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Isaiah Chapter
Seventeen
Isaiah 17
Chapter Contents
Syria and Israel threatened. (1-11) The woe of Israel's
enemies. (12-14)
Commentary on Isaiah 17:1-11
(Read Isaiah 17:1-11)
Sin desolates cities. It is strange that great conquerors
should take pride in being enemies to mankind; but it is better that flocks
should lie down there, than that they should harbour any in open rebellion
against God and holiness. The strong holds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten
tribes, will be brought to ruin. Those who are partakers in sin, are justly
made partakers in ruin. The people had, by sins, made themselves ripe for ruin;
and their glory was as quickly cut down and taken away by the enemy, as the
corn is out of the field by the husbandman. Mercy is reserved in the midst of
judgment, for a remnant. But very few shall be marked to be saved. Only here
and there one was left behind. But they shall be a remnant made holy. The few
that are saved were awakened to return to God. They shall acknowledge his hand
in all events; they shall give him the glory due to his name. To bring us to
this, is the design of his providence, as he is our Maker; and the work of his
grace, as he is the Holy One of Israel. They shall look off from their idols,
the creatures of their own fancy. We have reason to account those afflictions
happy, which part between us and our sins. The God of our salvation is the Rock
of our strength; and our forgetfulness and unmindfulness of him are at the
bottom of all sin. The pleasant plants, and shoots from a foreign soil, are
expressions for strange and idolatrous worship, and the vile practices
connected therewith. Diligence would be used to promote the growth of these
strange slips, but all in vain. See the evil and danger of sin, and its certain
consequences.
Commentary on Isaiah 17:12-14
(Read Isaiah 17:12-14)
The rage and force of the Assyrians resembled the mighty
waters of the sea; but when the God of Israel should rebuke them, they would
flee like chaff, or like a rolling thing, before the whirlwind. In the evening
Jerusalem would be in trouble, because of the powerful invader, but before
morning his army would be nearly cut off. Happy are those who remember God as
their salvation, and rely on his power and grace. The trouble of the believers,
and the prosperity of their enemies, will be equally short; while the joy of
the former, and the destruction of those that hate and spoil them, shall last
for ever.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 17
Verse 1
[1] The burden
of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be
a ruinous heap.
Damascus —
Both of that city and kingdom.
A heap —
This was fulfilled by Tiglath-pilneser, 2 Kings 16:9, although afterwards it was
re-edified.
Verse 2
[2] The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall
lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
Aroer — Of
that part of Syria, called Aroer, from a great city of that name. These cities
were possessed by the Reubenites and Gadites, whom Tiglath-pilneser carried
into captivity, 1 Chronicles 5:26. These he mentions here, as he
doth Ephraim in the next verse, because they were confederate with Syria
against Judah.
Afraid —
Because the land shall be desolate, and destitute of men who might disturb
them.
Verse 3
[3] The
fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant
of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD
of hosts.
The fortress —
All their fortresses; the singular number being put for the plural.
Remnant —
The remainders of Damascus and Syria shall be an headless body, a people
without a king.
Of Israel —
Syria shall have as much glory as Israel; that is, neither of them shall have
any at all.
Verse 5
[5] And
it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears
with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of
Rephaim.
Gathereth —
Taking care, as far as may be, that all may be gathered in, and nothing left.
So shall the whole body of the ten tribes be carried away captive, some few
gleanings only being left.
Rephaim — A
very fruitful place near Jerusalem.
Verse 6
[6] Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the
outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
Yet —
Some few Israelites were left after their captivity, who joined themselves to
Judah, and were carried captive to Babylon with them, from whence also they
returned with them.
Verse 7
[7] At
that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the
Holy One of Israel.
A man —
Those few men that are left.
Look —
They shall sincerely respect, and trust, and worship God, and God only.
Verse 8
[8] And
he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect
that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.
Not look —
Not trust to them, or to worship offered to idols upon them.
