The prophecy which comprises Isaiah 17:1-11, professes, by its title, to be against Damascus only. But it relates to the kingdom of Samaria no less than to Damascus. The reason is, that the kingdoms of Israel and Damascus were confederated against the kingdom of Judah. The design of the prophecy may have been to warn the kingdom of Israel of the approaching destruction of the city of Damascus, and, by this means, to keep them from forming an alliance with them against Judah. When it was delivered is unknown. Lowth supposes that it was immediately after the prophecies in the seventh and eighth chapters, in the reign of Ahaz, and this supposition is not improbable, though it is not quite certain. He also supposes that it was fulfilled when Damascus was taken captive by Tiglath-pileser, and its inhabitants carried to Kir 2-Kings 16:9, and when he overran, also, a great part of the kingdom of Israel, and carried its inhabitants captive to Assyria.
In regard to the "time" when it was uttered, there can be little doubt that it was when the alliance existed between Damascus and the kingdom of Ephraim, or Samaria, for on no oilier supposition can it be accounted for, that the two kingdoms were united in the prophecy (see Isaiah 17:3). The scope or design of the prophecy is indicated in the close Isaiah 17:14 : 'This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us;' and one design, at least, was to give an assurance to the kingdom of Judah, that the alliance between Damascus and Samaria was not to be dreaded, but that the kingdom of Judah would be safe. No alliance formed against them would be successful; no purpose to destroy them should be an abject of dread.
The prophecy may be regarded as consisting of three parts.
I. The prediction of the divine judgment against Damascus Isaiah 17:1-2.
II. The prediction respecting Ephraim, the ally of Damascus, and its fulfillment Isaiah 17:3-11.
III. A prediction respecting the Assyrians, and the calamities that should come upon them as a nation Isaiah 17:12-14.
The kingdom of Syria, or Damascus, was overthrown in the fourth year of the reign of Ahaz. It is clear, therefore, that the prophecy was delivered before that time. And if so, its proper place, in the collection of the prophecies of Isaiah: would have been immediately after the ninth chapter. The reason why it is placed here, Lightfoot supposes to be, that in the seventh and eighth chapters the special design was to denounce judgment on the two kingdoms of Damascus and Ephraim; but that the design here was to connect the prediction of those judgments with the surrounding kingdoms, and to show how they would be affected by it. The prophecy is, therefore, placed amidst those which relate to foreign nations; or to kingdoms out of the land of Canaan.
Damascus was a celebrated city of Syria, and was long the capital of the kingdom of Damascus. It was a city in the time of Abraham, for the steward in his house, Eliezer, was said to be of Damascus Genesis 15:2. It is situated in a very fertile plain at the foot of mount Anti-Libanus, and is surrounded by hills. It is watered by a river which the ancients caned "Chrysorrhoas," as if it flowed with gold. This river was divided into several canals, which were conducted to various parts of the city. It rose in the mountains of Anti-Libanus, and it is probable that the branches of that river were anciently called Abana and Pharpar 2-Kings 5:12. This river is now called the Bar-raday, and the unique beauty and fertility of Damascus is owing wholly to it. It rises in the adjacent mountains of Anti-Libanus, and, by numerous natural and artificial channels, is made to spread over the plain on which the city stands. It waters the whole extent of the gardens - an extent of country about nine miles in diameter, in the midst of which the city is situated - and when this is done, the water that is left flows off to the southeast through the plain, where, amid the arid sands, it is soon absorbed or evaporated, and the river disappears. The gardens are planted with all kinds of trees; mostly such as produce fruit, among which the apricot holds the ascendancy. Pomegranate, orange, lemon, and fig trees abound, and rising above these are other trees of huge proportions, intermingled with the poplar and sometimes the willow. Into every garden of the city water is carried, and this river, thus divided, gives to Damascus the beauty for which it has been so celebrated. The Persian geographers say, that the plain of Damascus is one of the four paradises of the East, and it is now said that there is not in all Syria a more delightful place.
From the time of Abraham until David, the Scripture says nothing of Damascus. In his time it was subdued, and brought under his authority. Toward the end of the reign of Solomon, the authority of the Jews was cast off by Rezin, and Damascus became again independent. Jeroboam, king of Israel, again conquered Damascus, and brought Syria into subjection 2-Kings 14:25; but after his death the Syrians again established their independence. Rezin became king of Damascus, and entered into an alliance with Pekah, king of Israel, and, unitedly, they invaded Judah, and made great havoc in its territories (see the notes at Isaiah. 7; compare 2-Kings 16:5). Tiglath-pileser, however, king of Assyria, came to the assistance of the king of Judah and took Damascus, and destroyed it, and killed Rezin, and carried the Syrians into captivity beyond the Euphrates. To this event, probably, Isaiah refers in the prophecy before us. He, however, did not foretell its utter and "perpetual" ruin as he did that of Babylon. Damascus again recovered from its calamities. Holofernes again took it (Judith 2:27). It is spoken of as flourishing in the time of Ezekiel Ezekiel 27:2. The Romans took it in the time, and by the agency, of Pompey the Great, about sixty years before Christ. It afterward fell into the hands of the Arabians. It was taken by the Ottomans 1517 a.d.; and has since been in the possession of the Turks. At present, it has a population of about 100,000. The name by which it is now known is "El-Sham." It is a part of the pashalic of Damascus, which extends to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Mehemet Ali of Egypt obtained possession of it without resistance, in June 1832, and since that time it has been under the jurisdiction of his son Ibrahim. It is regarded by Mussulmans as a place of special sanctity. According to them, Mecca has the first place, Jerusalem the next, and Damascus the third.
The prophecy respecting Damascus occupies Isaiah 17:1-11. The general sense is, that Damascus and its allies would be greatly enfeebled and almost destroyed. Its fulfillment is to be referred to the invasion of Damascus by Tiglath-pileser and the Assyrians. The remainder of the chapter Isaiah 17:12-14 is a distinct prophecy (see the notes at Isaiah 17:12).

