Isaiah 17:12, commentary and pictures

The chapter is a prophecy against Damascus, an ancient and important merchant city of Syria. The noise like the noise of the seas and the rushing like the rushing of mighty waters portrays the tumult of many peoples and nations, with the sea or waters symbolizing the restless multitudes of the earth's nations seething and surging, and the roar and surge of the sea picturing their tumult in prophetic imagery. The four winds of heaven breaking upon that sea are war and political feuds and rivalries that stir the nations and cause the rise and downfall of kingdoms and rulers.

God will rebuke the rushing nations and turn them back and scatter them and drive them away like chaff before the wind. The rushing is the release of the four winds, when the four angels stop holding the nations back after God's servants and people are sealed, bringing worldwide conflict and judgment and the destruction of God's enemies. The prophecy applies to the last days as a time of bloody strife, distress, and carnage among the nations. This national upheaval surging into conflict with tumult and force is part of the great troubles and calamities that precede the war of the great day of God Almighty.

The verse is connected with the approaching release of the four winds and a time of trouble such as never was, showing that this crisis is near. After the angels cease holding the nations back until the sealing is finished, the time for spreading the present saving truth will have passed. The nations are surging like floodwaters in the present time, with their restless rushing grown much stronger within the last twelve months and now nearing the falls of sudden destruction. The current is carrying sinners toward perdition, so each sinner must escape at once onto the rock to be saved, setting course for shore without an hour's delay, since a few moments' delay may bring eternal ruin.