Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 17:9
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.
9. his strong cities ] cf. Isa 17:10, the “Rock of thy strength.”
as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch ] Rather, if the text must be kept: “as the deserted places of the forest and the height” (so R.V.). For “forest” cf. 1Sa 23:15; 1Sa 23:19; 2Ch 27:4; Eze 31:3 (“shroud”). “Height” is the word rendered “uppermost bough” in Isa 17:6, which A.V. here follows. The construction in A.V. is altogether at fault, and the meaning “bough” cannot possibly be retained. But this is a case where the LXX. gives the clue to the true text, which reads like the deserted places of the Amorite and the Hivvite (see R.V. marg.). This alone gives an intelligible force to the next clause, and the textual change is comparatively slight save that the two words have been transposed (“Hivvite and Amorite”).
which they left because of ] More strictly, which they forsook before, &c. The passive “were forsaken” (R.V.) is only adopted because the previous clause contains no suitable subject; the LXX. rendering supplies this defect, and at the same time makes the reference clear.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 11. Continued from Isa 17:6. The rejection of Jehovah leads to failure and disappointment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His strong cities – The cities of the united kingdoms of Damascus and Samaria.
Be as a forsaken bough – There has been much difficulty in the interpretation of this passage. Lowth says, No one has ever been able to make any tolerable sense of these words; and proposes himself the translation,
In that day shall his strongly fenced cities become
Like the desertion of the Hivites and the Amorites;
Following in this the translation of the Septuagint, but doing violence to the Hebrew text. Rosenmuller translates it, As the remnant of a grove when the thicket is cut down, and when few trees are left. The word rendered bough ( choresh) means, properly, a thicket, or thick foliage, a wood that is entangled or intricate 1Sa 23:15-16, 1Sa 23:18; 2Ch 27:4; and probably this is the idea here. The phrase may be rendered, as the leavings or residue of a grove, copse, or entangled wood; and the idea is, that as a few trees might be left when the axeman cuts down the grove, so a few inferior and smaller towns should be left in the desolation that would come upon Damascus.
And an uppermost branch – Isa 17:6. As a few berries are left in the topmost branch of the olive, or the vine, so shall I a few cities or people be left in the general desolation.
Which they left – Which are left, or which the invaders would leave.
Because of the children of Israel – literally, from the face, that is, before the children of Israel. Lowth supposes that it refers to the Amorites, who left their land before the Israelites, or gave up their land for them. Vitringa renders it, On account of the children of Israel; and supposes that it means that a few cities were spared by the purpose of God in the invasion by Tiglath-pileser, to be a residence of the Israelites that should remain; or that, for some reason which is not known, the Assyrians chose to spare a few towns, and not wholly to destroy the country. The general idea is plain, that a few towns would be left, and that it would be before the children of Israel, or in their presence, or in order that they might continue to dwell in them. Jerome interprets the whole as referring to the time when the land of Judea was forsaken on the invasion of the Romans.
And there shall be desolation – The land shall be desolated, except the few cities and towns that shall be left, like the gleaning of the olive tree.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch – “the Hivites and the Amorites”] hachoresh vehaamir. No one has ever yet been able to make any tolerable sense of these words. The translation of the Septuagint has happily preserved what seems to be the true reading of the text, as it stood in the copies of their time; though the words are now transposed, either in the text or in their Version; , “the Amorites and the Hivites.” It is remarkable that many commentators, who never thought of admitting the reading of the Septuagint, understand the passage as referring to that very event which their Version expresses; so that it is plain that nothing can be more suitable to the context. “My father,” says Bishop Lowth, “saw the necessity of admitting this variation at a time when it was not usual to make so free with the Hebrew text.” Mr. Parkhurst is not satisfied with the prelate’s adoption of the reading of the Septuagint, “the Hivites and the Amorites.” He thinks the difficult words should be thus rendered; he takes the whole verse: “And his fortified cities shall be like the leaving, or what is left caazubath, of or in a ploughed field, hachoresh, or on a branch which they leave coram, before, the children of Israel.” Which he considers a plain reference to the Mosaic laws relative to the not gleaning of their ploughed fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, but leaving ozeb, somewhat of the fruits, for the poor of the land; Le 9:9-10; De 24:19-21, in the Hebrew. I fear that the text is taken by storm on both interpretations. One MS. has col arey, “all the cities;” and instead of hachalash, “of the branch,” six MSS. have hachodesh, “of the month.” But this is probably a mistake.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In that day; in the day of Jacobs trouble, of which he spake Isa 17:4, and continueth his speech unto these words, and afterwards.
An uppermost branch; which he that pruneth the tree neglecteth, either because he esteems it useless and inconsiderable, or because he cannot reach it.
