Isaiah 17:9-11

ג) The Cause of Ephraim’s Destruction

Isaiah 17:9-11

9          In that day shall his strong cities be 13as 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 14shalt thou plant pleasant plants,

And shalt set it with strange slips:

11     15In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,

And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish:

16But the harvest shall be 17a heap in the day of grief

And of desperate sorrow.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 17:9. עזובה comp. Isaiah 6:12.—חֹרֶשׁ is saltus, “forest.” David dwelt בַּחֹרְשָׁה 1 Samuel 23:15-16; 1 Samuel 23:18. Jotham, according to 2 Chronicles 27:4, built castles and towers בֶּ‍ֽחֳרָשִׁים. Comp. Ezekiel 31:3.—אָמִיר, beside the present and Isaiah 17:6, does not occur again. The employment of this rare and ancient word here must be explained partly by the fact of its previous use, Isaiah 17:6, partly by the fact that in old times not only the tops of trees, but probably also the tops of mountains were so called. For the conjecture of Simon, sanctioned by Gesenius, that the Amorites were named the montani, from an old אֱמֹר mons (comp. הִתְאַמֵּר se efferre Psalms 94:4) has certainly much in its favor. The LXX. also found in אמיר the name of that ancient race, and hence translated οῖ Ἀμοῤῥαῖοι καὶ οἳ Εὐαῖοι.—The subject of והיתה is any way the ideal notion אֶרֶץ contained in what precedes. This notion is likely the occasion also of the change in gender that we observe in what follows (comp. &שׁכחת ישׁעך etc., with מעזו, Isaiah 17:9). That a land may be personified, i.e., identified with the nation is proved by passages like Jeremiah 6:19; Jeremiah 22:29, etc.

Isaiah 17:10. יֵשַׁע occurs only here in the first part of Isa.; on the other hand four ties in the second part: Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah 61:10; Isaiah 62:11. The expression אלהי ישׁעי “God of my salvation,” is frequent in the Psalms 18:47; Psalms 25:5; Psalms 27:9; Psalms 62:8; Psalms 65:6, etc., comp. Micah 7:7; Habakkuk 3:18.—צוּר מַעוֹז Psalms 31:3, comp. Psalms 62:8.—נעמן נָעִים occurs only here.—זמרה only here in Isaiah. The suffix -עֶנּוּ relates to the ideal unity ascribed in thought to the garden arrangements.

Isaiah 17:11. שִׂגְשֵׂג, Pilp, from שׂוּג (comp. סוּג שׂךְ מְשׂוּכָּה Isaiah 5:5) sepire, “to fence in,” occurs only here.—Hiph. of פרח occurs in Isaiah only here; Kal. often: Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah 66:14—The words נד קציר וגו are difficult. True, it is clear in general that the Prophet contrasts the notions of planting, sowing, fencing round, bringing to bloom and that of the harvest. But the question is does he speak of a disappearance of the hoped for harvest, or of the approach of a harvest not hoped for, and unwelcome. The former is maintained by those that take נֵד נָד in the sense of effugit. But the verb נוּד where in its inflection has Zere as vowel of the second root syllable. Moreover נָד would not be the right word for the notion of vanishing. One would expect אָבַד or a similar word. For נוּד is moveri, agitari, vagari, errare; it designates, therefore, the state of instability, fluctuation, but not that of non-existence. We stand, therefore, by the usual meaning of נֵד, acervus, cumulus: “as a heap, heaped up is the harvest in the day of grief.”—נַֽחֲלָה cannot be understood of taking possession, for the word means possession. Moreover, since several Codices and ancient translations read נַחְלָה the latter is to be retained. נַחְלָה, indeed, occurs elsewhere only in connection with מַכָּה (Jeremiah 10:19; Jeremiah 14:17; Jeremiah 30:12; Nehemiah 3:19) or in the sense of aegrotus (Ezekiel 34:4; Ezekiel 34:21); but the day of the sick (Fem. to correspond to the preceding suffixes) is the day of being sick, as e.g., the time of the one leading is the time of leading (Jeremiah 2:17).—כְּאֵב, “pain,” again only Isaiah 65:14.—אנוֹש occurs in Isaiah only here: often in Jeremiah 17:16; Jeremiah 30:12; Jeremiah 30:15, etc.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. This strophe is distinguished from the preceding in this, that it assigns the reason for the destruction threatened against Ephraim. Therefore, after words that refer to both the strophes that precede, and that describe the impending ruin (Isaiah 17:9), the cause of the same is now named. It consists in this, that Israel has forsaken the God of its salvation. This has its consequence that it cherishes with delight untheocratic, idolatrous existence, like one lays out a pleasure garden and adorns it with exotics (Isaiah 17:10). Measures are not wanting which should surround that garden as a protecting hedge, and speedily bring it to a certain bloom; but the harvest? True enough there will be harvest in heaps; but not a day of joy. This harvest will be a day of deepest sorrow (Isaiah 17:11).

