Verse 2

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 wine." sing--a responsive song [LOWTH]. unto her--rather, "concerning her" (see on Isa 5:1); namely, the Jewish state [MAURER].

Verse 3

lest any hurt it--attack it [MAURER]. "Lest aught be wanting in her" [HORSLEY].

Verse 4

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."

Verse 5

Or--Else; the only alternative, if Israel's enemies wish to escape being "burnt together." strength--rather, "the refuge which I afford" [MAURER]. "Take hold," refers to the horns of the altar which fugitives often laid hold of as an asylum (Kg1 1:50; Kg1 2:28). Jesus is God's "strength," or "refuge" which sinners must repair to and take hold of, if they are to have "peace" with God (Isa 45:24; Rom 5:1; Eph 2:14; compare Job 22:21).

Verse 6

He--Jehovah. Here the song of the Lord as to His vineyard (Isa 27:2-5) ends; and the prophet confirms the sentiment in the song, under the same image of a vine (compare Psa 92:13-15; Hos 14:5-6). Israel . . . fill . . . world-- (Rom 11:12).

Verse 7

him . . . those--Israel--Israel's enemies. Has God punished His people as severely as He has those enemies whom He employed to chastise Israel? No! Far from it. Israel, after trials, He will restore; Israel's enemies He will utterly destroy at last. the slaughter of them that are slain by him--rather, "Is Israel slain according to the slaughter of the enemy slain?" the slaughter wherewith the enemy is slain [MAURER].

Verse 8

In measure--not beyond measure; in moderation (Job 23:6; Psa 6:1; Jer 10:24; Jer 30:11; Jer 46:28). when it shooteth--image from the vine; rather, passing from the image to the thing itself, "when sending her away (namely, Israel to exile; Isa 50:1, God only putting the adulteress away when He might justly have put her to death), Thou didst punish her" [GESENIUS]. stayeth--rather, as Margin, "when He removeth it by His rough wind in the day," &c. east wind--especially violent in the East (Job 27:21; Jer 18:17).

Verse 9

By this--exile of Israel (the "sending away," Isa 27:8). purged--expiated [HORSLEY]. all the fruit--This is the whole benefit designed to be brought about by the chastisement; namely, the removal of his (Israel's) sin (namely, object of idolatry; Deu 9:21; Hos 10:8). when he--Jehovah; at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, His instrument. The Jews ever since have abhorred idolatry (compare Isa 17:8). not stand up--shall rise no more [HORSLEY].

Verse 10

city--Jerusalem; the beating asunder of whose altars and images was mentioned in Isa 27:9 (compare Isa 24:10-12). calf feed-- (Isa 17:2); it shall be a vast wild pasture. branches--resuming the image of the vine (Isa 27:2, Isa 27:6).

Verse 11

boughs . . . broken off--so the Jews are called (Rom 11:17, Rom 11:19-20). set . . . on fire--burn them as fuel; "women" are specified, as probably it was their office to collect fuel and kindle the fire for cooking. no understanding--as to the ways of God (Deu 32:28-29; Jer 5:21; Hos 4:6).

Verse 12

Restoration of the Jews from their dispersion, described under the image of fruits shaken from trees and collected. beat off--as fruit beaten off a tree with a stick (Deu 24:20), and then gathered. river--Euphrates. stream of Egypt--on the confines of Palestine and Egypt (Num 34:5; Jos 15:4, Jos 15:47), now Wady-el-Arish, Jehovah's vineyard, Israel, extended according to His purpose from the Nile to the Euphrates (Kg1 4:21, Kg1 4:24; Psa 72:8). one by one--gathered most carefully, not merely as a nation, but as individuals.

