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10 For you ignore[a] the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector.[b]
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines.[c]
11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow;[d]
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear[e] in the day of disease
and incurable pain.
12 Beware, you many nations massing together,[f]
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves.[g]
Beware, you people making such an uproar,[h]
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves.[i]

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 17:10 tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
  2. Isaiah 17:10 tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”
  3. Isaiah 17:10 tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.
  4. Isaiah 17:11 tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tesagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (sagaʾ/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.
  5. Isaiah 17:11 tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”
  6. Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.”
  7. Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”
  8. Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.”
  9. Isaiah 17:12 tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”

10 Because 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:

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.

12 Woe 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!

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10 For (A)you have forgotten the God of your salvation
    and have not remembered the (B)Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
    and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
11 though you make them grow[a] on the day that you plant them,
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away[b]
    in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12 Ah, (C)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!

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 17:11 Or though you carefully fence them
  2. Isaiah 17:11 Or will be a heap

10 You have forgotten(A) God your Savior;(B)
    you have not remembered the Rock,(C) your fortress.(D)
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
    and plant imported vines,(E)
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
    and on the morning(F) when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest(G) will be as nothing(H)
    in the day of disease and incurable(I) pain.(J)

12 Woe to the many nations that rage(K)
    they rage like the raging sea!(L)
Woe to the peoples who roar(M)
    they roar like the roaring of great waters!(N)

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