In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
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Isaiah 17:9-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.
“It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel. In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles, or the incense altars. In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
Parallel Translations
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In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.
In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
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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 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:
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.
Show all 3 translations
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In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken places, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel, after the manner of woods and lofty forests; and it shall be a desolation.
For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and thou hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy stronghold; therefore thou didst plant plants of pleasantness, and didst set it with slips of a stranger;
In the day of thy planting thou didst make it to grow, and in the morning thou didst make thy seed to blossom — a heap of boughs in the day of grief and of desperate pain.
Cross-references (64)
- Deuteronomy 32:18 (v10) Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
- Psalms 106:21 (v10) They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
- Isaiah 26:4 (v10) Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
- Jeremiah 2:32 (v10) “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.
- Deuteronomy 32:4 (v10) The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
Show all 64 cross-references
- Job 4:8 (v11) According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
- Hosea 8:7 (v11) For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield,…
- Hosea 13:6-7 (v10) According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me. Therefore…
- Deuteronomy 32:31 (v10) For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.
- Psalms 85:4 (v10) Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.
- Psalms 106:13 (v10) They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel,
- Isaiah 12:2 (v10) Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my…
- Isaiah 51:13 (v10) Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually…
- Jeremiah 12:13 (v10) They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits,…
- Jeremiah 17:13 (v10) Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they…
- Hosea 8:14 (v10) For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and…
- Leviticus 26:16 (v10) I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to…
- Leviticus 26:20 (v10) Your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won’t yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
- Deuteronomy 6:12 (v10) then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
- Deuteronomy 8:11 (v10) Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today;
- Deuteronomy 8:14 (v10) then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
- Deuteronomy 8:19 (v10) It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today…
- Deuteronomy 28:30 (v10) You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard,…
- Deuteronomy 28:38-42 (v10) You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. You will plant vineyards and dress…
- Deuteronomy 32:15 (v10) But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and…
- 1 Chronicles 16:35 (v10) Say, “Save us, God of our salvation! Gather us together and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in…
- Psalms 68:19-20 (v10) Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens, even the God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the…
- Psalms 79:9 (v10) Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
- Psalms 90:6 (v11) In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.
- Isaiah 18:5-6 (v11) For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks,…
- Isaiah 27:10 (v9) For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will…
- Isaiah 65:13-14 (v11) Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be…
- Isaiah 65:21-22 (v10) They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will…
- Jeremiah 5:31 (v11) The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end…
- Hosea 9:1-4 (v11) Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every…
- Hosea 9:16 (v11) Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their…
- Hosea 10:12-15 (v11) Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes…
- Joel 1:5-12 (v11) Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. For a…
- Amos 3:11-15 (v9) Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be…
- Matthew 8:11-12 (v11) I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, but…
- Romans 2:5 (v11) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
- Romans 2:8-9 (v11) but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, oppression, and anguish…
- Galatians 6:7-8 (v11) Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh…
- Psalms 9:17 (v10) The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
- Psalms 18:2 (v10) Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high…
- Psalms 31:2 (v10) Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defense to save me.
- Psalms 65:5 (v10) By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are…
- Isaiah 6:11-13 (v9) Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,…
- Isaiah 7:16-20 (v9) For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. Yahweh will bring…
- Isaiah 9:9-12 (v9) All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart, “The bricks have…
- Isaiah 17:4-5 (v9) “It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean. It will be like when…
- Isaiah 24:1-12 (v9) Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. It will be as with the people, so…
- Isaiah 28:1-4 (v9) Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile…
- Hosea 2:13-14 (v10) I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went…
- Hosea 4:6 (v10) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to…
- Hosea 10:14 (v9) Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day…
- Hosea 13:15-16 (v9) Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will…
- Amos 5:11 (v10) Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in…
- Amos 7:9 (v9) The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with…
- Micah 5:11 (v9) I will cut off the cities of your land, and will tear down all your strongholds.
- Micah 6:16 (v9) For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and her…
- Micah 7:13 (v9) Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
- Habakkuk 3:18 (v10) yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
- Zephaniah 1:13 (v10) Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9–11 As the Canaanites left their cities when God did…
As the Canaanites left their cities when God did place the Israelites there, so the cities of Israel shall no more be able to defend their inhabitants than bushes, when God shall send the enemy to plague them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Isa 17:9 In that day shall his strong cities…
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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–11 In that day; in the day of Jacob’s trouble,…
In that day; in the day of Jacob’s 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.