The work —
Their own inventions.
Groves —
Which were devised by men, as fit places for the worship of their gods.
Images —
Worshipped in their groves.
Verse 9
[9] In
that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost
branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be
desolation.
In — The day of Jacob's
trouble, of which he spake verse 4.
Uppermost branch —
Which he that prunes the tree neglects, because he esteems it useless and
inconsiderable.
Left —
Which they (the Canaanites) left or forsook because of (or for fear of) the
children of Israel. And this was a fit example, to awaken the Israelites to a
serious belief of this threatening, because God had inflicted the same judgment
upon the Canaanites, for the same sins of which they were guilty.
Verse 10
[10] 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:
Thou — O
Israel.
The rock —
That God who was thy only sure defence.
Plants —
Excellent flowers and fruit-trees.
Strange —
Fetched from far countries, and therefore highly esteemed.
Verse 11
[11] In
the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make
thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and
of desperate sorrow.
In the day —
Thou shalt from day to day, beginning early in the morning, use all diligence
that what thou hast planted may thrive.
But —
When this grievous calamity shall come, all your harvest shall be but one heap.
Verse 12
[12] Woe
to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas;
and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty
waters!
Woe —
This is a new prophecy, added for the comfort of God's people.
Many —
Combined together against Judah.
Seas —
Who invade my land and people with great force, as the sea does when it enters
into the land by a breach.
Verse 14
[14] And
behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the
portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
Behold — At
even there is great terror among God's people, for fear of their enemies; and
before the morning comes, their enemies are cut off.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
17 Chapter 17
Verses 1-14
Verses 1-5
The burden of Damascus . . . The fortress also shall cease from
Ephraim
The oracle concerning Damascus and Israel
The curse pronounced upon it [Damascene-Syria] falls also upon the
kingdom of Israel, because it has allied itself with the heathen Damascus
against their brethren in the south and the Davidic kingdom.
From the reign of Hezekiah we are here carried back to the reign of Ahaz, and
indeed back far beyond the death year of Ahaz (Isaiah 14:28) to the boundary line of the
reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, soon after the conclusion of the league which aimed
at Judah’s destruction, by which revenge was taken for the similar league of
Asa with Benhadad against Israel (1 Kings 15:9). When Isaiah incorporated
this oracle in his collection, its threats against the kingdoms of Damascus and
Israel had long been fulfilled. Assyria had punished both of them, and Assyria
had also been punished, as the fourth strophe (verses 12-14) of the oracle sets
forth. The oracle, therefore, stands here on account of its universal contents,
which are instructive for all time. (F. Delitzsch.)
The fall of Damascus
When cities do not pray they go down. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The loss of faculty as a judgment
It is possible for a man to moralise about the fate of a city, and
forget that the principle of the text is aimed at all life. Life poorly handled
means loss of life; faculty fallen into desuetude means faculty fallen into
death. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The cities of Aroer
The cities of Aroer represent the land to the east of the Jordan,
in which the judgment on Israel, executed by Tiglath-Pileser, began. There
were, in fact, two Aroers; an old Amorite Aroer, which fell to the tribe of
Reuben, situated on the Amon (Deuteronomy 2:36; Deuteronomy 3:12, and elsewhere); and an
old Ammonite Aroer, which fell to the tribe of Gad--Aroer before Rabba (Rabbath
Ammon, Joshua 13:25). The site of the ruins of
the former is Arair, on the high northern bank of the Mugib; the situation of
the latter has not yet been ascertained with certainty. The “cities of Aroer”
are these two Aroers along with the cities on the east of Jordan like them,
just as the “Orions” in Isaiah 13:10, are Orion and stars like
it. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Verse 6
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it
Autumn: the diminutions of life
The prophet is here predicting a season of national calamity.
He represents the condition of the people under the figure of an autumnal
scene. Armed hosts from the north have invaded the country like a sharp wind.
