Happy Labor Day! Here’s something to labor over for rich rewards!
Dear Friends:
Happy Labor Day! Here’s something to labor over which can bring you rich wards: study notes on Isaiah 17-20. God bless you.
Because of Calvary,
John Janney
Isaiah 17:1
Isaiah 17:1 English Standard Version (ESV)
An Oracle Concerning Damascus
17 An oracle concerning Damascus.
Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
Adult SS Elective: Isaiah 17:1-20:6
September 4, 2016
- Damascus (Syria) and Ephraim (Israel) (17:1-14)
“The oracle concerning Damascus (17:1) is a mosaic of five pieces. First, in 17:1-3 Aram and Ephraim are involved in a common fate, stripped of the worldly security of cities, fortifications and royal power. Secondly, 17:4-9 is divided into three parts by ‘In that day’ (verses 4, 7, 9). Jacob will be reduced to gleanings (verses 4-6) but the remnant (verses 7-8) will turn truly to the Lord. Yet the day of their preservation will also be the day (verse 9) of the destruction of all their worldly strength. Thirdly, 17:10-11 is…an explanation why this disaster has befallen Ephraim…. Fourthly, 17:12-14 has a world setting among ‘nations’ and ‘peoples’ (verses 12-13). The theme is the sudden dispersal of an international threat. Fifthly, 18:1-7 has the same international flavor: envoys travel between nations (verses 1-2) and the whole earth is addressed (verse 3). The Lord is an unobserved watcher (verse 4). Just when the harvest is ready, he will intervene (verses 5-6), and what would have been harvested will be food for the birds and beasts. Then the people to whom the envoys went (verse 7; cf. verse 2) will bring tribute to the Lord on Zion.” [Motyer, p. 155]
“In these verses the people of God, here the northern kingdom, Ephraim, make their first appearance in the oracle sequence (chapters 13:1-20:6). Note that they are not mentioned independently but as linked with Damascus/Aram and are destroyed with them in a joint destruction…. Sin is not overlooked. The Lord’s concern for his people is a holy concern. Consequently, divine judgment touches them also. The particular sin which bring them under judgment is that, against the looming power of Assyria, they have sought security through armed alliance with Aram… The explanation (10) is that this constitutes abandonment of the Lord and the security he affords. Consequently, both they and the strength in which they trust will perish.” [Motyer, p. 156]
“Damascus is briefly told its fate, but Israel has the brunt of the rebuke, as well as the indignity of being classed with the heathen, her oracle placed among theirs.” [Kidner, p. 644]
“Ephraim and Damascus thought that they could free themselves from the yoke of Tiglath-pileser III. As we have seen in our analysis of chapter 7, the prophet has forewarned the nations that their alliance will not undo the Davidic dynasty in Judah nor will they succeed in destabilizing Assyria. Instead, both nations would shortly come to an end, which happened to Damascus in 732 when it was taken by Tiglath-pileser III and to Samaria in 722 when it was taken by Shalmaneser V and Sargon II.” [VanGemeren, p. 486]
- The Failure of an Alliance (17:1-3)
“For the background to this passage see 7:3-9; 2 Kings 16:1-9.” (Motyer, p. 156]
“He portrays the city of Damascus in ruins and utter desolation… The flourishing city traces its ancestry back to a desert oasis. It had developed from a caravansary to a major commercial center. The judgment reverses the progress of Damascus; it will again be a place where flocks are pastured (v. 2b).” [VanGemeren, p. 486]
“Since Ephraim cannot be saved by seeking security in Damascus, neither can Damascus be helped by unbelieving Ephraim. The people of God cannot be made secure by worldly power not, when they depart from sole reliance on the Lord (10), can they bring a blessing to the world.” [Motyer, p. 156]
This passage is “perhaps worded so as to recall the departure of the glory in Eli’s day (I Sa 4:21)…” [Kidner, p. 644]
- The Destruction of Israel (17:4-11)
- The Description of the Destruction (17:4-6)