Judgments of God upon Damascus, Isaiah 17:1-3; and upon Israel, Isaiah 17:4-6. Good effects of these judgments on the small remnant or gleaning that should escape them, Isaiah 17:7, Isaiah 17:8. The same judgments represented in other but stronger terms, and imputed to irreligion and neglect of God, Isaiah 17:9-11. The remaining verses are a distinct prophecy, a beautiful detached piece, worked up with the greatest elegance, sublimity, and propriety; and forming a noble description of the formidable invasion and sudden overthrow of Sennacherib, exactly suitable to the event, Isaiah 17:12-14.
This prophecy by its title should relate only to Damascus; but it full as much concerns, and more largely treats of, the kingdom of Samaria and the Israelites, confederated with Damascus and the Syrians against the kingdom of Judah. It was delivered probably soon after the prophecies of the seventh and eighth chapters, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; and was fulfilled by Tiglath-pileser's taking Damascus, and carrying the people captives to Kir, (2-Kings 16:9), and overrunning great part of the kingdom of Israel, and carrying a great number of the Israelites also captives to Assyria; and still more fully in regard to Israel, by the conquest of the kingdom, and the captivity of the people, effected a few years after by Shalmaneser. - L.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 17
This chapter contains a prophecy of the ruin of Syria and Israel, the ten tribes; who were in alliance; and also of the overthrow of the Assyrian army, that should come against Judah. The destruction of Damascus, the metropolis of Syria, and of other cities, is threatened, Isaiah 17:1 yea, of the whole kingdom of Syria, together with Ephraim or the ten tribes, and Samaria the head of them, Isaiah 17:3 whose destruction is expressed by various similes, as by thinness and leanness, and by the reaping and gathering of corn, Isaiah 17:4 and yet a remnant should be preserved, compared to gleaning gapes, and a few berries on an olive tree, who should look to the Lord, and not to idols, Isaiah 17:6 and the reason of the desolation of their cities, and of their fields and vineyards, was their forgetfulness of the Lord, Isaiah 17:9 and the chapter is closed with a prophecy of the defeat of the Assyrian army, who are compared for their multitude and noise to the seas, and to mighty waters, and the noise and rushing of them, Isaiah 17:12 and yet should be, at the rebuke of God, as chaff, or any small light thing, before a blustering wind, Isaiah 17:13 and who, in the evening, would be a trouble to the Jews, and be dead before morning; which was to be the portion of the spoilers and plunderers of the Lord's people, Isaiah 17:14.

(Isaiah 17:1-11) Syria and Israel threatened.
(Isaiah 17:12-14) The woe of Israel's enemies.

The Oracle Concerning Damascus and Israel - Isaiah 17:1-14
From the Philistines on the west, and the Moabites on the east, the prophecy relating to the neighbouring nations now turns, without any chronological order, to the people of Damascene Syria on the north. The curse pronounced on them, however, falls upon the kingdom of Israel also, because it has allied itself with heathen Damascus, in opposition to its own brother tribe to the south, as well as to the Davidic government; and by this unnatural alliance with a zâr, or stranger, had become a zâr itself. From the period of Hezekiah's reign, to which the massa Moab belongs, at least so far as its epilogue is concerned, we are here carried back to the reign of Ahaz, and indeed far beyond "the year that Ahaz died" (Isaiah 14:28), to the very border of the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz - namely, to the time when the league for the destruction of Judah had only just been concluded. At the time when Isaiah incorporated this oracle in his collection, the threats against the kingdoms of Damascus and Israel had long been fulfilled. Assyria had punished both of them. And Assyria itself had also been punished, as the fourth turn in the oracle indicates. Consequently the oracle stands here as a memorial of the truthfulness of the prophecy; and it answers a further purpose still, viz., to furnish a rich prophetic consolation for the church of all times, when persecuted by the world, and sighing under the oppression of the kingdom of the world.