Valley of the Giants in Isaiah 17:5-6

God sends Assyria as a “grim reaper” to cut off the rulers of Syria and Ephraim and shake down their wealth.

For the introduction to this section (Damascus Judged – Isaiah 17), see Isaiah’s Kill List – Part 2.

The judgment of Damascus is the Ascension step in the sequence of Isaiah 13-20. This theme relates to the firstborn and firstfruits offered in faith before the court of heaven to secure a greater dominion on earth. The beautiful Syrian city of Damascus sat upon a fertile plateau in an otherwise arid region, so Isaiah presents it in irony as a perfect sacrifice, without spot or blemish, lifted up to God. This offering was a human sacrifice that ended the bloodshed required by the baals.

CYCLE 2E2
Only Gleanings will Remain

(Isaiah 17:5-6)

TRANSCENDENCE
The invader will cut off the heads as a reaper (17:5a)
(Ark: the Mosaic avenger)

HIERARCHY
leaving only gleanings in a fruitful field (17:5b)
(Veil: the mighty cut down)

ETHICS
A remnant will be left, as when an olive tree is beaten (17:6a)
(The Holy Place: the offices shaken)

OATH/SANCTIONS
Two or three in the uppermost branch (17:6b)
(The Laver: the legal witnesses)

SUCCESSION
Only four or five on the most fruitful branches (17:6c)
(The Altar: the faithful heirs)

The typological focus now shifts from the barrenness of Genesis to the Tabernacle of Exodus. The primary target is the Hierarchy, the priests and kings. Assyria and Babylon dissolved the identities of conquered nations by forcibly displacing their populations. In the case of the Northern kingdom, this was carried out by Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 15:29) and Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:6) of Assyria. The strategy first removed the elites, which is why Daniel was taken to Babylon (2 Kings 24:15; Daniel 1:3-4). Following the Ascension theme, the heads are offered up before the bodies (Leviticus 1).

This “grim reaper” Division Cycle cuts off the rulers of Syria and Ephraim and shakes down their wealth. For this reason, the harvest moves from grain to olives, the raw materials of bread and oil. Both kingdoms lose their nature (life) and their culture (anointing).

In accord with the humaniform layout of the Tabernacle, the heads of grain correspond to the bread on the Table, and the olives to the oil in the seven bowls on the Lampstand. In this way, both the priestly “left hand” and the kingly “right hand” of those who supported the Canaanite fertility cults would be cut off.

• (17:5a) The reaping of the grain was itself a two-handed operation. The reaper gathered the stalks of wheat with one hand and with the other cut off the ears close to the head. This was carried out with great care so that very little would be left. The irony is that the foreigner would be the one gathering the harvest rather than the one waiting for the gleanings (Leviticus 23:22).
• (17:5b) The lowland of the Rephaim (“terrible ones”) or “Valley of the Giants” (Joshua 15:8; 18:16) was a fertile slope south of Jerusalem. Isaiah uses the name to entwine the fertility of pagan Canaan, with its giant men and giant grapes (Numbers 13:21-33), the victories of David over encamped Philistines (2 Samuel 5:18, 22; 23:13), and possibly the “shades” of ancient kings (see the notes on 14:9-10) as the Veil. The idea is that even the mightiest of warriors would be cut down when the Lord sent His reapers.
• (17:6a) Isaiah (17:6), Jeremiah (49:9), Obadiah (1:5), and Micah (7:1) use the image of gleanings to depict the tiny remnant left after divine judgment. The beating of the olive tree is the severe discipline of the Lord’s rod for His son (Proverbs 13:24). But in this case, Ephraim is an adult son who is such a prodigal that he must be handed over to a higher court (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
  Although the word “gleanings” often refers to grapes, Isaiah skips over the grape harvest, which began around the Feast of Trumpets, to the olive harvest around the time of Booths. The message is that although, according to Joshua, the Canaanites were to be devoured as easily as bread (Numbers 14:9), the faithless Israelites would meet the same fate as the grape-bearing spies in Numbers 14:36-37. The vineyards they had inherited would be repossessed, and God would once again bring Gentiles to the Land for an ironic Ingathering. As in Judges, these “fellow worshipers” whose gods Israel had adopted would come for a feast in which the people themselves were the food on the table. But now God would not raise up any champion to deliver them.
• (17:6b) The olives were struck down from the higher branches with a stick (Isaiah 24:13; Deuteronomy 24:20). Only the few inhabitants who were so remote as to be unreachable, or so poor as to be disregarded as worthless, would remain. As the Oath/Sanctions Stanza, the “two or three” would be left as legal witnesses who could testify to the “church discipline” carried out by God under the Law of Moses (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 19:15; 2 Kings 9:32; Matthew 18:15-20; John 8:17; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28). Revelation 11:3-4 reprises the image of olive trees as the legal witness of the apostles. The “uppermost bough” is another allusion to Ascension. Those of the North who remained faithful would yet inherit the promises.
• (17:6c) Even of those taken into captivity, a remnant would be spared (Succession). They were ultimately reunited with the remnant of the Southern kingdom under the ministry of Ezra. “Four or five” carries on the count from the previous Stanza, but refers to the final census in Numbers and the heirs of the promise in Deuteronomy. The word “fruitful,” first used in Genesis 1:22, is possibly a pun on the name Ephraim.

Stanza analysis

• (17:5a) The first Stanza works through the legal process of the sevenfold Covenant/Creation/Festal pattern. “And it shall be” is a divine imperative (Transcendence/Creation/Sabbath); “as when gathers/removes” is the work of cutting by His servants, the Gentile invaders (Hierarchy/Division/Passover); “the harvester” is the obedient, authorized laborer (Ethics: Priesthood/Ascension/Firstfruits); “the grain” is the white field ready for the sickle and the fork (Ethics: Kingdom/Testing/Pentecost); “and with his arm” refers to the military action upon the multiplied fruit (Ethics: Prophecy/Maturity/Trumpets); “the heads” are the body count (Oath/Sanctions/Conquest/Atonement); and “reaps” is the human boon gathered by the Assyrians (Succession/Glorification/Booths).

2E2

Harvest of Judgment

from Peter J. Leithart’s Theopolis Fellows Notes on Isaiah

In Jesus’ parables, the judgment is often pictured as a harvest. That metaphor works because harvest involves separation of tares and wheat, of grain and chaff. Yet, it is a somewhat ambiguous image, since harvest is also a time of rejoicing and feasting.

Isaiah 17:4-6 brings out another dimension of the image. The day of Yahweh is coming against Damascus, its glory will be removed. That removal of glory will be like harvest, and the gleaning that follows. By this analogy, the produce of the fields—the garment of ripe wheat—is the glory of the land, and insofar as harvest removes the garment and leaves the field barren, it is a fitting symbol of judgment. If the field is not only harvested but gleaned, then the entirety of the garment is stripped away. Harvest plus gleaning mean that none will be left.

Then again, if the judgment is a harvest, the wheat and olives have to go somewhere. Yahweh strips the field, but gathers the wheat to make His bread, His body that is one loaf. Yahweh shakes the olive trees until there are only a few left, but then presses the olives to make the oil of gladness.