Isaiah 17:4-8

ב) Ephraim (and Damascus) small and again great

Isaiah 17:4-8

4     And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall 2be made thin,

And the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

5     And it shall be 3as when the harvestman gathereth the corn,

And reapeth the ears with his arm;And it shall be 4as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

6     5Yet 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 6in the outmost fruitful branches thereof,

Saith the Lord God of Israel.

7     At that day shall 7a man look to his Maker,

And his eyes shall 8have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

8     And he shall not 9look to the altars, the work of his hands,

Neither shall 10respect that which his fingers have made,

Either the 11groves or the 12images.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 17:4. משׁמן again only Isaiah 10:16.—רזה Niph. emaciari only here; comp. Isaiah 10:18.

Isaiah 17:5. קָמָה Isaiah 37:27.—וְהָיהָ “and it goes,” comp. Isaiah 13:14.—קָצִיר is difficult. The connection leads us first to expect the meaning “reaper,” and many take it so, letting קָצִיר be said metonymically for קוֹצֵר or אַנְשֵׁי קציר (Gesen.). Others take קָמָה in apposition with קָצִיר, or קָצִיר = “harvest time” (when the harvest time takes away the stalks. Ewald). קָצִיר may also be treated as accusative of time: “As one gathers stalks of grain in the harvest.” All of these explanations have a certain harshness. Against Delitzsch, who makes קציר קוֹצֵר it may be objected: why does Isaiah use this very common word in a sense that it never has elsewhere, and for which sense there offered another word (קוֹצֵר Psalms 29:7; Amos 9:13; Jeremiah 9:21, and often) equally current? The same may be objected also to Gesenius and Ewald. To take קמה as apposition is harsh for the reason that then one of the two words would be superfluous. I therefore prefer to take קציר as accusative of time, and to regard the word as a substantive treated adverbially like other marks of time (בֹּקֶר לַיְלָה יום, etc., comp. Ewald, § 204 b).—Then the suffix of זרעו relates to the notion of reaper ideally present in קציר.

Ver 6. נֹקֶף again only Isaiah 14:13.—גרגר isἅπ. λεγ.—אמיר only here and Isaiah 17:9.—סָעִיף “branch.” again only Isaiah 27:10. The suffix in סעיפיה relates to ;זַיִת פֹּרִיָּה is in apposition with the suffix (in ramis ejus fecundae) with the signification of an adversative clause.

Isaiah 17:8. The &אֲשֵׁרִים אֲשֵׁרוֹתonly in Judges 3:7; 2 Chronicles 19:3; 2 Chronicles 33:3) are in any case the images or symbols of Astarte, of the female principle, which had the form of στῆλαι, pillars set upright (from אָשַׁר rectum, erectum esse, according to Movers; perhaps, according to a statement of Herodotus II. 106, γυναικὸς αἰδοῖα were visible).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Like one ties two threads into one knot, so the Prophet, Isaiah 17:3, has entwined in one another the of destiny of Damascus and Ephraim. It is true that in what follows there is nothing more said of Syria. But when it was said, Isaiah 17:3, that “the remnant of Syria” shall be like “the glory of Jacob,” and if now, Isaiah 17:4-8, the course of development of “the glory of Jacob” is portrayed as a prospective sinking to a minimum and then again as a mounting up to the most glorious nearness to God, is not the same course of life by implication prophesied of Syria? Therefore, Ephraim shall be reduced to almost nothing. The Prophet declares this in a threefold image. First he compares the destruction of Israel to the growing leanness of a fat man (Isaiah 17:4), second to the grain harvest, where the reaper with full arm, cuts and gathers the ears (Isaiah 17:5); third to the olive harvest where the fruits are beaten off the trees. But with this third figure he lets appear already in perspective a better time. The Prophet only indirectly intimates that the tree will be robbed of the chief part of its fruits. He lays the chief stress here on the gleaning: there remain hanging in the top and on the boughs some scattered fruit, that shall be beaten off by subsequent effort (Isaiah 17:6). Thus a remnant is left to Israel, and this remnant shall be converted: Shear-Jashub (Isaiah 10:20 sqq.). Notice with what art this address also is arranged. There is a crescendo and decrescendo of shadow, which gradually merges into light. In the first figure (Isaiah 17:4) the shadow still appears faint; in the second (Isaiah 17:5) it reaches its full extent; in the third (Isaiah 17:6) it yields unnoticed to the light. This light the Prophet depicts here in the first place from its subjective side, as a turning of the heart to God (Isaiah 17:7) and a turning away from idols (Isaiah 17:8). The objective salvation first appears in the fourth turn of his discourse (Isaiah 17:12-14).

2. And in that day—God of Israel.

Isaiah 17:4-6. “In that day” Isaiah 17:4, here refers to the time of judgment announced in Isaiah 17:2-3. “The glory of Jacob,” also refers back to Isaiah 17:3, where the same expression is employed with only the difference of Israel for Jacob, which seems to have a rhetorical reason (comp. Isaiah 9:7). Moreover the Prophet speaks here of Israel-Ephraim in a sense that declares what it has in common with Judah. For the grand outlines of that picture of the future that Isaiah draws here, comprehend equally the history of Judah and Ephraim. Moreover it must not be supposed that Isaiah has in mind only the political ruin that ensued, say after the shining reign of Jeroboam II. This growing lean embraces the entire time in which the Ten Tribes exist as a remnant. It therefore lasts still at the present time.

