Commentary on Isaiah - Volume 2

1The burden of Damascus.
Behold, Damascus is taken away, that it be not a city;
For it shall be a heap of ruins.

2The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They shall be changed into sheepfolds;
They shall lie down,
And there shall be none to terrify them.

3And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus;
And the remnant of Syria shall be
As the glory of the children of Israel,
Saith Jehovah of hosts.

4And it shall be in that day,
The glory of Jacob shall be diminished,
And the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

5And it shall be as he who gathereth the harvest of the corn,
Who reapeth the ears with his arm,
Like as one gleaneth grapes in the valley of Rephaim.

6And in thee shall be left a gleaning, as the shaking of an olive-tree;
There two or three berries remain on the top of the highest branch,
Four or five on the spreading branches of its fruit,
Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.

7In that day shall a man look to his Maker,
And his eyes shall be fixed on the Holy One of Israel.

8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his own hands.
Nor view the things which his fingers have made,
Nor the groves,
Nor the graven images.

9In that day the cities of his strength shall be
As the forsaking of a thicket and of a branch,
In like manner as they left before the children of Israel;
And there shall be desolation.

10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not been mindful of the God of thy strength;
Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants,
And thou shalt ingraft a foreign shoot.

11In the day of thy plantation shalt thou make it to grow,
And in the morning thou shalt make thy seed to sprout;
But in the day of enjoying shall the harvest fail,
And the grief shall be desperate.

12Alas! the multitude of many peoples;
Like the sound of many peoples shall they sound,
And like the noise of nations;
Like the noise of mighty waters shall they rush.

13Like the noise of mighty waters
Shall the peoples make a noise,
And he will rebuke them,
And will drive them far away;
They shall be chased
As the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And as a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

14In the evening time, behold! trouble:
Ere it be morning, it shall not at all be.
This is the portion of them that tread us down,
And the lot of them that plunder us.