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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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v9 Here the prophet returns to foretel the woeful desolations…
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, Isa 17:9. 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 18:28), 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 (Eze 27:17); 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 (Isa 16:10); but this harvest the hungry eat up (Job 5:5), which makes it a day of grief, and the more because the plants were pleasant and costly (Isa 17:10) 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, Deu 28:33) 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–11 In that day shall his strong cities be as…
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":
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–11 In - The day of Jacob's trouble, of which…
In - The day of Jacob's trouble, of which he spake ver. 4. Uppermost branch - Which he that prunes the tree neglects, because he esteems it useless and inconsiderable. Left - Which they (the Canaanites) left or forsook because of (or for fear of) the children of Israel. And this was a fit example, to awaken the Israelites to a serious belief of this threatening, because God had inflicted the same judgment upon the Canaanites, for the same sins of which they were guilty.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Verse 9. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost…
Verse 9. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch - "the Hivites and the Amorites"] החרש והאמיר 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; οἱ Αμαρῥαιοι και οἱ Ευαιοι, "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 כעזובת caazubath, of or in a ploughed field, החרש 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 עזב 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 כל ערי col arey, "all the cities;" and instead of החלש hachalash, "of the branch," six MSS. have החדש hachodesh, "of the month." But this is probably a mistake.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Isa 17:9. In that day — The day of…
Isa 17:9. In that day — The day of Jacob’s 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, החרשׁ והאמיר, hacho-resh vehaamir, that is, bough and uppermost branch, must have read החוי והאמרי, 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 prophet’s 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–11 His strong cities - The cities of the united…
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,
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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’ (חרשׁ 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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Left. By the Chanaanites, when the children of Israel…
Left. By the Chanaanites, when the children of Israel came into their land. (Challoner) --- Their consternation was become proverbial, Josue ii. 9., and v. 11.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v9 ג) The Cause of Ephraim’s Destruction
ג) The Cause of Ephraim’s Destruction
Isa_17:9-11
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9 In 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.
10 Because 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:
11 15In 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. עזובה comp. Isa_6:12.—חֹרֶשׁ is saltus, “forest.” David dwelt בַּחֹרְשָׁה 1Sa_23:15-16; 1Sa_23:18. Jotham, according to 2Ch_27:4, built castles and towers בֶּֽחֳרָשִׁים. Comp. Eze_31:3.—אָמִיר, 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 אֱמֹר mons (comp. הִתְאַמֵּר se efferre Psa_94:4) has certainly much in its favor. The LXX. also found in אמיר the name of that ancient race, and hence translated οῖ Ἀμοῤῥαῖοι καὶ οἳ Εὐαῖοι.—The subject of והיתה is any way the ideal notion אֶרֶץ contained in what precedes. This notion is likely the occasion also of the change in gender that we observe in what follows (comp. שׁכחת, ישׁעך etc., with מעזו, 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. יֵשַׁע 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 אלהי ישׁעי “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.—צוּר מַעוֹז Psa_31:3, comp. Psa_62:8.—נעמן = נָעִים occurs only here.—זמרה only here in Isaiah. The suffix -עֶנּוּ relates to the ideal unity ascribed in thought to the garden arrangements.
Isa_17:11. שִׂגְשֵׂג, Pilp, from שׂוּג (comp. סוּג, שׂךְ, מְשׂוּכָּה Isa_5:5) sepire, “to fence in,” occurs only here.—Hiph. of פרח occurs in Isaiah only here; Kal. often: Isa_27:6; Isa_35:1-2; Isa_66:14—The words נד קציר וגו 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 נֵד = נָד in the sense of effugit. But the verb נוּד where in its inflection has Zere as vowel of the second root syllable. Moreover נָד would not be the right word for the notion of vanishing. One would expect אָבַד or a similar word. For נוּד 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 נֵד, acervus, cumulus: “as a heap, heaped up is the harvest in the day of grief.”—נַֽחֲלָה cannot be understood of taking possession, for the word means possession. Moreover, since several Codices and ancient translations read נַחְלָה the latter is to be retained. נַחְלָה, indeed, occurs elsewhere only in connection with מַכָּה (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).—כְּאֵב, “pain,” again only Isa_65:14.—אנוֹש 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 day—desolation.
