IO. II. 12. 13. For upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest And gladness is taken away, and joy Out of the fruitful field; And in the vineyards there shall be no singing, No treader shall tread out wine in the presses; Like an harp for Moab, And mine inward parts for Kir-heres. And it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail. This is the word that the LORD spake concerning 14. Moab in time past. But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." 12. Moab's calamity would drive him to pray to his god Chemosh, but his prayer would be futile. Perhaps we should simply read: When Moab wearies himself (omitting presenteth). 13, 14. Vs. 13 regards the preceding lament as a prophecy given in time past, which, according to vs. 14, will be fulfilled · doubtless by the Assyrians within three years, a hireling or mercenary soldier's time of service. The wealth of unfamiliar proper names in this elegy has partly obscured for us its real poetic merit. The poem is written with much feeling, and in places (cf. 16: 8-10) with real literary power. The passage has been utilized in the oracle on Moab in Jer. 48. Moab must have possessed at this time a relatively high civilization. Six or seven of the place-names here mentioned occur also on the Moabite stone, which was erected about 850 B.C. PROPHECY CONCERNING DAMASCUS AND NORTHERN ISRAEL 17. 2. (17:1-11) The Destruction of Damascus (17:1-3) The 1 burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, 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 They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, by Mesha the king to commemorate his victories over Israel, and discovered among the ruins of Dibon in 1868 A.D. 17:1-11. This prophecy deals not only, as the superscription suggests, with Damascus, the capital of Syria (Aram), but even more specifically with Israel, announcing the utter destruction of the former kingdom, and the all but utter destruction of the latter. The prophecy falls about 735 B.C., at any rate before the united assault of Syria and Israel upon Judah alluded to in 7: 1 f. 2. As nothing is known of a Syrian Aroer, though by the context it ought to be a well-known district or city, we may adopt the slight change of text, supported in part by the Greek version, which would give us: A ruin shall she be for ever, Her cities shall be for flocks. 3. Ephraim, i.e. northern Israel, shall lose her fortress, i.e. either Samaria, the capital city, or possibly Syria, which was Israel's bulwark against the advance of Assyria. The last clauses should perhaps read, And the remnant of Syria shall perish, 4. The Doom of Israel (17:4-11) And it shall come to pass on that day, that And the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing corn, And his arm reapeth the ears; Yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears 6. Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, Two or three berries In the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five In the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, 7. In that day shall a man look unto 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 he have respect to that which his fingers 1 m. Heb. beating. The powerful city was doomed to be a quiet pasture land. In point of fact, Damascus fell before the Assyrians, in 732 B.C. 4-6. Israel's doom (Jacob = Israel) is sealed in that day — the day when Damascus falls, for Damascus was Israel's bulwark (vs. 3). The doom is described in three figures: (i) as a wasting away of the body, (ii) as the meagre gleanings of corn which might be gathered after harvest in the plain of Rephaim, southwest of Jerusalem, and (iii) as the few berries left upon an olive-tree after its branches have been beaten. Israel's ruin will not be utter, like Syria's, but very nearly so. have made, either the Asherim, or the sunimages. 9. In that day shall his strong cities be As the forsaken places1in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation. 10. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; 1 m. Gr. of the Amorites and the Hivites. 7, 8. These verses do not perhaps belong to the original poem, as they somewhat interrupt its continuity, and interfere with its metrical arrangement. They describe the effect of the judgment upon Israel in leading mankind (not only a man, i.e. an Israelite) to a reverent regard for their Creator, and to a complete rejection of idolatry. To a Hebrew prophet hand-made gods were contemptible (cf. the scorn in 40: 20). The metre suggests that the altars, the asherim, and the sun-images were added later to explain the work of their hands." Without these words, we have two well-balanced lines. The numerous altars are rejected, for, at the time when this word was added, only the one altar at Jerusalem was regarded as legitimate. The asherim were sacred poles probably a survival of tree worship- which stood beside Canaanitish altars and even beside the altars of Jehovah (2 Kings 18:4; 23: 6), but which were finally forbidden in the Jehovah worship (Deut. 16:21). The sun-pillars point to the worship of the sun. 9. There can be little doubt that, instead of the very obscure text at the beginning of this verse, we should, following a valuable hint of the Greek version, read: In that day shall thy cities be deserted Like the deserted (cities) of the Amorites and the Hivites, i.e. the ancient inhabitants of Canaan the latter part of the verse (from which) being regarded as an explanatory gloss. Isaiah has in view Israel's devastation at the hands of the Assyrians. 10 f. Israel's league with Syria, besides turning her away from her own God, brought with it the worship of the Syrian god Adonis. But this worship, however sedulously cultivated, says the prophet, will not save Israel from the coming disaster. 1 Therefore thou plantest 1 pleasant plants, II. In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, And in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom: But the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief And of desperate sorrow. THE SPEEDY DOOM OF THE ASSYRIANS (17: 12-187) Their Sudden Destruction (17:12-14) 12. Ah, the uproar of many peoples, Which roar like the roaring of the seas; And the rushing of nations, That rush like the rushing of mighty waters! m. plantings of Adonis ; Gr. Vg. a faithless plant. 2 m. vine slips of a strange god. Though thou plantest Adonis plants, And dost set (thy garden) with the scions of a stranger (i.e. strange god): Though in the day when thou plantest, thou makest it grow, And in the morning when thou sowest thou dost bring it to blossom; Yet surely the harvest shall vanish in the day of sickness, And sorrow incurable (shall be thine). The strange god (so margin) is Adonis, who is no doubt alluded to in the word pleasant (vs. 10). The pleasant plants are the so-called "Adonis gardens," which played a conspicuous part in the Adonis festivals "flower pots with all kinds of artificially developed plants, flowers, etc., which withered as quickly as they had grown," and which were therefore an apt symbol of the futility of the Syrian alliance. 17: 12-187. In these verses are two short oracles (17: 12-14 and 18: 1-7) connected in theme, and probably produced about the same time- - between 705 and 701 B.C., when Sennacherib and his Assyrians were becoming an ever more formidable menace to Judah. Common to both is the serenity with which Isaiah contemplates their tumultuous advance, and the clearness with which he foresees and foretells their doom. 12. This is a very spirited passage. Through its well-chosen Hebrew words one vividly hears the roar of the sea, to which is |