Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 17:13

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Syria and Israel condemned (17:1-14)

This message belongs to the time of Ahaz, when Israel and Syria joined forces to attack Judah. The two attackers will themselves be destroyed (17:1-3). Israel in particular will suffer, because the nation has turned away from God. Throughout the nation, however, the scattered few remain faithful to God and these will be spared. They are likened to the odd pieces of fruit that remain on the trees after the harvest has been gathered (4-6).
The judgments will be so severe that some of the people will turn from their idolatry and cry to God for help. But for Israel as a whole there will be no help. The nation has followed Canaanite religious practices, and its destruction will be a fitting divine punishment (7-9). People plant sacred gardens and dedicate them to foreign gods, in the hope that this will bring rapid growth in their crops. But if they succeed in getting quick crops, those crops will be trampled and destroyed by the invading army (10-11).
By contrast the nation that remains faithful to God will be protected. Enemies may come against it like a flood, but (to change the illustration) they will be turned back like chaff blown by the wind (12-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Ah, the uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. At eventide, behold, terror; and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that despoil us, and the lot of them that rob us."

What a profound blessing appears here! All of the atrocities coming upon the nations to be assaulted and devastated by Assyria is due to have a sequel. God will speak to them also, and "rebuke them."

The figure of the great flood of waters that emerges here ties in perfectly with the prophecy already given in Isaiah 8:5-8; and no one should miss the point that it is Assyria, no one else, who is the object of this magnificent prophecy. What a shame that Payne did not even mention it; and what an incredible error that Peake dated it after the exile. No orthodox critic could possibly maintain his standing with peers if he admitted any such thing as predictive prophecy! Today, thank God, the great majority of commentators accept this remarkable prophecy as a genuine prediction of the destruction of Sennacherib's army before the walls of Jerusalem in that terminal invasion of his near the end of the eighth century B.C. (701 B.C.):

Isaiah 17:12-14 refer to the destruction of Sennacherib's army.Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 449

These verses were especially fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib's army.J. R. Dummelow Commentary, p. 428

God's promise that he would rebuke the Assyrians in a night of plague and destruction.Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 623

This vividly and graphically describes the coming of the Assyrians. God is in control. He uses nations to accomplish his purpose, and then brings them to an end. It became clear when Sennacherib's army was destroyed before Jerusalem.Homer Hailey, p 155.

This judgment of the Assyrians was to begin in the evening and end before morning.T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, p. 109

It is so applicable to the invasion by Sennacherib and to his overthrow by the angel of Jehovah that by common consent of interpreters it has been regarded as referring to it.Albert Barnes' Commentary, p. 312

As a matter of fact, most of the critics do not dare to refer this passage to anything else. How then do they reconcile the obvious truth with their inaccurate and unbelieving premise that "there is no such thing as predictive prophecy"? Kelley spelled it out like this: "Most scholars prefer to date the passage just after 701 B.C. and to identify the foe as the Assyrian Army!"Broadman Bible Commentary, p. 246 Any Proof? Certainly not! Furthermore, such adjusters of Bible dates to conform to their infidel rules are not scientific in their application of such rules. For example, Isaiah prophesied two graves for Jesus in Isaiah 53, but do they date that chapter in the first century? Of course not. Why? To do so would expose the inaccuracy of their rule! No reasonable person can suppose for an instant that if Isaiah's remarkable prophecy of Sennacherib's destruction had been nothing more than a reference to it "after the event happened," that his words would have been treasured for twenty-seven centuries afterwards!.

There is one other thing that should be said here. Homer Hailey, after speaking of the remarkable deliverances in past times which God provided for his people, asked this question:

Is there any reason today for God's people to worry that Humanism, Communism, Zionism, and all other Gogs and Magogs that try to destroy God's work may ultimately prove successful?Homer Hailey, p. 156.

To ask such a question thoughtfully is to know the answer. We would like to make a specific application of it. Is there any danger, really, that Satan with his flood of corrupt Bibles and Testaments, with his armies of infidel commentators, with his "river of lies" flowing out of the printing presses all over the world, will Satan ever be able to take the true word of God away from men?

Here is the answer:

"I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head; and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth: and he cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth!" (Revelation 10:1-3).

That little book in the hand of the Rainbow Angel is God's word; and all of the followers of Satan who ever lived, all of them put together can never erase a single line of it. As our Lord said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away!"

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

God shall rebuke them - The word ‘God’ is not here in the original, but is evidently to be supplied. The word ‘rebuke’ means that he would disarrange their plans, prevent their success, and defeat their purposes. It shows the great power of God, that he can thus by a “rebuke” - a word - arrest mighty nations, and discomfit thom when they are tumultuously hastening onward in the confidence of victory. This discomfiture refers, doubtless, to the overthrow of Sennacherib and his army by the pestilence (2 Kings 19:35; see the notes at Isaiah 37:36).

