Isaiah 17:14

When God acts to defend his people, the result is immediate and total. It is God who is the real ruler of the nations of the world. He will act for the benefit of his people.

woe ~ a very sad cry because there is much pain to come.
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
olives ~ fruit of a tree that people use to make oil.
altar ~ special stone where priests burned animals as gifts to God, or to a false god.
incense ~ substance to burn for its sweet smell to give honour to God.
Canaan ~ original name of the country that God gave to his people.
worship ~ to praise God and to pray to him.
Israelites ~ Jacob had 12 sons. In later centuries, their large families would grow into a nation, called the Israelites. For a long time, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But God freed them by means of Moses. God gave them the country called Canaan. And there, long afterwards, the Israelites formed two nations, called Judah and Israel.
Canaan ~ original name of the country that God gave to his people.'

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

Countries near Judah

Isaiah Chapter s 13 to 23

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 17

A message about Syria

Note

Read Chapter s 17 and 18 together as one poem. Do not read them just as two separate Chapter s.

v1 [This is a] serious message [about] Damascus.

‘Look! [The enemy] has changed Damascus city into a heap of broken buildings. [The enemy] ruined [the buildings].

v2 Nobody lives in the cities of Aroer. They have become [places] where groups [of animals] lie down. Nobody makes [the animals] afraid.

v3 There are no strong cities in Ephraim (Israel) and [there is] no royal power in Damascus. The few people that remain in Aram (Syria) are as great as Israel’s people!’ [That is what] the *LORD of Everything [is] saying.

v4 ‘In those days [the *LORD] removed the things of which Jacob (Jacob’s family) was proud. His fat body became thin!

v5 And it was as if a farmer gathered the crop of grain. He did it while it was standing [in a field]. With his arm, he cut off the *ears of corn. [He cut off those] that were ready to harvest. Then it was as if someone had *gleaned ears of corn in the Rephaim valley.

v6 [People] did not leave much in [Israel]. It was as if someone had beaten an *olive tree. There were only two or three small *olives on the highest branch. Or maybe there were four or five fruits on the branches of a fruit tree.’ [That is what] the *LORD, the God of Israel, [is] saying.

v7 In days [like] that, people should trust their Maker (God). They should ask the Holy [God] of Israel for help.

v8 [People] should not trust the *altars that [they] have made [with] their hands. They should not request help from the things that [they] have made [with] their fingers. [Those things] are [images of the female god] Asherah. And [they are] the *altars [where people burn] *incense.

v9 In those days, [Israel’s] strong cities became like empty cities. [They were like] those empty forests and woods. People had left [those places earlier], when Israel’s [people first attacked them. The cities] were empty buildings that [the enemy] had broken down.

v10 [That happened] for these reasons. You forgot the God that made you safe. You did not remember the Rock (the *LORD) that hid you [from danger]. You planted gardens [for a false god] and you grew *vines for a foreign [god]. Therefore v11 there was no harvest. On the day when you planted [those plants], you made them grow well. They had flowers on the morning [when] you sowed them! But in the end, there came a day when [people were] very sad. And [they had] pain that nothing could cure.

v12 Ah, [listen]! Many nations are roaring. They are making a noise like an angry sea! And [listen]! The nations are roaring. They are roaring like great floods of water!

v13 The nations are roaring. They are roaring like great floods of water! But when [the *LORD] will shout at them, they will run far away. The wind will chase them away like chaff (dead bits of plants) on the hills. Or [they will be] like dust that blows about before a storm.

v14 Look! In the evening, everyone is very much afraid. [And] in the morning, nobody is there! That will happen to anyone that steals from us. [It will happen to the people that] rob us.

Notes

Verse 1 Read the note before Isaiah 13:1 about the words ‘serious message’. Damascus city was the capital of the country called Syria. The nation that lived in Syria was an enemy of Judah’s people. The nation in Israel was also an enemy of Judah’s people. (Read the note about Isaiah 7:1.) Part of this message here is also about Israel (verses 3-11). ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. Some Bible students think that Isaiah wrote this poem before 732 B.C. That was the year when God sent an army from Assyria to destroy Syria. And later, in 722 B.C., God sent Assyria’s army to destroy Israel. So in those students’ opinion, Isaiah was telling people what would happen in the future. However, other Bible students think that Isaiah wrote the poem between 716 and 714 B.C. So in that case, he was reminding people what had already happened. This translation describes these events in the past, as if the enemy had already defeated Syria’s and Israel’s people. But we cannot be sure about the time! However, we do know who the enemy was. It was an army from Assyria.

Verse 2 Some Bible students think that ‘Aroer’ is not a place. The word may mean ‘always’. The *Greek Bible has this. ‘Nobody will live in the cities at any time.’ The *Jews translated their Bible into *Greek about 200 *B.C. If there was a place called Aroer in Syria, we do not know its position. There was a town called Aroer in Moab. Therefore, some Bible students think that part of verse 2 should be in Chapter s 15 or 16. After the enemy had ruined the cities, they were then safe places for animals!