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; כעזובת, “like forsaken places,” to “forsaken,” Isa_17:2; האמיר, “the summits,” to אמיר “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 hast—sorrow.
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 נְטַע שַֽׁעֲשׁוּעָיו, “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 נֵד 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 לְיוֹם, “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 (ביום “in the day,” refers back to ביום 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.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–11 forsaken bough--rather "the leavings of woods," what the axeman…
forsaken bough--rather "the leavings of woods," what the axeman leaves when he cuts down the grove (compare Isa 17:6).
which they left because of--rather, "which (the enemies) shall leave for the children 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 purpose of God, executed by the Assyrian.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. Shall his strong cities — Those of Ephraim…
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. his strong cities] cf. Isa_17:10,—the “Rock of thy…
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”).
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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.
9–11. Continued from Isa_17:6. The rejection of Jehovah leads to failure and disappointment.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 (9) In that day shall his strong cities be…
(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.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–11 In that day. While a remnant of the Israelites…
In that day. While a remnant of the Israelites shall repent and turn to God, throwing in their lot with Judah, as it would seem the country generally shall feel the weight of God"s chastening hand, on account of Israel"s former sins and offences. As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch; rather, as the forsaken tract of woodland and mountain-crest (Kay). The reference is to the condition of the land when it passed out of the possession of the Canaanitish nations. It was then forsaken and desolate. So shall it be once more, when Israel is expelled for the same sins. (see 2Ki_17:7, 2Ki_17:8) Which they left because of the children of Israel; rather, which men forsook before the children of Israel; i.e. from which the Canaanites fled as the children of Israel advanced and took possession. The writer ignores the long and fierce struggle which the Canaanites made, and looks only to the result retirement from a desolated country.
Vers. 9-11. Forgetfulness of God and its consequences.
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I GOD AS AN OBJECT OF THE SOUL"S ATTENTION. He is the "God of men"s salvation." His Name calls up all those ideas of power, of grace, of goodness, necessary to the Deliverer, the Savior. To acknowledge that such a Being exists is not enough; the eye of the spirit must be turned to him, its gaze fixed upon him, its ear bent towards the place of his holy oracle. Micah says in evil times, "I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." To think of God in his moral relations to us brings confidence and security to the heart. And hence the expressive image of the Rock on which the fortress stands, as symbolic of him, so frequently employed in Scripture. (Deu_32:4, Deu_32:15, Deu_32:18, Deu_32:30, Deu_32:31, 37 1Sa_2:2 2Sa_22:2, 2Sa_22:3, 32 Psa_18:31, 46 19:14 28:1 30:1, 2) How much depends in our intellectual life on attraction the grasp of objects, the remembrance of what they are, the firm hold of principles and truths I Impressions are made upon us as in wax or in running water, without this tension of the will. And how in various ways does Scripture press upon us the need of attention in religious things! "Earnestly give heed," "Remember," "Be mindful," "Look unto the Lord," etc., are all exhortations implying the need of prayer and habitual direction of the spirit to higher things. There can be no clear memory and no confident expectation where the mind has been lax and listless.
II CONSEQUENCES OF FORGETTING GOD. Ephraim, turning away from its true rocky stronghold in Jehovah, will see its own castles lie in ruin and desolation. The estrangement from God is marked by indulgence in pleasure and idolatry. The people planted pleasant gardens, and sowed them with strange grapes; i.e. formed an alliance with a stranger, the King of Damascus. And these new institutions were carefully fenced, i.e. apparently they were established as a state religion. "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, 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 judgment." The closing words of this strophe are impressive: "The day of grief and desperate sorrow;" or, "The day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heat." Let us fix on these words. Let us forget Ephraim for the moment, and think of the individual, think of ourselves. The words hint at remorse, which has been called "the echo of a lost virtue." It will come upon all of us in so far as, remembering many things not to be neglected, self-interest, duty to family, Church, country, we have yet forgotten the one thing needful have not brought all our life"s concerns into that unity which reference to the Supreme Will imparts. Life should be direct and simple; a simple piety can only render it so. There may be mindfulness about many things, distracting us from the central interest. How can it avail us to have remembered to be prudent, to have regarded public opinion, to have taken care to be with the majority, to swim with the stream, and in the end we find that this has been a turning of the back on God, and so an illusion, a misconception of life? For if God be remembered, nothing important will be forgotten; if he be forgotten, nothing is truly seen attention is beguiled by fantasy, and life becomes the pursuit of a dream. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.
