against them. It is, because a polluted flood of crimes overflows from them into the whole country.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 17

Now he turns his prophecy against Damascus, which, of course, was the capital of Syria. Now Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel had confederated together to stand against Assyria. As Assyria became a very definite threat, Syria knew that she could not stand against Assyria alone so she sought to confederate with Ephraim and Manasseh, the major tribes of the Northern Kingdom. And they were hoping by a confederation to stop the Assyrian invasion. And so he prophesies first against Damascus, but then he begins to weave in also Ephraim and Manasseh, declaring that even through their confederation they will not be able to withstand the Assyrian invasion that they were going to all of them fall at the hands of the Assyrians.

The burden of Damascus. Behold, it is taken away from being a city, and it is going be a ruinous heap ( Isaiah 17:1 ).

The Assyrians are going to just smash down Damascus.

The cities of Aroer are forsaken ( Isaiah 17:2 ):

And in these places where the cities once existed, they will now be herding their flocks of sheep and it will be so desolate from people that the sheep won't even be bothered by people. The sheep will be grazing in what was once the cities of Syria.

The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim ( Isaiah 17:3 ),

Coming down now to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. And 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 [thin,] lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, and the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top ( Isaiah 17:3-6 )

In other words, God is declaring that the inhabitants are going to be destroyed. They will be like the gleaning of an olive tree. There will just be a few berries on the top. There will be just a few grapes left on the vine, but it's like the Assyrians have come through and harvested and wiped out the majority of people and just a few people remain.

The Assyrians were extremely cruel people. According to the record of history, there were many cities, which, when were surrounded by the Assyrian army and it was obvious that there was no chance of escape, much like Masada the entire populace of the city would commit suicide. Rather than to be captured by the Assyrians, because they treated their captives so cruelly. They would pull out their tongues. They would gouge out their eyes. They would commit all kinds of atrocities against the captives. And so people were extremely fearful of Assyria and would oftentimes, entire cities you'd have a mass suicide rather than being taken captive by these Assyrians.

That is why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh to declare the judgment of God, because he was afraid that the Ninevites might repent and God wouldn't wipe them out. And so he had no intention of going. When God said, "Go to Nineveh and warn them My judgment is coming," Jonah took off the other way because he wanted God to wipe Nineveh out. And he was afraid if he went and preached, they might repent and God would... He knew God was gracious and merciful and God might relent and not wipe them out. So that's why Jonah took off the other way. He was a true patriot. He wanted Assyria, the Ninevites to be wiped out.

In fact, you remember that Jonah was sitting out there pouting after the whole thing. God says, "What's the matter? You have any right to be upset?" "You bet your life I have a right to be upset. This is exactly what I thought was going to happen. I knew You were merciful and gracious. I knew that they might repent and that You would forgive them. Now You haven't wiped them out." Boy, he was mad! And it's interesting what God said. "The reason why I didn't wipe them out is because there are a hundred and twenty thousand little children in that city that are so small that they don't even know their right hand from their left hand." God's mercy upon the children and for the children's sake spared the city. But we'll get to the story of Jonah later, but it gives you...

Here the whole thing is fitting together. Assyria is getting ready to move against Moab, getting ready to move against Syria and against the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they are all going to fall. The Northern Kingdom of Israel is going to be left just a few people. Just like a few berries in the top of the olive tree. Just a few grapes in a vineyard that has already been harvested. Just the gleaning.

At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel ( Isaiah 17:7 ).

Those that remain will be turning to God.

He will not look to the altars ( Isaiah 17:8 ),

That they have created. The worship of Baal and the groves and so forth that they have made. The false worship for which God's judgment came against them.

In 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. Because you hast forgotten the God of your salvation, you have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning that thou shall make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow ( Isaiah 17:9-11 ).

So because they had forgotten God, they had turned away from Him and were worshipping these other gods, the reason why God has allowed this judgment using Assyria as His tool of judgment to destroy Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital Samaria. But yet, though Assyria is used as a tool of God's judgment, God turns His word against Assyria.

Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas ( Isaiah 17:12 );

In other words, the noise of their armies coming is just like the roar of the sea.

and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The 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. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not ( Isaiah 17:12-14 ).

God will wipe them out. In the evening they'll be there, but in the morning they'll not be there. Now here is a hint at the destruction of the Assyrians. The Assyrians did come. They did conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They did conquer Moab. They did even go down and conquer Ashdod and on down into Egypt and Ethiopia. But they did not conquer Judah. Now here in Judah, as the Assyrians were coming and all, Hezekiah was the king, and Isaiah was his counselor; he was saying, "Hey, don't worry about it. They're not going to conquer us. Don't be afraid. God is going to stand for us. Now don't worry about it. You're not going to have to fight this battle. This is the Lord's battle. He is going to stand up and fight for us." And Isaiah was telling him, "Hey, you don't have to worry about this. God's going to take care of things."

But, of course, Hezekiah was busy building the tunnel from the spring of Gihon over the pool of Siloam to bring the water into the city so that they would have water in the city when the Assyrians invaded and cut the city off and all. But yet, all the while Isaiah was encouraging the king to trust in the Lord that God would deliver. And the Assyrians brought their invading army against Jerusalem. And they were making all of their threats; the Rabshakeh said to the men, "Where is the God of the Samarians? Where is the God of the Syrians? Where is the God of the Egyptians? We wiped them all out. Don't let Hezekiah lead you into a false trust of your God saying our God will deliver. What God is able to deliver from the hand of the Assyrians?" And blaspheming God.