Which they left because of the children of Israel: the sense is either,
1. Which they, to wit, the enemies, left, or, which shall be left, (the active verb being put impersonally, as it frequently is in the Hebrew text,)
because of or for the children of Israel; which God inclined their hearts to leave or spare, out of his love to his Israel. Thus this is mentioned as a mercy, or mitigation of the calamity. But this seems not to agree either with the foregoing or following words, both which manifestly speak of the greatness of the judgment. And that their strong cities were not left for them, but taken from them, seems evident from Isa 17:3,4. Or,
2. As the cities (which words are easily understood out of the former part of the verse, where they are expressed) which they (to wit, the Canaanites, as the seventy interpreters express it; and it was needless to name them, because the history was so well known to them to whom the prophet writes) left or forsook (which they did either by departing from them, or being destroyed out of them) bemuse of (or before, or for fear of) the children of Israel. And this was a very fit example, to awaken the Israelites to a serious belief of this threatening, because God had inflicted the same judgment upon the Canaanites, and that for the same sins of which they were guilty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. forsaken boughrather “theleavings of woods,” what the axeman leaves when he cuts down thegrove (compare Isa 17:6).
which they left becauseofrather, “which (the enemies) shall leave for thechildren of Israel”; literally, “shall leave (in departing)from before the face of the children of Israel” [MAURER].But a few cities out of many shall be left to Israel, by the purposeof God, executed by the Assyrian.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch,…. Meaning the strong cities of Ephraim or Jacob, the ten tribes, which should be forsaken of their inhabitants; having fled from before the enemy, or being slain or carried captive; like a bough of a tree, that is forsaken stripped of its leaves, and an uppermost branch of a tree that is dead and dry, and has nothing on it:
which they left; or “as they left”, or “were left”:
because of the children of Israel; “from the face of” them; or for fear of them; that is, the same cities which the Canaanites left; and as they left them, or were left by them, for fear of the Israelites; the same, and in the same manner, shall they be left by the Israelites, for fear of the Assyrians; and so the Septuagint version reads the words,
“in that day thy cities shall be forsaken, in like manner as the Amorites and Hivites left them, from the face of the children of Israel;”
and this sense is given by Aben Ezra and Kimchi: though some interpret it of some places being spared and left for the remnant to dwell in; but what follows in this verse, and in the next Isa 17:10, shows the contrary sense:
and there shall be desolation; over all those cities, and in all the land; though Aben Ezra particularly applies it to Samaria, the royal city. Jerom interprets the whole of the cities of Judea being forsaken of their inhabitants, when the Romans besieged Jerusalem, and made the land desolate; which calamity came upon them, for their neglect and forgetfulness of Jesus the Saviour.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Third turn: “In that day will his fortified cities be like the ruins of the forest and of the mountain top, which they cleared before the sons of Israel: and there arises a waste place. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not thought of the Rock of thy stronghold, therefore thou plantedst charming plantations, and didst set them with strange vines. In the day that thou plantedst, thou didst make a fence; and with the morning dawn thou madest thy sowing to blossom: a harvest heap in the day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heart.” The statement in Isa 17:3, “The fortress of Ephraim is abolished,” is repeated in Isa 17:9 in a more descriptive manner. The fate of the strongly fortified cities of Ephraim would be the same as that of the old Canaanitish castles, which were still to be discerned in their antiquated remains, either in the depths of forests or high up on the mountains. The word azubah , which the early translators quite misunderstood, signifies, both here and in Isa 6:12, desolate places that have gone to ruin. They also misunderstood . The Septuagint renders it, by a bold conjecture, ; but this is at once proved to be false by the inversion of the names of the two peoples, which was very properly thought to be necessary. undoubtedly signifies the top of a tree, which is quite unsuitable here. But as even this meaning points back to , extollere , efferre (see at Psa 94:4), it may also mean the mountain-top. The name ha’emori (the Amorites: those who dwell high up in the mountains) proves the possibility of this; and the prophet had this name in his mind, and was guided by it in his choice of a word. The subject of is self-evident. And the reason why only the ruins in forests and on mountains are mentioned is, that other places, which were situated on the different lines of traffic, merely changed their inhabitants when the land was taken by Israel. The reason why the fate of Ephraim’s fortified castles was the same as that of the Amoritish castles, which were then lying in ruins, was that Ephraim, as stated in Isa 17:10, had turned away from its true rocky stronghold, namely from Jehovah. It was a consequence of this estrangement from God, that Ephraim planted , plantations of the nature of pleasant things, or pleasant plantations (compare on Psa 78:49, and Ewald, 287, ab), i.e., cultivated all kinds of sensual accompaniments to its worship, in accordance with its heathen propensities; and sowed, or rather (as zemorah is the layer of a vine) “set,” this garden-ground, to which the suffix ennu refers, with strange grapes, by forming an alliance with a zar (a stranger), namely the king of Damascus. On the very day of the planting, Ephraim fenced it carefully (this is the meaning of the pilpel, sigseg from = , not “to raise,” as