“Here follow three figures to describe the fate of Israel: wasting disease; harvesting of corn; and gathering of olives. In each case there is a remnant only left.” [Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 165]
“Glory reduced to gleanings…” [Motyer, p. 157]
“The glory is the false glory of worldly power and status… The picture is of…unbelief as a cancer.” [Motyer, p. 157]
“Israel’s future is compared to a grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim…. The future of Israel is likened to the scanty remains left to the poor for gleaning.” [VanGemeren, p. 486]
“…The first gathering of olives is by the hand, then the branches are shaken or beaten; but there is still a gleaning left.” [Spk. Com. in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 165]
“…The picture of gleaning, the final blow in verse 5, leaves room for hope…. The survival of Israel, against all probability, is guaranteed by him who is the God of Israel, the one who has pledged himself to them.” [Motyer, p. 157]
- The Exception to the Destruction (17:7-8)
“This is the second ‘In that day’ section and it turns to the question of trust. The eye of expectation and confidence will be fixed solely on the Lord, to the exclusion of every other possible object of religious devotion (cf. 2:8; 31:7)…. Maker is used as a deliberate contrast to the ‘handmade gods’ of verse 8. The God who is the Creator is the only God (Ps. 96:5)…. For Israel, Maker meant more than initial creation; it pointed to the God who made Israel his special people by election and covered them with his redemptive and providential care (e.g. 44:2; 51:13; 54:5; Pss. 95:6; 1492). In that day the remnant will fully realize all that the Lord is and has been to his people.” [Motyer, p. 157-158]
“We have reason to account those happy afflictions which part between us and our sins, and by sensible convictions of the vanity of the world, that great idol, cool our affections to it and lower our expectations from it.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 78]
“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” [Lowell in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 166]
“God’s plan to glean a handful of converts, worshipping their Maker (7) instead of their manufactures, duly came to pass (see 1 Ch. 30:10-11).” [Kidner, p. 644]
iii. The Explanation of the Destruction (17:9-11)
“These verses form the final ‘In that day’ section and return to the theme of coming desolation (9 cf. verses 1f.) in order to explain why it has happened (10f.).” [Motyer, p. 158]
“The fall of Israel results in exile so that the countryside will be characterized by depopulation…” [VanGemeren, p. 486]
“The Lord as Rock is the Lord in his dependable, saving actions, here providing the fortress-like protection which his people need in a menacing world. …Fortress is ‘place of strength’, the same word as in ‘strong cities’ in verse 9.” [Motyer, p. 159]
“What is the true hope on which I lean? Is it the rock, or a reed?” [Amos R. Wells, The Living Bible: Chapter by Chapter, (Boston: W. A. Wilde Company, 1955), p. 202]
“Human initiative, seeking to provoke divine response, lies at the heart of non-biblical religion and of every perversion of biblical religion…. The NIV’s yet the harvest depends on an emended text but the MT’s stark exclamation is very telling ― ‘a bumper harvest [lit. a heap, a harvest’] in the day of inheritance! Incurable pain!’” [Motyer, p. 159]
- The Deliverer of Israel (17:12-14)
“…In a time of world threat, security is found in the fortress-Lord not in fortress-cities (9). In Isaiah’s day the conglomerate Assyrian Empire threatened everyone. As people after people were brought under its sway and contributed fresh forces to its armies, all alike needed to look to whatever they considered to offer them security. For the theocracies of Israel and Judah, was it sensible practical politics simply to trust the Lord?… Respectively, 7:12-14 and 18:1-7 answer the question: Who actually rules the world and whose purposes will in the end be accomplished?” [Motyer, p. 159-160]
“A short independent oracle springing from the same historical situation as the following chapter. It describes the annihilation of the Assyrians.” [Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 166]