2. In that day—desolation.

Isaiah 17:9. “In that day” refers back to Isaiah 17:4; “his strong cities” to “the cities Aroer,” Isaiah 17:2, and “the fortress,” Isaiah 17:3; כעזובת, “like forsaken places,” to “forsaken,” Isaiah 17:2; האמיר, “the summits,” to אמיר “the summits (of the olive trees),” Isaiah 17:6. By these correspondences the Prophet gives us to understand that he speaks of the same subject as above, But he modifies his manner in two respects. First, he does not speak of the subject in figurative language as Isaiah 17:4-6, but boldly; second, he proves that the judgment was made necessary by the conduct of Israel. In as much as, therefore, “in that day” refers to Isaiah 17:4 (not to Isaiah 17:7, as the contents plainly show), the Prophet explains the figures used there by a reference to a fact well known to all Israel. In the forests and on elevated spots they had all seen the ruins of very ancient strong buildings that were evidence of the presence of a power long since overcome and vanished away. They were the ruins of castles which the Canaanities forsook, voluntarily or by compulsion, when the Israelites conquered the land (comp. Knobel, in loc.). A time will come when “the strong cities” of Israel shall lie like these castles. It is plain that this reference to that evidence of fact, besides the figurative language of Isaiah 17:4-6, was fitted to produce a deep impression.

3. Because thou hast—sorrow.

Isaiah 17:10-11. The evil conduct of Israel that was the cause of that judgment was twofold: 1) the negative reason was the not regarding, forgetting Jehovah: 2) the positive reason was the inclination to an idolatrous existence. In regard to the positive reason, I understand the Prophet to mean not merely the worship of strange gods, but also the political union with foreign powers that was most intimately connected with it, and the inclination to foreign ways in general (comp. Isaiah 2:6 sqq.). This culture of idolatry is compared to the culture of charming gardens (literally, plantations of lovely things). Israel itself, according to Isaiah 5:1 sqq. 7, was for Jehovah נְטַע שַֽׁעֲשׁוּעָיו, “his pleasant plant.” But the recreant nation, instead of cultivating the service of Jehovah, set up other enclosures that appealed more to their fleshly inclinations, which they sowed with foreign grape vines (properly grape vines of the foreigner), i.e. in which they cultivated foreign grape vines (comp. Jeremiah 2:12) from seed. By these foreign vines must be understood everything untheocratic, all that was connected with heathen life to whose culture Israel devoted itself. The Imperfects express the continuance of the present. For at the time that the Prophet wrote this under Ahaz, this tendency to idolatrous living continued operative. The people provided also a protecting fence (comp. Isaiah 5:5). By the fencing the Prophet seems to me to understand everything that was undertaken for the purpose of giving security to the idolatrous efforts. That may have been partly positive measures (efforts in favor of idolatry of every sort), and partly negative protection against whatever was done on the part of true Israelites against the worship of idols, persecution of such, comp. e.g. 1 Kings 18:4; 1 Kings 18:19. The pains of planting and fencing were quickly rewarded: the heathen life bloomed only too soon. The whole history preceding the exile furnishes the proof of this. “In the morning” means the very next morning after the planting; therefore very quickly. We adhere to the usual meaning of נֵד acervus, cumulus: “as a heap, heaped up is a harvest in the day of grief.” See Text. and Gram. For I would not construe it, with Delitzsch, in the sense: “a harvest heap unto the day of judgment,” after Romans 2:5. For it does not read לְיוֹם, “to the day,” and in fact the day of the harvest is not distinguished from the day of judgment, which must be assumed by those that explain that the product of the harvesting heaps up for the day of judgment. But the Prophet says: in the day of judgment (ביום “in the day,” refers back to ביום in the first member of the verse), which is itself just at the same time the day of harvest, the produce of harvest is there in heaps. But this harvest day is “a day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” Being such, the harvest is a bad one, and the heaps signify heaped up misfortune. Therefore the Prophet says that the fruit of that planting shall be a harvest that shall come in on the day of grief and incurable pain, thus itself shall have the form of grief and incurable pain.

Footnotes:

[13]like forsaken places in the forests and summits.

[14]thou plantest pleasant gardens and sowest them with foreign seed.

[15]In the day of thy planting thou settest a fence.

[16]But there is a heaped-up harvest in the day, etc.

[17]Or, removed in the day of inheritance, and there shall be deadly sorrow.