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I S A I A H.
CHAP. XVII.
Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah
and, they being so closely linked together in their counsels, this
chapter, though it be entitled “the burden of Damascus” (which was the
head city of Syria), reads the doom of Israel too.
I. The destruction of the strong cities both of Syria and Israel is
here foretold,
II. In the midst of judgment mercy is remembered to Israel, and a
gracious promise made that a remnant should be preserved from the
calamities and should get good by them,
III. The overthrow of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem is pointed at,
In order of time this chapter should be placed next after
for the destruction of Damascus, here foretold, happened in the reign
of Ahaz,
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1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from
being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks,
which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom
from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the
glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of
Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax
lean.
5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn,
and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that
gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
We have here the burden of Damascus; the Chaldee paraphrase reads it,
The burden of the cup of the curse to drink to Damascus in; and,
the ten tribes being in alliance, they must expect to pledge Damascus
in this cup of trembling that is to go round.
1. Damascus itself, the head city of Syria, must be destroyed; the
houses, it is likely, will be burnt, as least the walls, and gates, and
fortifications demolished, and the inhabitants carried away captive, so
that for the present it is taken away from being a city, and is
reduced not only to a village, but to a ruinous heap,
v. 1.
Such desolating work as this does sin make with cities.
2. The country towns are abandoned by their inhabitants, frightened or
forced away by the invaders: The cities of Aroer (a province of
Syria so called) are forsaken
(v. 2);
the conquered dare not dwell in them, and the conquerors have no
occasion for them, nor did they seize them for want, but wantonness; so
that the places which should be for men to live in are for flocks to
lie down in, which they may do, and none will disturb nor dislodge
them. Stately houses are converted into sheep-cotes. It is strange that
great conquerors should pride themselves in being common enemies to
mankind. But, how unrighteous soever they are, God is righteous in
causing those cities to spue out their inhabitants, who by their
wickedness had made themselves vile; it is better that flocks should
lie down there than that they should harbour such as are in open
rebellion against God and virtue.
3. The strongholds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, will be
brought to ruin: The fortress shall cease from Ephraim
(v. 3),
that in Samaria, and all the rest. They had joined with Syria in
invading Judah very unnaturally; and now those that had been partakers
in sin should be made partakers in ruin, and justly. When the
fortress shall cease from Ephraim, by which Israel will be
weakened, the kingdom will cease from Damascus, by which Syria will be
ruined. The Syrians were the ring-leaders in that confederacy against
Judah, and therefore they are punished first and sorest; and, because
they boasted of their alliance with Israel, now that Israel is weakened
they are upbraided with those boasts: “The remnant of Syria shall be
as the glory of the children of Israel; those few that remain of
the Syrians shall be in as mean and despicable a condition as the
children of Israel are, and the glory of Israel shall be no relief or
reputation to them.” Sinful confederacies will be no strength, no stay,
to the confederates, when God’s judgments come upon them. See here what
the glory of Jacob is when God contends with him, and what little
reason Syria will have to be proud of resembling the glory of Jacob.
(1.) It is wasted like a man in a consumption,
v. 4.
The glory of Jacob was their numbers, that they were as the sand
of the sea for multitude; but this glory shall be made thin,
when many are cut off, and few left. Then the fatness of their
flesh, which was their pride and security, shall was lean,
and the body of the people shall become a perfect skeleton, nothing but
skin and bones. Israel died of a lingering disease; the kingdom of the
ten tribes wasted gradually; God was to them as a moth,
Hos. v. 12.
Such is all the glory of this world: it soon withers, and is made thin;
but thee is a far more exceeding and external weight of glory designed
for the spiritual seed of Jacob, which is not subject to any such
decay–fatness of God’s house, which will not wax lean.
(2.) It is all gathered and carried away by the Assyrian army, as the
corn is carried out of the field by the husbandmen,
v. 5.
The corn is the glory of the fields
(Ps. lxv. 13);
but, when it is reaped and gone, where is the glory? The people had by
their sins made themselves ripe for ruin, and their glory was as
quickly, as easily, as justly, and as irresistibly, cut down and taken
away, as the corn is out of the field by the husbandman. God’s
judgments are compared to the thrusting in of the sickle when the
harvest is ripe,
Rev. xiv. 15.
And the victorious army, like the careful husbandmen in the valley of
Rephaim, where the corn was extraordinary, would not, if they could
help it, leave an ear behind, would lose nothing that they could lay
their hands on.
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6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an
olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost
bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof,
saith the LORD God of Israel.
7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall
have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands,
neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either
the groves, or the images.
Mercy is here reserved, in a parenthesis, in the midst of judgment, for
a remnant that should escape the common ruin of the kingdom of the ten
tribes. Though the Assyrians took all the care they could that none
should slip out of their net, yet the meek of the earth were hidden in
the day of the Lord’s anger, and had their lives given them for a prey
and made comfortable to them by their retirement to the land of Judah,
where they had the liberty of God’s courts.
