Isaia 17:6 Commento

Syria and Ephriam were confederate against Judah (Isa 7:1, Isa 7:2), and, they being so closely linked together in their counsels, this chapter, though it be entitled "the burden of Damascus" (which was the head city of Syria), reads the doom of Israel too. I. The destruction of the strong cities both of Syria and Israel is here foretold (Isa 17:1-5 and Isa 17:9-11). II. In the midst of judgment mercy is remembered to Israel, and a gracious promise made that a remnant should be preserved from the calamities and should get good by them (Isa 17:6-8). III. The overthrow of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem is pointed at (Isa 17:12-14). In order of time this chapter should be placed next after ch. 9, for the destruction of Damascus, here foretold, happened in the reign of Ahaz, Kg2 16:9.

Mercy is here reserved, in a parenthesis, in the midst of judgment, for a remnant that should escape the common ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Though the Assyrians took all the care they could that none should slip out of their net, yet the meek of the earth were hidden in the day of the Lord's anger, and had their lives given them for a prey and made comfortable to them by their retirement to the land of Judah, where they had the liberty of God's courts. 1. They shall be but a small remnant, a very few, who shall be marked for preservation (Isa 17:6): Gleaning grapes shall be left in it. The body of the people were carried into captivity, but here and there one was left behind, perhaps one of two in a bed when the other was taken, Luk 17:34. The most desolating judgments in this world are short of the last judgment, which shall be universal and which none shall escape. In times of the greatest calamity some are kept safe, as in times of the greatest degeneracy some are kept pure. But the fewness of those that escape supposes the captivity of the far greatest part; those that are left are but like the poor remains of an olive tree when it has been carefully shaken by the owner; if there be two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough (out of the reach of those that shook it), that is all. Such is the remnant according to the election of grace, very few in comparison with the multitudes that walk on in the broad way. 2. They shall be a sanctified remnant, Isa 17:7, Isa 17:8. These few that are preserved are such as, in the prospect of the judgment approaching, had repented of their sins and reformed their lives, and therefore were snatched thus as brands out of the burning, or such as having escaped, and becoming refugees in strange countries, were awakened, partly by a sense of the distinguishing mercy of their deliverance, and partly by the distresses they were still in, to return to God. (1.) They shall look up to their Creator, shall enquire, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night, in such a night of affliction as this? Job 35:10, Job 35:11. They shall acknowledge his hand in all the events concerning them, merciful and afflictive, and shall submit to his hand. They shall give him the glory due to his name, and be suitably affected with his providences. They shall expect relief and succour from him and depend upon him to help them. Their eyes shall have respect to him, as the eyes of a servant to the hand of his master, Psa 123:2. Observe, It is our duty at all times to have respect to God, to have our eyes ever towards him, both as our Maker (the author of our being and the God of nature) and as the Holy One of Israel, a God in covenant with us and the God of grace; particularly, when we are in affliction, our eyes must be towards the Lord, to pluck our feet out of the net (Psa 25:15); to bring us to this is the design of his providence as he is our Maker and the work of his grace as he is the Holy One of Israel. (2.) They shall look off from their idols, the creatures of their own fancy, shall no longer worship them, and seek to them, and expect relief from them. For God will be alone regarded, or he does not look upon himself as at all regarded. He that looks to his Maker must not look to the altars, the work of his hands, but disown them and cast them off, must not retain the least respect for that which his fingers have made, but break it to pieces, though it be his own workmanship - the groves and the images; the word signifies images made in honour of the sun and by which he was worshipped, the most ancient and most plausible idolatry, Deu 4:19; Job 31:26. 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.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 17 This chapter contains a prophecy of the ruin of Syria and Israel, the ten tribes; who were in alliance; and also of the overthrow of the Assyrian army, that should come against Judah. The destruction of Damascus, the metropolis of Syria, and of other cities, is threatened, Isa 17:1 yea, of the whole kingdom of Syria, together with Ephraim or the ten tribes, and Samaria the head of them, Isa 17:3 whose destruction is expressed by various similes, as by thinness and leanness, and by the reaping and gathering of corn, Isa 17:4 and yet a remnant should be preserved, compared to gleaning gapes, and a few berries on an olive tree, who should look to the Lord, and not to idols, Isa 17:6 and the reason of the desolation of their cities, and of their fields and vineyards, was their forgetfulness of the Lord, Isa 17:9 and the chapter is closed with a prophecy of the defeat of the Assyrian army, who are compared for their multitude and noise to the seas, and to mighty waters, and the noise and rushing of them, Isa 17:12 and yet should be, at the rebuke of God, as chaff, or any small light thing, before a blustering wind, Isa 17:13 and who, in the evening, would be a trouble to the Jews, and be dead before morning; which was to be the portion of the spoilers and plunderers of the Lord's people, Isa 17:14.

Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it,.... In Ephraim or Jacob; that is, in the ten tribes, a few of them should escape, a remnant should be saved; comparable, for the smallness of their number, to grapes that are gleaned after the vintage is got in: though Kimchi interprets it of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were but few, in comparison of the ten tribes, who were many; and Jarchi explains it of Hezekiah and his company, in the midst of Jerusalem, who were but few; and observes, that some of their Rabbins understood it of the few men that were left of the multitude of Sennacherib's army, when it was destroyed; but the first sense is best: and the same thing is signified by another simile, as the shaking of an olive tree; with the hand, when the fruit is ripe; or, "as the striking" (q) of it with a staff; to beat off the berries, when there are left two or three berries at the top of the uppermost bough: the word "amir" is only used here, and in Isa 17:9 and signifies, as Kimchi says, the upper bough or branch; and so Aben Ezra interprets it, the highest part of the olive; and observes, that it so signifies in the language of Kedar, or the Arabic language; in which it is used for a king, a prince, an emperor, one that has the command and government of others (r); and hence the word "amiral" or "admiral" comes: now two or three olive berries, being in the uppermost bough, are left, because they cannot be reached by the hand of the gatherer, nor by the staff of the striker. Kimchi applies this to Jerusalem, which was the highest part of the land of Israel; and what was in it the hand of the king of Assyria could not reach: four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof; which escape the gatherer, shaker, or striker, for the same reason. These similes are very aptly made use of, since the people of Israel are frequently compared to grapes, and vines, and olives, Isa 5:1, Jer 11:16, saith the Lord God of Israel; this is added to confirm what is said, and to express the certainty of it; and shows that the Israelites are meant, to whom the Lord was a covenant God. The Targum applies the metaphors thus, "so shall the righteous be left alone in the world among the kingdoms, saith the Lord God of Israel.'' (q) "ut strictura oleae", Cocceius. (r) "imperator; princeps, dux qui allis quomodo cumque praest imperatque", Golius, col. 158. Castel. col. 150. though the verb in the Hebrew language is used in the sense of elevation or lifting up, and seems to be derived from hence. So Schindler, col. 96. "ramus, summitas rami----inde verbum", "eminere aut prominere fecit, rami aut frondis instar exaltavit, extulit, evexit", Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. Psal. xciv. 4.

By this it is clearly promised that the glory of Israel and all her riches will be taken away, and only a few, who like the few berries on an olive branch can be counted easily, will be left. These are the ones who believe in the Lord. Just after this there is a prophecy of the entire human race turning away from the error of idolatry and recognizing the God of Israel.

