Catholic Commentary on Isaiah 17

“In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 17:7)

The Burden of Damascus

A prophecy against Damascus: it will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted. The fortified city will disappear. In that day the glory of Jacob will fade. Yet some gleanings will remain. In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.

The catastrophe that strips away false security becomes the occasion of returning to the Maker. The Catechism identifies this dynamic as the providential purpose of permitted suffering: the removal of what was trusted in error reveals the one who was always trustworthy (CCC 1505).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, in that day people will look to their Maker. The stripping of the altars made by human hands is the condition of turning to the God who made the human hands. What does it take for you to turn your eyes to the Holy One? Do not wait for the catastrophe to do what wisdom would do now.

Prayer

Lord God, let us look to you, our Maker, and turn our eyes to you, the Holy One of Israel, before the catastrophe rather than only after it. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

17
The Burden against Damascus
(Jeremiah 49:23-27)
1 This is the burden against Damascus:
 
“Behold, Damascus is no longer a city;
it has become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they will be left to the flocks,
which will lie down with no one to fear.
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,* 17:3 Or The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, that is, from the northern kingdom of Israel
and the sovereignty from Damascus.
The remnant of Aram will be
like the splendor of the Israelites,”
declares the LORD of Hosts.
4 “In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade,
and the fat of his body will waste away,
5 as the reaper gathers the standing grain
and harvests the ears with his arm,
as one gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will remain,
like an olive tree that has been beaten-
two or three berries atop the tree,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
7 In that day men will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars
they have fashioned with their hands
or to the Asherahs and incense altars
they have made with their fingers.
 
9 In that day their strong cities
will be like forsaken thickets and summits,
abandoned to the Israelites
and to utter desolation.
 
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge.
Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots
and set out cuttings from exotic vines-
11 though on the day you plant
you make them grow,
and on that morning
you help your seed sprout-
yet the harvest will vanish
on the day of disease and incurable pain.
 
12 Alas, the tumult of many peoples;
they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations;
they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters.
He rebukes them, and they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweeds before a gale.
14 In the evening, there is sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us
and the lot of those who plunder us.

*17:3 17:3 Or The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, that is, from the northern kingdom of Israel

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