Armenia in comments -- Book: Isaiah (tIs) Եսայի
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tIs 17::2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken "The cities are deserted for ever" - What has Aroer on the river Arnon to do with Damascus? and if there be another Aroer on the northern border of the tribe of Gad, as Reland seems to think there might be, this is not much more to the purpose. Besides, the cities of Aroer, if Aroer itself is a city, makes no good sense. The Septuagint, for ערער aroer, read עדי עד adey ad, εις τον αιωνα, for ever, or for a long duration. The Chald:ee takes the word for a verb from ערה arah, translating it חרבו cherebu, devastabuntur, "they shall be wasted." The Syriac read עדועיר adoeir. So that the reading is very doubtful. I follow the Septuagint as making the plainest sense. Isaiah 17:3 tIs 17::14 He is not "He is no more" - For איננו einennu ten MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, (three ancient), ten of De Rossi's, and two editions, and the Septuagint, Syriac, Chald:ee, Vulgate, and Arabic, have ואיננו veeinenno. This particle, authenticated by so many good vouchers, restores the sentence to its true poetical form, implying a repetition of some part of the parallel line preceding, thus: -
"At the season of evening, behold terror!
Before the morning, and [behold] he is no more!"
That spoil us - For שוסינו shoseynu, them that spoil us, fifteen MSS., one edition, and the Syriac have שוסנו shosenu, him that spoileth us. And for לבזזינו lebozezeynu, them that rob us, six MSS. and the Syriac have לבוזזנו lebozzeno, him that robbeth us: and these readings make the place answer better to Sennacherib, according to Lowth's conjecture. Though God may permit the wicked to prevail for a time against his people, yet in the end those shall be overthrown, and the glory of the Lord shall shine brightly on them that fear him; for the earth shall be subdued, and the universe filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen!
Next: Isaiah Chapter 18
tIs 17::3 The fortress - The strong place of defense; the fortified place.
Shall cease - Shall come to an end; shall cease to be, for so the word שׁבת shâbath is often used, Gen 8:22; Isa 24:8; Lam 5:15.
From Ephraim - The name given to the kingdom of Israel, or to the ten tribes, because Ephraim was the largest of the ten, and was a leading tribe in their councils (see the note at Isa 7:2). Ephraim, or the kingdom of Samaria, is mentioned here in connection with Damascus or Syria, because they were confederated together, and would be involved in the same overthrow.
And the remnant of Syria - That which is left of the kingdom of Syria after the capital Damascus shall be destroyed.
They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel - That is, as the defenses, or the strongly fortified towns and fastnesses of the kingdom of Israel shall pass away or be destroyed, so shall it be with the kingdom of Damascus. As they are allied with each other, they shall fare alike. The Chald:ee reads this, 'And the dominion shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus.' Isaiah 17:4 tIs 17::4 The glory of Jacob - "Jacob" is used here to denote the kingdom of Israel, or Samaria. The word 'glory' here denotes dignity, power; that on which they relied, and of which they boasted.
Shall be made thin - Shall be diminished, as a body wastes away by disease, and becomes feeble. The prophet sets forth the calamities of Ephraim by two figures; the first is that of a "body" that becomes emaciated by sickness, the other that of the harvest when all the fruits are gathered except a few in the upper branches Isa 17:5-6.
And the fatness his flesh shall wax lean - He shall become feeble, as a man does by wasting sickness. Chald:ee, 'The riches of his glory shall be removed.' Isaiah 17:5
tIs 17::1 We have here the burden of Damascus; the Chald:ee paraphrase reads it, The burden of the cup of the curse to drink to Damascus in; and, the ten tribes being in alliance, they must expect to pledge Damascus in this cup of trembling that is to go round. 1. Damascus itself, the head city of Syria, must be destroyed; the houses, it is likely, will be burnt, as least the walls, and gates, and fortifications demolished, and the inhabitants carried away captive, so that for the present it is taken away from being a city, and is reduced not only to a village, but to a ruinous heap, Isa 17:1. Such desolating work as this does sin make with cities. 2. The country towns are abandoned by their inhabitants, frightened or forced away by the invaders: The cities of Aroer (a province of Syria so called) are forsaken (Isa 17:2); the conquered dare not dwell in them, and the conquerors have no occasion for them, nor did they seize them for want, but wantonness; so that the places which should be for men to live in are for flocks to lie down in, which they may do, and none will disturb nor dislodge them. Stately houses are converted into sheep-cotes. It is strange that great conquerors should pride themselves in being common enemies to mankind. But, how unrighteous soever they are, God is righteous in causing those cities to spue out their inhabitants, who by their wickedness had made themselves vile; it is better that flocks should lie down there than that they should harbour such as are in open rebellion against God and virtue. 3. The strongholds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, will be brought to ruin: The fortress shall cease from Ephraim (Isa 17:3), that in Samaria, and all the rest. They had joined with Syria in invading Judah very unnaturally; and now those that had been partakers in sin should be made partakers in ruin, and justly. When the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, by which Israel will be weakened, the kingdom will cease from Damascus, by which Syria will be ruined. The Syrians were the ring-leaders in that confederacy against Judah, and therefore they are punished first and sorest; and, because they boasted of their alliance with Israel, now that Israel is weakened they are upbraided with those boasts: "The remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel; those few that remain of the Syrians shall be in as mean and despicable a condition as the children of Israel are, and the glory of Israel shall be no relief or reputation to them." Sinful confederacies will be no strength, no stay, to the confederates, when God's judgments come upon them. See here what the glory of Jacob is when God contends with him, and what little reason Syria will have to be proud of resembling the glory of Jacob. (1.) It is wasted like a man in a consumption, Isa 17:4. The glory of Jacob was their numbers, that they were as the sand of the sea for multitude; but this glory shall be made thin, when many are cut off, and few left. Then the fatness of their flesh, which was their pride and security, shall was lean, and the body of the people shall become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Israel died of a lingering disease; the kingdom of the ten tribes wasted gradually; God was to them as a moth, Hos 5:12. Such is all the glory of this world: it soon withers, and is made thin; but thee is a far more exceeding and external weight of glory designed for the spiritual seed of Jacob, which is not subject to any such decay - fatness of God's house, which will not wax lean. (2.) It is all gathered and carried away by the Assyrian army, as the corn is carried out of the field by the husbandmen, Isa 17:5. The corn is the glory of the fields (Psa 65:13); but, when it is reaped and gone, where is the glory? The people had by their sins made themselves ripe for ruin, and their glory was as quickly, as easily, as justly, and as irresistibly, cut down and taken away, as the corn is out of the field by the husbandman. God's judgments are compared to the thrusting in of the sickle when the harvest is ripe, Rev 14:15. And the victorious army, like the careful husbandmen in the valley of Rephaim, where the corn was extraordinary, would not, if they could help it, leave an ear behind, would lose nothing that they could lay their hands on. Isaiah 17:6