“The Sennacherib incident (chapters 36-37), whether foreseen or recalled, is the perfect background. But, detached from this background, it is a pointed statement on world rule: the metaphor of raging waters symbolizing the gathering tide of attack (12-13a), the commanding voice (13b), and the imagery of chaff in the wind for the attack dispersed (13c; 14).” [Motyer, p. 160]
“Raging and he raging sea…are images of the restless, hostile world threatening the throne and people of God (cf. Ps. 93). Sennacherib’s multi-national army (many nations…) affords a concrete illustration of the notion of international, restless hostility to the Lord and his purposes as found, for example, in 8:9-10 and Psalm 2.” [Motyer, p. 160]
“The simple word of divine command rules the world (Pss. 2:4-6; 46:6; Ezk. 1:25) and the same vocabulary expresses divine rule of the ‘forces’ of creation in Psalm 104:7. Contextually, the thought runs beyond excitement at the greatness of such a God to the realism of trusting him amid the threats of this world, however great, however international.” [Motyer, p. 160]
“…Sennacherib mesmerized the Judahites with terror ― but by morning, they are gone!’ nothingness of him’, ‘not a sign of him’.” [Motyer, p. 161]
- Ethiopia (18:1-7)
“The people of Ethiopia (ancient Cush) sent ambassadors to Israel, hoping to form a strong alliance against Assyria, but the venture was doomed to fail. God was not in it…. The Assyrian invasion was God’s plan, and He would not intervene until He accomplished His…purposes. He would hover over the scene like summer heat or the morning dew (vv. 3-4). When the time was right, He would reap the harvest (v. 5) and leave the corpses to the scavengers (v. 6)…. Those clean-shaven ambassadors should have….been humble worshippers, not haughty negotiators (v. 7), and trusted the God of Israel, not their armies or treaties (Ps. 20:7).” [Wiersbe, With the Word, p. 463]
“In chapters 29-30 the prophet charges the people of Judah with independence from God and reliance on Ethiopia. In 705 B.C. Hezekiah sought an alliance with Ethiopia. This was because the Ethiopian king Shabaka controlled Upper Egypt as far as the Nile Delta. Apparently, the Ethiopians had taken Egypt (715 B.C.) and negotiated an alliance with Hezekiah. From the description of the Ethiopians it would seem that the Judeans stood in amazement of them because they were able to subdue the great power of Egypt. However, chapter 18 brings out God’s judgment on this powerful people while intimating that God has a place reserved for them in his overall kingdom purposes.” [VanGemeren, p. 487]
“In 715 the Ethiopian Piankhi mastered Egypt, founded the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and sought to play a part on the world stage. Envoys went to all the Palestinian states promising Egyptian aid in an anti-Assyrian rising…. The world knows no security but collective strength (1-2a). Isaiah, however has a better message to share, arising from the principles he has already drawn from the experience of Ephraim and Aram (17:1-11), in whose case collective strength failed (17:1-5). Security can be found only in the Lord (17:7, 10), and one day the remnant will enjoy it (17:3- 6). This is a microcosm of the Lord’s plan for the world. He rules all the nations (17:12-140, and it would be better for the ambassadors of collective security to take a different message to the far parts of the earth: to wait for the Lord (3), for he is planning his sudden intervention (4; cf. 17:13f.). The harvest expected from human plans will come to nothing (5-6) but a world remnant will gather to the Lord in Zion (7).” [Motyer, p. 161]
“…This deputation, like the rest (see on 14:28-31), is dismissed with God’s Go…. God has no need of intrigues; he will bide his time… The enemy will reach the very mountains of Judah (3; cf. 14:25), only to be cut down on the verge of victory, like a crop destroyed on the eve of harvest (5-6).” [Kidner, p. 644-645]