Isaiah said, "Watch this now. God's going to take care of him. Don't worry about it, Hezekiah." Hezekiah took the letter, he spread it out before the Lord; he wept. He said, "God, look what they're saying. Look what they're doing." And an angel of the Lord went through the camp of the Assyrians and in one night he wiped out 185,000 of their frontline troops. When the Israelis awoke in the morning and looked over the wall to see their enemy, they were nothing but corpses on the ground. In a night, in the morning they'll not be there. And of course, the Lord... We'll get out into a little bit further where... Actually there were so many corpse that the birds and the beasts feed on them for a long time. You can imagine what a feast that would be for vultures. Hundred and eighty-five thousand carcasses to feed on. "In the evening time, trouble; and before the morning it's gone, they are not."

This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us ( Isaiah 17:14 ).

This is God's judgment against Assyria. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God announced that Damascus and the cities of Syria, plus Samaria ("the fortified city," Isaiah 17:3), would soon fall. Assyria destroyed Damascus in 732 B.C. and Samaria in 722 B.C. These cities would lose their sovereignty and glory and would become grazing lands instead of population centers. Nevertheless the almighty God promised that there would be a few people left in Syria, as there would be in Ephraim (cf. Isaiah 18:7).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The burden of Damascus,.... A heavy and grievous prophecy, concerning the destruction of it; the Arabic version is,

"the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Damascus;''

and the Targum is,

"the burden of the cup of cursing to give Damascus to drink.''

Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city; a kingdom, as the Targum; it was the head of one, but now its walls were demolished, its houses pulled down, and its inhabitants carried captive; this was done by Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, 2 Kings 16:9 it had been a very ancient city, see Genesis 15:2 and the head of the kingdom of Syria, Isaiah 7:8, and though it underwent this calamity, it was rebuilt again, and was a city of great fame, when destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 49:24 after which it was raised up again, and was in being in the apostle's time, and still is, Acts 9:22

2 Corinthians 11:32

and it shall be a ruinous heap; or a heap of stones, as the Targum and Kimchi interpret it. A "behold" is prefixed to the whole, as being very wonderful and remarkable, unthought of, and unexpected.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.   2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.   3 The 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, saith the LORD of hosts.   4 And 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.   5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

      We have here the burden of Damascus; the Chaldee paraphrase reads it, The burden of the cup of the curse to drink to Damascus in; and, the ten tribes being in alliance, they must expect to pledge Damascus in this cup of trembling that is to go round. 1. Damascus itself, the head city of Syria, must be destroyed; the houses, it is likely, will be burnt, as least the walls, and gates, and fortifications demolished, and the inhabitants carried away captive, so that for the present it is taken away from being a city, and is reduced not only to a village, but to a ruinous heap,Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 17:1. Such desolating work as this does sin make with cities. 2. The country towns are abandoned by their inhabitants, frightened or forced away by the invaders: The cities of Aroer (a province of Syria so called) are forsaken (Isaiah 17:2; Isaiah 17:2); the conquered dare not dwell in them, and the conquerors have no occasion for them, nor did they seize them for want, but wantonness; so that the places which should be for men to live in are for flocks to lie down in, which they may do, and none will disturb nor dislodge them. Stately houses are converted into sheep-cotes. It is strange that great conquerors should pride themselves in being common enemies to mankind. But, how unrighteous soever they are, God is righteous in causing those cities to spue out their inhabitants, who by their wickedness had made themselves vile; it is better that flocks should lie down there than that they should harbour such as are in open rebellion against God and virtue. 3. The strongholds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, will be brought to ruin: The fortress shall cease from Ephraim (Isaiah 17:3; Isaiah 17:3), that in Samaria, and all the rest. They had joined with Syria in invading Judah very unnaturally; and now those that had been partakers in sin should be made partakers in ruin, and justly. When the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, by which Israel will be weakened, the kingdom will cease from Damascus, by which Syria will be ruined. The Syrians were the ring-leaders in that confederacy against Judah, and therefore they are punished first and sorest; and, because they boasted of their alliance with Israel, now that Israel is weakened they are upbraided with those boasts: "The remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel; those few that remain of the Syrians shall be in as mean and despicable a condition as the children of Israel are, and the glory of Israel shall be no relief or reputation to them." Sinful confederacies will be no strength, no stay, to the confederates, when God's judgments come upon them. See here what the glory of Jacob is when God contends with him, and what little reason Syria will have to be proud of resembling the glory of Jacob. (1.) It is wasted like a man in a consumption, Isaiah 17:4; Isaiah 17:4. The glory of Jacob was their numbers, that they were as the sand of the sea for multitude; but this glory shall be made thin, when many are cut off, and few left. Then the fatness of their flesh, which was their pride and security, shall was lean, and the body of the people shall become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Israel died of a lingering disease; the kingdom of the ten tribes wasted gradually; God was to them as a moth,Hosea 5:12. Such is all the glory of this world: it soon withers, and is made thin; but thee is a far more exceeding and external weight of glory designed for the spiritual seed of Jacob, which is not subject to any such decay--fatness of God's house, which will not wax lean. (2.) It is all gathered and carried away by the Assyrian army, as the corn is carried out of the field by the husbandmen, Isaiah 17:5; Isaiah 17:5. The corn is the glory of the fields (Psalms 65:13); but, when it is reaped and gone, where is the glory? The people had by their sins made themselves ripe for ruin, and their glory was as quickly, as easily, as justly, and as irresistibly, cut down and taken away, as the corn is out of the field by the husbandman. God's judgments are compared to the thrusting in of the sickle when the harvest is ripe,Revelation 14:15. And the victorious army, like the careful husbandmen in the valley of Rephaim, where the corn was extraordinary, would not, if they could help it, leave an ear behind, would lose nothing that they could lay their hands on.