One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
Parallel Translations
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One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
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One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
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One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Isaiah 30:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 28:25 Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Leviticus 26:36 “ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
- Joshua 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you.
- Leviticus 26:8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
- Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- John 15:2-6 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
- Romans 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree,
- Nehemiah 1:2-3 Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
- Isaiah 1:7-8 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.
- Isaiah 6:13 If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stump remains when they are cut down; so the holy seed is its stock.”
- Isaiah 27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Isaiah 37:3-4 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”
- Jeremiah 37:10 For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would each rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire.’ ”
- Zephaniah 3:12 But I will leave among you an afflicted and poor people, and they will take refuge in Yahweh’s name.
- Zechariah 13:8-9 It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”
- Matthew 24:21-22 for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Whereas all the trees are cut down save two…
Whereas all the trees are cut down save two or three to make masts.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 30:17 One thousand [shall flee] at the rebuke…
Isa 30:17 One thousand [shall flee] at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
Ver. 17. One thousand shall flee.] See Deu 32:30, with the note.
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Until ye be left as a beacon.] Heb., A mast - i.e., a very poor few, or all alone, shred of all you had. This was fulfilled when Sennacherib wasted the country, even to the very walls of Jerusalem. Paucitatem salvandorum nobis insinuat, saith Oecolampadius.
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 Shall flee; which words are fitly supplied out of…
Shall flee; which words are fitly supplied out of the following clause.
At the rebuke; either,
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1. At his real rebuke, upon his assault or onset; or rather,
2. At his verbal rebuke, upon his mere threats, as fearing that he will proceed from words to blows.
Shall ye flee; all of you, how numerous soever.
Till ye be left as a beacon, & c.; till you be generally destroyed, and but a few of you left.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one,....…
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one,.... A troop of horse, consisting of a thousand men, shall flee upon the attack and onset of a single person, so dispirited should they be, and so possessed of the fear of the enemy; what was promised to them with respect to their enemies is here turned against them, Lev 26:7,
at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; being attacked by a very small number, the whole army should run away: this denotes with what ease they should be routed, and put to flight; and is to be understood, not of what would be at the present time, but of what should come to pass hereafter, when the Chaldean army should come against them;
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till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain; or, "as the mast of a ship", so the Septuagint and other versions. Jarchi says it signifies a high tree, or tall piece of wood fixed in the earth, like a ship's mast (p), set up to give warning of an enemy's approach, and when, and where, sometimes fires used to be kindled; hence the Targum is,
"till ye are left as a burning torch on the top of a mountain.''
The Syriac version renders it, "as a wild ass", solitary and alone:
and as an ensign on a hill; erected as a trophy of victory. The design of the metaphors is to show that there should be few that should escape falling into the enemy's hand, here and there one, that should he scattered about, and be very thin, as beacons and signs are, and should be warnings to others of pursuing the same foolish and sinful methods and practices.
(p) So Ben Melech says, it is a high piece of wood in a ship, on which they hang an ensign or flag; and so he interprets the ensign in the next clause of a veil, so called, because they lift it up upon the mast.
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 'Till - 'Till you be destroyed, and but a…
'Till - 'Till you be destroyed, and but a few of you left.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. At the rebuke of five shall ye…
Verse 17. At the rebuke of five shall ye flee - "At the rebuke of five, ten thousand of you shall flee"] In the second line of this verse a word is manifestly omitted, which should answer to one thousand in the first: the Septuagint supply πολλοι, רבים rabbim. But the true word is רבבה rebabah, as I am persuaded any one will be convinced, who will compare the following passages with this place: -
"How should one chase a thousand;
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And two put ten thousand (רבבה) to flight?"
De 32:30.
"And five of you shall chase a hundred;
And a hundred of you shall chase (רבבה) ten thousand."
Le 26:8.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain One thousand ... - The sense of this is,…
One thousand ... - The sense of this is, that you shall be easily alarmed and overcome by those who are inferior in numbers and strength. The number ‘one thousand,’ is put for a large indefinite number; probably meaning all.