Isa_17:10-11
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.
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Forgetfulness of God punished
I. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SIN HERE SPOKEN OF. Forgetfulness of God.
1. What is this forgetfulness of God? It has been defined as such a habitual inattention to His existence and character, as leads the individual under its influence to a mode of thinking, feeling, and acting, which would be consistent only on the supposition that there were no God, or that God is a very different Being from what the Scriptures represent Him to be.
2. It is a startling sin. Everything around us is designed and fitted to remind us of God. The Bible unfolds the moral character of God. Sharp dispensations of providence remind us of His existence. Preachers enforce His claims. Each returning Sabbath, with its closed shutters, the sound of the church going bell, and the voice of praise from the lips of the pious, says, Worship God. But many would rather think about anything, or nothing, than about God.
3. It is a fearfully prevalent sin.
4. It is an ungrateful sin (Isa_1:2-3).
5. It is a highly punishable sin. Many people imagine that none are sinners but those who openly sin. But what of the moral man, who does his duty towards his fellow men, but who forgets God?
II. THE RESULTS OF THIS FORGETFULNESS OF GOD.
1. Dwarfed powers. Men cannot, if they wish, be totally inactive. If activity be not devoted to God, it will be devoted to the world, to planting pleasant plants.
2. Secular knowledge is a pleasant plant.
3. Wealth is a pleasant plant.
4. Ambition is a pleasant plant.
5. Amusement is a pleasant plant.
6. Hence observe the ultimate result of this conduct. The harvest shall be a heap, etc. Sooner or later men reap what they sow. Sin and suffering are bound together by an unbreakable chain. The gods are just, says Shakespeare, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to scourge us. Gal_6:7-8.) Men break Gods physical laws, and they suffer in their bodies and circumstances. They violate His moral laws, and personal debasement ensues. George Eliot says, That is the bitterest of all--to wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing. (H. Woodcock.)
Evils of forgetting God
I. FORGETFULNESS OF GOD IS AN EVIL WHICH TOO GENERALLY PREVAILS AMONG MEN. The text does not so much charge with positive wickedness (though it is implied) as forgetfulness of God, which supposes folly, because He is the God of salvation, and the Rock of strength. Consider these relations--
1. The God of thy salvation.
(1) He is infinitely able to save His creatures, whether the salvation required be temporal, spiritual, or eternal.
(2) He is always willing to save them. How inexcusable is maul
How criminal to forget, to be unmindful of Him!
2. The Rock of thy strength. Here we may build, and the fabric will never be shaken. Here we may shelter, as in the cleft of a rock, and no evil shall prevail against us. For so helpless and weak a creature as man to have such a refuge, such a support, and to be unmindful of it, how great is his folly! But when may we be said to forget, and to be unmindful of God? When we live without thinking of Him--without praying to Him--without seeking His glory--without surrendering our souls, bodies, and all our cares into His hands.
II. THE ATTENTION THUS DRAWN FROM GOD AND HIS SERVICE IS TRANSFERRED TO WORLDLY AND SENSUAL PLEASURES. The soul of man in this case strives to supply its want of happiness from the world: therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants. Infinitely varied are the objects of the attention or culture of men, but they all proceed from the above principle, or rather have the same end in view. Some seek their pleasure in learning, others in the arts, riches, honours, employments, amusements. But they are strange slips, not natural, not designed to answer the intended purpose. The sons of men are determined to prove what the world can do for them. In the day THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH CONDUCT. The harvest shall be a heap, etc. (J. Walker, D. D.)
