Isaiah Chapter 27
From The Open Bible Project
27:1 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
- (a) At the time appointed.
- (b) That is, by his mighty power, and by his word. He prophecies here of the destruction of Satan and his kingdom under the name of Liviashan, Assur, and Egypt.
27:2 In that day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard!
- (c) Meaning, of the best wine, which this vineyard, that is, the Church would bring forth, as most agreeable to the Lord.
27:3 I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.
27:4 Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.
- (d) Therefore he will destroy the kingdom of Satan, because he loves his Church for his own mercies sake, and cannot be angry with it, but wishes that he may pour his anger on the wicked infidels, whom he means by briers and thorns.
27:5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."
- (e) He marvels that Israel will not come by gentleness, unless God make them to feel his rods, and so bring them to him.
27:6 In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.
- (f) Though I afflict and diminish my people for a time, yet will the root spring again and bring forth in great abundance.
27:7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?
- (g) He shows that God punishes his in mercy, and his enemies in justice.
27:8 In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
- (h) That is, you will not destroy the root of your Church, though the branches of it seem to perish by the sharp wind of affliction.
27:9 Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.
- (i) He shows that there is no true repentance nor full reconciliation to God, till the heart is purged from all idolatry and the monuments of it are destroyed.
27:10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
- (k) Not withstanding his favour that he will show them later, yet Jerusalem will be destroyed, and grass for cattle will grow in it.
27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- (l) God will not have need of mighty enemies: for the very women will do it to their great shame.
27:12 It will happen in that day, that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
- (m) He will destroy all from the Euphrates to the Nile: for some fled toward Egypt, thinking to have escaped.
27:13 It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
- (n) In the time of Cyrus, by whom they would be delivered: but this was chiefly accomplished under Christ.