The substance of its inhabitants has been carried away before their rapacity,
“as when the harvest man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his
arm.” With this difference, however, that it has been destroyed by the violence
of strangers, instead of being garnered for the use of those who had tilled the
soil; and the sickle is the sword. The population is thinned, like the trees in
the waning part of the year. Only that the wrath of man, unlike the severity of
nature, has no benevolent purpose in it. The comforts and blessings of life are
shaken down as faded leaves. Only it is without any sign from experience, that
they shall be replaced by a new spring. A desolated prospect rises before his
sight. “Two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough; four or five in
the outmost fruitful branches thereof.” The Word of the Lord was a “burden” in
those days, and he felt its weight upon his own heart as he held it over the
heads of his people. He comforted himself at least with the thought that the
visitation itself, if not his warning, would bring them to a more faithful mind
(Isaiah 17:7-8). There lies in the text,
apart from its historical reference, this general truth,--that circumstances of
decline and destitution are suited to wean the heart from its vanities. In the
day of adversity men “consider.” And when time and fortune have made the
enjoyments of the world fewer, and thrown a longer shadow and a paler tint upon
those that remain, the soul naturally remembers its truer and more enduring
portions.
1. With some the change relates to their worldly goods and the
general prosperity of their affairs.
2. A second class of diminutions concerns the bodily ease and health.
3. The third instance of diminutions to which our attention is
called, is found in the encroachments of age.
4. One more instance of destitution is when companions and friends
drop off like the foliage of summer, and we are more and more frequently
bereft. (N. L.Frothingham.)
Verse 7-8
At that day shall a man look to his Maker
Sanctified affliction
We are led to consider the designs of God in the afflictions of
His people.
I. TO RECALL THEIR
WANDERING HEARTS TO HIMSELF. “A man will look to his Maker--
1. With a suppliant eye, to find in Him sources of consolation and a
rock of defence such as the world cannot furnish (Psalms 123:1-2; Jh 2:1).
2. With a penitent eye (Luke 22:62; Zechariah 12:10).
3. With a confiding and believing eye (chap. 8:17).
4. With a rejoicing eye (Romans 5:11; Habakkuk 3:18).
II. TO RAISE THEIR
ESTIMATE OF THE HOLINESS OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER AND THE RECTITUDE OF THE
DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. “Shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel.”
III. TO SEPARATE
THEM FROM ALL SINFUL AND IDOLATROUS DEPENDENCES. “He shall not look,” etc.
IV. TO ENDEAR THE
MERCY THAT MINGLES WITH THE TRIALS. This appears--
1. In the moderate degree in which God’s people are corrected,
compared with the final and exterminating judgments which fall upon the wicked.
Damascus was to be utterly destroyed (Isaiah 17:1), but a remnant was to be
left to Israel (Isaiah 17:5). God’s people always see
that He has afflicted them less than they deserve (Lamentations 3:22).
2. In the alleviations of their trials.
3. In the triumphant issue of the whole. (S. Thodey.)
Verse 10-11
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.
Forgetfulness of God punished
I. THE MAGNITUDE
OF THE SIN HERE SPOKEN OF. Forgetfulness of God.
1. What is this forgetfulness of God? It has been defined as “such a
habitual inattention to His existence and character, as leads the individual
under its influence to a mode of thinking, feeling, and acting, which would be
consistent only on the supposition that there were no God, or that God is a
very different Being from what the Scriptures represent Him to be.”
2. It is a startling sin. Everything around us is designed and fitted
to remind us of God. The Bible unfolds the moral character of God. Sharp
dispensations of providence remind us of His existence. Preachers enforce His
claims. Each returning Sabbath, with its closed shutters, the sound of the church
going bell, and the voice of praise from the lips of the pious, says, Worship
God. But many would rather think about anything, or nothing, than about God.