Verse 13

great trumpet--image from the trumpets blown on the first day of the seventh month to summon the people to a holy convocation (Lev 23:24). Antitypically, the gospel trumpet (Rev 11:15; Rev 14:6) which the Jews shall hearken to in the last days (Zac 12:10; Zac 13:1). As the passover in the first month answers to Christ's crucifixion, so the day of atonement and the idea of "salvation" connected with the feast of tabernacles in the same seventh month, answer to the crowning of "redemption" at His second coming; therefore redemption is put last in Co1 1:30. Assyria--whither the ten tribes had been carried; Babylonia is mainly meant, to which Assyria at that time belonged; the two tribes were restored, and some of the ten accompanied them. However, "Assyria" is designedly used to point ultimately to the future restoration of the ten fully, never yet accomplished (Jer 3:18). Egypt--whither many had fled at the Babylonish captivity (Jer 41:17-18). Compare as to the future restoration, Isa 11:11-12, Isa 11:16; Isa 51:9-16 ("Rahab" being Egypt). The twenty-eighth through thirty-third chapters form almost one continuous prophecy concerning the destruction of Ephraim, the impiety and folly of Judah, the danger of their league with Egypt, the straits they would be reduced to by Assyria, from which Jehovah would deliver them on their turning to Him; the twenty-eighth chapter refers to the time just before the sixth year of Hezekiak's reign, the rest not very long before his fourteenth year. Next: Isaiah Chapter 28

Verse 1

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, Eph 6:17 or else some sore judgment of God: some understand it of the Medes and Persians, by whom the Lord would destroy the Babylonish monarchy; or rather it is the great power of God, or his judiciary sentence, and the execution of it, the same with the twoedged sword, which proceeds out of the mouth of the Word of God, by which the antichristian kings and their armies will be slain, Rev 19:15, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent (i), even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea; by which are meant, not literally creatures so called, though the Talmud (k) interprets them of the whales, the leviathan male and female; but mystically earthly princes and potentates, for their great power and authority, their cruelty and voraciousness, their craft and cunning; so the Targum and Aben Ezra interpret them of the kings of the earth; and are to be understood either of distinct persons, or countries they rule over: some think three are pointed at, as the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Edomites, or Romans, so Jarchi; or the Greeks, Turks, and Indians, as Kimchi. The Targum is, "he shall punish the king who is magnified as Pharaoh the first, and the king that is exalted as Sennacherib the second, and shall slay the king that is strong as the dragon (or whale) that is in the sea.'' Some are of opinion that only one person or kingdom is here meant, either the king of Egypt, compared to such a sea monster, because of the river Nile, that watered his country; see Eze 29:3 others, the king of Babylon, which city was situated by the river Euphrates, and is described as dwelling on many waters, Jer 51:13 and others the king of Tyre, which was situated in the sea; it seems most likely that all tyrannical oppressors and cruel persecutors of the church are intended, who shall be destroyed; and particularly Rome Pagan, signified by a red dragon, Rev 12:3 and Rome Papal, by a beast the dragon gave his power to, which rose out of the sea, and by another out of the earth, which spoke like a dragon, Rev 13:1 both the eastern and western antichrists may be included; the eastern antichrist, the Turk, whose dominions are large, like the waters of the sea; and the western antichrist, the whore of Rome, described as sitting on many waters, Rev 17:1 both which are comparable to serpents and dragons for their cruelty and poison; moreover, Satan, at the head of all these, called the dragon, the old serpent, and devil, must be taken into the account, who is the last enemy that will be destroyed; he will be taken and bound a thousand years, and then, being loosed, will be retaken, and cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and false prophet be, Rev 20:1. Kimchi thinks this prophecy belongs to the times of Gog and Magog. (i) Or boom, or bar-serpent, "serpentem vectem", V. L. and Montanus; the same, as the Bishop of Bergen thinks, with the "soeormen", or sea snake, which often lies stretched out before a creek, like a boom, to block up the passage; and is soon bent, in a curve, in folds, and is soon again in a straight line, like a pole or beam; see his History of Norway, p. 206, 207. (k) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 74. 2.