no such verb as = , , can be shown to exist), that is to say, he ensured the perpetuity of these sensuous modes of worship as a state religion, with all the shrewdness of a Jeroboam (see Amo 7:13). And the very next morning he had brought into blossom what he had sown: the foreign layer had shot up like a hot-house plant, i.e., the alliance had speedily grown into a hearty agreement, and had already produced one blossom at any rate, viz., the plan of a joint attack upon Judah. But this plantation, which was so flattering and promising for Israel, and which had succeeded so rapidly, and to all appearance so happily, was a harvest heap for the day of the judgment. Nearly all modern expositors have taken ned as the third person (after the form meth , Ges. 72, Anm. 1), and render it “the harvest flees;” but the third person of would be , like the participle in Gen 4:12; whereas the meaning cumulus (a heap), which it has elsewhere as a substantive, is quite appropriate, and the statement of the prophet resembles that of the apostle in Rom 2:5. The day of the judgment is called “the day of ” (or, according to another reading, ), not, however, as equivalent to nachal , a stream (Luzzatto, in giorno di fiumana ), as in Psa 124:4 (the tone upon the last syllable proves this), nor in the sense of “in the day of possession,” as Rosenmller and others suppose, since this necessarily gives to the former objectionable and (by the side of ) improbable verbal sense; but as the feminine of nachleh , written briefly for maccah nachlah (Jer 14:17), i.e., inasmuch as it inflicts grievous and mortal wounds. Ephraim’s plantation is a harvest heap for that day (compare katzir , the harvest of punishment, in Hos 6:11 and Jer 51:33); and the hope set upon this plantation is changed into , a desperate and incurable heartfelt sorrow (Jer 30:15). The organic connection between Isa 17:12-14, which follow, and the oracle concerning Damascus and Israel, has also been either entirely misunderstood, or not thoroughly appreciated. The connection is the following: As the prophet sets before himself the manner in which the sin of Ephraim is punished by Asshur, as the latter sweeps over the Holy Land, the promise which already began to dawn in the second turn bursts completely through: the world-power is the instrument of punishment in the hands of Jehovah, but not for ever.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Doom of Syria and Israel. | B. C. 712. |
9 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. 10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: 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.
Here the prophet returns to foretel the woeful desolations that should be made in the land of Israel by the army of the Assyrians. 1. That the cities should be deserted. Even the strong cities, which should have protected the country, shall not be able to protect themselves: They shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch of an old tree, which has gone to decay, is forsaken of its leaves, and appears on the top of the tree, bare, and dry, and dead; so shall their strong cities look when the inhabitants have deserted them and the victorious army of the enemy pillaged and defaced them, v. 9. They shall be as the cities (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought them in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land, cities which they built not. As the Canaanites then fled before Israel, so Israel should now flee before the Assyrians. And herein the word of God was fulfilled, that, if they committed the same abominations, the land should spue them out, as it spued out the nations that were before them (Lev. xviii. 28), and that as, while they had God on their side, one of them chased a thousand, so, when they had made him their enemy, a thousand of them should flee at the rebuke of one; so that in the cities should be desolation, according to the threatenings in the law, Lev 26:31; Deu 28:51. 2. That the country should be laid waste, Isa 17:10; Isa 17:11. Observe here, (1.) The sin that had provoked God to bring so great a destruction upon that pleasant land. It was for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein. “It is because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation and all the great salvations he has wrought for thee, hast forgotten thy dependence upon him and obligations to him, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, not only who is himself a strong rock, but who has been thy strength many a time, or thou wouldst have been sunk and broken long since.” Note, The God of our salvation is the rock of our strength; and our forgetfulness and unmindfulness of him are at the bottom of all sin. Therefore have we perverted our way, because we have forgotten the Lord our God, and so we undo ourselves. (2.) The destruction itself, aggravated by the great care they took to improve their land and to make it yet more pleasant. [1.] Look upon it at the time of the seedness, and it was all like a garden and a vineyard; that pleasant land was replenished with pleasant plants, the choicest of its own growth; nay, so nice and curious were the inhabitants that, not content with them, they sent to all the neighbouring countries for strange slips, the more valuable for being strange, uncommon, far-fetched, and dear-bought, though perhaps they had of their own not inferior to them. This was an instance of their pride and vanity, and (that ruining error) their affection to be like the nations. Wheat, and honey, and oil were their staple commodities (Ezek. xxvii. 