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Isa_17:9-11
And an uppermost branch,
Which they left because of the children of Israel:
And there shall be desolation.
10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength,
Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants,
And shalt set it with strange slips:
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,
And in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish:
But the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief
And of desperate sorrow.
Isa_17:10. éֵùַׁò occurs only here in the first part of Isa.; on the other hand four ties in the second part: Isa_45:8; Isa_51:5; Isa_61:10; Isa_62:11. The expression àìäé éùׁòé “God of my salvation,” is frequent in the Psa_18:47; Psa_25:5; Psa_27:9; Psa_62:8; Psa_65:6, etc., comp. Mic_7:7; Hab_3:18.— öåּø îַòåֹæ Psa_31:3, comp. Psa_62:8.— ðòîï = ðָòִéí occurs only here.— æîøä only here in Isaiah. The suffix - òֶðּåּ relates to the ideal unity ascribed in thought to the garden arrangements.
Isa_17:11. ùִׂâְùֵׂâ , Pilp, from ùׂåּâ (comp. ñåּâ , ùׂêְ , îְùׂåּëָּä Isa_5:5) sepire, “to fence in,” occurs only here.—Hiph. of ôøç occurs in Isaiah only here; Kal. often: Isa_27:6; Isa_35:1-2; Isa_66:14—The words ðã ÷öéø åâå are difficult. True, it is clear in general that the Prophet contrasts the notions of planting, sowing, fencing round, bringing to bloom and that of the harvest. But the question is does he speak of a disappearance of the hoped for harvest, or of the approach of a harvest not hoped for, and unwelcome. The former is maintained by those that take ðֵã = ðָã in the sense of effugit. But the verb ðåּã where in its inflection has Zere as vowel of the second root syllable. Moreover ðָã would not be the right word for the notion of vanishing. One would expect àָáַã or a similar word. For ðåּã is moveri, agitari, vagari, errare; it designates, therefore, the state of instability, fluctuation, but not that of non-existence. We stand, therefore, by the usual meaning of ðֵã , acervus, cumulus: “as a heap, heaped up is the harvest in the day of grief.”— ðַֽçֲìָä cannot be understood of taking possession, for the word means possession. Moreover, since several Codices and ancient translations read ðַçְìָä the latter is to be retained. ðַçְìָä , indeed, occurs elsewhere only in connection with îַëָּä (Jer_10:19; Jer_14:17; Jer_30:12; Neh_3:19) or in the sense of aegrotus (Eze_34:4; Eze_34:21); but the day of the sick (Fem. to correspond to the preceding suffixes) is the day of being sick, as e.g., the time of the one leading is the time of leading (Jer_2:17).— ëְּàֵá , “pain,” again only Isa_65:14.— àðåֹù occurs in Isaiah only here: often in Jer_17:16; Jer_30:12; Jer_30:15, etc.
2. In that day—desolation.
Isa_17:9. “In that day” refers back to Isa_17:4; “his strong cities” to “the cities Aroer,” Isa_17:2, and “the fortress,” Isa_17:3; ëòæåáú , “like forsaken places,” to “forsaken,” Isa_17:2; äàîéø , “the summits,” to àîéø “the summits (of the olive trees),” Isa_17:6. By these correspondences the Prophet gives us to understand that he speaks of the same subject as above, But he modifies his manner in two respects. First, he does not speak of the subject in figurative language as Isa_17:4-6, but boldly; second, he proves that the judgment was made necessary by the conduct of Israel. In as much as, therefore, “in that day” refers to Isa_17:4 (not to Isa_17:7, as the contents plainly show), the Prophet explains the figures used there by a reference to a fact well known to all Israel. In the forests and on elevated spots they had all seen the ruins of very ancient strong buildings that were evidence of the presence of a power long since overcome and vanished away. They were the ruins of castles which the Canaanities forsook, voluntarily or by compulsion, when the Israelites conquered the land (comp. Knobel, in loc.). A time will come when “the strong cities” of Israel shall lie like these castles. It is plain that this reference to that evidence of fact, besides the figurative language of Isa_17:4-6, was fitted to produce a deep impression.
3. Because thou hast—sorrow.
Isa_17:10-11. The evil conduct of Israel that was the cause of that judgment was twofold: 1) the negative reason was the not regarding, forgetting Jehovah: 2) the positive reason was the inclination to an idolatrous existence. In regard to the positive reason, I understand the Prophet to mean not merely the worship of strange gods, but also the political union with foreign powers that was most intimately connected with it, and the inclination to foreign ways in general (comp. Isa_2:6 sqq.). This culture of idolatry is compared to the culture of charming gardens (literally, plantations of lovely things). Israel itself, according to Isa_5:1 sqq. 7, was for Jehovah ðְèַò ùַֽׁòֲùׁåּòָéå , “his pleasant plant.” But the recreant nation, instead of cultivating the service of Jehovah, set up other enclosures that appealed more to their fleshly inclinations, which they sowed with foreign grape vines (properly grape vines of the foreigner), i.e. in which they cultivated foreign grape vines (comp. Jer_2:12) from seed. By these foreign vines must be understood everything untheocratic, all that was connected with heathen life to whose culture Israel devoted itself. The Imperfects express the continuance of the present. For at the time that the Prophet wrote this under Ahaz, this tendency to idolatrous living continued operative. The people provided also a protecting fence (comp. Isa_5:5). By the fencing the Prophet seems to me to understand everything that was undertaken for the purpose of giving security to the idolatrous efforts. That may have been partly positive measures (efforts in favor of idolatry of every sort), and partly negative protection against whatever was done on the part of true Israelites against the worship of idols, persecution of such, comp. e.g. 1Ki_18:4; 1Ki_18:19. The pains of planting and fencing were quickly rewarded: the heathen life bloomed only too soon. The whole history preceding the exile furnishes the proof of this. “In the morning” means the very next morning after the planting; therefore very quickly. We adhere to the usual meaning of ðֵã acervus, cumulus: “as a heap, heaped up is a harvest in the day of grief.” See Text. and Gram. For I would not construe it, with Delitzsch, in the sense: “a harvest heap unto the day of judgment,” after Rom_2:5. For it does not read ìְéåֹí , “to the day,” and in fact the day of the harvest is not distinguished from the day of judgment, which must be assumed by those that explain that the product of the harvesting heaps up for the day of judgment. But the Prophet says: in the day of judgment ( áéåí “in the day,” refers back to áéåí in the first member of the verse), which is itself just at the same time the day of harvest, the produce of harvest is there in heaps. But this harvest day is “a day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” Being such, the harvest is a bad one, and the heaps signify heaped up misfortune. Therefore the Prophet says that the fruit of that planting shall be a harvest that shall come in on the day of grief and incurable pain, thus itself shall have the form of grief and incurable pain.
Footnotes:
like forsaken places in the forests and summits.
thou plantest pleasant gardens and sowest them with foreign seed.
In the day of thy planting thou settest a fence.
But there is a heaped-up harvest in the day, etc.
Or, removed in the day of inheritance, and there shall be deadly sorrow.