(Verse 6) And he shall be left like a cluster of grapes, like the shaking of an olive tree, with two or three berries on the top of the branch, or four or five on its fruitful branches, says the Lord God of Israel. Those who are chosen because of their humility are like grain on the threshing floor and grapes in the vineyard, that are saved: and like the shaking of the olive tree, whether two, three, four or five olives. For when the stroke of the Jewish people came, that olive tree of the people of Israel, which under Moses had six hundred thousand armed men (Num. 26), and under David, counted by Joab, an innumerable people (2 Sam. 24), could hardly offer a few fruits to the Lord and Savior: Paul and Barnabas two olives, and Peter and James, and John (Acts 13), who also saw the transfigured Lord on the mountain and deserved to go with the Lord to the house of the synagogue official's daughter (Matt. 17). But four and five olives make up the remaining nine Apostles, in whom Matthias took the place of the treacherous Judas, who, for some unknown reason, was separated into four and five olives, in order to demonstrate the number of the Gospels and the volumes of the Law within themselves, as if they were proclaimers of both Instruments (Acts 1).

(Verse 5, 6.) And it shall be like one gathering in the harvest what remains, and his arm shall gather the ears: and it shall be like one seeking the ears in the Valley of Raphaim. And there shall be left in it like a cluster of grapes, and like the beating of olives of two or three olive trees at the top of the branch, or four or five on its fruitful heights, says the Lord God of Israel. Those who understand the present devastation of Damascus under the Roman kingdom, contend that these things are signified about the Apostles, that just as few ears of wheat and olives usually remain in the field or on the trees, so the remnant of Israel shall be saved; especially because it follows: On that day, man shall turn to his maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel, that is, to Christ. Two olives, and three, and four, and five, are interpreted as the fourteen Apostles, that is, the twelve who were chosen, and the thirteenth James, who is called the brother of the Lord; Paul also, the Apostle, the vessel of election (Acts 7). However, those who think that what was said is accomplished during the time of the Assyrians, want this to be understood, that under the Assyrian captivity Damascus was not completely destroyed, but some were transferred to Cyrene, and the other part of the worshipers of the land was left behind, which was also destroyed later by the Babylonian ravages: until it was restored again under the Macedonians and the Ptolemies, and in the coming of Christ it was indeed a city, but not of such power as it had been before. And there will be so few senses left in Damascus as there usually remain few ears of grain in the broad and mighty valley of Raphaim that the poor gather, or few olives left in the olive tree that have escaped the scrutiny of the harvester.

Against abundance of wine, he sets out scarcity of grapes after the grape harvest: and the fruit thereof that shall be left upon it, shall be as one cluster of grapes: woe is me, for I am become as one that gleans in autumn the grapes of the vintage (Mic 7:1). Against abundance of oil, he sets out scarcity of olives after the shaking of the olive. The olive, as Papias says, is the fruit of the olive tree; but here, according to the explanation of the Gloss, it seems to be used to mean the tree itself on whose top remains a small amount of fruit which the harvesters are not able to reach; concerning this scarcity, see Deuteronomy 28:62: you shall remain few in number.

This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong bias which the people of Judah had to idolatry, with the fatal consequences, Jer 17:1-4. The happiness of the man that trusted in Jehovah is then beautifully contrasted with the opposite character, Jer 17:5-8. God alone knows the deceitfulness and wretchedness of the heart of man, Jer 17:9, Jer 17:10. The comparison of a bird's hatching the eggs of another of a different species, which will soon forsake her, is highly expressive of the vanity of ill-acquired riches, which often disappoint the owner, Jer 17:11. The prophet continues the same subject in his own person, appeals to God for his sincerity, and prays that the evil intended him by his enemies may revert on their own heads, Jer 17:12-18. The remaining part of the chapter is a distinct prophecy relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, enforced both by promises and threatenings, Jer 17:19-27.

PROPHECY CONCERNING DAMASCUS AND ITS ALLY SAMARIA, that is, Syria and Israel, which had leagued together (seventh and eighth chapters). (Isa 17:1-11) Damascus--put before Israel (Ephraim, Isa 17:3), which is chiefly referred to in what follows, because it was the prevailing power in the league; with it Ephraim either stood or fell (Isa. 7:1-25).

in it--that is, in the land of Israel. two or three . . . in the top--A few poor inhabitants shall be left in Israel, like the two or three olive berries left on the topmost boughs, which it is not worth while taking the trouble to try to reach.