And they shall flee far off - The whole army of Sennacherib was not destroyed, but a part with himself returned to Assyria 2 Kings 19:36.

And shall be chased as the chaff ... - Denoting the case with which God would do it, and the certain and entire discomfiture of the army. The figure is one that is very striking in describing an army that is routed, and that flees in disorder (compare Job 21:18; Psalms 1:4; Psalms 35:5; Isaiah 29:5; Hosea 13:3).

And like a rolling thing - Margin, ‘Thistle-down.’ It means, literally, anything that “rolls” (גלגל galgal, from גלל gâlal, to roll). It is applied to chaff, stubble, or anything that is driven about by a whirlwind Psalms 83:14.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

13.The nations shall rush. Although he appears to follow out that threatening, which he formerly uttered, yet he begins to comfort believers by repeating the same statement, as if we should say, “They who were unmindful of God must be punished for their wicked revolt, and must be, as it were, overwhelmed by a deluge; but the Lord will restrain this savage disposition of the enemies, for, when they have exercised their cruelty, he shall find a method of casting them out and driving them away.” This is a remarkable consolation, by which he intended to support the remnant of the godly. Nor does he speak of the Jews only, as is commonly supposed, for hitherto he has addressed his discourse to the ten tribes, and it is certain that there were still left in Israel some who actually feared God, and who would have despaired if they had not been upheld by some promise.

By these metaphors he describes dreadful storms and tempests. When the Holy Spirit intends to bring comfort to the godly, he holds out those objects which are wont to terrify and discourage the minds of men, that we may learn that God will easily allay all tempests, however violent and dreadful. As the winds and seas and storms are at his command, so it is easy for him to restrain enemies and their violence; and therefore immediately afterwards he compares the Assyrians to chaff.

As the chaff of the mountains before the wind. Although with regard to the Israelites their attack was terrible, yet he shews that before God they will be like chaff, for without any effort he will scatter all their forces. Hence it follows that we ought not to judge of their resources and strength by our senses. Whenever therefore we see the restraints laid on the wicked withdrawn, ⁽¹⁰⁾ that they may rush forward for our destruction, let us indeed consider that, so far as lies in ourselves, we are ruined, but that God can easily frustrate their attacks. גלגל (galgal) means a rolling thing, ⁽¹¹⁾ which is easily driven by the wind.

(10) Bogus footnote

(11) Bogus footnote

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 17

Now he turns his prophecy against Damascus, which, of course, was the capital of Syria. Now Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel had confederated together to stand against Assyria. As Assyria became a very definite threat, Syria knew that she could not stand against Assyria alone so she sought to confederate with Ephraim and Manasseh, the major tribes of the Northern Kingdom. And they were hoping by a confederation to stop the Assyrian invasion. And so he prophesies first against Damascus, but then he begins to weave in also Ephraim and Manasseh, declaring that even through their confederation they will not be able to withstand the Assyrian invasion that they were going to all of them fall at the hands of the Assyrians.

The burden of Damascus. Behold, it is taken away from being a city, and it is going be a ruinous heap ( Isaiah 17:1 ).

The Assyrians are going to just smash down Damascus.

The cities of Aroer are forsaken ( Isaiah 17:2 ):

And in these places where the cities once existed, they will now be herding their flocks of sheep and it will be so desolate from people that the sheep won't even be bothered by people. The sheep will be grazing in what was once the cities of Syria.

The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim ( Isaiah 17:3 ),

Coming down now to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax [thin,] lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, and the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top ( Isaiah 17:3-6 )

In other words, God is declaring that the inhabitants are going to be destroyed. They will be like the gleaning of an olive tree. There will just be a few berries on the top. There will be just a few grapes left on the vine, but it's like the Assyrians have come through and harvested and wiped out the majority of people and just a few people remain.

The Assyrians were extremely cruel people. According to the record of history, there were many cities, which, when were surrounded by the Assyrian army and it was obvious that there was no chance of escape, much like Masada the entire populace of the city would commit suicide. Rather than to be captured by the Assyrians, because they treated their captives so cruelly. They would pull out their tongues. They would gouge out their eyes. They would commit all kinds of atrocities against the captives. And so people were extremely fearful of Assyria and would oftentimes, entire cities you'd have a mass suicide rather than being taken captive by these Assyrians.

