Isaiah
Chapter 17
Isaiah announces judgment on Damascus, the capital of Syria, and on Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel that had allied with it. Both will be stripped down until only a little is left, like a few olives after the tree is beaten. The chapter then says people will finally look to the God who made them instead of the altars they built, and it ends with nations roaring in like floodwater and vanishing before morning.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
1This is the message about Damascus. Damascus will stop being a city. It will become a pile of ruins.
In the KJV, "burden" means a heavy message of judgment that God gave the prophet to announce.
2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
2The towns of Aroer are left empty. Flocks will lie down there, and nothing will frighten them.
3The 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.
3Ephraim will lose its fortress, and Damascus will lose its rule. What is left of Syria will look like Israel's faded glory. This is what the LORD of hosts says. He is the LORD who commands the armies of heaven.
4And 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.
4In that day the greatness of Jacob will fade. His strong, well-fed body will grow thin.
5And 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.
5It will be like a worker cutting the standing grain and gathering the heads in his arm. It will be like a man picking up the few heads left behind in the Valley of Rephaim.
"Corn" in the KJV means grain of any kind, such as wheat or barley. It does not mean corn on the cob.
6Yet 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.
6Only a little will be left, like an olive tree after it has been beaten. Two or three olives will hang at the very top, four or five on the outer branches. This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says.
7At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
7In that day people will look to their Maker, the God who made them. They will turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8And 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.
8They will not look to the altars their own hands built. They will not turn to the wooden poles or the incense altars their fingers made.
The "groves" were wooden poles set up to honor the goddess Asherah. The "images" were small altars used to burn incense to other gods.
9In 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.
9In that day their strong cities will stand empty, like bushes and hilltops left behind when Israel came. Everything will be waste.
10Because 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:
10This happens because you forgot the God who saves you. You did not remember the Rock where your strength comes from. So you plant your pretty gardens and set out cuttings from foreign vines.
"Strange slips" means cuttings from foreign vines, plants brought in from other lands.
11In 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.
11On the day you plant them, you make them grow. In the morning you make your seeds bloom. But the harvest will come to nothing on a day of sickness and pain that will not heal.
12Woe 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!
12Listen to the roar of many peoples. They roar like the crashing sea. Nations rumble like great rushing waters.
13The 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.
13The nations rush in like rushing waters. But God speaks against them, and they run far away. They are blown off like straw on the hills, like dry weeds spinning in a storm.
14And 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.
14In the evening there is sudden terror. Before morning comes, they are gone. This is what happens to those who raid us and rob us.
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