Verse 2

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 signifies; see Rev 15:1. Gussetius (l) renders it, "afflict her"; as if spoken by the Lord to the enemies to do their worst to her, and he would take care of her, that it shall be in vain, and to no purpose, since he would keep her: A vineyard of red wine; as the people of the Jews are compared to one, Isa 5:1 so is the church of Christ under the Gospel dispensation; see Sol 8:11 a vineyard is a spot of ground separated from others, and the church and people of God are separated from the rest of the world by electing, redeeming, and calling grace; a vineyard is a place set with various vines, so is the church; there is Christ the true vine, the principal one, which stands in the first place, Joh 15:1 and there are particular congregated churches, which belong to the vineyard, the general or catholic church, Sol 2:13 and there are particular believers that may be so called, Sol 6:11 moreover, sometimes in vineyards other trees are planted besides vines, as barren fig trees, Luk 13:6 and so there are in the visible church of God nominal believers, carnal professors, trees without fruit; there are no true vines but such as are ingrafted and planted in Christ, and who, through union to him, and abiding in him, bring forth fruit; a vineyard is the property of some one person, as this is of Christ, whose it is by his own choice, by his Father's gift, by inheritance, by purchase, as well as it is of his planting, and under his care; vineyards are valuable, pleasant, and profitable, but exposed to beasts of prey, and therefore to be fenced and guarded; all which may be applied to the church of Christ, which shall, in the latter day especially, be very fruitful, and answer to this character given her in this song, a vineyard "of red wine"; the allusion is to such a vineyard, in which vines grow, that bring forth grapes, productive of the best wine, as the red was reckoned in the eastern countries; see Gen 49:12 and so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; this is a vineyard very different from that in Isa 5:5 and from the vine of Israel, Hos 10:1 the fruit of it, signified by "red wine", may intend the graces of the Spirit, which like grapes, the fruit of the vine, grow in clusters; where one is, all of them are, and come from Christ, the vine, from whom all the fruit of divine grace is found: and which receive their tincture from the blood of Christ, their vigour and their usefulness; and may be said, like wine, to cheer the heart of God and man, Jdg 9:13 grace when in exercise is delightful to God and Christ, Sol 4:9 and gives pleasure to other saints, Psa 34:1 and as the fruit of the vine must be squeezed ere the liquor can be had, so the graces of the Spirit are tried by afflictive dispensations of Providence, by which the preciousness and usefulness of them are made known; moreover, the fruits of righteousness, or good works, may be also intended, by which the graces of faith and repentance are evidenced, and which, when performed aright, are acceptable to God through Christ, and profitable to men; and for these fruits of grace and good works the church will be famous in the latter day. (l) Comment. Ebr. p. 622.

Verse 3

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 sin, that it does not reign over them; and from Satan's temptations, that they are not destroyed by them; and from the malice of the world, and the poison of false teachers, that they are not ruined thereby; and from a final and total falling away; the Lord's preservation of his church and people will be very manifest in the latter day: I will water it every moment; both more immediately with the dews of his grace, and the discoveries of his love; that being like dew, it comes from above, is according to the sovereign will of God, without the desert of man falls in the night, silently, gently, and insensibly, and greatly refreshes and makes fruitful, Hos 14:5 and more immediately by the ministry of the word and ordinances, by his ministers, the preachers of the Gospel, who water as well as plant, Co1 3:6 these are the clouds he sends about to let down the rain of the Gospel upon his church and people, by which they are revived, refreshed, and made fruitful, Isa 5:6 and this being done "every moment", shows, as the care of God, and his constant regard to his people, so that without the frequent communications of his grace, and the constant ministration of his word and ordinances, they would wither and become fruitless; but, by means of these, they are as a watered garden, whose springs fail not, Isa 58:11, lest any hurt it; as would Satan, who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and the men of the world, who are the boar out of the wood, and the wild beast out of the field, that would waste and destroy the vineyard; and false teachers, who are the foxes that would spoil the vines, Pe1 5:8 but, to prevent any such hurt and damage, the Lord undertakes to keep the church, his vineyard, himself, which he repeats with some addition, to declare the certainty of it; or, "lest he visit it" (m); that is, an enemy, as some (n) supply it; lest he should break down the hedge, and push into it, and waste it; or Jehovah himself, that is, as Gussetius (o) interprets it, while Jehovah the Father, Isa 27:1, is striking leviathan, or inflicting his judgments upon his enemies, Jehovah the Son promises to take care of his vineyard, the church, that the visitation does not affect them, and they are not hurt by it, but are safe and secure from it; which is a much better sense than that of Kimchi mentioned by him, I will water it every moment, "that not one leaf of it should fail"; the same is observed by Ben Melech, as the sense given by Donesh Ben Labrat: I will keep it night and day; that is, continually, for he never slumbers nor sleeps; he has kept, and will keep, his church and people, through all the vicissitudes of night and day, of adversity and prosperity, they come into: how great is the condescension of the Lord to take upon him the irrigation and preservation of his people! how dear and precious must they be to him! and what a privilege is it to be in such a plantation as this, watered and defended by the Lord himself! (m) "ne forte visitet eum", Munster, Pagninus, Tigurine version. (n) So Munster, Pagninus, Vatablus, and Ben Melech. (o) Comment. Ebr. p. 668, 669.

