First Upload: Wednesday March 13, 2019
Last Modified: Monday July 6, 2020
Author: Eduardo Freire Canosa
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1 An oracle concerning Damascus: "See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites," declares the Lord Almighty.
4 "In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm—as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs," declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Oh, the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
The first verse initiates an oracle about Damascus whose full import must be gleaned elsewhere.
The remainder covers seven separate scripts: Moab, Ephraim, Judah, the Philistines, the "Vineyard of The Lord," the "Day of The Lord" and Assyria.
Revised Chapter 17 enrols the first verse of the canonical chapter, imports another two and a half verses and bears the title, "Damascus."
2. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.
Note: Aroer was a territory of Moab (Numbers 21:13).
Destination: Revised Chapter 15, "Moab,"
16:14 But now the Lord says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble. 2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid."
3-6. "The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites," declares the Lord Almighty. 4 "In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. 5 It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm—as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs," declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
Analysis: Although the focus of these four verses is Ephraim, verse 3 attaches Ephraim to Damascus and thus makes an implicit reference to the alliance between King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel.
Destination: Revised Chapter 33, "Ephraim Allies Itself With Aram."
7-8. In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.
Analysis: These two verses were fulfilled in the monarchy of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:1). The prophecy was delivered at a time when men were indeed looking to "the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made." This was so during the monarchy of Ahaz.
Destination: Revised Chapter 7, "The Lord's Testing of King Ahaz,"
7:13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 7:15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 7:16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. 27:9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
9. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
Analysis: This verse probably tabs the Philistine cities of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod which King Uzziah demolished (2 Chronicles 26:6).
Destination: Revised Chapter 14, "The Philistines."
10-11. You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, 11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.
Analysis: These two verses prophesy famine ("the harvest will be as nothing") to a prosperous ("you set out the finest plants") but faithless people ("You have forgotten God your Savior") fond of wine ("plant imported vines"). A similar charge of "having no regard for the deeds of the Lord" was levelled by Isaiah against the drunkards and revelers of Jerusalem.
Destination: Revised Chapter 5, "The Vineyard of The Lord,"
10 You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, 11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. 5:10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.
12-13. Oh, the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters! 13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.
Analysis: These two verses juxtapose the "raging of many nations" and "the uproar of the peoples" to the Lord's irrefutable ascendancy. The confrontation points to the worldwide "Day of the Lord."
Destination: Revised Chapter 24, "The Day of The Lord."
14. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
Analysis: This verse makes reference to the night when the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! (2 Kings 19:35).
Destination: Revised Chapter 10, "Assyria,"
10:32 This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of the Daughter of Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. 14 In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.
27:8. By warfare and exile you contend with her—with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.
27:10. The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
First Half of 27:11. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them.
1 An oracle concerning Damascus: See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. 27:8 By warfare and exile you contend with her—with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.
27:10 The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. First Half of 27:11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them.
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