That is why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh to declare the judgment of God, because he was afraid that the Ninevites might repent and God wouldn't wipe them out. And so he had no intention of going. When God said, "Go to Nineveh and warn them My judgment is coming," Jonah took off the other way because he wanted God to wipe Nineveh out. And he was afraid if he went and preached, they might repent and God would... He knew God was gracious and merciful and God might relent and not wipe them out. So that's why Jonah took off the other way. He was a true patriot. He wanted Assyria, the Ninevites to be wiped out.

In fact, you remember that Jonah was sitting out there pouting after the whole thing. God says, "What's the matter? You have any right to be upset?" "You bet your life I have a right to be upset. This is exactly what I thought was going to happen. I knew You were merciful and gracious. I knew that they might repent and that You would forgive them. Now You haven't wiped them out." Boy, he was mad! And it's interesting what God said. "The reason why I didn't wipe them out is because there are a hundred and twenty thousand little children in that city that are so small that they don't even know their right hand from their left hand." God's mercy upon the children and for the children's sake spared the city. But we'll get to the story of Jonah later, but it gives you...

Here the whole thing is fitting together. Assyria is getting ready to move against Moab, getting ready to move against Syria and against the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they are all going to fall. The Northern Kingdom of Israel is going to be left just a few people. Just like a few berries in the top of the olive tree. Just a few grapes in a vineyard that has already been harvested. Just the gleaning.

At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel ( Isaiah 17:7 ).

Those that remain will be turning to God.

He will not look to the altars ( Isaiah 17:8 ),

That they have created. The worship of Baal and the groves and so forth that they have made. The false worship for which God's judgment came against them.

In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. Because you hast forgotten the God of your salvation, you have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning that thou shall make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow ( Isaiah 17:9-11 ).

So because they had forgotten God, they had turned away from Him and were worshipping these other gods, the reason why God has allowed this judgment using Assyria as His tool of judgment to destroy Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital Samaria. But yet, though Assyria is used as a tool of God's judgment, God turns His word against Assyria.

Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas ( Isaiah 17:12 );

In other words, the noise of their armies coming is just like the roar of the sea.

and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not ( Isaiah 17:12-14 ).

God will wipe them out. In the evening they'll be there, but in the morning they'll not be there. Now here is a hint at the destruction of the Assyrians. The Assyrians did come. They did conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They did conquer Moab. They did even go down and conquer Ashdod and on down into Egypt and Ethiopia. But they did not conquer Judah. Now here in Judah, as the Assyrians were coming and all, Hezekiah was the king, and Isaiah was his counselor; he was saying, "Hey, don't worry about it. They're not going to conquer us. Don't be afraid. God is going to stand for us. Now don't worry about it. You're not going to have to fight this battle. This is the Lord's battle. He is going to stand up and fight for us." And Isaiah was telling him, "Hey, you don't have to worry about this. God's going to take care of things."

But, of course, Hezekiah was busy building the tunnel from the spring of Gihon over the pool of Siloam to bring the water into the city so that they would have water in the city when the Assyrians invaded and cut the city off and all. But yet, all the while Isaiah was encouraging the king to trust in the Lord that God would deliver. And the Assyrians brought their invading army against Jerusalem. And they were making all of their threats; the Rabshakeh said to the men, "Where is the God of the Samarians? Where is the God of the Syrians? Where is the God of the Egyptians? We wiped them all out. Don't let Hezekiah lead you into a false trust of your God saying our God will deliver. What God is able to deliver from the hand of the Assyrians?" And blaspheming God.

Isaiah said, "Watch this now. God's going to take care of him. Don't worry about it, Hezekiah." Hezekiah took the letter, he spread it out before the Lord; he wept. He said, "God, look what they're saying. Look what they're doing." And an angel of the Lord went through the camp of the Assyrians and in one night he wiped out 185,000 of their frontline troops. When the Israelis awoke in the morning and looked over the wall to see their enemy, they were nothing but corpses on the ground. In a night, in the morning they'll not be there. And of course, the Lord... We'll get out into a little bit further where... Actually there were so many corpse that the birds and the beasts feed on them for a long time. You can imagine what a feast that would be for vultures. Hundred and eighty-five thousand carcasses to feed on. "In the evening time, trouble; and before the morning it's gone, they are not."

This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us ( Isaiah 17:14 ).

This is God's judgment against Assyria. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Many warriors would descend on Israel like the waves of the sea, but they would quickly dissipate because the Lord would rebuke them. They would disappear like dust before a strong wind. The terror that would be so strong would vanish overnight. God also gave such a deliverance to Judah when Sennacherib the Assyrian attacked Jerusalem (cf. Isaiah 37:36), but that is not in view here. The fact that Isaiah did not mention a particular nation as the enemy, suggests that he had more in mind than just one foe, and a perspective that extended far beyond his own day. Many nations would punish Israel over the years.

