Isaiah 17

A Few Olives Left at the Top

Damascus and Ephraim, allies against Judah, fall together, but a remnant turns to look at its Maker.

c. 735–732 BC; Damascus fell to Assyria in 732, Samaria in 722 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

The oracle is titled “the burden of Damascus,” but it quickly becomes an oracle against Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) too.

The oracle is titled “the burden of Damascus,” but it quickly becomes an oracle against Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) too. That makes sense historically. These are the two allies of the Syro-Ephraimite war that terrified Ahaz in chapter 7. Isaiah had told Ahaz not to fear them because both would soon be broken (Isa. 7:4–9; Isa. 8:4). This chapter describes that breaking. Assyria took Damascus in 732 BC and deported its people (2 Kgs. 16:9), and Samaria fell ten years later.

The chapter ends with a short, vivid poem (verses 12–14) about roaring nations who vanish overnight. It fits Assyria’s sudden defeat at Jerusalem in 701 BC.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 17 is about harvest, and about what’s left after one. Damascus becomes a heap of ruins and Ephraim’s glory wastes away (verses 1–4).

Isaiah 17 is about harvest, and about what’s left after one.

Damascus becomes a heap of ruins and Ephraim’s glory wastes away (verses 1–4). Then Isaiah reaches for farm images. The judgment will be like a reaper sweeping up an armful of grain in the fertile Valley of Rephaim near Jerusalem (verse 5). But reapers always miss a little. After olive harvesters beat the branches, “two or three berries” cling to the top bough and “four or five” to the outer branches (verse 6). That’s the remnant: a handful of olives left after the harvest.

And what does that remnant do? “At that day shall a man look to his Maker” (verse 7). For the first time, he stops looking at the altars and idols he made himself (verse 8). Judgment has stripped away everything else, and he finally looks at the one who made him.

Verses 10–11 name the root problem: “thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.” Ephraim planted pretty gardens for foreign gods, gardens that sprouted overnight and came to nothing. That is the lesson of the whole chapter. What we plant apart from God may sprout quickly, but the harvest is grief. What God preserves, even if it’s only a few olives at the top of the tree, lasts.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–6

Damascus and Ephraim fall together

In plain words

This is the oracle about Damascus. Damascus will stop being a city and become a heap of ruins. The towns of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, with no one to scare them. Ephraim’s fortresses will disappear, and so will Damascus’s kingdom. What remains of Syria will be like Israel’s faded glory. In that day Jacob’s glory will fade and his healthy body will waste away. It will be like a reaper gathering grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet a few will be left, like olives left on a tree after it is beaten: two or three at the very top, four or five on the fruitful branches.

1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

History & Setting #

The fall of Damascus

Damascus, capital of Aram (Syria), was one of the oldest cities in the world and a major power in Isaiah’s day.

Damascus, capital of Aram (Syria), was one of the oldest cities in the world and a major power in Isaiah’s day. In 732 BC, answering Ahaz’s plea, Tiglath-pileser III captured it, deported its people to Kir, and executed King Rezin (2 Kgs. 16:9). Damascus did not remain a heap forever, and it has been rebuilt many times, but as the capital of an independent kingdom it was finished.

For readers of Isaiah, this is a fulfilled prophecy they can check. Isaiah had told Ahaz not to fear Rezin (Isa. 7:4–9), and within a few years Rezin was dead.

Sources: “Damascus”, Bible Dictionary. “Syria”, Bible Dictionary.

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, 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.

4 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 lean.

5 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.

6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.

Imagery & Symbol #

Olives at the top of the tree

Olives were harvested by beating the branches with long sticks so the fruit fell onto cloths spread below.

Olives were harvested by beating the branches with long sticks so the fruit fell onto cloths spread below. A few olives always remained, too high or too far out to reach. The law of Moses commanded Israelites not to go back and strip the tree bare. The leftovers were for the poor, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (Deut. 24:20).

That is Isaiah’s picture of the remnant: a few olives left after the harvest. It is also an image of grace. God deliberately leaves something behind. Isaiah uses the same image for the last days in Isa. 24:13. And for Latter-day Saints, the olive tree immediately calls to mind Zenos’s allegory, in which the Lord of the vineyard preserves the natural branches and grafts them back in (Jacob 5:52–60).

