Isaiah 17
About IsaiahWritten by AI
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and one of the books the New Testament quotes most often. Isaiah son of Amoz preached in Jerusalem from about 740 to 700 BC, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, while the Assyrian empire threatened the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later writers in the time of the exile and return. Many Christians hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, noting that the New Testament quotes both halves under his name.
The book moves from judgment to comfort. Chapters 1 to 39 confront Judah's sin and the proud nations, with the history of King Hezekiah at the center. From chapter 40 the tone changes: “Comfort, comfort My people.” God promises to bring His people home, and the book ends with new heavens and a new earth.
Watch for God's title, the Holy One of Israel, and for the promised King from David's line and the Servant of the LORD who suffers for others. Christians see both fulfilled in Jesus, though some prophecies are read differently among believers.
Before you read Isaiah 17Written by AI
A message against Damascus, the capital of Aram, and against Israel, which had joined with it. Both will be stripped bare like a harvested field, with only a few olives left. The reason given: they forgot the God of their salvation. The chapter closes with nations roaring like the sea, scattered by God's rebuke.
The Burden against Damascus
This is the burden against Damascus:
“Behold, Damascus is no longer a city;
it has become a heap of ruins.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they will be left to the flocks,
which will lie down with no one to fear.
The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
and the sovereignty from Damascus.
The remnant of Aram will be
like the splendor of the Israelites,”
declares the LORD of Hosts.
“In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade,
and the fat of his body will waste away,
as the reaper gathers the standing grain
and harvests the ears with his arm,
as one gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
Yet gleanings will remain,
like an olive tree that has been beaten—
two or three berries atop the tree,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
In that day men will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
They will not look to the altars
they have fashioned with their hands
or to the Asherahs and incense altars
they have made with their fingers.
In that day their strong cities
will be like forsaken thickets and summits,
abandoned to the Israelites
and to utter desolation.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge.
Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots
and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
though on the day you plant
you make them grow,
and on that morning
you help your seed sprout—
yet the harvest will vanish
on the day of disease and incurable pain.
Alas, the tumult of many peoples;
they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations;
they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
The nations rage like the rush of many waters.
He rebukes them, and they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweeds before a gale.
In the evening, there is sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us
and the lot of those who plunder us.