Isaiah 27 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 27

The Redemption of Israel

27:1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2   In that day,
  “A pleasant vineyard,¹ sing of it!
3     I, the LORD, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
    Lest anyone punish it,
  I keep it night and day;
4     I have no wrath.
  Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
    I would march against them,
    I would burn them up together.
5   Or let them lay hold of my protection,
    let them make peace with me,
    let them make peace with me.”
6   In days to come² Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.
7   Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?
    Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8   Measure by measure,³ by exile you contended with them;
    he removed them with his fierce breath⁴ in the day of the east wind.
9   Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:⁵
  when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
    no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10   For the fortified city is solitary,
    a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
  there the calf grazes;
    there it lies down and strips its branches.
11   When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
    women come and make a fire of them.
  For this is a people without discernment;
    therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
    he who formed them will show them no favor.

12 In that day from the river Euphrates⁶ to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Footnotes

[1] 27:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine
[2] 27:6 Hebrew In those to come
[3] 27:8 Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
[4] 27:8 Or wind
[5] 27:9 Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin
[6] 27:12 Hebrew from the River

Commentary

v1: The twisted serpent, Rev 13.1; 20.2. Although exact identification of this animal seems impossible, it is clearly inspired by the devil. The serpent, the monster of the sea, the powerful enemy of God's people, is defeated by the more powerful Lord God.

v2-5: The Lord's vineyard, as in 5.1-7. This time it is fruitful, and the song is of God's faithfulness. The Lord watches over it "every moment" (RAV). Past fury is gone, and none can harm that which the Lord guards.

"I am not angry," or 'anger is not in me.' God's character is not primarily anger or wrath; for He delights in mercy. He is the reluctant judge; Is 28.21; Jer 44.22; Lam 3.33.

v6: See Rom 11.12; when Jacob, Israel, is once more rooted in God, the whole world will be blessed.

v7-9: Israel's sin removed; other nations were also judged. But through Israel's judgment, his sin was removed, his guilt atoned for. Israel suffered greatly, having turned from the Lord God; the nation bearing the punishment for his own sins.

v10-11: The suffering of Israel was no accident, but the hand of God upon His rebellious people.

v12: The Lord's harvest, as Israel is gathered in. One by one the people come, for the Lord knows those who are His.

v13: The great trumpet will sound, the dispersed people are regathered; see 19.18-25; Matt 24.31; see also 1 Thess 4.16.