“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.” (Isaiah 17:14)
What does this verse have to do with the rest of Isaiah chapter seventeen? It doesn’t seem to fit. The rest of the chapter is broad in its scope. It speaks of nations and peoples and multitudes. It speaks of Damascus (still the capital of Syria today). Then here in the last verse of the chapter we come down to a ‘he’ in the first sentence of the verse. Which eveningtide holds trouble? Who “is not” before the morning? Those who spoil God’s people and those that rob them are to have trouble in the evening and by morning vanish?
It’s hard to know what this might have meant in the context of Isaiah’s prophecy, but when we look at this verse as if it is inserted into the context of the book of Esther, the lights flash and the bells and sirens go off.
It fits into the story of Haman and Esther and the king as the second night of the banquet for the three of them. The evening spelled trouble for Haman from the moment that Esther told the king of Haman’s plan for the Jews. And, before the night was over, before morning came, Haman was hanging from the gallows he had built for the execution of Mordecai. “at eventide trouble; and before the morning he” was dead. “This is the portion of them that spoil” God’s people, the Jews, “and the lot of them that rob” God’s people, the Jews.
This is the seventeenth chapter of Isaiah, and Esther is the seventeenth book in the Bible.
They are connected.
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