Isaiah 30:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever. ⁹These are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD's instruction. ¹⁰They say to the seers, "No more visions," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us the truth. Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions. ¹¹Get out of the way; leave the pathway. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel." ¹²Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message, trusting in oppression, and relying on deceit, ¹³this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly-in an instant! ¹⁴It will break in pieces like a potter's jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern." ¹⁵For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: "By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence-but you were not willing." ¹⁶"No," you say, "we will flee on horses." Therefore you will flee! "We will ride swift horses," but your pursuers will be faster. ¹⁷A thousand will take flight at the threat of one, at the threat of five you will flee, until you are left alone like a lone pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thousand: Leviticus 26:8, Leviticus 26:36, Deuteronomy 28:25, Deuteronomy 32:30, Joshua 23:10, Proverbs 28:1, Jeremiah 37:10

till ye: Isaiah 1:7, Isaiah 1:8, Isaiah 37:3, Isaiah 37:4, Nehemiah 1:2, Nehemiah 1:3, Zephaniah 3:12, Zechariah 13:8, Zechariah 13:9, Matthew 24:21, Matthew 24:22

a beacon: or, a tree bereft of branches, or, boughs, or a mast, Isaiah 6:13, Isaiah 27:11, John 15:2-6, Romans 11:17

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 1:42 - for I am not Deuteronomy 28:20 - vexation Joshua 7:4 - fled 1 Samuel 17:24 - sore 2 Chronicles 24:24 - came Isaiah 19:16 - like Isaiah 33:10 - now will I be exalted Isaiah 36:9 - and put Jeremiah 4:29 - shall flee Jeremiah 41:18 - for they Jeremiah 46:6 - not Jeremiah 52:8 - General Lamentations 4:19 - persecutors Ezekiel 11:8 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 30:6
Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son." So she named him Dan.

Genesis 30:22
Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

Genesis 30:26
Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you."

Genesis 30:27
But Laban replied, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you."

Exodus 3:7
The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.

1 Samuel 1:20
So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked for him from the LORD."

Luke 1:13
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

One thousand [shall flee] at the rebuke of one,.... A troop of horse, consisting of a thousand men, shall flee upon the attack and onset of a single person, so dispirited should they be, and so possessed of the fear of the enemy; what was promised to them with respect to their enemies is here turned against them, Leviticus 26:7:

at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; being attacked by a very small number, the whole army should run away: this denotes with what ease they should be routed, and put to flight; and is to be understood, not of what would be at the present time, but of what should come to pass hereafter, when the Chaldean army should come against them;

till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain; or, "as the mast of a ship", so the Septuagint and other versions. Jarchi says it signifies a high tree, or tall piece of wood fixed in the earth, like a ship's mast p, set up to give warning of an enemy's approach, and when, and where, sometimes fires used to be kindled; hence the Targum is,

"till ye are left as a burning torch on the top of a mountain.''

The Syriac version renders it, "as a wild ass", solitary and alone:

and as an ensign on a hill; erected as a trophy of victory. The design of the metaphors is to show that there should be few that should escape falling into the enemy's hand, here and there one, that should he scattered about, and be very thin, as beacons and signs are, and should be warnings to others of pursuing the same foolish and sinful methods and practices.

p So Ben Melech says, it is a high piece of wood in a ship, on which they hang an ensign or flag; and so he interprets the ensign in the next clause of a veil, so called, because they lift it up upon the mast.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

One thousand ... - The sense of this is, that you shall be easily alarmed and overcome by those who are inferior in numbers and strength. The number ‘one thousand,’ is put for a large indefinite number; probably meaning all.

At the rebuke of one - The number one here is put to denote a very small number; a number in the ordinary course of warfare entirely disproportionate to those who would be vanquished. There is probably a reference here to the prediction in Deuteronomy 32:30 :

How should one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Except their Rock had sold them

And Yahweh had shut them up?

At the rebuke of five - Of a very small number.

Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain - The word rendered ‘beacon’ (תרן toren), (Greek ἱστὸς histos, “a mast”), denotes properly the mast of a ship Isaiah 33:23; Ezekiel 27:5; then anything resembling a mast, a flagstaff, or a beacon of any kind. It may refer to a staff or mast erected on a promontory to warn sailors, or to be a landmark - as it is not improbable that the masts of ships would be employed for that purpose; or it may refer to a flagstaff, erected on a conspicuous place, to which the nation could rally in time of war. On the sea coasts of America such beacons are often erected. Those which I have seen consist of a pole erected on an eminence or rising ground, with a cask or barrel painted white on the top. The idea seems to be, that of a long pole erected for any purpose, and which was standing alone, stripped of its leaves and branches, and without ornament. So would be the few, solitary, and scattered Jews when driven before their enemies.

And as an ensign on a hill - (see Isaiah 5:26, note; Isaiah 11:12, note). The idea is, that those who should escape would be few in number, and would stand alone, as a beacon in view of all the nations, to admonish them of the justice of God, and the truth of his threatening - like an ensign floating on a hill that can be seen from afar. What a striking description is this of the condition of the Jews in our times, and indeed in all ages since their dispersion! Their strength, and influence, and power as a people are gone. They stand as beacons to warn the nations of the evils of a want of confidence in God, and of his justice.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 30:17. At the rebuke of five shall ye flee - "At the rebuke of five, ten thousand of you shall flee"] In the second line of this verse a word is manifestly omitted, which should answer to one thousand in the first: the Septuagint supply πολλοι, רבים rabbim. But the true word is רבבה rebabah, as I am persuaded any one will be convinced, who will compare the following passages with this place: -

"How should one chase a thousand;

And two put ten thousand (רבבה) to flight?"

Deuteronomy 32:30.

"And five of you shall chase a hundred;

And a hundred of you shall chase (רבבה) ten thousand."

Leviticus 26:8.