Isaiah 17
What Happens in This Chapter
This chapter is a message about Damascus, the main city of Syria. It says Damascus will become a pile of ruins, and that Israel, its partner, will also grow weak, with only a few people left, like a few olives left on a tree. It says that when this happens, people will look to God instead of to the altars they made with their own hands. It ends with nations roaring like the sea, and God driving them away before morning.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
1This is a message about the city of Damascus. Damascus will not be a city anymore. It will be a pile of broken stones.
"The burden of Damascus" means a heavy message from God about Damascus.
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 will be left empty. Sheep and goats will rest there. Nothing will scare 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, part of Israel, will lose its strong walls. Damascus will lose its king. The people left in Syria will be like Israel's greatness, which is fading. This is what the LORD of Hosts says. He is the God who leads great armies.
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.
4"When that day comes, Jacob's greatness will fade away. Jacob means the people of Israel. Their strong, healthy bodies 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 farmer cutting down his grain. He gathers the stalks in his arm and carries them off. It will be like a man picking up the last bits of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
In 1611 English, "corn" meant grain of any kind, like wheat or barley. It did 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.
6But a few will be left, like an olive tree after it is beaten. Two or three olives stay on the top branch. Four or five stay 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.
7When that day comes, people will look to 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 stop looking to the altars they built with their own hands. They will stop trusting the poles and the small altars their fingers made.
The "groves" were tall wooden poles set up to honor a goddess. The "images" were small altars for burning sweet-smelling smoke.
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.
9When that day comes, their strong cities will stand empty. They will be like woods that people walked away from. The people left them because of Israel. Everything will be bare and empty.
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 is because you forgot God, who saves you. You did not remember the Rock who keeps you safe. So you plant pretty gardens. You plant cuttings from faraway 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.
11The day you plant them, you make them grow. That same morning, you help your seeds sprout. But the harvest will be gone. It will vanish on a day of sickness and pain that will not stop.
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 noise of many peoples! They roar like the sea. Nations rumble like crashing water.
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 roar like rushing water. But God speaks against them, and they run far away. The wind blows them off like dry husks on the hills. They tumble away like weeds 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 fear. Before morning comes, they are gone. This is what happens to those who steal from us. This is what happens to those who rob us.
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