“…‘The points of comparison are apparently two: (1) the motionless stillness of the noon-tide heat and the fleecy cloud are an emblem of Jehovah’s quiescence. (2) As these natural phenomena hasten the ripening of the fruit, so all providential agencies appear to further and mature the schemes of Assyria. But the development is suddenly arrested just before it fruition.” [Camb. Bib. in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 169]
“The obvious meaning of the figure is, that God would let the enemy proceed in the execution of his purposes until they were nearly accomplished.” [Alexander I, p. 345]
“…Just before; when the invader is feeling perfectly sure of accomplishing his purpose; then, and in the most humiliating way, his desolation shall come.” Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 170]
“The ripening crops represent the maturing plans of the Assyrians: Jehovah looks on, and in appearance promotes them, as a favorable sun and sky advance the grapes; but, just before maturity is reached, fruit and branch alike are violently cut away, i.e. the enemy’s plans are abruptly intercepted.’ [Driver in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 170]
“God…waits, withholding judgment as he looks at the plotting of the nations…. Suddenly the Lord seizes the moment and cuts down the nations like the branches of a grapevine…” [VanGemeren, p. 487]
“The Lord chooses his moment when the harvest is ready. The word of the Lord about himself (4) becomes the word of Isaiah about the Lord…. In the miracle of inspiration what the Lord says the prophet says, and what the prophet says the Lord has said.” [Motyer, p. 162]
“People’s attempts to run the world on the basis of either Assyria-like purposes of imperialism or Egypt-like schemes of collective security will collapse utterly.” [Motyer, p. 162]
“Isaiah now sees the travelers in a new light, as the first of many who will come to Zion one day in homage… It is the prospect already seen in 2:3; 11:10 and will be further developed in chs. 60-62. It is expressed exultantly in Pss. 68:31-35; 87:4.” [Kidner, p. 645] See Zephaniah 3:10
“This verse describes the consummation…. There will be those world-wide who have waited for the banner to be raised and the trumpet sounded (3), and now they will become pilgrims to the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty (‘of hosts’…), i.e. Mount Zion!’” [Motyer, p. 162-163]
- Egypt (19:1-20:6)
“…The doom of craft and false wisdom.” [Paxton Hood in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 147]
“With the disappearance of the northern states, Aram and Israel, into the maw of Assyria, the political center of gravity in western Palestine moved south and, at least from 715 onwards, Egypt was behind every anti-Assyrian movement. An alliance with Egypt as the means of throwing off the Assyrian yoke and recovering national sovereignty was a constant temptation to the politically ambitious rulers of Judah (see chapters 28-31 and 36-37). Isaiah resolutely opposed this, seeing in Egypt no help but only disaster (30:6-7). Consequently, the burden of 19:1-15 is an attempt to dissuade them from having any truck with Egypt, based on an exposure of existing and coming disruption in Egyptian affairs, of economic collapse (such as would make aid unlikely it not impossible) and of political obtuseness besetting Egyptian counselors.” [Motyer, p. 163]
“The land of Egypt fell into a decline: every one did as he pleased; long years there was no sovereign for them that had the supreme power over the rest of things. The land of Egypt belonged to the princes of the districts. One killed another in jealousy.” [From papyrus of Rameses III, discovered by Harris, in 1855 in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 172]
- The smiting of Egypt predicted (19:1-15)
“Egypt brought to its knees….Egypt could not help….because the Lord had discouraged and divided the Egyptians (vv. 1-2), their counsel was from the devil (v. 3), and they were heading for bondage themselves (v. 4). Furthermore, their economy was about to fail (vv. 5-10)…. The counselors in Egypt were supposed to be very wise, but God said they were deluded fools (vv. 11-13)…. The wisdom of Egypt would lead them into staggering and humiliating defeat (vv. 14-15).