17); but, not content with these, they must have flowers and greens with strange names imported from other nations, and a great deal of care and pains must be taken by hot-beds to make these plants to grow; the soil must be forced, and they must be covered with glasses to shelter them, and early in the morning the gardeners must be up to make the seed to flourish, that it may excel those of their neighbours. The ornaments of nature are not to be altogether slighted, but it is a folly to be over-fond of them, and to bestow more time, and cost, and pains about them than they deserve, as many do. But here this instance seems to be put in general for their great industry in cultivating their ground, and their expectations from it accordingly; they doubt not but their plants will grow and flourish. But, [2.] Look upon the same ground at the time of harvest, and it is all like a wilderness, a dismal melancholy place, even to the spectators, much more to the owners; for the harvest shall be a heap, all in confusion, in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. The harvest used to be a time of joy, of singing and shouting (ch. xvi. 10); but this harvest the hungry eat up (Job v. 5), which makes it a day of grief, and the more because the plants were pleasant and costly (v. 10) and their expectations proportionably raised. The harvest had sometimes been a day of grief, if the crop was thin and the weather unseasonable; and yet in that case there was hope that the next would be better. But this shall be desperate sorrow, for they shall see not only this year’s products carried off, but the property of the ground altered and their conquerors lords of it. The margin reads it, The harvest shall be removed (into the enemy’s country or camp, Deut. xxviii. 33) in the day of inheritance (when thou thoughtest to inherit it), and there shall be deadly sorrow. This is a good reason why we should not lay up our treasure in those things which we may so quickly be despoiled of, but in that good part which shall never be taken away from us.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
9. In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough. He follows out what he had begun to say about driving out the inhabitants of the country; and as the Israelites, trusting to their fortified cities and to their bulwarks, thought that they were in safety, he threatens that they will be of no more use than if enemies were marching through desert places. The view entertained by some, that חורש ( chōrĕsh) and עזובת (ă zūbăth) (6) are proper names of towns, is a forced interpretation. I understand them rather to denote unpleasant and disagreeable places, or that the walls and ditches will contribute no more to their defense than if the Israelites dwelt amidst thickets and bushes.
As they left. (7) Here the particle אשר, ( asher,) I have no doubt, denotes comparison; and therefore I have rendered it in like manner as, which makes the statement of the Prophet to be, in connection with what had been already said, that the people would tremble and flee and be scattered, in the same manner as God had formerly driven out the ancient inhabitants. Those who think that אשר, ( asher,) is a relative are constrained to supply something, and to break up the thread of the discourse. But it simply brings to their remembrance an ancient example, that the Israelites may perceive how vain and deceitful is every kind of defense that is opposed to the arm of God. It is a severe reproach; for the Israelites did not consider that the Lord gave to them that land, as it were, by hereditary right, in order that they might worship him, and that he drove out their enemies to put them in possession of it. And now, by their ingratitude, they rendered themselves unworthy of so great a benefit; and, consequently, when they had been deprived of it, there was good reason why they should feel distresses which were the reverse of their former blessings.
This passage will be made more plain by the writings of Moses, whom the prophets follow; for in the promises he employs this mode of expression, “One of you shall chase a thousand,” (Lev 26:8; Jos 23:10), and in the threatenings, on the other hand, he says, “One shall chase a thousand of you.” (Deu 32:30.) Accordingly, as he struck such terror into the Canaanites, that at the sight of the Israelites they immediately fled, so he punished the ingratitude of the people in such a manner that they had no power to resist. Thus the Lord gave a display of his power in two ways, both in driving out the Canaanites and in punishing his people. The Prophet, therefore, by mentioning that ancient kindness, reproaches the people with ingratitude, forgetfulness, and treachery, that they may acknowledge that they are justly punished, and may perceive that it proceeds from the Lord, that they are thus chased by the enemies to whom they were formerly a terror.
(6) Bogus footnote
(7) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
c. COLLAPSE
TEXT: Isa. 17:9-11
9
In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation
10
For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips:
11
in the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
QUERIES
a.
What were the forsaken places in the wood, etc.?
b.
How does the harvest flee away in the day of grief?
PARAPHRASE
In that day the well fortified cities where they might think to find refuge from disaster will be useless ruins. Their cities will be like the old, ruined fortresses left behind by the Canaanites when Israel occupied the land. The reason for the collapse of your security is that you have forsaken the true God of your salvation and have not given attention to the Rock upon whom alone it is safe to stand. Although you plant your gardens to your pagan images and tender them the most meticulous care and protection, and although they produce blossoms of loveliness, they will not bring you deliverance. What little satisfaction you may have will disappear suddenly and absolutely in the desperate days of judgment to come.
COMMENTS
Isa. 17:9-10 a FORTRESSES: In that day when the Damascus-Israel coalition collapses, Israels defenses and great fortified cities will be as useless as those ruins of the old Canaanite cities still visible in the woods and on mountain tops in Isaiahs day. When will men learn they can never build any fortress (physical, philosophical or psychological) that God cannot overwhelm and reduce to ruins? Men try to fortify themselves with things or ideas against Gods invasion of their selfish goals and aims. Unless a man surrenders to Gods conquest of his heart, mans citadels are inevitably reduced to ruin and the man himself incarcerated in a prison-hell of his own choosing.
