Isaiah 17:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 17:5
And 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.
a stream (as flowing) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
valley
בְּעֵ֥מֶקbe.'E.mek
H6010
a vale (i.e. broad depression) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Rephaim
רְפָאִֽיםre.fa.'Im
H7497
a giant · noun, gentilic both genders plural 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
Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind…
Jeremiah 51:33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a littl…
Joel 3:13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
2 Samuel 5:18 The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
Revelation 14:15-20 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the tim…
2 Samuel 5:22 And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
Matthew 13:39-42 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Joshua 15:8 And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 17:1-5
We have here the burden of Damascus; the Chaldee paraphrase reads it, The burden of the cup of the curse to drink to Damascus in; and, the ten tribes being in alliance, they must expect to pledge Damascus in this cup of trembling that is to go round. 1. Damascus itself, the head city of Syria, must be destroyed; the houses, it is likely, will be burnt, as least the walls, and gates, and fortifications demolished, and the inhabitants carried away captive, so that for the present it is taken away from being a city, and is reduced not only to a village, but to a ruinous heap, Isa 17:1. Such desolating work as this does sin make with cities. 2. The country towns are abandoned by their inhabitant…
harvestman, &c.--The inhabitants and wealth of Israel shall be swept away, and but few left behind just as the husbandman gathers the corn and the fruit, and leaves only a few gleaning ears and grapes (Kg2 18:9-11).
with his arm--He collects the standing grain with one arm, so that he can cut it with the sickle in the other hand.
Rephaim--a fertile plain at the southwest of Jerusalem toward Beth-lehem and the country of the Philistines (Sa2 5:18-22).
John Gill on Isaiah 17:5
And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn,.... The "standing" corn, as in the Hebrew text: "and reapeth the ears with his arm"; or "his arm reaps the ears" (o); that is, with one hand he gathers the standing corn into his fist, and then reaps it with his other arm; and just so it should be with the people of Israel: they were like a field of standing corn, for number, beauty, and glory; the Assyrian was like a harvestman, who laid hold upon them, and cut them down, as thick and as numerous as they were, just as a harvestman cuts down the corn, and with as much ease and quick dispatch; they being no more able to stand before him than a field of corn before the reaper! this was…
(Verse 5) And it shall be like the gleaning of a harvest, what remains, and his arm shall gather the ears of grain, and it shall be like one seeking grain in the valley of Rephaim. And when it is said of the calling of the Gentiles, 'The harvest is great, but the laborers are few' (Matthew 9), those poor people will gather the remnants of the harvest, which have been saved through the Apostles, and will gather the very rare grains, not from mountains and high places, but in the valley of Raphaim, that is, in the lowliness of letters. And consider that Raphaim, which is interpreted as giants, means the Pharisees and Scribes, just as Ephraim means above. Finally, the Seventy translated the valley of Raphaim as the hard valley, in order to express the hardness of the Jewish heart.
(Verse 5, 6.) And it shall be like one gathering in the harvest what remains, and his arm shall gather the ears: and it shall be like one seeking the ears in the Valley of Raphaim. And there shall be left in it like a cluster of grapes, and like the beating of olives of two or three olive trees at the top of the branch, or four or five on its fruitful heights, says the Lord God of Israel. Those who understand the present devastation of Damascus under the Roman kingdom, contend that these things are signified about the Apostles, that just as few ears of wheat and olives usually remain in the field or on the trees, so the remnant of Israel shall be saved; especially because it follows: On that day, man shall turn to his maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel, that is, to Christ. Two olives, and three, and four, and five, are interpreted as the fourteen Apostles, that is, the twelve who were chosen, and the thirteenth James, who is called the brother of the Lord; Paul also, the Apostle, the vessel of election (Acts 7). However, those who think that what was said is accomplished during the time of the Assyrians, want this to be understood, that under the Assyrian captivity Damascus was not completely destroyed, but some were transferred to Cyrene, and the other part of the worshipers of the land was left behind, which was also destroyed later by the Babylonian ravages: until it was restored again under the Macedonians and the Ptolemies, and in the coming of Christ it was indeed a city, but not of such power as it had been before. And there will be so few senses left in Damascus as there usually remain few ears of grain in the broad and mighty valley of Raphaim that the poor gather, or few olives left in the olive tree that have escaped the scrutiny of the harvester.
Dictionary and topics
Giants — (1.) Heb. nephilim, meaning “violent” or “causing to fall” (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying…
Rephaim, The Valley Of — (1 Samuel 5:18,22; 23:13; 1 Chronicles 11:15; 14:9; Isaiah 17:5) also in (Joshua 15:8) and Josh 18:16 It is translated in the Authorized Version “the valley of the giants,” a spot which was the scene…
Harvest, The · Persons engaged in: Called harvest-men — Persons engaged in: Called harvest-men
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of
Reaping · Mode of gathering the corn for, alluded to — Mode of gathering the corn for, alluded to
Rephaim · .The productiveness of — .The productiveness of
Rephaim, Or Giants, The · The valley of: Was exceedingly fruitful — The valley of: Was exceedingly fruitful
Valleys · Mentioned in scripture: Rephaim or giants — Mentioned in scripture: Rephaim or giants
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).
on Isaiah 17:5
And it shall be as when the harvest-man gathereth the corn. He shews by a comparison how great will be the desolation. "As the reapers," he says, "gather the corn in armfuls, so this multitude, though large and extended, will be mowed down by the enemies." Now that he may not leave a remainder, he adds that at the conclusion of the harvest the ears will be gleaned, as if he had said, that when the multitude shall have been destroyed and the country laid bare like a field which has been reaped, even the shaken and scattered ears will not be left. Besides, he employs the metaphor of a harvest because the people, trusting to their great number, dreaded nothing; but as the reapers are not terrif…
Second turn: "And it comes to pass in that day, the glory of Jacob wastes away, and the fat of his flesh grows thin. And it will be as when a reaper grasps the stalks of wheat, and his arm mows off the ears; and it will be as with one who gathers together ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet a gleaning remains from it, as at the olive-beating: two, three berries high up at the top; four, five in its, the fruit tree's, branches, saith Jehovah the God of Israel. At that day will man look up to his Creator, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and what his fingers have made he will not regard, neither the Astartes nor the sun…
The valley of Rephaim was a fertile valley in Judah; however, it looked bare after each harvest.
Rashi on Isaiah 17:5
And it shall be like gathering the harvest of the standing grain Just as at the time of the harvest, the reaper gathers the bundle of the standing grain in his one hand and with his other arm he reaps the ears, so will Sennacherib uproot and exile everyone, and even the gleanings that fall at the time of harvest he will gather and carry it off. That is to say that even those who flee will not escape his hand, and they will gather them [var. and he will gather them] [like one who gathers ears].
in the valley of Rephaim That is the valley that is before Jerusalem. In the Book of Joshua (15:8, 18:16) you will find that the valley of Rephaim adjoins Jerusalem.