“In verses 16-25, the prophet sees the future of both the Jews and the Egyptians, when the Lord will establish His kingdom. The situation will be reversed, with Egypt turning to Israel for help (vv. 16-17)! In fact, the Egyptians will worship the God of Israel (vv. 18-21)!” [Wiersbe, With the Word, p. 463]
“To join with Egypt would be to associate with a nation under divine wrath (1), trust the promises of a divided people (2), look for help to a collapsing economy (5-10), expect wisdom where there was only folly (11-13), and believe that those who were unable to solve their own problems (15) could solve the problems of others!” [Motyer, p. 166]
“This oracle is a strong expression of the truth that God smites in order to heal (see v 22)…. Egypt is shown here in its two aspects: first, as the worldly power to which Israel was always looking (cf. 20:5) and secondly, as part of God’s world, for which he cares, with a place in his kingdom in which present ranks and races will be quite superseded.” [Kidner, p. 645]
- Social collapse (19:1-4)
“Her spiritual resources are, significantly, the first to crumble: her beliefs, morale (1), unity (2) and worldly wisdom (3). Next will go her freedom (4)…. Then God touches her physical lifeline, the Nile, and one by one her industries wither. The final state is one of helpless anarchy (11-15).” [Kidner, p. 645]
“…The problems of society, economics and politics, have a spiritual causation. They are the outworking of divine purposes and are directly traceable to the hand of God, not the outworking of sociological laws, market forces or political fortunes. And it is only by recourse to the Lord that they can be solved.” [Motyer, p. 164]
“Yahweh comes on a cloud in judgment on Egypt, especially on her religious system… With the collapse of her religion, Egypt’s social order falls apart…. The religious and political establishment then abdicates to foreign rule and religious expressions.” [VanGemeren, p. 487]
“As the national spirit collapses (1) divine action provokes social division (2), frustration sets in (3a) and nothing goes according to plan (3b). There is declension into religious quackery (3c) and the country falls under dictatorship (4).” [Motyer, p. 164]
“Finally, there is dictatorship. The fulfillment may have been the ‘Ethiopian’ Pharaoh Piankhi (715), the conquests of Sargon II (cf. 20:1ff.) or Sennacherib, or the invasion and conquest of Egypt by Esarhaddon (6:80), Ashurbanjipal (668), or the Persian Artaxerxes III Ochus (343). Note the continuing stress on divine action (I will hand…over). For the seventh time the name Egypt is mentioned…’seven times in four verses as though by sheer repetition to nail down the judgment’ (Herbert).” [Motyer, p. 165]
- Economic collapse (19:5-10)
“In the second stanza…Isaiah portrays the end of Egypt’s economy…. Because of lack of water, reeds, flax, and fish die and agriculture becomes impossible. Reeds were used for the production of papyrus, baskets, and simple artifacts. Flax was the raw product used in Egypt’s extensive production of linen. Egypt exported both her papyrus and linen and was economically dependent on these products. …The fish industry…too is devastated by drought.” [VanGemeren, p. 487]
“The Nile is referred to by name five times and by a synonym four times.” [Motyer, p. 165]
“The Nile, being the source of her plenty, was worshiped by the Egyptians; and the Divine judgment on the Nile was like a smiting of her god.” [Wordsworth in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III, p. 173]
“The canals and streams are the irrigation channels which distributed the waters of the Nile throughout the land.” [Motyer, p. 165]
“First the failure of water, then the decline of agriculture and finally, soil erosion (the field will blow away/’be driven away’).” [Motyer, p. 165]
“Even the meadows, which lie close to the waterside…, and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.” [Delitzsch, p. 133]
iii. Political collapse (19:11-15)
“The third stanza…points out the folly of Egypt’s counselors and princes. The intellectual elite are unable to avert the disaster…. The One who caused all Egypt to cry out on the night of the tenth plague (Exod. 12:29) will bring Egypt to her knees again.” [VanGemeren, p. 487]
“The verse opens dramatically with two exclamations: ‘What fools the officials of Zoan! The wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors ― unenlightened counsel’ Fools…are the downright stupid people, unable even to see the danger in their own actions (Ps. 107:17; Pr. 1:7; 10:21)…. Give senseless advice…on the level of animal thoughtlessness (Ps. 73:22; cf. Ps. 49:20-21).” [Motyer, p. 166]
