1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
An oracle. The word of Yahweh is against the land of Hadrach, And will rest upon Damascus; For the eye of man And of all the tribes of Israel is toward Yahweh;
Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, And it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. I will break the bar of Damascus, And cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, And him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; And the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir," says Yahweh.
and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, Like places for planting vineyards; And I will pour down its stones into the valley, And I will uncover its foundations.
Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet. Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of Hosts. I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.
Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess those who did possess him, says Yahweh.
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people;
Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be your to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, And Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, And the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.
For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which struck him; and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, [therefore] will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.
Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.
The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the people of] it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
Abram said, "Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"
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,