Isaiah 17:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 17:11
In 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.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
plant
נִטְעֵךְ֙nit.'eKh
H5194
a plant · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
grow
תְּשַׂגְשֵׂ֔גִיte.sag.Se.gi
H7735
to hedge in · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
morning
וּבַבֹּ֖קֶרu.va.Bo.ker
H1242
properly · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
seed
זַרְעֵ֣ךְzar.'Ekh
H2233
seed · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
flourish
תַּפְרִ֑יחִיtaf.Ri.chi
H6524
to break forth as a bud · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
harvest
קָצִ֛ירka.Tzir
H7105
severed · noun, common masculine singular absolute
heap
נֵ֥דned
H5067
a mound · noun, common masculine singular absolute
day
בְּי֥וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
grief
נַחֲלָ֖הna.cha.Lah
H2470
properly · verb, niphal active participle, feminine singular absolute
desperate
אָנֽוּשׁ'a.Nush
H605
to be frail · adjective, masculine singular absolute
sorrow
וּכְאֵ֥בu.khe.'Ev
H3511
suffering (physical or mental) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Hosea 8:7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strang…
Psalms 90:6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
Isaiah 18:5-6 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning…
Isaiah 65:13-14 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be t…
Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end th…
Hosea 9:1-4 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
Hosea 9:16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit o…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 17:9-11
Here the prophet returns to foretel the woeful desolations that should be made in the land of Israel by the army of the Assyrians. 1. That the cities should be deserted. Even the strong cities, which should have protected the country, shall not be able to protect themselves: They shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch of an old tree, which has gone to decay, is forsaken of its leaves, and appears on the top of the tree, bare, and dry, and dead; so shall their strong cities look when the inhabitants have deserted them and the victorious army of the enemy pillaged and defaced them, Isa 17:9. They shall be as the cities (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old in…
In the day . . . thy plant--rather, "In the day of thy planting" [HORSLEY].
shalt . . . make . . . grow--MAURER translates, "Thou didst fence it," namely, the pleasure-ground. The parallel clause, "Make . . . flourish," favors English Version. As soon as thou plantest, it grows.
in the morning--that is, immediately after; so in Psa 90:14, the Hebrew, "in the morning," is translated "early."
but . . . shall be a heap--rather, "but (promising as was the prospect) the harvest is gone" [HORSLEY].
in . . . day of grief--rather, "in the day of (expected) possession" [MAURER]. "In the day of inundation" [HORSLEY].
of desperate sorrow--rather, "And the sorrow shall be desperate or irremedi…
In the day shall thou make thy plant to grow,.... Not that it is in the power of man to make it grow; but the sense is, that all means and methods should be used to make it grow, no cost nor pains should be spared:
and in the morning shall thou make thy seed to flourish; which may denote both diligence in the early care of it, and seeming promising success; and yet all should be in vain, and to no purpose:
but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief; or "of inheritance"; when it was about to be possessed and enjoyed, according to expectation, it shall be all thrown together in a heap, and be spoiled by the enemy: or, "the harvest" shall be "removed in the day of inheritance" (w); j…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11.) In the day of your planting, the vineyard shall flourish, and in the morning your seed shall blossom. The harvest shall be taken away on the day of inheritance, and you shall grieve deeply. These will be the fruits of your labors: your vine Sorec shall degenerate into wild grapes, and your seed shall bring forth hope in the bud; but when maturity comes, it shall be harvested by another. And then you shall grieve deeply, when what you hoped for and almost touched is lost.
(Verse 11.) Therefore, you will plant a faithful plantation and sow a foreign seed. On the day of your planting, your grapevine will be in bloom, and in the morning your seed will sprout; the harvest has been taken away on the day of inheritance, and there will be great sorrow. LXX: Therefore, you will plant an unfaithful plantation and unfaithful seed, and on the day you plant, you will wander. But if you sow in the morning, it will bloom for the harvest on the day of inheritance, when a father gives inheritance to his sons. For that reason, because we have interpreted it according to Aquila and Symmachus and the LXX, on the day of inheritance, which in Hebrew is called Biom Nehela (), it can be read in Hebrew, on a very bad day. And for that reason, because it has been interpreted by Aquila and Theodotion, and the man will grieve: we learned from the Hebrews, for the man who is called Enos in their language, we have interpreted as Anus (), that is, heavily: concerning the ambiguity of this word, if there is time in this life, we will discuss it more fully in Jeremiah, where according to the LXX it says: And there is a man, and who will know him? Therefore I say what I proposed: Because you have forgotten, O land of Judah, your Savior God, and the one who always provided strength for you, you have not remembered; therefore you will indeed plant a faithful plantation, as the interpretations of Aquila and Theodotion say, beautiful; or as Symmachus says, good, preaching one God: but you will sow a foreign seed, not receiving the Father, because you do not receive the Son. For whoever believes in the Father, also believes in the Son. And because you have sown the seed of blasphemy against Jesus in the synagogues of Satan, therefore you shall not gather grapes, but wild grapes. And when it appears that your seed is flourishing and you have some shade of piety, while you withdraw people from idols: yet when you will grieve deeply in the day of harvest to gather the fruits, seeing that the people of the Gentiles are preferred to you. Hence the Apostle says: I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I myself wished to be anathema from Christ for the sake of my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the testament, and the giving of the law, and the promises:…
Dictionary and topics
Backsliders · .Syrians — .Syrians
Famine · General references — General references
Forgetting God · Punishment of — Punishment of
Harvest, The · Failure of: A punishment for sin — Failure of: A punishment for sin
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In the day. This denotes the incessant labor which is bestowed on plants and seeds. Yet we might understand by it the fruit which is yielded, as if a vine newly planted would immediately produce wine. And this agrees with the next clause, in which the morning is put for the day. This appears to denote sudden maturity, unless perhaps this also be supposed to denote carefulness, because from the very earliest dawn they will devote themselves to labor.
The words are somewhat ambiguous; for some render them, "the removing of the branch on the day of affliction." But as nchlch (nachalah) means "an inheritance," here, in my opinion, it literally denotes produce. It is not derived from chlh (chala…
Third turn: "In that day will his fortified cities be like the ruins of the forest and of the mountain top, which they cleared before the sons of Israel: and there arises a waste place. For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not thought of the Rock of thy stronghold, therefore thou plantedst charming plantations, and didst set them with strange vines. In the day that thou plantedst, thou didst make a fence; and with the morning dawn thou madest thy sowing to blossom: a harvest heap in the day of deep wounds and deadly sorrow of heart." The statement in Isa 17:3, "The fortress of Ephraim is abolished," is repeated in Isa 17:9 in a more descriptive manner. The fate of the s…
The Israelites had mixed faith in the Lord with elements of Baal worship. They turned from the Lord, who alone is God and will not be held alongside an idol in people’s hearts. • The term Rock refers to the Lord’s ability to provide refuge (see 26:4; 30:29; Ps 18:2, 46).
Rashi on Isaiah 17:11
On the day of your planting you mingled Heb. תְּשַׂגְשֵׂנִי, an expression of mingling. Your branches became mingled with sorts of grasses and mixtures that spoil the branches of the vine. That is to say that in the place where I planted you for Me as a vineyard, there you corrupted your deeds. That is what Ezekiel said to them (20:5): “On the day I chose Israel, and I lifted My hand to the seed of the house of Jacob, and I became known to them in the land of Egypt.” And it says further (verse 8): “And they rebelled against Me and they refused to obey...” Here, too, תְּשַׂגְשֵׂנִי, you became mingled with the abominations of Egypt.
and in the morning you cause your seed to blossom And on th…
