The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Isaiah opens a new oracle against Damascus, the capital of Syria — a power God had once used against His own people. Two questions run through the commentators here: why this city, and how far ahead does the sentence reach?
The chapter opens with a term Isaiah uses to head several of these prophecies. Writers disagree about its exact force, and set out two options:
Besides its everyday use, this word occurs at the start of several prophecies, as "The burden of Babylon," "the burden of Moab" (Isa. 13:1; Isa. 15:1, etc.). Scholars are not agreed about the force of massa in such places. Its natural meaning would be "a judgment that lies heavy on the people," but some take its meaning to be "an oracle or sentence pronounced against them."
One writer draws out what the word pictures:
The word burden has the thought of a weight heavy to bear, for God is bringing His displeasure to bear on mankind, and He intends people to feel it.
Damascus will not just be damaged. It will lose the status of a city altogether. One writer weighs that against the age and fame of the place:
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God does not judge Damascus for being foreign. He judges it for the alliance it joined. Syria had sided with Ephraim — the northern kingdom of Israel — against Jerusalem:
Isaiah prophesied that Damascus would become a heap of ruins, because it allied itself with Ephraim against God's city Jerusalem (Isa. 17:1; compare also Amos 1:3-5; Jer. 49:23-27; Zech. 9:1). God had used the kings of Syria to punish Israel; but, as in other cases, He afterwards brought them to nothing for their arrogance and cruelty.
One writer names the king who actually struck the blow:
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That last sentence points to the method running through this whole block of Isaiah. The prophet takes a live crisis of his own day and uses it as the doorway into something much larger:
I do not see how it is possible, in all this part of Isaiah, from chapter 13 and even before, not to see that the Spirit of God is taking up the great plan of God, and speaking of future coming events, but taking hold of present ones as an occasion, and that connected with the government of God then, which will be fully displayed at the end.
The burden begins with Damascus, but the chapter turns to Israel as well. The chastening has a purpose:
archaic wording modernised, meaning kept
- Word. "Burden" heads the prophecy. It carries God's displeasure as a weight He means people to feel. Writers differ over whether the word means the heavy judgment itself or the sentence spoken against a people.
- Ruin. Damascus, the ancient and famous city of Syria, is not just defeated. It is unmade — a heap of ruins, with the cities of Aroer left as pasture for flocks.
- Reason. An alliance brought the sentence: Syria joined Ephraim against Jerusalem. God had once used Syria's kings to punish Israel, then brought them to nothing for their arrogance and cruelty.
- Record. Tiglath-Pileser, not Sennacherib, destroyed Damascus, as Isaiah 7 had foretold. Yet the prophecy runs on past him to a reappearance and overthrow in the last days.
- Remnant. The same burden reaches Israel, and there it turns to mercy. God takes away every other support until a small remnant looks to the Holy One of Israel alone.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken they shall be for flocks; and they shall lie down and there shall be none to make them afraid.
Isaiah 17 opens a "burden" against Damascus, the capital of Syria. A burden is a prophecy of judgment. Verse 2 shows the aftermath: towns emptied of people, left to grazing sheep. Commentators read this as history already fulfilled, and also as a pattern reaching to the last days. In it, the same stroke that levels Syria falls on Israel too.
Damascus was no obscure town, and its ruin left nearby cities to the flocks.
Damascus, which lay to the north of the Holy Land, was the very ancient and most celebrated city of Syria in the old days. (See Gen. 15:2) It was to be made a heap of ruins — the cities of Aroer a place for flocks.
The verse names Aroer. One reference work places it in a single line:
District near Damascus. Isa. 17:2.
The judgment was not arbitrary. Syria had joined with Ephraim in a plot against Jerusalem. Ephraim was the northern kingdom of Israel. That plot brought the sentence down. God had earlier used Syria against Israel. That did not save Syria from judgment in its turn.
Isaiah prophesied that Damascus would become a heap of ruins. This was because of its alliance with Ephraim against God's city Jerusalem. Isa. 17:1: compare also Amos 1:3-5; Jer. 49:23-27; Zech. 9:1. God had used the kings of Syria to punish Israel. But later, as in other cases, He brought them to nothing for their arrogance and cruelty.
The wrecking of Damascus is not left vague. One writer names the king who did it, the alliance behind it, and the earlier chapter where Isaiah announced it.
It is worth keeping in mind that it was not Sennacherib but Tiglath-Pileser who destroyed Damascus. That ruin followed the alliance of Pekah and Rezin, made to remove David's house in Judah — unworthy and false as Ahaz was. Isaiah had predicted this in Isa. 7, and our chapter speaks of it becoming a heap of ruins. But the prophecy clearly goes on to its reappearance and overthrow in the latter day.
The prophet does not stop at Syria. The partner in the plot shares the plotter's fate, and God has His own use for the hostility of the nations.
Long ago Syria and Ephraim conspired against the kingdom of David's son, and it ended in their own undoing. Now once more the remarkable feature of this judgment is that God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally.
He will gather out of them everything that causes stumbling, and He will punish those who do wrong. He will use the nations' hostility to clean that threshing floor, the land of Israel. He will deal with His people in a judicial way. The nations may encourage themselves and each other with the hope that things are going hard for Israel. But their conspiracy will offend God, however much He may use it for Israel's good.