Prosperity in the seeming only
These occasional sun gleams may foretoken the thunderstorm. God can mock, God can lead the bullock to the knife by the way of a fat pasture. There is, therefore, a promise here, but the promise is limited. You shall have mushroom growths, you shall see wonderful things within the span of a single day; but what shall the harvest be? The meaning is, we may be infatuated by appearances, by immediate successes, by flowers and strange slips growing up within the compass of one little day. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods righteousness in His dealings with men
Happily, this is only one aspect of the Divine government; we are entitled to reverse this text, and say, Because thou hast remembered the God of thy salvation, and hast been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out with new wine. Thou hast not withheld from God the gladness and the service of thine heart, and He will not withhold from thee the music and the rapture and the abundance of harvest.. The way of the Lord is equal. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Pleasant plants and strange slips
They made for themselves all kinds of sensuous cults in conformity with their heathen inclination. (F. Delitzsch.)
The temporary success of an evil alliance
The foreign slip has shot up like a hothouse plant, i.e., the alliance has rapidly become a happy agreement, and has also already shot forth a blossom, which is the common plan directed against Judah. (F. Delitzsch.)
Lives of disappointment
The world is full of people who are engaged in planting their slips. Fortunes, luxurious homes, great reputations--such are some of the slips; but what disappointment succeeds--desperate sorrow. The egg turns cue to be rottenness; the fair landscape a Sahara, from which the mirage is gone; the beautiful globe of changing colour, only a drop of dirty soap and water. We remember the story of Faust, who sold himself to Satan, but the day of bitter reaping came. We remember the cry of Byron over his wasted years; of Laurence Oliphant, the bright versatile son of Piccadilly, who in his varied career had tasted life in many of its brightest aspects; of Solomon, whose Ecclesiastes is one long record of slip planting. Nothing less than God, our Maker, can suffice the souls which He has made. Apart from Him life may at first promise well, but the end, inevitably, will be desperate sorrow. (P. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The harvest shall be a heap
The harvest of sorrow
A harvest field is a suggestive place.
I. TO EVERY LIFE THERE IS A HARVEST, EITHER OF JOY OR OF SORROW. Life on earth is introductory and probationary. It is but the seed time for eternity. All our actions, words, thoughts, have a bearing upon the future. God is our moral Governor, as well as our loving Father. We are, therefore, accountable to Him for the disposal of every moment of our existence. Belonging to a depraved and fallen race, we are necessarily sinners; but this has been provided for. To every life there is a harvest. When? Sometimes in this world. Both the righteous and the wicked reap on earth to a certain degree that which they have sown. But still it is most strictly true that the great and final harvest commences when life on earth terminates and life in eternity begins. This great fact invests life with unspeakable grandeur. Every day and hour we are preparing for the realities of eternity. This should moderate our expectations concerning the present life. That which is probationary is necessarily incomplete. We should, therefore, expect trials and disappointments.
II. THE HARVEST OF SORROW MAY, IN EVERY CASE, BE TRACED TO ONE GREAT CAUSE--forgetfulness of God. The ruin of the Ten Tribes is traced to this (Isa_17:10-11). Jeremiah brings the same charge against them Jer_2:12-13). Hosea also says (Hos_8:14), For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples. At first, it seems impossible that they could ever have done this. Had they not the history of the great and eventful past? Did they not know they were depending on Him for everything they enjoyed? Surely, those who had such a God should never have forgotten Him. The fact stated in the text is one of deep significance. It shows us the desperate wickedness of the human heart. The Israelites were so estranged from Jehovah that they acted as though He did not exist. It is so in every such case. Forgetfulness of God always leads to this terrible result. No one can be unmindful of Him with impunity. Forgetfulness of God produces in the heart such feelings and induces men to follow such a line of conduct, that their lives must be a failure. It is, however, worthy of notice, that these persons are as anxious to be happy during life, and at its end, as any of their fellows. They do not resign themselves to despair. On the contrary, they fancy that all is well. Their hearts beat high with hope. True, they have not the help and protection which the Lords people enjoy, but they do all they can to supply its place. The people of Israel did all they could to make their position a strong one. They made an alliance with Syria, and thought, with her help, they would be able to overcome their foes. So men in the present day, who forget God, avail themselves of the dictates of worldly prudence. In the day they make their plant to grow, and in the evening they make their seed to flourish. Here we have an affecting description of the anxiety and feverish effort of the men that know not God. We may plant pleasant plants, we may set strange slips, but they will not compensate us for the absence of the plants of righteousness. He who forgets the God of his salvation, and is unmindful of the Rock of his strength, must be without His favour, and at last must reap a harvest of grief and desperate sorrow.