Verses 7–11

Looking to the Maker

In plain words

In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They won’t look to the altars they built or respect the sacred poles and incense altars they made. Their strong cities will be abandoned like the places the earlier inhabitants abandoned before Israel, and there will be desolation. Because you have forgotten the God who saves you and haven’t remembered the Rock who is your fortress, you plant pleasant gardens and set out imported vines. The day you plant them, you make them grow, and the next morning they bud. But the harvest vanishes in a day of sickness and incurable pain.

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

8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

9 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.

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:

Witness of Christ #

The God of thy salvation, the Rock of thy strength

Here is the diagnosis: not a lack of religion, but forgetting. Forgetting is one of the great dangers the Book of Mormon warns about.

Here is the diagnosis: not a lack of religion, but forgetting. Forgetting is one of the great dangers the Book of Mormon warns about. The Nephite cycle began, again and again, when the people forgot the Lord in their prosperity (Hel. 12:2; Alma 46:8).

Two titles stand out: “God of thy salvation” (Elohe yishʿekh, the salvation root again, as in Isa. 12:2) and “the rock of thy strength.” Helaman taught his sons to build “upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God” (Hel. 5:12). Remembering is why we take the sacrament: to “always remember him” (Moro. 4:3).

History & Setting #

Gardens that sprout overnight

“Pleasant plants” and “strange slips” (foreign cuttings) probably refer to the little ritual gardens planted in honor of fertility gods like Adonis or Tammuz.

“Pleasant plants” and “strange slips” (foreign cuttings) probably refer to the little ritual gardens planted in honor of fertility gods like Adonis or Tammuz. In the ancient Mediterranean world, worshippers planted seeds in shallow pots or beds and forced them to sprout quickly, in a few days, as a symbol of the god’s return to life. The plants shot up and then withered just as fast.

Verse 11 matches that description exactly: planted in the day, sprouting by morning, and then a harvest of nothing but grief. Religion that promises quick results without covenant faithfulness produces the same crop.

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.

Verses 12–14

Roaring nations, gone by morning

In plain words

Listen to the roar of many nations, raging like the roaring sea! Hear the nations rush like mighty waters! But when God rebukes them, they flee far away, driven like chaff on the hills in the wind, like tumbleweed before a storm. In the evening, terror; by morning, they are gone. This is what happens to those who plunder us and rob us.

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 eveningtide 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.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 17

Two titles in this chapter point to Jesus Christ: “the God of thy salvation” and “the rock of thy strength” (verse 10). He is the Maker to whom the remnant finally looks (verse 7). The Book of Mormon calls Him “the rock of our Redeemer,” the sure foundation on which the storms cannot prevail (Hel. 5:12).

The olives left at the top of the tree (verse 6) are a picture of His mercy: even in judgment, He deliberately leaves a remnant to gather. And the nations roaring like the sea (verse 12) fall silent at His rebuke, as the sea of Galilee did (Mark 4:39).

Liken it to yourself

What “pleasant plants” am I tempted to plant: things that promise quick results but don’t come from covenant faithfulness?
Sometimes it takes a “harvest,” a loss, to make me look to my Maker. What has loss taught me to see more clearly?
What helps me not to “forget the God of my salvation” in good times? How can the sacrament be more of a remembering for me?
What roaring “sea” am I facing right now? Can I trust that by morning it may be gone?

Worth exploring next

Gleanings. Read Deut. 24:19–22, Ruth 2, and Isa. 24:13. How does the law of gleaning illuminate Isaiah’s picture of the remnant?
Forgetting and remembering. Trace the Nephite cycle in Hel. 12:1–6. How does Isaiah 17:10 describe the same pattern?
Rock imagery. Follow the “rock” through Isa. 26:4, Isa. 28:16, Isa. 44:8, Hel. 5:12, and 3 Ne. 11:39–40.

Sources & further reading

“Damascus”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 14: A Voice of Warning to the Wicked (Isaiah 13–23), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.

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