Bible Strands
Isaiah 17:2
The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah delivers a divine oracle against Damascus and its surrounding territories. This judgment pronounces the desolation of the cities of Aroer as part of a broader shift in regional sovereignty.
The words — The Hebrew term עֲזֻב֖וֹת (a.zu.Vot) literally means "abandoned" or "forsaken," describing a state of complete depopulation. The phrase עָרֵ֣י עֲרֹעֵ֑ר ('a.Rei 'a.ro.'Er) identifies the specific location as the fortified cities of Aroer on the Arnon border.
The thread — This pattern of conquered cities becoming pasture for livestock appears in Ezekiel 25:5, where Rabbah is made a resting place for sheep. The geographical marker of Aroer also appears in Deuteronomy 2:36 as a boundary point during Israel’s conquest.
Why it lands — The text states that the cities will be left to flocks lying down without fear, describing a total loss of human control and military threat. It requires a reader to acknowledge that political security and territorial strength are temporary when divinely withdrawn.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 25:5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
- Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them.
- Jeremiah 7:33 The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
- Zephaniah 2:6 So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.
- Numbers 32:34 And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,
- Micah 4:4 And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken.
- Deuteronomy 3:12 So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.
- Jeremiah 48:19 Stand by the road and watch, O dweller of Aroer! Ask the man fleeing or the woman escaping, ‘What has happened?’
- Joshua 13:16 The territory from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the middle of the valley, to the whole plateau beyond Medeba,
- Isaiah 5:17 Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.