Chapter 17

Prophecy about Damascus.

It will cease to be a city and become a heap of ruins.  What remains of it will be like the leftover gleanings of olive and fruit trees.  Just a few fruits.  When it happens, they will look to the God of Israel, not to the idols they made for themselves.

2021 - It looks like both Damascus and Jacob will be "brought low".  This could well be about the Assyrians, who took Damascus before they took Samaria.  The gleaned fields, and the picked over fruit trees indicate that the land is going to be very nearly empty of people.  Or at least of its original population.  Vs 9 I think is what ties the fate of Damascus and Samaria together:

[Isa 17:9 ESV] In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.  The word "their" means both Damascus and Jacob.

2022 - For the record, Damascus is still there, still a city.  To be sure, it is not a very good city.  But I cannot, yet, describe Damascus as a "heap of ruins".  What I do not know is whether or not Assyria reduced it to such and it was rebuilt.  After all, Jerusalem was left with not one stone upon another at one point, but today it is a thriving city.  I would need to know more history to know whether...no I don't.  The Bible says it will be a heap of ruins.  So at some point it was, or at some point it will be.  I already know that.

This is, I think, the second time we've seen this description of what is coming:

[Isa 17:12 ESV] Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

The invasion force is huge, beyond number, un-opposable.  Just by moving they can be heard far off.  A fearful prospect back in that day.  But it goes on to say that the invaders too are going to fall.  Vs 14 makes this pretty clear:

[Isa 17:14 ESV] At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

(2021 - 17:8 connects with 2:20 and 30:22.  See especially notes at 30:22)

2025 - Even reading hurriedly today, I think this chapter is about the results of the Assyrian invasion.  That army devastated all the countries in this entire region.  They conquered by destruction, they left everything a mess.  And it all happened quite quickly because no individual country in the region could stand against them singly...and there was no cooperation between them.  They all opposed each other too much to unite in self-defense. 

So today, I think this chapter is about Isaiah's near term, and the Assyrians.  Not the 70th, not the Millennial.