But the chastening of Israel has an aim beyond punishment, and a remnant survives it.
Next comes the burden of Damascus, brought down from a city to a heap of ruins. In verses 4-6 we see the judgment of Israel, but a few grapes are left there for gleaning. God chastises His people until they stop resting on their own strength and rely on God alone. Yet they will dwindle to a remnant, two or three here and four or five there. Then they will look to Himself, the only source of strength, the Holy One of Israel.
The ancient fulfilment did not exhaust the words. Writers see the chapter looking on to a day when Israel's old troublers are themselves troubled.
But the judgment is also future. And the enemies of Israel, who trouble His people, will be troubled "in that day." The chapter closes with a solemn word: "This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us."
If the same sentence falls twice, is that fair? One writer answers with a household picture. A son who knows what disgraced his father, and walks the same road anyway, is more guilty, not less.
Suppose a child grows up knowing his father's dishonour, and hearing of his disgrace and punishment. If he had any right feeling, would not that sin be especially hateful in his eyes? The public example of his father's evil ways would always be before him. But suppose the son treated it lightly, and used it as encouragement to walk the same path. Is it not just that a still more severe punishment should fall on that son?
- Cause. Damascus allied with Ephraim against Jerusalem. The ruin was earned, not random.
- Instrument. God used Syria against Israel. Then He broke Syria for its arrogance and cruelty. Being God's tool is no protection.
- Reach. Tiglath-Pileser wrecked the city. Yet the prophecy runs past him to a future overthrow "in that day."
- Purge. The stroke that emptied Syrian towns also fell on Israel. God used the plotters' hatred to clean the threshing floor of Israel's land.
- Remnant. The chastening aims at dependence. Stripped to a few gleanings, they look to the Holy One of Israel alone.
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Isaiah 17 opens with a judgment against Damascus, the capital of Syria. By the third verse the sentence widens to take in Ephraim as well — the northern kingdom of Israel. Why does God strike His own people alongside a foreign city, and what is left once the "fortress" and the "kingdom" are gone?
Syria and Ephraim had joined forces to attack Judah and unseat the royal line of David. Verse 3 sentences both partners in one breath.
Long ago Syria and Ephraim conspired against the kingdom of David's son, and it ended in their own defeat. Once again the remarkable feature of this judgment is that God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally… He will gather out all the causes of stumbling from them and punish the transgressors. He will use their enmity to purge that threshing-floor, the land of Israel. He will deal with His people in a judicial way.
Damascus had its own history with God. Being useful to Him did not put Syria beyond judgment.
Isaiah prophesied that Damascus would become a heap of ruins. The reason was its alliance with Ephraim against God's city Jerusalem. Isa. 17:1; compare also Amos 1:3-5; Jer. 49:23-27; Zech. 9:1. God had used the kings of Syria to punish Israel. But later, as in other cases, He brought them to nothing for their arrogance and cruelty.
Ephraim had looked to Damascus for help. So the two lose their power together, and the "fortress" goes with the city.
So in Isa. 17 Damascus is to be a heap of ruins, when Ephraim too, who looked to her for help, ceases to have power. And in the latter day the mighty rush of nations that interfere, to their own destruction, is rebuked.
This loss is not an accident. God has a purpose in it, and He keeps at it until that purpose is reached.
God chastises His people until they stop resting on their own strength and rely on God alone… When God's people are faithless, they can still act with the good sense and wisdom of the natural man. When they do not rest on God, they are weaker than the world. And when He gives them over to chastening, they break to pieces at once.
This judgment fell in history. Commentators name the king who carried it out, and the plot that brought it on.
Keep in mind that it was not Sennacherib but Tiglath-Pileser who destroyed Damascus. That ruin followed the alliance of Pekah and Rezin, who tried to remove David's house from the throne of Judah — unworthy and false as Ahaz was. Isaiah had predicted this in Isa. 7, and our chapter speaks of Damascus as a heap of ruins. But the prophecy clearly goes on to its reappearance and overthrow in the latter day.
The chapter does not stop with that ancient ruin.
The power that dealt with Damascus and Ephraim in Isaiah 17, we know, was the Assyrian. But the chapter goes on in the clearest way to his doings in the last day.
Verse 3 compares the remnant of Syria to the glory of Israel. The verses that follow show how thin that glory becomes — and who still stands at the end.
In the days of Isaiah, Damascus was allied with the ten tribes. The prophecy soon moves from Damascus to the children of Israel, for disaster was to come on both. Both had joined in alliance against Judah. The picture used is harvest, of corn or of grapes, which would leave them poor and thin. Yet a remnant would remain, like a gleaning of grapes or a few berries on an olive tree. That remnant will turn their eyes to "the Holy One of Israel," and away from the idolatrous things that once held them.
- Alliance. Syria and Ephraim plotted together against David's line. Verse 3 sentences them together: the ally's kingdom and Israel's fortress fall in one stroke.
- Reversal. God had used Syria's kings to punish Israel. Their arrogance and cruelty then brought them to nothing. Being useful to God is no shield.
- Stripping. The lost fortress is the point, not an accident. God chastens until His people stop resting on their own strength.
- Weakness. A faithless Israel is weaker than the world around it. Under chastening it breaks at once.
- Remnant. After the harvest comes a gleaning. The few who remain look to the Holy One of Israel, and away from the idols that once held them.