Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 29:17

"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?" — Isaiah 29:17 (ASV)

Is it not yet a very little while...? — The image of the potter does not suggest to Isaiah the thought of arbitrary sovereignty, but rather of a love that will ultimately fulfill itself. He paints the restoration of both the face of nature and human life as not far off.

Lebanon, which had been stripped of its cedars by the Assyrian invader (Isaiah 10:34), so that it became like the wilderness described in Isaiah 22:15, should regain its glory and once more be like Carmel, or the fruitful field. Meanwhile, the fields that had rejoiced in the rich growth of herbage and shrubs should attain the greatness of the forests of Lebanon as they formerly were.

(See Isaiah 32:15, where the wilderness corresponds to the Lebanon of this verse.) This thought and language seem to have been among Isaiah’s favorite expressions.