Neville Goddard on Isaiah 17:1-14 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Isaiah 17 in context

Scripture Focus

1The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

3The 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.

4And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

5And 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.

6Yet 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.

7At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

8And 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.

9In 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.

10Because 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:

11In 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.

12Woe 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!

13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

14And 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.

Isaiah 17:1-14

Biblical Context

Damascus and the surrounding regions are depicted as ruined, illustrating judgment poured out on pride and reliance on outward power. The passage also hints that true security comes from looking to the Maker within.

Neville's Inner Vision

Damascus and the other regions are not merely places in history; they are states of mind clinging to old powers. When the fortresses fall and the altars lose their power, the outer scene reveals a deeper truth: your awareness has been attached to forms, not to the living I AM. The call of the verse is to turn inward, to look to your Maker—the I AM within—as the sole source of life. The ruin you behold is an invitation to revise your sense of self, to abandon dependence on symbols and to rest in the steady presence of consciousness. As you shift attention from outward idols to the Holy One of Israel within, your glory becomes a lean, focused energy aligned with Source. Fear loosens, attachment dissolves, and the harvest you thought to gather becomes a symbol for inner realization. In that inward look, the nations race like waves; yet God rebukes the rush and you stand still in awareness, experiencing your true kingdom as the breath of I AM.