Isaiah 17:11

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.

In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow - rather, 'In the day of thy planting' (Horsley) shalt thou make to grow. Maurer translates (Hebrew, sigseeg), 'Thou didst fence it'-namely, the pleasure-ground. The parallel clause, 'shalt thou make to flourish,' favours the English version. As soon as thou plantest, it grows.

And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish - i:e., immediately after: so in Psalms 90:14, the Hebrew, 'in the morning,' is translated early.

(But) the harvest (shall be) a heap - rather, 'but (promising as was the prospect) the harvest is gone.' Hebrew, need, from nud, to flee (Horsley). Buxtorf translates as the English version.

In the day of grief - rather, 'in the day (expected) possession;' Hebrew, nachalah (H5159) (Maurer). The Hebrew is taken as the English version in Jeremiah 30:12.

And of desperate sorrow - rather, 'and the sorrow shall be desperate or irremediable.' In the English version, heap and sorrow may be taken together by Hendiad, 'the heap of the harvest shall be desperate sorrow' (Rosenmuller). Israel, instead of trusting in Yahweh, tried to gain a flourishing state of affairs by a league with Syria. But the event, promising though appearances were at first, proved the reverse. It ended in their destruction by Assyria. This is the fact set forth in the imagery of this verse.

The connection of this fragment with what precedes is, notwithstanding the calamities coming on Israel, the people of God shall not be utterly destroyed (Isaiah 6:12): the Assyrian spoilers shall perish (Isaiah 17:13).