Isa. 17:10 b Isa. 17:11 FLOWERS: The reference to planting pleasant plants, and setting strange slips, probably refers to what some ancient writers called little Adonis gardens. They were little gardens of flower pots or baskets with pleasant plants and slips growing in them in adoration of the Greek Adonis cult. The women of Damascus and Israel were giving these pagan gardens of idolatry their most careful and tender attention. It is suggested they may have been doing this to bring about some magical, mystical resurrection of the dead Baal (who during the dry season had died). They even used hothouse-plant methods to promote quick growth and sprouting. They may also have been appeasing the gods of fertility in order to magically insure a good crop at harvest time. Whatever their reasons, Jehovah, through His prophet, predicts that they will not reap what they expect. What they expect to harvest will never materialize. Instead they shall reap days of grief and desperate sorrow.
QUIZ
1.
What day is referred to in Isa. 17:9?
2.
What is the comparison used to illustrate the desolation of Israels cities?
3.
Are there other fortresses man builds to isolate himself from God besides of stone and wood? What are they?
4.
What are the references to plantings and slips?
5.
What is to be the consequence of Israels idolatry?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough.Better, his fortified cities shall be like a forsaken tract of forest and hill-top. These were naturally the usual sites of fortresses (2Ch. 27:4), and the gist of the prediction is that they shall be left uninhabited and in ruins. The LXX., it may be noticed, either followed a different reading or else give a curious paraphrase, thy cities shall be forsaken, like as the Amorites and Hivites forsook them before the face of the children of Israel. The whole verse reminds us of the great forsaking of Isa. 6:12.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Shall his strong cities Those of Ephraim in the day of Assyrian capture.
Be as a forsaken bough Rather, as the abandoned thicket, or forest.
And an uppermost branch Or, mountain height, which men left or abandoned of old, as the Israelites under Joshua compelled. The Septuagint reads: Thy cities shall be “forsaken” in the way the Amorites (mountaineers) and Hivites (lowlanders occupying plains and groves) did forsake (or flee) before the children of Israel. To this rendering essentially most writers now accede. For sins not unlike those of the old races before them is Ephraim also to be punished, and in like way punished, namely, driven from their land.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Woe upon Israel’s Enemies
v. 9. In that day shall his strong cities, v. 10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, v. 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. v. 12. Woe to the multitude of many people, v. 13. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, v. 14. And behold at evening-tide trouble,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 17:9-11. In that day, &c. Isa 17:9. As a forsaken bush and a top shoot;ver. 10. Therefore didst thou plantand didst set, Isa 17:11. In the day of thy planting didst thou make increase, and in the morning madest thy seed to flourish: deplorable will be the harvest in the day of trouble, and sorrow incurable. This period, which is more difficult to be understood than the former, contains in my idea, says Vitringa, a confirmation and amplification of the former judicial sentence, with respect to another degree of judgment, whereby the kingdom of the Ephraimites should be wholly subverted; so that what Tiglath-pileser had left Salmanezer should entirely desolate and destroy, after a few years attacking of the Ephraimites; taking and subverting those cities, which, like berries on the highest and lowest boughs, had been left to this nation. In that day, says the prophet, shall his strong cities, lest, [the Assyrians under Tiglath] because of, or in respect to, the children of Israel; (i.e. that they might not wholly depopulate the land, but leave them some remnant of state and power;) those very cities, I say, shall be taken and destroyed, and among them Samaria, See Jer 9:7. The phrase, It shall be for a desolation, is to be understood collectively, though some suppose that Samaria is here particularly pointed at. In the two next verses we have the defence of the judgment denounced in the 9th, the first part whereof is plain enough: the Ephraimites had forsaken their God, and had placed their confidence in false deities. The latter part is more obscure. Grammatically understood, the meaning is, “Therefore, because thou hast been forgetful of thy God, though thou hast diligently cultivated and planted thy lands with the choicest and best plants of every kind, and hast done every thing to make those plants grow, and to gain increase, yet hast thou profited nothing; for, when the Assyrian army shall come, it shall only be a heap of an harvest, to be consumed in a short time, in the day of thy grief.” But Vitringa thinks the passage, thus understood, not sufficiently sublime for our prophet; and therefore he understands it mystically, concerning the extreme desire of the people of Ephraim for the superstitions of foreign nations, which he elegantly calls, strange, or exotic plants, but which, though obtained and planted by them with the greatest care, should be abolished and destroyed, to their great ignominy and shame, together with the cities and fields in which they were consecrated, and should afford a deplorable harvest in the time of the greatest calamity, even now threatening them from the Assyrian; the truth whereof was proved by the event. See Mat 15:13. 2Ch 30:6 and Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
) The Cause of Ephraims Destruction
Isa 17:9-11
9In that day shall his strong cities be 13as a forsaken bough,
And an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel:
And there shall be desolation.