Verse 4

Fury is not in me,.... Against his vineyard he takes so much care of, his church and people, whom he has loved with an everlasting love; they are indeed deserving of his wrath, but he has not appointed them to it, but has appointed his Son to bear it for them, who has delivered them from wrath to come, and they being justified by his blood and righteousness, are saved from it; and though the Lord chastises them for their sins, yet not in wrath and sore displeasure; there is no wrath or fury in his heart towards them, nor any expressed in the dispensations of his providence: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? either suggesting the weakness of his people, who, was he to deal with them as their sins and corruptions deserved, for which they may be compared to thorns and briers, they would be as unable to bear his wrath and fury as briers and thorns could to withstand a consuming fire; or rather intimating, that should such persons rise up in his vineyard, the church, as often do, comparable to briers and thorns for their unfruitfulness and unprofitableness, for the hurt and mischief they do, and the grief and trouble they give to the people of God, as hypocrites and false teachers, and all such as are of unsound principles, and bad lives and conversations, and which are very offensive to the Lord; and therefore, though there is no fury in him against his vineyard, the church, yet there is against those briers and thorns, wicked men, whom he accounts his enemies, and will fight against them in his wrath, and consume them in his fury; see Sa2 23:6, I would go through them: or, "step into it" (p); the vineyard, where those briers or thorns are set and grow up; the meaning is, that he would step into the vineyard, and warily and cautiously tread there, lest he should hurt any of the vines, true believers, while he is plucking up and destroying the briers and thorns; or contending, in a warlike manner, with carnal and hypocritical professors: I would burn them together; or, "I would burn" out of it (q); that is, gather out of the vineyard the briers and thorns, and bind them up in bundles, as the tares in the parable, which signify the same as here, and burn them, or utterly destroy them; though the words may be rendered, "who will give, or set, me a brier and thorn in battle, that I should go against it, and burn it up together?", or wholly (r) and the meaning is, who shall irritate or provoke me to be as a brier and thorn, to hurt, grieve, and distress my people, to cause me to go into them, and against them, in a military way, in wrath and fury to consume them? no one shall. This rendering and sense well agree with the first clause of the verse. Jerom renders it thus, "who will make me an adamant stone?" as the word "shamir" is rendered in Eze 3:9, Zac 7:12 and gives the sense, who will make me hard and cruel, so as to overcome my nature, my clemency, to go forth in a fierce and warlike manner, and walk upon my vineyard, which before I kept, and burn it, which I had hedged about? (p) "gradiar in eam"; so some in Vatablus; "caute ingrediar eam", Piscator. (q) "succendam ex ea", Junius & Tremellius; "comburam illos ex ipsa", Piscator. (r) So De Dieu; and some in Vatablus; and which is approved by Noldius, who renders it in like manner, to the same sense, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 409. No. 1671.