Verse 3 Ephraim is another name for the country called Israel. Damascus city is the capital of Syria. Aram is another name for Syria. Assyria’s army destroyed Israel and Syria. So then they had no strong cities or kings! Now Isaiah is laughing at Syria. He is using a special type of humour. He is saying the opposite of what he really means. He is saying that Syria is now as great as Israel! But Isaiah does not really mean ‘great’. He means the opposite of great! Really, Assyria’s army destroyed both Syria and Israel. ‘*LORD’ is a special name for God that his servants use. ‘Everything’ includes people on Earth. And it also includes those with God in heaven. Some people translate ‘*LORD of Everything’ in another way. That is, ‘*LORD of Armies of Angels’. An ‘angel’ is a special servant of God in heaven (God’s home).

Verse 4 ‘Jacob’ is another word for the nation called Israel, which grew from Jacob’s family. Israel is not great now. (Look at the note about verse 3.) God has removed the things that made Israel great. ‘Fat’ is a description of Israel when it had a lot of good things. And then ‘thin’ describes it when it had only a little.

Verse 5 The enemy, Assyria’s army, gathered the people in Syria and Israel. And then the army took them away to Assyria. So the enemy was like a farmer that gathered a crop from a field! ‘With his arm’ means this. It means ‘with the knife in his hand’. An ‘ear of corn’ is the part that contains all the grains. People use the grains to make bread. After the first harvest, farmers allowed poor people to take anything that still remained in the fields. To ‘glean’ means to gather those bits that remained. All this is a special description of Assyria’s soldiers as they took everything away from Syria and Israel. The Rephaim valley was a good area to grow grain. But the army from Assyria left nothing. They did not even leave anything to glean after the first harvest!

Verse 6 ‘Olives’ are small fruits. People eat them. They also use them to make an oil that they cook with. To harvest the olives in those days, the *Jews hit the trees with sticks. That made the olives fall off. Only a few olives remained on the tree. The farmers let poor people *glean those few fruits. It was the same with other fruit trees. The farmers harvested and poor people *gleaned. After that, not much remained. Similarly, the enemy took almost everything from Israel. It did not leave much there.

Verses 7-8 These words are always true. ‘Maker’ and ‘Holy [God] of Israel’ are names for God. An ‘altar’ is a special table where people burn things to give honour to a god (here, false gods). Among those things is ‘incense’, which has a special smell. ‘Asherah’ was a female false god. However, when there is trouble, people should not pray to false gods. They should pray to the real God. In Jerusalem, there was an *altar to give honour to the real God.

Verse 9 This starts another small section about what happened to Israel. Again, some people translate it as what will happen in the future. When the *Jews came to their country, it was called Canaan. People called Canaanites lived there. Israel’s soldiers attacked the country and they destroyed the Canaanites’ cities. The towns and woods where those people lived became empty. This happened when the *Jews came to Canaan. And it happened again when Assyria’s army came to Israel.

Verse 10 ‘Forgot’ and ‘did not remember’ mean the same. They mean that the *Jews did not trust God. They did not ask him for help (verse 7). ‘Rock’ is a name for the *LORD. David used it in some Psalms (songs to praise God). Look at Psalms 18:2. A ‘vine’ is a plant on which the fruits called ‘grapes’ grow. From the juice of the grapes, people make wine. These people used to pour wine out on the ground for their false gods. That is how they offered it to their gods.

Verse 11 Everything started well, but it ended badly.

Verses 12-14 This is another section of the poem that is in Chapter s 17 to 18. This section is about the many nations in King Sennacherib’s army. He was the king of Assyria, and his army destroyed Syria and Israel. An important word in these verses is ‘us’ (verse 14). Isaiah did not live in Syria or Israel. He lived in Judah. Therefore ‘us’ at the end of verse 14 means Judah’s people. Sennacherib tried to defeat Judah’s people. But 185 000 men in his army died in one night. That is why ‘in the morning nobody is there!’ As a result, Sennacherib did not attack Jerusalem. The story about that is in Isaiah chapter 37 and 2 Kings chapter 19. ‘Chaff’ is dead material from plants that produce grain. It blows away when people prepare grain in order to store it.

heavens ~ either the home of God or the skies.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
lord ~ master. With a capital L, it can be a name for God.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YAHWEH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YAHWEH.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.

'ears of corn ~ the fruit of the plant that grows corn.
glean ~ to collect fruit that the farmer did not take on purpose.
olive ~ a fruit. People make oil from olives. They use this oil as food; or they burn it in a lamp.
altar ~ a special table where priests burned animals for God.
incense ~ a substance that gives a special smell when people burn it.
vine ~ a plant that grows fruits called grapes.
grape ~ a fruit that people use to make wine.
Greek ~ the language that people spoke in Greece.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.