At the rebuke of one - The number one here is put to denote a very small number; a number in the ordinary course of warfare entirely disproportionate to those who would be vanquished. There is probably a reference here to the prediction in Deu 32:30 :
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How should one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them
And Yahweh had shut them up?
At the rebuke of five - Of a very small number.
Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain - The word rendered ‘beacon’ (תרן toren), (Greek ἱστὸς histos, “a mast”), denotes properly the mast of a ship Isa 33:23; Eze 27:5; then anything resembling a mast, a flagstaff, or a beacon of any kind. It may refer to a staff or mast erected on a promontory to warn sailors, or to be a landmark - as it is not improbable that the masts of ships would be employed for that purpose; or it may refer to a flagstaff, erected on a conspicuous place, to which the nation could rally in time of war. On the sea coasts of America such beacons are often erected. Those which I have seen consist of a pole erected on an eminence or rising ground, with a cask or barrel painted white on the top. The idea seems to be, that of a long pole erected for any purpose, and which was standing alone, stripped of its leaves and branches, and without ornament. So would be the few, solitary, and scattered Jews when driven before their enemies.
And as an ensign on a hill - (see Isa 5:26, note; Isa 11:12, note). The idea is, that those who should escape would be few in number, and would stand alone, as a beacon in view of all the nations, to admonish them of the justice of God, and the truth of his threatening - like an ensign floating on a hill that can be seen from afar. What a striking description is this of the condition of the Jews in our times, and indeed in all ages since their dispersion! Their strength, and influence, and power as a people are gone. They stand as beacons to warn the nations of the evils of a want of confidence in God, and of his justice.
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 Five. A small number shall put you to flight.…
Five. A small number shall put you to flight. (Menochius) --- Mast, set up after a shipwreck, to warn others, or as a signal, chap. xxxiii. 23.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain One thousand--A thousand at once, or, "As one man"…
One thousand--A thousand at once, or, "As one man" [MAURER].
rebuke--the battle cry.
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shall ye--at the rebuke of five shall ye, namely, all (in contrast to the "one thousand") flee so utterly that even two shall not be left together, but each one shall be as solitary "as a signal staff" [G. V. SMITH], or "a banner on a hill" (Isa 5:26; Isa 11:12). The signal staff was erected to rally a nation in war. The remnant of Jews left would be beacons to warn all men of the justice of God, and the truth of His threatenings. GESENIUS (from Lev 26:8; Deu 32:30) arbitrarily inserts "ten thousand." "At the rebuke of five shall ten thousand of you flee."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. Their flight will be disgraceful. The words at…
17. Their flight will be disgraceful. The words at the rebuke of five seem to weaken the force of the preceding hyperbole; hence some critics would insert “a myriad” in the second clause, after Lev_26:8; Deu_32:30.
beacon means “flag-staff” (elsewhere “mast”), cf. ch. Isa_33:23.
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18 is frequently explained as a concluding threat—“Therefore will the Lord wait before having mercy on you”; will postpone your deliverance. But this interpretation does violence to the terms of the verse, which is really the introduction of a new section, full of glorious promises. The “waiting” of Jehovah is that of anxious expectancy for the opportune moment of intervention; His “exaltation” denotes His readiness to act. The emendation “he will be silent” for “he will be exalted” is unnecessary. It is difficult, however, to explain the conjunction “therefore,” after Isa_30:17; unless we can hold that it has adversative force (= “even under these circumstances,” “nevertheless”). The new passage seems to belong to a different time, and to continue another train of thought: see Isa_29:15-24.
a God of judgment] or “justice.”
that wait for him] Cf. ch. Isa_8:17; Psa_33:20, &c.
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 (17) One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of…
(17) One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one.—The hyperbole is natural and common enough (Deu_32:30; Jos_23:10; Lev_26:8); but the fact that the inscription of King Piankhi Mer. Amon., translated in Records of the Past, ii. 84, gives it in the self-same words (“many shall turn their backs on a few; and one shall rout a thousand”) as his boast of the strength of Egypt, may have given a special touch of sarcasm to Isaiah’s words.
