In that day: See the comments on Isa 17.4.

Their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites: The pronoun their refers to the Israelites. Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch make this clear by saying “Israel.” Strong cities are cities fortified with defenses. Good News Translation says “well-defended cities.” Like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites is based on the Septuagint, not the Hebrew text. Masoretic Text is literally “like the abandoned branches [choresh] and the treetops [ʾamir]” (see the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation). Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, and Bible en français courant follow the Septuagint. De~Waard and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommend retaining Masoretic Text in view of its textual support. New International Version follows the Hebrew by saying “like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth” (similarly Contemporary English Version). For New International Version and Contemporary English Version the Israelites destroyed the fortified cities mentioned here and left them in ruins. This interpretation makes it difficult to place this verse in the context of punishment on Israel. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh transliterates the Hebrew nouns for “branches” and “treetops,” saying “like the deserted sites which the Horesh and the Amir abandoned.” For New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh these two nouns are the names of peoples, but this seems unlikely. It is best to follow Masoretic Text here, saying “like deserted woods and forests,” but the comparison should be made with abandoned Israelite cities. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch provides a helpful model with this sense by rendering the whole verse as follows: “At that time the established towns of Israel will be as abandoned as the forests and the mountaintops were in the days of the arrival of the Israelites, swept clean like a desert.”

Which they deserted because of the children of Israel is literally “which they deserted from before the children of Israel.” This refers to the time when Joshua and the Israelites invaded Canaan. The pronoun they refers to the Canaanites who fled as the Israelites invaded their land.

And there will be desolation: For desolation see the comments on 1.7, where the same Hebrew word is rendered “desolate.” When the fortified cities are abandoned, they will lie in ruins and become like a desert.

For the translation of this verse we suggest:

• At that time Israel’s fortified towns will become like the deserted woods and forests, areas the people abandoned when the Israelites invaded. As a result they will become desolate.

• At that time Israel’s powerful towns will be like the abandoned woods and bushland, places that were deserted when Israel entered the land. So they will become desolate places.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .