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.
And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.
Isaiah's message opens against Damascus, but by verse 4 the judgment has turned on Jacob's own glory. The picture is a well-fed body wasting away — so why does God do this to His own people?
Damascus and Ephraim had joined in an earlier plot against the house of David. Now judgment falls on both.
As of old, Syria and Ephraim conspired against the realm of David's son, and brought about their own downfall. So once more the remarkable feature of this judgement is that God will deal with His people as well as with their old ally... He will gather out of them everything that causes offence, and punish those who break His law. He will use their enmity to purge that threshing-floor of the land of Israel. He will deal with His people as a judge.
Verse 4 belongs to a run of farming pictures: harvest, gleaning, a few olives left on a branch.
The prophetic message however quickly passes from Damascus to the children of Israel, for disaster was to come on both, since both had united in alliance against Judah. The figure used is of harvest, whether of corn or of grapes. It would leave them poor and thin. Yet a remnant would be left, 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.
The leanness is not an accident of war. It has a target: a people resting on their own strength.
In verses 4-6 we see the judgment of Israel, but gleaning grapes are left there. God chastises His people till they cease to rest on their own strength, instead of relying on God alone. Yet when they have dwindled to a remnant — two or three here, four or five there — they will look to Him, the only source of strength, the Holy One of Israel. Their idolatry had left them desolate... When God's people are faithless, they can act with all the prudence and wisdom of the natural man. When they do not rest on God, they are feebler than the world. And when chastening falls on them, they break to pieces at once.
The survivors of this thinning end up facing a new direction.
The prophecy relates to a time when "the glory of Jacob" is to be "made thin, and the fatness of his flesh" to "grow lean." Those who survive are pictured looking to their Maker, instead of to the altars which their own hands had made. They have respect to the Holy One of Israel, instead of to the groves and images they once worshipped.
Part of this was history within a generation. But the prophecy does not stop there.
It is worth keeping in mind that Tiglath-Pileser destroyed Damascus, not Sennacherib. That ruin followed the alliance of Pekah and Rezin, who set out to depose David's house in Judah — unworthy and false as Ahaz was. This had been predicted by Isaiah in Isaiah 7, and our chapter speaks of its being a heap of ruins. But the prophecy clearly goes on to its reappearance and overthrow in the latter day.
Note: Trotter quotes an older translation that reads "made thin" where the ESV has "brought low."
- Fatness. Jacob's "glory" is a well-fed body, and God Himself reduces it. The leanness is His act, not just an enemy's success.
- Cause. God thins Israel for its idolatry and its alliance. He judges His people beside the very ally they leaned on instead of Him.
- Purpose. The chastening runs until they stop resting on their own strength. A people who do not rest on God prove feebler than the world.
- Remnant. What survives is a gleaning: two or three berries on an outermost branch. God leaves that remnant on purpose.
- Result. The few who remain look to their Maker, not to altars their own hands built. Leanness ends in the Holy One of Israel.
And it shall be as when the reaper gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; yea, it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Isaiah's message against Damascus turns, without warning, on Israel herself, pictured as a reaper sweeping up grain and leaving almost nothing behind. The field named here, the Valley of Rephaim, was a battlefield Israel remembered well — so why is God's own people the crop?
Damascus and the northern kingdom of Israel, called Ephraim, had joined against Judah. The prophecy strikes both. One commentator reads the reaping as God's own work on His own ground:
Long ago Syria and Ephraim conspired against the kingdom of David's son, and brought defeat on themselves. Now 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 offences from them and punish the transgressors. He will use their enmity to purge that threshing-floor of the land of Israel. He will deal with His people in a judicial manner.
The name is not random. It marks ground where Israel's enemies once gathered and where David broke them:
A valley on the south of Jerusalem, in which the Philistines gathered themselves against Israel, and where David twice decisively defeated them. 2 Sam. 5:18, 22; 1 Chr. 14:9-17; Isa. 17:5. In the Authorised Version it is twice called the "Valley of the Giants." Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16.
The name itself carries the memory of what once terrified Israel there:
These giant races, the enemies of God's people, can overthrow you with the mere sight of them. They picture the enemy's power: monsters, and, you might say, superhuman.
This cutting has an aim, and it stops at a set point:
In verses 4-6 we see the judgment of Israel, but gleaning grapes are left there. God disciplines His people until they stop resting on their own strength, instead of relying on God alone. Yet when they have dwindled to a remnant — two or three here, four or five there — they will look to Him, the only source of strength, the Holy One of Israel.
What the reaper's arm leaves behind matters most. The few who survive are known by what they now look at:
The people shrink so far that the survivors are like "gleaning grapes," or the "two or three berries left in the top of the highest bough after the shaking of an olive tree." These survivors look to their Maker instead of to the altars their own hands had made. They respect the Holy One of Israel instead of the groves and images they once worshipped as idols.
Another writer draws out the same double effect of the harvest figure:
The figure is used of harvest, whether of grain or of grapes, which would leave them poor and thin, yet a remnant would be left, like a gleaning of grapes or a few berries on an olive tree, and that remnant will turn their eyes to "the Holy One of Israel," and away from the idolatrous things that formerly held them.
The chapter had a real fulfilment in Isaiah's own day, and it also looks further ahead. First, the history:
It is worth remembering that not Sennacherib but Tiglath-Pileser destroyed Damascus. That ruin followed the alliance of Pekah and Rezin, who set out to remove David's house from the throne in Judah… But the prophecy goes on to its reappearance and overthrow in the last days.
And on where the chapter finally lands:
Isaiah 17 shows how its aim is the last days, reached through present circumstances… Jacob is brought low at the same time. Yet in the remnant there is deliverance and salvation, when Israel is at its lowest — the remnant looking to God.
- Cause — Israel joined an alliance against David's house, so the judgment aimed at Damascus fell on God's own people too.
- Cutting — The reaper's arm is God clearing His own threshing-floor. He gathers out the offences and punishes the transgressors.
- Field — In the Valley of Rephaim, giant-like enemies once massed against Israel, and David broke them twice. Now Israel is the crop cut there.
- Gleanings — God does not reap clean: two or three berries, a few ears left — a remnant remains.
- Change — The cutting goes on until they stop leaning on their own strength. Then they look to the Holy One of Israel.