이사야 Chapter 17

Translation: ESV

1

An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.

Key Message

No matter how ancient or powerful a city may be, it can become a heap of ruins before God's judgment.

▸This is a judgment oracle concerning Damascus (the capital of Syria).

This is a judgment oracle concerning Damascus (the capital of Syria). It is a shocking declaration that powerful Damascus will become a heap of ruins. Historically, Damascus was captured by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 732 BC.

Related Verses

Thus says the LORD: 'For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.'
2

The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.

Key Message

Cities once full of people becoming pastureland for flocks is the stark reversal brought by judgment.

▸The cities of the Damascus region will become pastureland.

3

The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.

Key Message

Wicked alliances perish together, and God's judgment falls regardless of alliance relationships.

▸Ephraim (northern Israel) and Damascus (Syria) are judged together.

4

And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

Key Message

Prosperity apart from God does not last long, and apparent glory vanishes in an instant under God's judgment.

▸The glory of northern Israel disappears and the plump flesh grows lean.

5

And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

Key Message

God's judgment is as thorough as a harvest, leaving nothing behind.

▸Israel will be removed like grain gathered at harvest time.

6

Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten—two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.

Key Message

No matter how thorough the judgment, God preserves a remnant, and God's history continues through these remnant.

▸Even amid complete judgment, a remnant will exist.

7

In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

Key Message

The ultimate purpose of judgment is for human beings to turn from idols and return to the Creator God.

▸After judgment, the remnant look to the God who created them.

8

He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look to what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

Key Message

True repentance is abandoning idols and looking only to God, and this is the fruit that judgment produces.

▸This forms a contrast with verse 7.

9

In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

Key Message

A nation that disobeys God's word meets the same fate as those they once drove out.

▸The strong cities of Israel that abandoned their idols will become desolate.

10

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,

Key Message

The root of all spiritual decline is forgetting the God of salvation, and when God is forgotten, other things fill that place.

▸The reason for Israel's judgment is presented: forgetting the God of salvation and not remembering the Rock of refuge.

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.

Key Message

All efforts that depend on things other than God bear no fruit on the day of grief.

▸Even if foreign religion is earnestly followed with planting, there will be no harvest.

12

Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

Key Message

Even if the nations' threat seems as overwhelming as sea waves, it is silenced before God's sovereignty.

▸The roar of the armies of many nations is compared to the sound of sea waves.

13

The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

Key Message

A single rebuke from God scatters all the military power of the nations, and true security lies in God.

▸The overwhelming armies of the nations scatter like chaff and leaves at a single rebuke from God.

14

At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

Key Message

God's enemies may look powerful in the evening but vanish before morning, and this is the portion that plunderers receive.

▸Terror coming in the evening and disappearing before morning depicts the transience of the armies of the nations.