Isaiah 30:17 (DRB)

Passage

A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall your strength be. And you would not:

Isaiah 30:16 But have said: No, but we will flee to horses: therefore shall you flee. And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue after you.

Isaiah 30:17 A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.

Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Isaiah 30:19 For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thousand", "shall", "flee", "fear", and "five". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thousand" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "But have said No but we will..." into verse 18's "Therefore the Lord waiteth that he may...", so "thousand" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thousand" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.