10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength,
Therefore 14shalt thou plant pleasant plants,
And shalt set it with strange slips:
1115In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,
And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish:
16But the harvest shall be 17a heap in the day of grief
And of desperate sorrow.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 17:9. comp. Isa 6:12. is saltus, forest. David dwelt 1Sa 23:15-16; 1Sa 23:18. Jotham, according to 2Ch 27:4, built castles and towers . Comp. Eze 31:3., beside the present and Isa 17:6, does not occur again. The employment of this rare and ancient word here must be explained partly by the fact of its previous use, Isa 17:6, partly by the fact that in old times not only the tops of trees, but probably also the tops of mountains were so called. For the conjecture of Simon, sanctioned by Gesenius, that the Amorites were named the montani, from an old mons (comp. se efferre Psa 94:4) has certainly much in its favor. The LXX. also found in the name of that ancient race, and hence translated .The subject of is any way the ideal notion contained in what precedes. This notion is likely the occasion also of the change in gender that we observe in what follows (comp. , etc., with , Isa 17:9). That a land may be personified, i.e., identified with the nation is proved by passages like Jer 6:19; Jer 22:29, etc.
Isa 17:10. occurs only here in the first part of Isa.; on the other hand four ties in the second part: Isa 45:8; Isa 51:5; Isa 61:10; Isa 62:11. The expression God of my salvation, is frequent in the Psa 18:47; Psa 25:5; Psa 27:9; Psa 62:8; Psa 65:6, etc., comp. Mic 7:7; Hab 3:18. Psa 31:3, comp. Psa 62:8. = occurs only here. only here in Isaiah. The suffix – relates to the ideal unity ascribed in thought to the garden arrangements.
Isa 17:11. , Pilp, from (comp. , , Isa 5:5) sepire, to fence in, occurs only here.Hiph. of occurs in Isaiah only here; Kal. often: Isa 27:6; Isa 35:1-2; Isa 66:14The words are difficult. True, it is clear in general that the Prophet contrasts the notions of planting, sowing, fencing round, bringing to bloom and that of the harvest. But the question is does he speak of a disappearance of the hoped for harvest, or of the approach of a harvest not hoped for, and unwelcome. The former is maintained by those that take = in the sense of effugit. But the verb where in its inflection has Zere as vowel of the second root syllable. Moreover would not be the right word for the notion of vanishing. One would expect or a similar word. For is moveri, agitari, vagari, errare; it designates, therefore, the state of instability, fluctuation, but not that of non-existence. We stand, therefore, by the usual meaning of , acervus, cumulus: as a heap, heaped up is the harvest in the day of grief. cannot be understood of taking possession, for the word means possession. Moreover, since several Codices and ancient translations read the latter is to be retained. , indeed, occurs elsewhere only in connection with (Jer 10:19; Jer 14:17; Jer 30:12; Neh 3:19) or in the sense of aegrotus (Eze 34:4; Eze 34:21); but the day of the sick (Fem. to correspond to the preceding suffixes) is the day of being sick, as e.g., the time of the one leading is the time of leading (Jer 2:17)., pain, again only Isa 65:14. occurs in Isaiah only here: often in Jer 17:16; Jer 30:12; Jer 30:15, etc.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. This strophe is distinguished from the preceding in this, that it assigns the reason for the destruction threatened against Ephraim. Therefore, after words that refer to both the strophes that precede, and that describe the impending ruin (Isa 17:9), the cause of the same is now named. It consists in this, that Israel has forsaken the God of its salvation. This has its consequence that it cherishes with delight untheocratic, idolatrous existence, like one lays out a pleasure garden and adorns it with exotics (Isa 17:10). Measures are not wanting which should surround that garden as a protecting hedge, and speedily bring it to a certain bloom; but the harvest? True enough there will be harvest in heaps; but not a day of joy. This harvest will be a day of deepest sorrow (Isa 17:11).
2. In that daydesolation.
Isa 17:9. In that day refers back to Isa 17:4; his strong cities to the cities Aroer, Isa 17:2, and the fortress, Isa 17:3; , like forsaken places, to forsaken, Isa 17:2; , the summits, to the summits (of the olive trees), Isa 17:6. By these correspondences the Prophet gives us to understand that he speaks of the same subject as above, But he modifies his manner in two respects. First, he does not speak of the subject in figurative language as Isa 17:4-6, but boldly; second, he proves that the judgment was made necessary by the conduct of Israel. In as much as, therefore, in that day refers to Isa 17:4 (not to Isa 17:7, as the contents plainly show), the Prophet explains the figures used there by a reference to a fact well known to all Israel. In the forests and on elevated spots they had all seen the ruins of very ancient strong buildings that were evidence of the presence of a power long since overcome and vanished away. They were the ruins of castles which the Canaanities forsook, voluntarily or by compulsion, when the Israelites conquered the land (comp. Knobel, in loc.). A time will come when the strong cities of Israel shall lie like these castles. It is plain that this reference to that evidence of fact, besides the figurative language of Isa 17:4-6, was fitted to produce a deep impression.