III. THE HARVEST OF SORROW INVOLVES THE SOUL IN UTTER AND IRREMEDIABLE RUIN. It is no slight matter--it is the loss of all things or the failure of every effort--the disappointment of every hope, the destruction of every joy, the development and perpetuation of every sorrow. The language of the prophet is very striking. The common idea of harvest is that of a joyous nature. But here we have an idea of the very opposite character. The harvest is a heap. There is no golden grain worthy of being housed in everlasting habitations. The soul sees with amazement that all her efforts have been fruitless, and cries, Is this all; has my life on earth produced nothing more than this? And the answer is, Nothing more; and that which it has produced is only fit for the burning. (H. B.Ingram.)
Gods love in the deprivations of life
There is only one way of getting at some men. Once we could have appealed to their higher nature; once they were subject to the pleasure and the eloquence of reason; once they had a conscience tender, sensitive, responsive; now they are spiritually dead, no conscience, no reason, no unselfishness; the whole nature has gone down in volume and in quality into a terrible emaciation: what shall be done? Smite their harvest! then like beasts they will miss their food. God does not delight in this; it is the poorest violence, it is the feeblest department of His providence; but He knows that it is the only providence some men can understand. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Reclamation by punishment
God got you back to the Church through inflammation, through fever, through paralysis, through pain, through loss, through desolation; you came back over the graveyard. No matter, said God; when He got you into His house again He said, This My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. It is in the reclamation, not in the punishment, that God takes pleasure. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v10 Isa_17:10-11. Because thou hast forgotten, &c.
FORGETFULNESS OF GOD
Isa_17:10-11. Because thou hast forgotten, &c.
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I. It is possible to forget the God of our salvation.
1. The majority of men habitually forget Him. He very seldom holds a real and commanding place in the hearts of any of us. We are all prone to have our hearts wholly filled with the cares or pleasures of life. Even if our aims be in themselves lawful, we seldom recognise God in framing or prosecuting them. Hence the shock which the thought of God’s nearness gives us in times of calamity, sickness, or expected death. The very shock shows that we are open to the prophet’s charge.
2. This forgetfulness of God, to which we are all so prone, should be recognised to be a state of peril and guilt. Who is so near to us as God? who so essential to us? who has so many claims upon our grateful and continued remembrance? To be forgetful of Him is a sin of which we should think with shame.
II. This forgetfulness of God leads to false trusts. The throne of our heart cannot remain vacant; if God be not there, unworthy objects will surely take His place. The “pleasant plants” and foreign shoots (or “strange slips”) here represent the pursuit of lust and idolatry, and that fatal reliance on human help which is so often denounced (chap. Isa_2:22; Jer_17:5). The sin denounced by the prophet has not become obsolete. All round about us are men who have forgotten God, and are seeking and putting their trust in pleasure, pomp, money, or knowledge. There is a pursuit of knowledge, even a “science” falsely so called that deliberately excludes God from its range, and pronounces Him unknowable! These are the things for which men live, to which they devote all they are and have, from which they look for the happiness for which their hearts crave; these are their gods! Forgetfulness of God necessarily leads to idolatry in some form or other; desires and tendencies, in themselves right when under right control, become occasions of guilt; God is shifted from the centre of operations, and the trust of men fixes itself inevitably on unworthy objects (H. E. I., 39).
III. These false trusts lead to bitter disappointments. “The harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” At the very time when abundance of fruit was expected, nothing awaits the anxious toiler but disappointment and failure. Mildew, or blight, or drought, or fire has done its deadly work, and nothing is left but rotting masses, heaps of useless and decaying vegetation. What a sad picture! barrenness and dearth where there should be life and plenty! Yet this is a true picture of the fate of many who have persisted in their rejection of God, and in their clinging to false hopes. A life dedicated to fashion, pleasure, money-getting, or worldly ambition, necessarily ends in a reaping-time of blighted hopes, of darkened prospects, of remorse and despair (H. E. I., 246–248, 5021–5025; P. D., 138, 162, 255, 3592).