As a beacon upon the top of a mountain.—Literally, as a pine. As with a poet’s eye, the prophet paints two of the most striking emblems of solitariness: the tall pine standing by itself on the mountain height, the flag-staff seen alone far off against the sky. (Comp. the lowlier imagery of Isa_1:8.)
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 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one.…
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one. A hyperbole common in Scripture, (Deu_32:30 Jos_23:10 Lev_26:8) and not confined to the sacred writers. Piankhi the Ethiopian boasts, in his great inscription, that, with Ammon"s help, "many should turn their backs upon a few, and one should rout a thousand" ("Records of the Past," vol. it. p. 84). At the rebuke of five. The "rebuke" of five (i.e. their war-shout) would put to flight the whole army. As a beacon; rather, as a flag-staff stripped and bare. (comp. Eze_27:5) A tree stripped of its branches and left standing as a landmark seems to be intended. As an ensign. A military standard, such as was in common use among the Assyrians and Egyptians, as among the Greeks and Romans (see "Ancient Monarchies," vol. 2. p. 57; Rawlinson, "Hist. of Egypt," vol. 1. p. 463).
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 Till ye be left as a beacon upon the…
Isa_30:17
Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain
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Israels past, present, and future
I.
THE PAST.
1. Sins of Gods people (Isa_30:1-2; Isa_30:9-12). Rejecting His Word; trusting in arm of flesh.
2. Judgment on them (Isa_30:16-17).
3. Mercy to them in things spiritual and temporal (Isa_30:19-21; Isa_30:26; Isa_30:29; Isa_23:1-18; Isa_24:1-23). Deliverance from their enemies (Isa_30:30-33). Especially destruction of Sennacheribs army (Isa_30:31).
4. Glory to God, who is exalted--in His judgments--in His mercies.
II. THE PRESENT.
1. The people now left as a beacon. upon the top of a mountain (marg., tree bereft of branches). Condition bare, and seen of all. And as an ensign, on an hill. Word for ensign same as sign in Num_26:10. The people cannot be hid.
2. Now God waits for the set time, for the filling up of His peoples sins Hos_5:15); for the filling up of His judgments; for the fulness of the Gentiles to be come in (Rom_11:25); for the showing mercy in the end.
III. THE FUTURE. It will be as the past, but greater.
1. Sin still continues in unbelief of Messiah, in pride, worldliness, and self-righteousness.
2. Judgment on these sins up to the end.
3. Mercy when they cry. Deliverance from their enemies, as prophesied Isa_66:13-16.
4. Glory to God, the God of judgment, the Father of mercies. He shall be exalted, as prophesied in Isa_2:10-11; Isa_2:17-22.
5. Beacon and ensign--refer to again. Israel conspicuous now, will be more so in the last days, as a landmark amidst waves of trouble and strife. Ensign, the same word as rendered pole in Num_21:8-9. See again in Exo_17:15, Jehovah-Nissi. See Isa_31:9; Isa_11:11-12; Isa_18:3; Isa_49:22; Isa_62:10. Israel the rallying centre of the nations, in the midst of them the royal standard of the King, high on Gods hill, in the which it pleaseth Him to dwell (Psa_60:4; see Zec_8:2-3; Zec_8:22-23).
IV. THE BLESSING.
1. To the Jew first.
2. And also to the Gentile.
3. Note the correspondence between Gods waiting and His peoples waiting. (Flavel Cook, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 One thousand will flee at the threat of one;…
One thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will flee
The word "solider" is understood. AT: "One thousand soldiers will flee at the threat of one enemy soldier; at the threat of five enemy soldiers all of your soldiers will flee" (See: Ellipsis)
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One thousand
"1,000" (See: Numbers)
until your remnant will be like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, or like a flag on a hill
This simile means there will be so few people left that they will be like a single flag on top of a hill. (See: Simile)
translationWords
remnant
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 30:17 One . . . Five: This curse is…
30:17 One . . . Five: This curse is the opposite of God’s blessing for obedience (Lev 26:8; Deut 32:30). • The Assyrians had dominated the rest of the land of Judah, leaving Jerusalem isolated like a lonely flagpole on a hill.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.