Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.
- BSB 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—
- NKJV Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, Therefore you will plant pleasant plants And set out foreign seedlings;
- NASB For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.
- NLT Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you. You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you. So you may plant the finest grapevines and import the most expensive seedlings.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel forgot the God of their salvation and the rock of their strength, so they planted foreign delights instead. Forgetting God lies at the heart of their downfall.
Overview
Isaiah locates the root of judgment in the people's neglect of the LORD, their true salvation and rock, in favor of foreign cults and pleasures. Forgetting God leads to misplaced trust and effort. The verse calls believers to remember and rest in the Rock of salvation, a name fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 36
- Jer 2:32Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
- Ps 106:21They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;
- Deut 32:18Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
- Isa 26:4Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
- Deut 32:4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
- Hos 13:6–7According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
- Isa 12:2Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
- Ps 106:13They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
- Deut 32:31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
- Isa 51:13And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
- Jer 12:13They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
- Ps 85:4Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
- Hos 8:14For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
- Jer 17:13O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
- Deut 28:30Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
- Deut 32:15But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
- Deut 8:14Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
- Isa 65:21–22And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
- Deut 28:38–42Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
- Deut 8:11Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
- Lev 26:16I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
- Lev 26:20And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
- Ps 79:9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
- Deut 8:19And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
- Ps 68:19–20Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
- 1 Chr 16:35And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.
- Deut 6:12Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
- Ps 31:2Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
- Hab 3:18Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
- Ps 65:5By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
- Hos 2:13–14And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
- Hos 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
- Zeph 1:13Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
- Ps 18:2The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
- Amos 5:11Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 17:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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