Isaiah
Isaiah 27
1In 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.
2In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard! 3I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day. 4Wrath 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. 5Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”
6In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. 7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? 8In 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. 9Therefore 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 Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. 10For 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. 11When 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.
12It 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.
13It 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.
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What others are saying
4 commentators · 34 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
The prophet is here singing of judgment and mercy, I. Of judgment upon the enemies of God's church (Isa 27:1), tribulation to those that trouble it, Th2 1:6. When the Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth (Isa 26:21), he will be…
Here is the prophet again singing of mercy and judgment, not, as before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to the church, but judgment to the church and mercy mixed with that judgment. I. Here is judgment threatened even to Jacob and Israel. They shall…
John Gill13
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword,.... Meaning either the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than a twoedged sword, Ephesians 6:17 or else some sore judgment of God: some understand it of the…
In that day sing ye unto her,.... The congregation of Israel, as the Targum; or rather the church of Christ; for after, and upon the destruction of his and her enemies, there will be great rejoicing and singing alternately, and by responses, as the word…
I the Lord do keep it,.... The vineyard, the church, not only by his ministers, called the keepers of it, Sol 8:12 but by himself, by his own power; for unless he keeps it, who is Israel's keeper, the watchmen wake in vain; he keeps his church and people from…
Keil & Delitzsch7
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
Upon whom the judgment of Jehovah particularly falls, is described in figurative and enigmatical words in Isa 27:1 : "In that day will Jehovah visit with His sword, with the hard, and the great, and the strong, leviathan the fleet serpent, and leviathan the…
The prophecy here passes for the fourth time into the tone of a song. The church recognises itself in the judgments upon the world, as Jehovah's well-protected and beloved vineyard. In that day a merry vineyard - sing it! I, Jehovah, its keeper, Every moment…
The prophet now adds to the song of the vineyard, by way of explanation. "In future will Jacob strike roots, Israel blossom and bud, and fill the surface of the globe with fruits." We may see from הבּאים (acc. temp. as in Ecc 2:16, equivalent in meaning to…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown12
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
In that day when leviathan shall be destroyed, the vineyard (Psa 80:8), the Church of God, purged of its blemishes, shall be lovely in God's eyes; to bring out this sense the better, LOWTH, by changing a Hebrew letter, reads "pleasant," "lovely," for "red…
lest any hurt it--attack it [MAURER]. "Lest aught be wanting in her" [HORSLEY].
Fury is not in me--that is, I entertain no longer anger towards my vine. who would set . . . in battle--that is, would that I had the briers, &c. (the wicked foe; Isa 9:18; Isa 10:17; Sa2 23:6), before me! "I would go through," or rather, "against them."
World English Bible — Public domain