Don’t Forget the Lord – Isaiah 17:1-14
17 The oracle concerning Damascus. Look! Damascus will no longer be a city, but will become a heap of ruins! (2) The cities of Aroer will be deserted; they will be left to flocks that will lie down there, with no one to make them afraid. (3) The fortified city will be taken away from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Syria will have the same fate as the glory of the children of Israel, declares Jehovah of hosts. (4) On that day the glory of Jacob will fade, and the fatness of his body will waste away. (5) It will be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain, and with his arms reaps the ears; indeed, it will be as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
(6) Nevertheless, some gleanings will remain—as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs, declares Jehovah, the God of Israel. (7) On that day men will look to their Maker, and their eyes will look with reverence to the Holy One of Israel. (8) They will not look to the altars, the work of their own hands; neither will they reverence the Asherah poles and the sun images which their fingers have made.
(9) On that day their strong cities will become like the abandoned places in the forest and on the mountaintops that were abandoned by the former inhabitants when the children of Israel conquered the land—the land will be desolate. (10) All this will happen because you have forgotten the God who is your Savior, and have not remembered the Rock that is your refuge. Therefore, you have placed in the soil the choicest plants and have planted imported vines. (11) On the day you planted, you placed a hedge around these vines. In the morning you caused your seed to blossom; but the harvest will vanish on the day of grief and desperate sorrow!
(12) Oh, the uproar of multitudes of peoples! They roar like the roaring sea! And the raging of nations! They rage like the raging of mighty waters! (13) The nations shall rage like the raging of many waters, but he will rebuke them and they will flee to distant places—they will be driven away like the whirling dust is driven by a gale. (14) In the evening, look, there is terror! But before the morning dawns, they are gone. This is what is in store for those who plunder us, and this is the lot of those who pillage us.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