What follows in chapter 18 is an example of how the nations are subject to God, the point of Isaiah 17:12-14. It describes an eschatological defeat of superpowers-one of which would destroy Damascus and Ephraim in Isaiah’s day.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters,.... With great force and noise, and run over the whole land, as the Assyrian army did, until it came to Jerusalem, and there it stopped; see Isaiah 8:7:

but [God] shall rebuke them; as he did the waters of the Red Sea,

Psalms 106:9 and as Christ rebuked the winds and sea, and made a calm, Matthew 8:26. The word "God" is not in the text, but rightly supplied; for as none but he can rebuke the mighty waters of the sea, so none but he could have destroyed such an army in the manner it was, and wrought such a salvation for his people. The phrase, is expressive both of his wrath and power.

And they shall flee afar off; from Jerusalem to Nineveh, reckoned to be six hundred and eighty four miles from thence: or, "he shall flee afar off" x; that is, Sennacherib, and the few that escaped with him, for, his army was destroyed; see 2 Kings 19:36:

and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind; chaff upon the floor is easily chased away with the fan, and much more easily chaff upon the mountains with the wind; it was usual with the Jews to thresh their corn, and winnow it on hills and mountains, to which the allusion is; see 2 Chronicles 3:1 or "the dust of the mountains", as some y render it, which is more exposed to the wind than that in the valleys. Kings and great men of the earth are but as dust with God; and the higher they are, or they exalt themselves, the more they are exposed to the power of his wrath, and as easily cast down as the dust is scattered by the wind:

and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind; or "like a wheel" z, as the word is sometimes rendered; or any round thing, as a round wisp of straw or stubble, which is easily and swiftly moved and rolled along, especially by a strong wind. Jarchi interprets it of the flower of thorns; that is, the down of the thistle, which, when blown off, rolls up, and, being exceeding light, is carried away at once; see

Psalms 83:13 all which shows what poor light things the greatest of men are in the hands of God, and with what ease he can chase them from place to place, and out of the world, when it is his pleasure.

x ונס ממרחק "fugiet de procul", Vatablus. y כמוץ הרים "velut, pulvis montium", Tigurine version. z גלגל "sicut rota". Junius Tremellius "tanquam glomus [stipularum]", Piscator.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!   13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.   14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

      These verses read the doom of those that spoil and rob the people of God. If the Assyrians and Israelites invade and plunder Judah, if the Assyrian army take God's people captive and lay their country waste, let them know that ruin will be their lot and portion. They are here brought in, 1. Triumphing over the people of God. They relied upon their numbers. The Assyrian army was made up out of divers nations: it was the multitude of many people (Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 17:12), by which weight they hoped to carry the cause. They were very noisy, like the roaring of the seas; they talked big, hectored, and threatened, to frighten God's people from resisting them, and all their allies from sending in to their aid. Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, in their speeches and letters, made a mighty noise to strike a terror upon Hezekiah and his people; the nations that followed them made a rushing like the rushing of many waters, and those mighty ones, that threaten to bear down all before them and carry away every thing that stands in their way. The floods have lifted up their voice, have lifted up their waves; such is the tumult of the people, and the heathen, when they rage, Psalms 2:1; Psalms 93:3. 2. Triumphed over by the judgments of God. They thought to carry their point by dint of noise; but woe to them (Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 17:12), for he shall rebuke them, that is, God shall, one whom they little think of, have no regard to, stand in no awe of; he shall give them a check with an invisible hand, and then they shall flee afar off. Sennacherib, and Rabshakeh, and the remains of their forces, shall run away in a fright, and shall be chased by their own terrors, as the chaff of the mountains which stand bleak before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, like thistle-down (so the margin); they make themselves as chaff before the wind (Psalms 35:5) and then the angel of the Lord (as it follows there), the same angel that slew many of them, shall chase the rest. God will make them like a wheel, or rolling thing, and then persecute them with his tempest and make them afraid with his storm,Psalms 83:13; Psalms 83:15. Note, God can dispirit the enemies of his church when they are most courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly (Isaiah 17:14; Isaiah 17:14): At evening-tide they are very troublesome, and threaten trouble to the people of God; but before the morning they are not. At sleeping time they are cast into a deep sleep, Psalms 26:5; Psalms 26:6. It was in the night that the angel routed the Assyrian army. God can in a moment break the power of his church's enemies, even when it appears most formidable; and this is written for the encouragement of the people of God in all ages, when they find themselves an unequal match for their enemies; for this is the portion of those that spoil us, they shall themselves be spoiled. God will plead his church's cause, and those that meddle do it to their own hurt.