1. They shall be but a small remnant, a very few, who shall be marked
for preservation
(v. 6):
Gleaning grapes shall be left in it. The body of the people were
carried into captivity, but here and there one was left behind, perhaps
one of two in a bed when the other was taken,
The most desolating judgments in this world are short of the last
judgment, which shall be universal and which none shall escape. In
times of the greatest calamity some are kept safe, as in times of the
greatest degeneracy some are kept pure. But the fewness of those that
escape supposes the captivity of the far greatest part; those that are
left are but like the poor remains of an olive tree when it has been
carefully shaken by the owner; if there be two or three berries in
the top of the uppermost bough (out of the reach of those that
shook it), that is all. Such is the remnant according to the
election of grace, very few in comparison with the multitudes that
walk on in the broad way.
2. They shall be a sanctified remnant,
These few that are preserved are such as, in the prospect of the
judgment approaching, had repented of their sins and reformed their
lives, and therefore were snatched thus as brands out of the burning,
or such as having escaped, and becoming refugees in strange countries,
were awakened, partly by a sense of the distinguishing mercy of their
deliverance, and partly by the distresses they were still in, to return
to God.
(1.) They shall look up to their Creator, shall enquire, Where is
God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night, in such a night of
affliction as this?
They shall acknowledge his hand in all the events concerning them,
merciful and afflictive, and shall submit to his hand. They shall give
him the glory due to his name, and be suitably affected with his
providences. They shall expect relief and succour from him and depend
upon him to help them. Their eyes shall have respect to him,
as the eyes of a servant to the hand of his master,
Ps. cxxiii. 2.
Observe, It is our duty at all times to have respect to God, to have
our eyes ever towards him, both as our Maker (the author of our being
and the God of nature) and as the Holy One of Israel, a God in covenant
with us and the God of grace; particularly, when we are in affliction,
our eyes must be towards the Lord, to pluck our feet out of the
net
(Ps. xxv. 15);
to bring us to this is the design of his providence as he is our Maker
and the work of his grace as he is the Holy One of Israel.
(2.) They shall look off from their idols, the creatures of their own
fancy, shall no longer worship them, and seek to them, and expect
relief from them. For God will be alone regarded, or he does not look
upon himself as at all regarded. He that looks to his Maker must not
look to the altars, the work of his hands, but disown them and
cast them off, must not retain the least respect for that which his
fingers have made, but break it to pieces, though it be his own
workmanship–the groves and the images; the word signifies
images made in honour of the sun and by which he was worshipped, the
most ancient and most plausible idolatry,
We have reason to account those happy afflictions which part between us
and our sins, and by sensible convictions of the vanity of the world,
that great idol, cool our affections to it and lower our expectations
from it.
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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.
10 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:
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.
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,
v. 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
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. xxvi. 31; Deut. xxviii. 51.
2. That the country should be laid waste,
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
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
(ch. xvi. 10);
but this harvest the hungry eat up
(Job v. 5),
which makes it a day of grief, and the more because the plants were
pleasant and costly
(v. 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,
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.
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12 Woe to the multitude of many people, 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!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but
God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall
be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like
a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning
he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the
lot of them that rob us.
These verses read the doom of those that spoil and rob the people of
God. If the Assyrians and Israelites invade and plunder Judah, if the
Assyrian army take God’s people captive and lay their country waste,
let them know that ruin will be their lot and portion. They are here
brought in,
1. Triumphing over the people of God. They relied upon their numbers.
The Assyrian army was made up out of divers nations: it was the
multitude of many people
(v. 12),
by which weight they hoped to carry the cause. They were very noisy,
like the roaring of the seas; they talked big, hectored, and
threatened, to frighten God’s people from resisting them, and all their
allies from sending in to their aid. Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, in
their speeches and letters, made a mighty noise to strike a terror upon
Hezekiah and his people; the nations that followed them made a
rushing like the rushing of many waters, and those mighty ones,
that threaten to bear down all before them and carry away every thing
that stands in their way. The floods have lifted up their voice,
have lifted up their waves; such is the tumult of the people, and
the heathen, when they rage,
2. Triumphed over by the judgments of God. They thought to carry their
point by dint of noise; but woe to them
(v. 12),
for he shall rebuke them, that is, God shall, one whom they
little think of, have no regard to, stand in no awe of; he shall give
them a check with an invisible hand, and then they shall flee
afar off. Sennacherib, and Rabshakeh, and the remains of their
forces, shall run away in a fright, and shall be chased by their own
terrors, as the chaff of the mountains which stand bleak
before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind,
like thistle-down (so the margin); they make themselves as chaff
before the wind
and then the angel of the Lord (as it follows there), the same
angel that slew many of them, shall chase the rest. God will make
them like a wheel, or rolling thing, and then persecute them
with his tempest and make them afraid with his storm,
Ps. lxxxiii. 13, 15.
Note, God can dispirit the enemies of his church when they are most
courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most
closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly
(v. 14):
At evening-tide they are very troublesome, and threaten trouble
to the people of God; but before the morning they are not. At
sleeping time they are cast into a deep sleep,
It was in the night that the angel routed the Assyrian army. God can in
a moment break the power of his church’s enemies, even when it appears
most formidable; and this is written for the encouragement of the
people of God in all ages, when they find themselves an unequal match
for their enemies; for this is the portion of those that spoil
us, they shall themselves be spoiled. God will plead his church’s
cause, and those that meddle do it to their own hurt.
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