3. Because thou hastsorrow.
Isa 17:10-11. The evil conduct of Israel that was the cause of that judgment was twofold: 1) the negative reason was the not regarding, forgetting Jehovah: 2) the positive reason was the inclination to an idolatrous existence. In regard to the positive reason, I understand the Prophet to mean not merely the worship of strange gods, but also the political union with foreign powers that was most intimately connected with it, and the inclination to foreign ways in general (comp. Isa 2:6 sqq.). This culture of idolatry is compared to the culture of charming gardens (literally, plantations of lovely things). Israel itself, according to Isa 5:1 sqq. 7, was for Jehovah , his pleasant plant. But the recreant nation, instead of cultivating the service of Jehovah, set up other enclosures that appealed more to their fleshly inclinations, which they sowed with foreign grape vines (properly grape vines of the foreigner), i.e. in which they cultivated foreign grape vines (comp. Jer 2:12) from seed. By these foreign vines must be understood everything untheocratic, all that was connected with heathen life to whose culture Israel devoted itself. The Imperfects express the continuance of the present. For at the time that the Prophet wrote this under Ahaz, this tendency to idolatrous living continued operative. The people provided also a protecting fence (comp. Isa 5:5). By the fencing the Prophet seems to me to understand everything that was undertaken for the purpose of giving security to the idolatrous efforts. That may have been partly positive measures (efforts in favor of idolatry of every sort), and partly negative protection against whatever was done on the part of true Israelites against the worship of idols, persecution of such, comp. e.g. 1Ki 18:4; 1Ki 18:19. The pains of planting and fencing were quickly rewarded: the heathen life bloomed only too soon. The whole history preceding the exile furnishes the proof of this. In the morning means the very next morning after the planting; therefore very quickly. We adhere to the usual meaning of acervus, cumulus: as a heap, heaped up is a harvest in the day of grief. See Text. and Gram. For I would not construe it, with Delitzsch, in the sense: a harvest heap unto the day of judgment, after Rom 2:5. For it does not read , to the day, and in fact the day of the harvest is not distinguished from the day of judgment, which must be assumed by those that explain that the product of the harvesting heaps up for the day of judgment. But the Prophet says: in the day of judgment ( in the day, refers back to in the first member of the verse), which is itself just at the same time the day of harvest, the produce of harvest is there in heaps. But this harvest day is a day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Being such, the harvest is a bad one, and the heaps signify heaped up misfortune. Therefore the Prophet says that the fruit of that planting shall be a harvest that shall come in on the day of grief and incurable pain, thus itself shall have the form of grief and incurable pain.
Footnotes:
[13]like forsaken places in the forests and summits.
[14]thou plantest pleasant gardens and sowest them with foreign seed.
[15]In the day of thy planting thou settest a fence.
[16]But there is a heaped-up harvest in the day, etc.
[17]Or, removed in the day of inheritance, and there shall be deadly sorrow.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
I include the whole under one view, and, besides the general observation to be made upon them as a prophecy, fully accomplished, in after ages, I pray the Reader to make his spiritual reflections upon what is here said, and I venture to believe that he will find a large scope for the most improving application. If the Lord’s Israel do forsake the Lord, the Rock of their salvation, the sure consequence is chastisement and disappointment. The Lord withers their gourds, and a worm will grow out of the root of their most pleasant plants. At evening tide they find trouble, and before the morning their comforts are gone. There is nothing for the soul to rest upon, or find joy in, but Jesus; and if we do not make him our chief happiness, it matters not what else we place it in; for all will deceive, and prove a delusion. Precious Lord! how doth every part of thy blessed word manifest the infinite importance of thyself, and thy great salvation!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 17:9 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.
Ver. 9. Which they left for the children of Israel. ] Which the enemy left, by a sweet providence of God; the like whereto see on Zec 7:14 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
desolation. See note on Isa 1:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 17:9-11
Isa 17:9-11
“In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood, and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be desolate. For thou has forsaken the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips. In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.”
What could more logically have been given a place at this point in the prophecy? It had just been pointed out that Ephraim had adopted the idolatrous religion of the pagans. Very well! God here explained what that really meant for his rebellious children. First (in Isa 17:9) he pointed out that those very groves and hill-tops where the pagan altars were located were absolutely deserted by their worshippers, the pagan gods and goddesses the people adored being totally helpless to stand before the conquering armies of Joshua. Ephraim would not learn from that experience; so here God said, “It shall happen again!” Just as the pagan gods could not help those who were driven out of Palestine to make room for Israel will also be unable to do anything to help the Israelites who have foolishly taken up their false worship. The text bluntly stated it: “And it SHALL BE desolate.” Then, when Israel came into Canaan, it WAS desolate. Now that Israel has adopted paganism, it SHALL be desolate.
