8 And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor have regard to what his fingers have made, neither the Asherahs nor the sun-images.
And ye shall defile the silver covering of your graven images, and the gold overlaying of your molten images; thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth: Out! shalt thou say unto it.
By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit of the taking away of his sin: when he shall make all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are crumbled in pieces, -- the Asherahs and the sun-images shall not stand.
And their land is full of idols; they bow themselves down to the work of their own hands, to that which their fingers have made.
They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast [thee] off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of purity? For from Israel is this also: -- a workman made it, and itis no God: for the calf of Samaria shall be [broken in] pieces.
I will take away man and beast; I will take away the fowl of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off mankind from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? (I answer [him], and I will observe him.) I am like a green fir-tree. -- From me is thy fruit found.
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel: but he trespassed through Baal, and he died. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
Israel is an unpruned vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly statues. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: he will break down their altars, he will destroy their statues.
but ye shall demolish their altars, shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs.
And none taketh it to heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, and have also baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh, and eaten [it], and with the rest thereof shall I make an abomination? shall I bow down to a block of wood? He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
And it shall be for a man to burn, and he taketh thereof, and warmeth himself; he kindleth it also, and baketh bread; he maketh also a ùgod, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
and the idols shall utterly pass away. And they shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall arise to terrify the earth. In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made [each] for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the fissures of the cliffs, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall arise to terrify the earth.
For they shall be ashamed of the terebinths that ye have desired, and ye shall blush for the gardens that ye have chosen.
And [so did he] in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, in their ruins round about; and he broke down the altars, and beat the Asherahs and the graven images into powder, and cut down all the sun-pillars throughout the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
And they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the sun-pillars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherahs and the graven images and the molten images he broke in pieces, and made dust [of them] and strewed it upon the graves of those that had sacrificed to them;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 17
Commentary on Isaiah 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
Syria and Ephriam were confederate against Judah (ch. 7:1, 2), 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.
In order of time this chapter should be placed next after ch. 9, for the destruction of Damascus, here foretold, happened in the reign of Ahaz, 2 Ki. 16:9.
Isa 17:1-5
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.
Isa 17:6-8
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.
Isa 17:9-11
Here the prophet returns to foretel the woeful desolations that should be made in the land of Israel by the army of the Assyrians.
Isa 17:12-14
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,