Isaiah 17:10

God of thy salvation The only occasion on which this important term (Heb. yesha-) is used by Isaiah, although it forms an element of his own name.

rock of thy strength A very frequent name of God, cf. ch. Isaiah 30:29; Isaiah 44:8 (R.V.); Deuteronomy 32. (passim); Psalms 19:14; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:2-3, &c.

shalt thou plant pleasant plants R.V. marg. gives thou plantest plantings of Adonis. The supposed reference is to the Adonis-gardens mentioned by Greek writers (see Plato, Phaedrus276). They were "pots of quickly withering flowers which the ancients used to set at their doors or in the courts of temples." It cannot be denied that such an allusion furnishes the most striking image conceivable of the futility of all human projects which (like the Syro-Ephraimitish alliance) are not grounded in the eternal moral purpose of Jehovah. The question is whether it is a fair interpretation of the text. Now, there are a number of scattered proofs, slight but very interesting, that the Syrian deity known to the Greeks as Adonis, actually bore the name here rendered "pleasantness" (Na-ǎmân). It has been suggested, e.g. that the anemone, the flower sacred to Adonis, derives its name from this title of the god; and in Arabic the red anemone is called by a name which is explained to mean "wounds of Adonis." For other arguments see Cheyne's Comm. and the references there. Adonis being a Syrian deity, his worship in Israel was a necessary consequence of the alliance with Damascus. His worship was practised chiefly by women, Ezekiel 8:14. The rendering may at least be accepted as giving significance to a metaphor which is otherwise somewhat colourless.

set itwith strange slips or, plant it with vine-branches of a strange (god); see Numbers 13:23; Nahum 2:2.