“The sense here is that Israel shall be punished with a desolation like that which the former inhabitants experienced at the hands of the Israelites.” Furthermore those pagan gods and goddesses the Israelites have adopted will be able to help Israel no more than they could help those former peoples who lived in Canaan. The forsaking of God and the planting of pleasant plants with strange slips, “Are allegorical expressions for the Israelites’ adoption of strange and idolatrous worship and of the vicious and abominable practices connected with it.” Participation of God’s people in all such pagan rites was strictly forbidden in the Pentateuch. God here promised Israel (Isa 17:11) that “grief and desperate sorrow” were the rewards that lay at the end of the road Israel was traveling.
Isa 17:9-10 a FORTRESSES: In that day- when the Damascus-Israel coalition collapses, Israels defenses and great fortified cities will be as useless as those ruins of the old Canaanite cities still visible in the woods and on mountain tops in Isaiahs day. When will men learn they can never build any fortress (physical, philosophical or psychological) that God cannot overwhelm and reduce to ruins? Men try to fortify themselves with things or ideas against Gods invasion of their selfish goals and aims. Unless a man surrenders to Gods conquest of his heart, mans citadels are inevitably reduced to ruin and the man himself incarcerated in a prison-hell of his own choosing.
Isa 17:10 b – Isa 17:11 FLOWERS: The reference to planting pleasant plants, and setting strange slips, probably refers to what some ancient writers called little Adonis gardens. They were little gardens of flower pots or baskets with pleasant plants and slips growing in them in adoration of the Greek Adonis cult. The women of Damascus and Israel were giving these pagan gardens of idolatry their most careful and tender attention. It is suggested they may have been doing this to bring about some magical, mystical resurrection of the dead Baal (who during the dry season had died). They even used hothouse-plant methods to promote quick growth and sprouting. They may also have been appeasing the gods of fertility in order to magically insure a good crop at harvest time. Whatever their reasons, Jehovah, through His prophet, predicts that they will not reap what they expect. What they expect to harvest will never materialize. Instead they shall reap days of grief and desperate sorrow.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Isa 17:4, Isa 17:5, Isa 6:11-13, Isa 7:16-20, Isa 9:9-12, Isa 24:1-12, Isa 27:10, Isa 28:1-4, Hos 10:14, Hos 13:15, Hos 13:16, Amo 3:11-15, Amo 7:9, Mic 5:11, Mic 6:16, Mic 7:13
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 17:9. In that day The day of Jacobs trouble, of which he spake, Isa 17:4; shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough The cities belonging to the ten tribes shall stand solitary and destitute of inhabitants, all the country about them being destroyed; and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel The sense, says Lowth, is here imperfect: most expositors understand the words of the Assyrians, that they left some cities with a few inhabitants in the kingdom of Israel, that a remnant of that people might be preserved: see Isa 17:6. But the copy which the LXX. followed, instead of the Hebrew words, , hacho-resh vehaamir, that is, bough and uppermost branch, must have read , hachivi vehaemori, the Hivites and Amorites:
for they translate the verse thus: Thy cities shall be forsaken, as when the Hivites and Amorites forsook them, because of the children of Israel. Which reading gives a plain and full sense to the text. Thus also his son, Bishop Lowth: The translation of the LXX has happily preserved what seems to be the true reading of the text, as it stood in the copies of their time. And it is remarkable, that many commentators, who never thought of admitting the reading of the LXX., yet understand the passage as referring to that very event, which their version expresses: so that, it is plain, nothing can be more suitable to the context. Thus understood, the prophets words were calculated to awaken the Israelites to a serious belief of this threatening, as they reminded them that God had inflicted the same judgment upon the Canaanites, and for the same sins of which they were guilty: and therefore gave them reason to apprehend, according to the prediction of Moses, that as they committed the same abominations, the land would spew them out as it spewed out the nations which were before them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17:9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which {l} they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
(l) As the Canaanites left their cities when God placed the Israelites there, so the cities of Israel will not be able to defend their inhabitants any more than bushes, when God will send the enemy to plague them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The land would be a desolation because the Israelites forgot their God and tried to supply their own needs independent of Him. The description of cultivating plants in these verses represents a pagan custom designed to secure the favor of local gods. Rather than trusting in their saving God, the Israelites had planted little seedlings of faith in idols. The Israelites’ horticultural attempts had been frustrating, as had their attempts to produce satisfaction in life and divine help by pursuing other gods.
"What kind of a gardener is he who plants thistles and expects roses! Folly is Israel’s action; she turns to the idols and expects protection." [Note: Young, 1:472.]