1. This result of a godless life will be found even in those cases where all the good that was striven after has been realised; the heart is still left unsatisfied (Ecc_1:12 to Ecc_2:17).
2. “Desperate sorrow” is the natural result of discovering that the time for securing a profitable harvest is gone (Jer_8:20; P. D., 2254).
Earnestly consider God’s claims upon you; renounce all false trusts; sow for that harvest in which there can be no real disappointment (Gal_6:6). Redeem the time that yet remains; to the worst of us a gracious promise is still held out (Mal_3:7; Psa_116:7).—William Manning.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v10 Isa 17:10 - Isa 17:11.
Isaiah
THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE
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Isa 17:10 - Isa 17:11.
The original application of these words is to Judah’s alliance with Damascus, which Isaiah was dead against. He saw that it would only precipitate the Assyrian invasion, as in fact it did. Judah had forsaken God, and because they had done so, they had gone to seek for themselves delights-alliance with Damascus. The image of planting a garden of pleasures, and ‘vine slips of a stranger’ refers to sensuous idolatry as well as to the entangling alliance. Then follows a contemptuous description of the rapid growth of this alliance and of the care with which Israel cultivated it. ‘In a day thou makest thy plant to grow’ {or fencest it}, and next morning it was in blossom, so sedulously had they nursed and fostered it. Then comes the smiting contrast of what it was all for-’A harvest heap in the day of sickness and incurable pain.’
Now we may take this in a more general way as containing large truths which affect the life of every one of us.
I. The Sin of a Godless Life.
{a} Notice the Sin charged. It is merely negative-forgettest. There is no charge of positive hostility or of any overt act. This forgetfulness is most natural and easy to be fallen into. The constant pressure of the world. It indicates alienation of heart from God.
It is most common among us, far more so than active infidelity, far more so than gross sin, far more so than conscious hostility.
{b} The implied Criminality of it. He is the ‘Rock of thy strength’ and the ‘God of thy salvation.’ Rock is the grand Old Testament name of God, expressing in a pregnant metaphor both what He is in Himself and what in relation to those who trust Him. It speaks of stability, elevation, massiveness, and of defence and security. The parallel title sets Him forth as the Giver of salvation; and both names set in clear light the sinful ingratitude of forgetting God, and force home the question: ‘Do ye thus requite the Lord, oh foolish people and unwise?’
{c} The implied Absurdity of it. What a contrast between the safe ‘munitions of rocks’ and the unsheltered security of these Damascene gardens! What fools to leave the heights and come down into the plain! Think of the contrast between the sufficiency of God and the emptiness of the substitutes. Forgetfulness of Him and preference of creatures cannot be put into language which does not convict it of absurdity.
II. The Busy Effort and Apparent Success of a Godless Life.
{a} If a man loses his hold on God and has not Him to stay himself on, he is driven to painful efforts to make up the loss. God is needed by every soul. If the soul is not satisfied in Him, then there are hungry desires. This is the explanation of the feverish activity of much of our life.
{b} Such work is far harder than the work of serving God. It takes a great deal of toil to make that garden grow. The world is a hard taskmaster. God’s service is easy. He sets us in Eden to till and dress it, but when we forget Him, the ground is cursed, and bears thorns and thistles, and sweat drips from our brows.
Men take more pains to damn themselves than to save themselves. There is nothing more wearying than the pursuit of pleasure. ‘Pleasant plants’-that is a hopeless kind of gardening. There is nothing more degrading.
‘Ye lust and desire to have,’-what a contrast is in, Ask and have! We might live even as the lilies or the ravens, or with only this difference, that we laboured, but were as uncaring and as peaceful as they.
God is given. The world has to be bought. Its terms are ‘Nothing for nothing.’
{c} Such work has sometimes quick, present success.
‘In the day.’ It is hard for men to labour towards far-off unseen good. We like to have what will grow up in a night, like Jonah’s gourd. So these present satisfactions in a worldly life appeal to worldly, sensuous natures. And it is hard to set over against these a plant which grows slowly, and only bears fruit in the next world.
