Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Isaias
Chapter 17
Ver. 1. Damascus. When it was taken by Theglathphalassar, or rather by Sennacherib, chap. x. 8. It was again ruined by Nabuchodonosor, Jeremias xlix. 24. But after the first taking, it never regained its power. Magni nominis umbra. (Calmet)
Ver. 2. Aroer. Chaldean, "abandoned, shall be folds for sheep." Septuagint, "left for ever a resting place for flocks and herds, and none shall pursue." The tribes on the east of the Jordan shall be led captive, as well as those on the west, Ephraim, &c. (Haydock)
Ver. 3. Damascus. Their too great union proved their ruin. Sennacherib took Damascus, as Salmanasar had done Samaria.
Ver. 4. Lean. All the power of the kingdom shall fail, as in a mortal illness.
Ver. 5. Raphaim. Near Jerusalem, 3 Kings xxiii. 13. Septuagint, "of stones." (Calmet) --- It will be equally difficult to find any men left in the kingdom of Israel. (Haydock)
Ver. 7. Israel. They obeyed the summons of Ezechias and of Josias, (2 Paralipomenon xxx. 1., and xxxiv. 6.) and ever after followed the same worship as Juda. (Calmet)
Ver. 9. Left. By the Chanaanites, when the children of Israel came into their land. (Challoner) --- Their consternation was become proverbial, Josue ii. 9., and v. 11.
Ver. 10. Good. Septuagint, "fruitless." Israel had abandoned the Lord; and could expect nothing but the fruits of death. (Calmet)
Ver. 11. Much. Thou hast laboured earnestly, but reaped no benefit. (Haydock)
Ver. 12. Multitude, &c. This and all that follows to the end of the chapter, relates to the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, (Challoner) or rather to that of Israel and its allies. (Calmet) --- After the Assyrians had afflicted Israel, they were also punished. (Worthington)
Ver. 14. Not be. Phacee and Rasin were presently exterminated. --- Spoiled us. The kingdom of Achaz, 4 Kings xvii. 5.
Bible Text & Cross-references:
Judgments upon Damascus and Samaria. The overthrow of the Assyrians.
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold Damascus shall cease to be a city, and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones.
2 The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and they shall rest there, and there shall be none to make them afraid.
3 And aid 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 the Lord of hosts.
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
5 And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest that which remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of corn: and it shall be as he that seeketh ears in the vale of Raphaim.
6 And the fruit thereof, that shall be left upon it, shall be as one cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough, or four or five upon the top of the tree, saith the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not look to the altars which his hands made: and he shall not have respect to the things that his fingers wrought, such as groves and temples.
9 In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as the ploughs and the corn that were left before the face of the children of Israel, and thou shalt be desolate.
10 Because thou hast forgotten God, thy Saviour, and hast not remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou plant good plants, and shalt sow strange seed.
11 In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee much.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, like the multitude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters.
13 Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing, but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee afar off: and they shall be carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a tempest.
14 In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us.
Chapter 18
Ver. 1. Cymbal. Or sistrum, commonly used in Egypt. Septuagint, "ship sails." --- Ethiopia, or Chus, lying between the Nile (the branches of which are styled rivers) and the Red Sea. He alludes to the kingdom of Tharaca, 4 Kings xix. 8. (Calmet)
Ver. 2. Ambassadors. Hebrew, "images," (Bochart) in honour of Adonis; (St. Cyril) or rather Ezechias, or Tharaca send to demand troops. (Calmet) --- Bulrushes. Literally, "paper." (Haydock) --- Formed of rushes which grow on the banks of the Nile. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vii. 56., and xiii. 11.) --- Angels. Or messengers. --- Pieces. With factions after the death of Sabacon, or by the inroads of Sennacherib. --- Other. He derides the vanity of the Egyptians. (Calmet) --- Expecting the overflowing of the Nile. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "of line," (Calmet) with which they marked out each person's property, after the waters had subsided. (Strabo 17.) --- Foot. They worked their dough with their feet, and sent swine to trample on the seed, which required no more cultivation. (Herodotus ii. 14., and 36.) --- Spoiled. The Nile made considerable alterations.
Ver. 4. Place. God rules all with ease. --- Harvest. The allies shall comfort my people, (Calmet) or Sennacherib shall threaten ruin. (Haydock) --- But I will frustrate his evil designs. His army shall perish unexpectedly, ver. 5. (Calmet) --- The Egyptians had sent messengers to assure the Israelites that they would come to assist them: but the prophet informs them of their own ruin. (Worthington)
Ver. 6. Them. Their bodies shall lie unburied.
Ver. 7. Sion. Egypt shall send presents to the Lord, 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. 23. (Calmet)
Bible Text & Cross-references:
A woe to the Ethiopians, who fed Israel with vain hopes: their future conversion.
1 Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
3 All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet:
4 For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest, and consider in my place, as the noon light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, it was all flourishing, and it shall bud without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof shall be cut off with pruning-hooks: and what is left shall be cut away, and shaken out.
6 And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall be upon them all the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts, from a people rent and torn in pieces: from a terrible people, after which there hath been no other; from a nation expecting, expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Sion.