“Leader and led, high and low, are all alike impotent to solve Egypt’s problem.” [Motyer, p. 166]
“Yet again it is stressed that the Lord is the executive agent in history.” [Motyer, p. 166]
- The healing of Egypt promised (19:16-25)
“…We have here the situation, first seen at Babel (Gn. 11), where humankind’s determination to be the solution to their own problems and to run the world without God automatically comes under disapproval and counter-attack. But divine opposition is not the last word; alongside the world’s problem (1-15) the prophet places the Lord’s solution.” [Motyer, p. 167]
“Egypt converted. The fivefold refrain, In that day…, is a pointer to the day of the Lord…. The process is traced from its beginnings in fear (16-17), leading to submission (18) and God-given access (19-22, altar and sacrifices), and right on to fellowship (23) and full acceptance (24-25).” [Kidner, p. 645]
“Like each of this series of five oracles, this, the first, looks forward to the undated future In that day.” [Motyer, p. 167]
“…There is a turning to the Lord marked first by the adoption of the language of Canaan. The verbal form will speak emphasizes continuance and hence means ‘will adopt’…. The expression is the ‘lip of Canaan’, and it looks back to Isaiah’s own experience and reflects the beginning of a return to the state where ‘the whole earth was one lip’ (Gen. 11:1; cf. verse 24). The second mark of this turning to the Lord is sworn allegiance to Him…. Thus Egypt begins the process of turning to the Lord which the remaining ‘In that day’ oracles develop.” [Motyer, p. 168]
“Egypt, though converted, is still sinful; but Jehovah smites it…so that in the act of smiting the intention of healing prevails, and healing follows the smiting, since the chastisement of Jehovah leads it to repentance. Thus Egypt is now under the same plan of salvation as Israel (e.g., Lev. 26:44; Deut. 32:36).” [Delitzsch, p. 239]
“Vs. 23-25, reaching out with the other hand to embrace Assyria as well (so often coupled with Egypt in the worst of contexts, cf. Ho. 7:11; 9:3) give an unsurpassed vision of the Gentiles’ full inclusion in the kingdom. Israel will have only an equal part (a third, 24; but not third place), and he distinctive titles will be shared with her cruelest enemies. (On my people cf. Ho. 2:23; 1 Pet. 2:10; on my handiwork cf. Is. 29:23; on my inheritance cf. Dt. 32:9.” [Kidner, p. 645]
“The true bearing of the oracles which have focused on Egypt is that Egypt is a ‘case in point’ of the Lord’s purpose to unite the world in his worship.… This is the third stage in the spreading kingdom of peace: first a few cities (18), then a whole country (19), now the whole world. The emphasis here rests on the oneness people feel with each other and the free expression they give to it…. Worship together expresses the ground of their unity, the magnetism which unites them: they accept each other because each has been accepted by the Lord (cf. Rom 14:1-3).” [Motyer, p. 169]
“…The two superpowers would be joined to tiny Judah as one people in one world under one God…” [Motyer, p. 170]
- The smiting of Egypt exemplified (20:1-6)
“For the third time, Isaiah offers a fulfillment within the immediate future, which when people see it happening will provide ground for their faith in the Lord’s greater and wider purposes. The Assyrian campaign against Ashdod (1) took place in 711. For the previous four years Egypt had been unsettling the western Palestinian states with promises of aid should they rise against Assyria, and by 713 Ashdod was in rebellion. As a consequence, Assyria deposed its king and put another in his place, but Ashdod was not to be deterred. The new king was ousted and (with the evil genius of Egypt looming in the background) envoys were sent to call Judah, Edom and Moab to join the rising. Since Hezekiah suffered no Assyrian reprisals at this time he probably held aloof… But Ashdod did not escape. Sargon II…sent his supreme commander (1). Ashdod was reduced and became an Assyrian province. Egypt, true to form, reneged on its promises. At the same time in all this Isaiah initiated an acted oracle by going about stripped and barefoot (2) His intention in miming the plight of captives was to expose the futility of trusting Egypt. When this fate came upon Egypt before his audience’s very eyes they would realize the hopelessness of the policy they had adopted.” [Motyer, p. 170]