III. The End of it all.
‘A harvest heap in the day of grief.’ This clearly points on to a solemn ending-the day of judgment.
{a} How poor the fruit will he that a God-forgetting man will take out of life! There is but one heap from all the long struggle. He has ‘sowed much and brought home little.’ What shall we take with us out of our busy years as their net result? A very small sack will be large enough to hold the harvest that many of us have reaped.
{b} All this God-forgetting life of pleasure-seeking and idolatry is bringing on a terrible, inevitable consummation.
‘Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.’
No doubt there is often a harvest of grief and desperate sorrow springing, even in this life, from forgetting God. For it is only they who set their hopes on Him that are never disappointed, and only they who have chosen Him for their portion who can always say, ‘I have a goodly heritage.’ But the real harvest is not reaped till death has separated the time of sowing from that of ingathering. The sower shall reap; i.e. every man shall inherit the consequences of his deeds. ‘They that have planted it shall eat it.’
{c} That harvest home will be a day of sadness to some. These are terrible words-’grief and desperate sorrow,’ or ‘pain and incurable sickness.’ We dare not dilate on this. But if we trust in Christ and sow to the Spirit, we shall then ‘rejoice before God as with the joy of harvest,’ and ‘return with joy, bringing our sheaves with us.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v9 A Woe upon Israel’s Enemies
A Woe upon Israel’s Enemies
v. 9. In that day shall his strong cities, namely, those of Ephraim, the northern kingdom, be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, literally, "like the forsaken places in the forests and mountain summits," ruined strongholds in remote parts of the country, which they left because of the children of Israel, which the Canaanites deserted in retiring before the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation, all the great fortresses of Israel sharing the fate of these ruined castles. The prophet now addresses Ephraim directly:
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v. 10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, the only one who can bring true redemption, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, Jehovah being the one true Rock of Ages, Deu 32:15-18, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shalt set it with strange slips.
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. It was because the northern kingdom, on the whole, had left the true God that its people had, literally, "planted plantings of pleasantness," had taken up the various sensuous heathen cults and had then planted a strange vine in their garden, namely, by becoming allies of the king of Damascus. The new plant had then been carefully fenced in, namely, by shrewd political schemes, so that the strange plant grew to maturity very rapidly, like a hothouse plant, for the alliance brought about a plan to attack Judah. But the whole scheme was frustrated by the action of Jehovah, who promptly reserved the garden of Ephraim as a heap, heaped up in the harvest, in the day of grief. Such is the consequence of the denial of the Lord and of fraternizing with the enemies of God. While Jehovah, however, used Assyria as His tool in punishing Ephraim, the great world-power itself would not escape His avenging power.
v. 12. Woe to the multitude of many people, with the turmoil and tumult of their advance, 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 enemies of Israel, who are also types of the enemies of the Church, are pictured as being in a state of seething unrest, anxiously striving to harm the Lord’s people.
v. 13. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, in an apparently irresistible tidal wave; but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, rather, it, the threatening tide of hostility, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, the picture being taken from the open threshing-floors of the Orient, which were usually situated in elevated places, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, like whirling dust or particles of straw from the threshing-floor, as the wind picks them up and flings them away.
v. 14. And behold at evening-tide trouble, horror falling upon the approaching enemies; and before the morning he is not, before ever the day dawns, they are destroyed. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. Thus the Lord will finally carry out His sentence of punishment upon all enemies of His Church and its work.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 For you have forgotten
For you have forgotten
Here "you" refers to the people of Israel. The word "forgotten" does not mean they have no memory of God. It means they no longer obey him. AT: "For you no longer obey"
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the God of your salvation
"the God who saves you"
have ignored the rock of your strength
This compares God to a large rock which people could climb on to get away from their enemies or hide behind. AT: "have ignored God, who is like a rock that protects you" or "have ignored the one who protects you" (See: Metaphor)
the harvest will fail
"there will not be much fruit for you to harvest"
translationWords
God
save
harvest
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9–10 17:9 The Hivites and Amorites were members of the…
17:9 The Hivites and Amorites were members of the original population of Canaan; they were to be destroyed when the Israelites conquered the land (see Deut 20:17).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.