3. It is a fearfully prevalent sin.
4. It is an ungrateful sin (Isaiah 1:2-3).
5. It is a highly punishable sin. Many people imagine that none are
sinners but those who openly sin. But what of the moral man, who does his duty
towards his fellow men, but who forgets God?
II. THE RESULTS OF
THIS FORGETFULNESS OF GOD.
1. Dwarfed powers. Men cannot, if they wish, be totally inactive. If
activity be not devoted to God, it will be devoted to the world, to “planting
pleasant plants.”
2. Secular knowledge is a pleasant plant.
3. Wealth is a pleasant plant.
4. Ambition is a pleasant plant.
5. Amusement is a pleasant plant.
6. Hence observe the ultimate result of this conduct. “The harvest
shall be a heap,” etc. Sooner or later men reap what they sow. Sin and
suffering are bound together by an unbreakable chain. “The gods are just,” says
Shakespeare, “and of our pleasant vices make instruments to scourge us.” Galatians 6:7-8.) Men break God’s
physical laws, and they suffer in their bodies and circumstances. They violate
His moral laws, and personal debasement ensues. George Eliot says, “That is the
bitterest of all--to wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing.” (H. Woodcock.)
Evils of forgetting God
I. FORGETFULNESS
OF GOD IS AN EVIL WHICH TOO GENERALLY PREVAILS AMONG MEN. The text does not so
much charge with positive wickedness (though it is implied) as forgetfulness of
God, which supposes folly, because He is the God of salvation, and the Rock of
strength. Consider these relations--
1. The God of thy salvation.
How criminal to forget, to be unmindful of Him!
2. The Rock of thy strength. Here we may build, and the fabric will
never be shaken. Here we may shelter, as in the cleft of a rock, and no evil
shall prevail against us. For so helpless and weak a creature as man to have
such a refuge, such a support, and to be unmindful of it, how great is his
folly! But when may we be said to forget, and to be unmindful of God? When we
live without thinking of Him--without praying to Him--without seeking His
glory--without surrendering our souls, bodies, and all our cares into His
hands.
II. THE ATTENTION
THUS DRAWN FROM GOD AND HIS SERVICE IS TRANSFERRED TO WORLDLY AND SENSUAL
PLEASURES. The soul of man in this case strives to supply its want of happiness
from the world: “therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants.” Infinitely varied
are the objects of the attention or culture of men, but they all proceed from
the above principle, or rather have the same end in view. Some seek their
pleasure in learning, others in the arts, riches, honours, employments,
amusements. But they are “strange slips,” not natural, not designed to answer
the intended purpose. The sons of men are determined to prove what the world
can do for them. “In the day THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH CONDUCT. “The harvest
shall be a heap,” etc. (J. Walker, D. D.)
Prosperity in the seeming only
These occasional sun gleams may foretoken the thunderstorm. God
can mock, God can lead the bullock to the knife by the way of a fat pasture.
There is, therefore, a promise here, but the promise is limited. You shall have
mushroom growths, you shall see wonderful things within the span of a single
day; but what shall the harvest be? The meaning is, we may be infatuated by
appearances, by immediate successes, by flowers and strange slips growing up
within the compass of one little day. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God’s righteousness in His dealings with men
Happily, this is only one aspect of the Divine government; we are
entitled to reverse this text, and say, Because thou hast remembered the God of
thy salvation, and hast been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore
shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out with new wine.
Thou hast not withheld from God the gladness and the service of thine heart,
and He will not withhold from thee the music and the rapture and the abundance
of harvest.. The way of the Lord is equal. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Pleasant plants and strange slips
They made for themselves all kinds of sensuous cults in conformity
with their heathen inclination. (F. Delitzsch.)
The temporary success of an evil alliance
The foreign slip has shot up like a hothouse plant, i.e., the
alliance has rapidly become a happy agreement, and has also already shot forth
a blossom, which is the common plan directed against Judah. (F. Delitzsch.)
