The New King James Version describes this chapter as a "proclamation against Syria and Israel".

Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;

In the Septuagint, the wording is abandoned for ever, referring to Damascus (from verse 1), not Aroer in Moab.

[8] Anglican Bishop Robert Lowth preferred to use the Septuagint translation: "What has Aroer ... on the river Arnon, (see Deuteronomy 2:36) to do with Damascus?” [9] Hugo Grotius, however, thought the Hebrew text was correct, and that this Aroer was a tract of ground in Syria.

[9] A marginal note in the Masoretic Text tradition indicates that Isaiah 17:2 is the middle of the whole Nevi'im (Book of Prophets) section in Hebrew.