1 The burden of Damascus. Lo, Damascus is taken away from `being' a city, And it hath been a heap -- a ruin.
The burden of a word of Jehovah against the land of Hadrach, and Demmeseh -- his place of rest: (When to Jehovah `is' the eye of man, And of all the tribes of Israel.)
And thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their threshing Gilead with sharp-pointed irons, And I have sent a fire against the house of Hazael, And it hath consumed the palaces of Ben-Hadad. And I have broken the bar of Damascus, And cut off the inhabitant from Bikat-Aven, And a holder of a sceptre from Beth-Eden, And removed have been the people of Aram to Kir, said Jehovah.
did ask from him letters to Damascus, unto the synagogues, that if he may find any being of the way, both men and women, he may bring them bound to Jerusalem.
And I have set Samaria for a heap of the field, For plantations of a vineyard, And poured out into a valley her stones, And her foundations I uncover.
Concerning Damascus: Ashamed hath been Hamath and Arpad, For an evil report they have heard, They have been melted, in the sea `is' sorrow, To be quiet it is not able. Feeble hath been Damascus, She turned to flee, and fear strengthened her, Distress and pangs have seized her, as a travailing woman. How is it not left -- the city of praise, The city of my joy! Therefore fall do her young men in her broad places, And all the men of war are cut off in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts. And I have kindled a fire against the wall of Damascus, And it consumed palaces of Ben-Hadad!'
Therefore, lo, days are coming, An affirmation of Jehovah, And I have sounded unto Rabbah of the sons of Ammon a shout of battle, And it hath been for a heap -- a desolation, And her daughters with fire are burnt, And Israel hath succeeded its heirs, Said hath Jehovah.
For the head of Aram `is' Damascus, And the head of Damascus `is' Rezin, And within sixty and five years Is Ephraim broken from `being' a people.
Hast thou not heard from afar? -- it I did, From days of old -- that I formed it. Now, I have brought it in, And it is to make desolate, Ruinous heaps -- fenced cities,
Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house `is' for high places of a forest!
The burden of Moab. Because in a night destroyed was Ar of Moab -- It hath been cut off, Because in a night destroyed was Kir of Moab -- It hath been cut off.
The burden of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz hath seen:
for before the youth doth know to cry, My father, and My mother, one taketh away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria, before the king of Asshur.'
and he sacrificeth to the gods of Damascus -- those smiting him, and saith, `Because the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them, to them I sacrifice, and they help me,' and they have been to him to cause him to stumble, and to all Israel.
And Jehovah his God giveth him into the hand of the king of Aram, and they smite him, and take captive from him a great captivity, and bring `them' in to Damascus, and also into the hand of the king of Israel he hath been given, and he smiteth him -- a great smiting.
And hearken unto him doth the king of Asshur, and the king of Asshur goeth up unto Damascus, and seizeth it, and removeth `the people of' it to Kir, and Rezin he hath put to death.
And Abram saith, `Lord Jehovah, what dost Thou give to me, and I am going childless? and an acquired son in my house is Demmesek Eliezer.'
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,