Lives of disappointment
The world is full of people who are engaged in planting their
slips. Fortunes, luxurious homes, great reputations--such are some of the
slips; but what disappointment succeeds--“desperate sorrow.” The egg turns cue
to be rottenness; the fair landscape a Sahara, from which the mirage is gone;
the beautiful globe of changing colour, only a drop of dirty soap and water. We
remember the story of Faust, who sold himself to Satan, but the day of bitter
reaping came. We remember the cry of Byron over his wasted years; of Laurence
Oliphant, the bright versatile son of Piccadilly, who in his varied career had
tasted life in many of its brightest aspects; of Solomon, whose Ecclesiastes is
one long record of slip planting. Nothing less than God, our Maker, can suffice
the souls which He has made. Apart from Him life may at first promise well, but
the end, inevitably, will be desperate sorrow. (P. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The harvest shall be a
heap
The harvest of sorrow
A harvest field is a suggestive place.
I. TO EVERY LIFE
THERE IS A HARVEST, EITHER OF JOY OR OF SORROW. Life on earth is introductory
and probationary. It is but the seed time for eternity. All our actions, words,
thoughts, have a bearing upon the future. God is our moral Governor, as well as
our loving Father. We are, therefore, accountable to Him for the disposal of
every moment of our existence. Belonging to a depraved and fallen race, we are
necessarily sinners; but this has been provided for. To every life there is a
harvest. When? Sometimes in this world. Both the righteous and the wicked reap
on earth to a certain degree that which they have sown. But still it is most
strictly true that the great and final harvest commences when life on earth
terminates and life in eternity begins. This great fact invests life with
unspeakable grandeur. Every day and hour we are preparing for the realities of
eternity. This should moderate our expectations concerning the present life.
That which is probationary is necessarily incomplete. We should, therefore,
expect trials and disappointments.
II. THE HARVEST OF
SORROW MAY, IN EVERY CASE, BE TRACED TO ONE GREAT CAUSE--forgetfulness of God.
The ruin of the Ten Tribes is traced to this (Isaiah 17:10-11). Jeremiah brings the
same charge against them Jeremiah 2:12-13). Hosea also says (Hosea 8:14), “For Israel hath forgotten
his Maker, and buildeth temples.” At first, it seems impossible that they could
ever have done this. Had they not the history of the great and eventful past?
Did they not know they were depending on Him for everything they enjoyed?
Surely, those who had such a God should never have forgotten Him. The fact
stated in the text is one of deep significance. It shows us the desperate
wickedness of the human heart. The Israelites were so estranged from Jehovah
that they acted as though He did not exist. It is so in every such case.
Forgetfulness of God always leads to this terrible result. No one can be
unmindful of Him with impunity. Forgetfulness of God produces in the heart such
feelings and induces men to follow such a line of conduct, that their lives
must be a failure. It is, however, worthy of notice, that these persons are as
anxious to be happy during life, and at its end, as any of their fellows. They
do not resign themselves to despair. On the contrary, they fancy that all is
well. Their hearts beat high with hope. True, they have not the help and
protection which the Lord’s people enjoy, but they do all they can to supply
its place. The people of Israel did all they could to make their position a
strong one. They made an alliance with Syria, and thought, with her help, they
would be able to overcome their foes. So men in the present day, who forget
God, avail themselves of the dictates of worldly prudence. In the day they make
their plant to grow, and in the evening they make their seed to flourish. Here
we have an affecting description of the anxiety and feverish effort of the men
that know not God. We may plant pleasant plants, we may set strange slips, but
they will not compensate us for the absence of the plants of righteousness. He
who forgets the God of his salvation, and is unmindful of the Rock of his
strength, must be without His favour, and at last must reap a harvest of grief
and desperate sorrow.