The second figure describes the same matter only in greater extent. It is presented in a measure as having three degrees. First, is called to mind how the reaper gathers the standing grain stalks; second, how then the other arm cuts off the ears; third, how the ears are gathered, and that in the valley of Rephaim, the fruitful plain that extends in a south-west direction from Jerusalem. Such a rich harvest shall the enemies hold in Ephraim; so thoroughly, therefore, shall Ephraim be emptied out, plundered. The “gathering of ears” mentioned in the second half of Isaiah 17:5, may mean the gathering proper for binding into sheaves (Genesis 37:7); but it could mean, too, the gleaning of the ears left lying, as by the poor (Ruth 2:2 sqq.). The former better suits the context, in as much as the latter notion appears in the following verse. In Isaiah 17:5 the whole work of the enemies is described, and that in two stages, that are indicated by the “and it shall be” prefixed, just as the battle and the booty form the two sharply distinguished occupations of the warrior,—The valley of Rephaim is mentioned in the Old Testament, Joshua 15:8; Jos 18:16; 2 Samuel 15:18; 2 Samuel 15:22; 2 Samuel 23:13. Most persons conclude from our present passage that it was fruitful. Only Ewald [and Aben Ezra, J. A. A.], finds in the passage the notion of a “dry valley,” as he also takes מלקט in the sense of gleaning. At present, indeed, the valley is desert (comp. Knobel in loc.). Further statements see in Arnold’s article “Thäler in Palästina,” Herz. R. Encycl. xv. p. 614. [“Robinson speaks of it en passant, as the cultivated valley or plain of Rephaim (Palestine I. 323).” J. A. A.].—But (Isaiah 17:6) there is left on him, i.e., on Jacob (we would say “of him,” comp. Isaiah 10:22) a gleaning secundum percussionem or ad similitudinem percussionis oleae, that is two or three berries in the highest top. Four or five are beaten off with a stick from the branches, because they had not been brought down by the shaking. In the boughs, of course, more remain hanging, because they have greater extent than the tree-top. That is, it is declared, that although the tree is fruitful, yet only a few berries hang on it. Spite of its fruitfulness, it is now so empty that only a little is left for the gleaner. Thus, too, Israel, though now richly blessed, will be reduced to a minimum.

3. At that day—the images.

Isaiah 17:7-8). The little gleaning is the small remnant of Israel that plays so great a part in the divine economy of salvation, Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21; Romans 9:27; Romans 11:4 sq. In that day, i.e., when Israel shall be reduced to the small remnant, will the man look (Isaiah 22:4; Isaiah 31:1) to his Maker, the Holy One of Israel (comp. on Isaiah 1:4), but he will cast not one more look of fear and trust toward the idols. At last he sees that they are only the work of his own, of human hands (Isaiah 44:9 sqq.).—הָאָדָם “the man,” is never anywhere else specially used of Israel. The general expression is doubtless chosen because the Prophet declares what concerns not Israel alone, but essentially all mankind, and what especially is applicable to Syria, too, which all along is conceived of as united with Israel.

Two idols are mentioned by name, as those that were particularly worshipped by the idolatrous Israelites: אשׁרים and חמנים. (Isaiah 27:9). [“groves” and “images” Eng. Bib. Tr.].—Regarding the latter it has been ascertained, that thereby are meant the images of בַּעַל חַמָּז Baal-Hamon, Song of Solomon 8:11, the Sun-god, the superior male god of the Phœnicians. The word, beside the present text, and Isaiah 27:9, occurs Leviticus 26:30; Ezekiel 6:4; Ezekiel 6:6; 2 Chronicles 14:4; 2Ch 34:4; 2 Chronicles 34:7. See further under Text. and Gram.—It is only doubtful whether אשׁרה signifies only the Astarte pillars, or the goddess herself, and the groves consecrated to her (Deuteronomy 16:21, comp. Gesenius, Thes. pag. 162 with Otto Strauss, Nahumi de Nin. vat. Prolegg. pag. 24). Moreover it is undecided whether Astarte (אַשְׁתֹּרֵת kindred to אֶסְתֵּר, ἀστήρ, “star”) signifies only the moon, or Vinus, the star of good fortune, or the entire heaven of night as distinguished from the domain of Baal, the heaven of day (comp. P. Cassel on Judges 2:13; “Moon and stars, the luminaries of the heavens by night, are mingled in Astaroth; they are the sum total of the entire host of heaven.”)

Footnotes:

[2]be reduced.

[3]as one in harvest gathereth corn, and his arm reapeth the ears.

[4]as one gleaning ears.

[5]And gleanings shall, etc.

[6]in its, the fruit trees boughs.

[7]the man turn.

[8]look to.

[9]turn to.

[10]look to what his.

[11]Ashtaroth.

[12]Or, sun images.