The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 27
Chapter XXVII · Vol. III, pp. 1177–1178
1 The care of God over his vineyard. 7 His chastisements differ from judgments. 12 The restoration of the dispersed.
1 In thata day the LORD, with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish bleviathan the piercing1 serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay cthe dragon that is din the sea.
a ch.4.2; 26.1,21.
b Ps.74.13,14. Job 26.13. Am.9.3. ch.8.7,8; 10.16-34; 30.30-33; xix.xx.xiii.xiv.xxi. Eze.xxxix. Re.6.12-17; 12.3; xvi.xviii.-xx. ch.24.21.
1 Or, stiff.
c Ps.74.13,14. ch.51.9. Je.51.34. Eze.29.3; 32.2-5. Re.12.3; 13.11.
d Re.17.1,15; 13.1.
3 I the LORD hdo keep it: I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
h Ps.121.1-8; 46.4,5. Jn.15.1. Mat.16.18; 28.20. Jn.10.28,29. Ep.4.16. Col.2.19. Zec.9.8. Re.7.16.
4 Furyi is not in me: who would set jthe briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through3 them, I would burn them together.
A.M. cir. 3278. B.C. cir. 726.
i 2 Co.5.19. Is.54.7-10. Eze.33.11; 16.63.
j ch.3.11; 9.18; 26.21. 2 Sa.23.6. Mal.4.1,3. Mat.3.10,12.
3 Or, march against.
5 Or klet him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
k ch.64.7; 25.4; 45.24. 2 Co.5.19,20. Col.1.20. Ps.130.3,4,7,8. Pr.18.10. Jn.1.12. Job 22.21. Lu.14.32. Phi.4.7.
6 Hel shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
l ch.37.31. Ho.14.5,6. Zec.10.8. Ps.85.11-13; 92.13-15. Zep.3.14. Zec.8.7,8. Eze.47.9,12. Ro.11.12,15,26.
7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those4 that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?5
4 Heb. according to the stroke of those.
5 By him. Rather, 'on account of her;' that is, the vineyard, the church.—C.
8 Inn measure, when it shooteth forth,6 thou wilt odebate with it:7 he8 stayeth his rough wind in the day of the peast wind.
9 Byq this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when rhe maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images9 shall not stand up.
q ch.1.25; 4.4; 48.10. Da.11.35. Mal.3.2. 1 Co.11.32. He.12.6,9-11.
r ch.17.8. Ho.14.3,8. ch.2.12-21; 1.29. Zec.13.2. Mi.5.13,14. Zep.3.13.
9 Or, sun images.
10 sYet1 the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there tshall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11 When uthe boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: vthe women come and set them on fire; for it is xa people of no understanding:2 therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall ybeat off3 from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be zgathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
y Zep.3.8,9. Mat.3.12. Ps.68.22. ch.11.11; 56.8. Zec.10.8,9.
3 Beat off. An allusion to beating off with long branches the last and topmost part of the olive, ch.17.6.—C.
z De.30.3,4. Ne.1.9. Je.3.14. Eze.39.25,28. Am.9.9. Jn.10.16.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the agreat trumpet4 shall be blown, and they shall come which were bready to perish cin the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and dshall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
a Mat.24.31. 1 Th.4.16. Re.11.15. Nu.10.2,3. Ezr.1.1. Ps.89.15. Ex.19.19. ch.61.1-3. Lu.4.18. Ro.10.18.
4 The trumpet of jubilee, when every man returned to his possession.—C.
b De.26.5. Job 29.13. Pr.31.6. Re.3.17. Jn.3.18,36.
c Ho.9.3; 8.13. 2 Ki.17.6. Je.43.7; 44.28. ch.11.15,16; 19.23. Zec.10.11,12. ch.43.6; 49.12.
A.M. cir. 3278. B.C. cir. 726.
d ch.2.3; 11.9; 24.23; 25.6,7,10; 19.19. Zec.14.16.
Notes
Ver. 1. Tyrannical oppressors, strong, furious, crafty, and mischievous, are likened to leviathans, serpents, dragons, &c., especially if they dwelt near such animals, as the kings of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon did. 2, 3. The reformed Jewish nation and gospel church is likened to a vineyard bringing forth the choicest vines; because, being planted, watered, and protected by God, they abounded in good works. 4. Though I was angry with them, mine anger is turned away through Christ: but if hypocrites in the church, or profane persons without it, offer to contend with me, they may expect to be quickly destroyed. 5, 6. Jews and true church members shall, as reconciled through Christ, be firmly settled, and shall increase in numbers and glory. 7-9. Nor will God afflict his own people in the same wrathful and ruinous manner as he does their heathen or antichristian enemies; but will so mitigate their troubles as that they may be able to bear them; and make them means of stirring them up to repentance and reformation, particularly in detesting and destroying their idolatrous altars, groves, and images. 10, 11. Nevertheless to punish the stupidity and blindness of the present generation, and their imitators in wickedness, the defenced cities shall be laid desolate, and the palaces become pastures for flocks and herds. The whole country shall be exposed to the ravage of the most weak and contemptible enemies. 12, 13. By the providence of God, and proclamation of Cyrus, the Jews shall be brought back to their own land from Chaldea and from Egypt, and shall build the temple and restore the worship of God at Jerusalem. In the latter days they shall be gathered from the east and west, north and south, and shall embrace the Christian faith, and from every quarter shall God, in the apostolic and millennial periods, gather men to the church and worship of Jesus Christ.
Ver. 1. The book of Revelation describes a period during which 'the woman,' the emblem of the persecuted church, hides herself in the wilderness, Re. 12. 6, 14, which well corresponds to the admonition, Is. 26. 20. At the same time (Re. 12.9) the dragon, the old serpent, is cast out, which well accords with the prophecy in the text—the destruction of leviathan, 'the dragon that is in the sea.' C.
Ver. 4-6. The Vineyard replies—'I have no wall for my defence! O that I had a defence of the thorn and the brier!' Jehovah speaks—'Against them should I march in battle, I should burn them up together. Ah! let her rather take hold of my protection!' The Vineyard replies—'Let him make peace with me, peace let him make with me!' Jehovah speaks— 'They that come of the root of Jacob shall flourish' (Lowth). C.
Ver. 9. By this fatherly chastisement shall Jacob's children be purged of their evil inclinations; and all the fruit, ver. 6, of my tending and watering shall be the removal of idolatry, the national sin that has hitherto most easily entangled them. C.
Reflections.—No enemy is too strong for God to deal with; and his remarkable deliverances tune his people's hearts to praise him. Being infinitely dear and precious to him, his church can never fail, nor any true member miss the joy of faith. He, as reconciled in Christ, delights to reconcile the world to himself, and bless men with all spiritual blessings in him: but it is infinitely hazardous to set ourselves in opposition to him. Never are our troubles on earth so sharp, but it is a mercy that they are not heavier; and when God inflicts one sore judgment he ordinarily restrains another. Whatever the saints lose in their troubles, their enemies lose more in the end. Troubles must either destroy the sin or the sinner. And if mitigated troubles be merciful, sanctified ones are much more so. How provoking to God and ruinous to men is ignorance of God under the means of knowledge and grace! But how marvellous is it that, by the most terrible outward calamities, he should pave the way to remarkable mercies, and that the ruin and scattering of nations should introduce a gathering to Jesus Christ and his worship, nay, to his heavenly mansions! And notwithstanding all the opposition of hell and earth, no faithful soul shall come short either of grace here or glory hereafter.