III. THE HARVEST OF
SORROW INVOLVES THE SOUL IN UTTER AND IRREMEDIABLE RUIN. It is no slight
matter--it is the loss of all things or the failure of every effort--the
disappointment of every hope, the destruction of every joy, the development and
perpetuation of every sorrow. The language of the prophet is very striking. The
common idea of harvest is that of a joyous nature. But here we have an idea of
the very opposite character. The harvest is a heap. There is no golden grain
worthy of being housed in everlasting habitations. The soul sees with amazement
that all her efforts have been fruitless, and cries, “Is this all; has my life
on earth produced nothing more than this?” And the answer is, “Nothing more;
and that which it has produced is only fit for the burning.” (H. B.Ingram.)
God’s love in the deprivations of life
There is only one way of getting at some men. Once we could have
appealed to their higher nature; once they were subject to the pleasure and the
eloquence of reason; once they had a conscience tender, sensitive, responsive;
now they are spiritually dead, no conscience, no reason, no unselfishness; the
whole nature has gone down in volume and in quality into a terrible emaciation:
what shall be done? Smite their harvest! then like beasts they will miss their
food. God does not delight in this; it is the poorest violence, it is the
feeblest department of His providence; but He knows that it is the only
providence some men can understand. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Reclamation by punishment
God got you back to the Church through inflammation, through
fever, through paralysis, through pain, through loss, through desolation; you
came back over the graveyard. No matter, said God; when He got you into His
house again He said, This My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and
is found. It is in the reclamation, not in the punishment, that God takes
pleasure. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 12-14
Woe to the multitude of many people
A short triumph
These verses read the doom of those that spoil and rob the people
of God.
If the Syrians and Israelites invade and plunder Judah--if the Assyrian army
take God’s people captive, and lay their countrywaste,--let them know that ruin
will be their portion. They are here brought in--
I. TRIUMPHING OVER
THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They rely upon their numbers. They are very noisy, like the
noise of the seas; they talk big, hector and threaten.
II. TRIUMPHED OVER
BY THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. God can dispirit the enemies of His Church, when they
are most courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most
closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly (Isaiah 17:14). (M. Henry.)
The punishment of the wicked
I. THE STRIKING
CONTRASTS WHICH THE DAY OF VISITATION REVEALS RESPECTING THE CONDUCT AND
POSITION OF THE WICKED. Verse 12 shows us the vast and varied host in fancied
security; we have a magnificent picture of a state of might, pomp, vainglory,
self-confidence; but ere we reach the end of Isaiah 17:13, we see it scattered. We see
the same contrast in everyday life; wicked men secure, strong, boastful--the
next moment utterly cast down (Psalms 73:18-20); or, by the near
approach of death, transformed into the subjects of a pitiable despair.
II. THE RESISTLESS
EXECUTION OF THE SENTENCE OF DOOM.
III. THE SWIFTNESS
WITH WHICH THE SENTENCE OF DOOM IS EXECUTED (Isaiah 17:14). It is true that the
punishment of the wicked often seems to be delayed (Ecclesiastes 8:11); but--
1. Sin and punishment are inseparable.
2. Whenever the punishment comes it is sudden. Such is the blinding
and delusive power of cherished sin that its penalty always finds the sinner
unprepared to receive it; it is always a surprise and a shock to him.
Conclusion--
Verse 14
Behold at evening tide trouble
The night
God fights some battles between evening and morning.
The black night is the field of war. The darkness fights for God. The night is
needed for more than rest. How busy the angels are on the fields of darkness!
Men are fetched at night by the invisible constable. Who reckons the night when
he adds up his time? It may go for nothing to us because of our
unconsciousness, but God sleeps not. Speaking of the wicked we may apply the
figure of night so as to find in it terror and fear, sorrow and judgment, and
death; speaking of the good man, we may say, Dry thy tears, thou foolish
unbelieving weeper, or shed them gratefully to get rid of a needless burden;
for sorrow endureth but for a night, joy cometh in the morning: take in the
black guest, do what thou canst for him, he is sent of God for holy purposes;
he can live but for a night, thou mightest afford to be kind to him; it were
but one night in a long life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》