Verse 5

Or let him take hold of my strength,.... Not on the law, as the Targum and Kimchi; but on Christ, as Jerom rightly interprets it; who is the strength and power of God, the man of his right hand he has made strong for himself; a strong tower, as the word signifies, a rock of defence, to whom saints may betake themselves, and be safe; in him they have righteousness and strength; in him is everlasting strength. The sense is, let the people of God, any and everyone of them, when afflicted and chastised by him particularly, and are ready to conclude that he is wroth with them, and is dealing with them in hot displeasure; let such look to Christ, and lay hold, and a strong hold, on him by faith, which will be greatly to their advantage and support. The Targum and Jarchi render translated "or", by "if"; and then the words are to be read thus, "if he will", or "should, take hold of my strength", or fortress (s); or, as some render them, "O that he would (t)", &c.; it follows, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me; or rather, "he shall make peace with me, peace shall he make with me". The phrase is doubled for the certainty of it; and the meaning is, not that the believer who lays hold by faith on Christ, Jehovah's strength, shall make peace with him; which is not in the power of any person to do, no, not the believer by his faith, repentance, or good works; but Christ the power of God, on whom he lays hold, he shall make peace, as he has, by the blood of his cross, and as the only peacemaker; and hereby the believer may see himself reconciled to God, and at peace with him; and therefore may comfortably conclude, under every providence, that there is no fury in God towards him. (s) "si prehenderit munitionem meam", Noldius. (t) "Utiuam, O si apprehenderit munitionem meam", Forerius.

Verse 6

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root,.... That is, the posterity of Jacob, the seed of Israel, in a spiritual sense; such who are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; these shall be so far from being plucked up, or rooted out of the vineyard, the church, that they shall take deeper root, and their roots shall spread yet more and more; they shall be rooted and grounded in the love of God, and also in Christ, and be built up in him, as well as firmly settled and established in the church, Eph 3:17 or, "them that come to Jacob (u)"; proselytes unto him, converted Gentiles, that come to the church of Christ, signified by "Jacob", and give up themselves unto it, and are added to it, these shall take root. The words may be rendered, in days "to come, he shall cause Jacob to take root": or, he "shall take root", as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Ben Melech supply the words; and so they are a prophecy of the stability and prosperous estate of the church in the latter day: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit; which may be understood of the fruits of grace and righteousness, which shall appear upon the people of God, in all parts of the world; or of the great number of converts everywhere; so the Targum, by "fruit", understands children's children; the sense is, that when the church of God, in the latter day, is settled and established, grounded in Christ, and in the doctrines of grace, it shall be in very flourishing and fruitful circumstances, abounding in grace and good works, and with numbers of converts; it shall be like the mustard tree, when it becomes so great a tree as that the birds of the air make their nests in it; and as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, when it becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth, Mat 13:31 compare with this Isa 37:31. (u) So some in Gataker.

Verse 7

Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him?.... No; the Lord does smite his people by afflictive dispensations of his providence; he smites them in their persons, and families, and estates; see Isa 57:17 as he smote Israel, by suffering them to be carried captive, and as the Jews are now smitten by him in their present state; yet not as he smote Pharaoh, with his ten plagues, and him and his host at the Red Sea; or as he smote Sennacherib and his army, by an angel, in one night; or as Amalek was smitten, and its memory perished; or as he will smite mystical Babylon, which will be utterly destroyed; all which have been smiters of God's Israel, who, though smitten of God, yet not utterly destroyed; the Jews returned from captivity, and, though now they are scattered abroad, yet continue a people, and will be saved. God deals differently with his own people, his mystical and spiritual Israel, than with their enemies that smite them: he afflicts them, but does not destroy them, as he does their enemies; he has no fury in him towards his people, but he stirs up all his wrath against his enemies: or, is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? or, "of his slain" (w); the Lord's slain, or Israel's slain, which are slain by the Lord for Israel's sake; though Israel is slain, yet not in such numbers, to such a degree, or with such an utter slaughter, as their enemies; though the people of God may come under slaying providences, yet not such as wicked men; they are "chastened, but not killed"; and, though killed with the sword, or other instruments of death, in great numbers, both by Rome Pagan and Papal, yet not according to the slaughter as will be made of antichrist and his followers, Rev 19:15. (w) "occisorum ejus", Montanus; "interfecti illius", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Verse 8

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it,.... Or, "when he sendeth it forth" (x); when God sends forth an affliction on his people, or gives it a commission to them, as all are sent by him, he does it with moderation; he proportions it to their strength, and will not suffer them to be afflicted above what they are able to bear; and as, in afflicting, he debates and contends with his people, having a controversy with them, so he contends with the affliction he sends, and debates the point with it, and checks and corrects it, and will not suffer it to go beyond due bounds; and in this the afflictions of God's people differ from the afflictions of others, about which he is careless and unconcerned: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind: when afflictions, like a blustering and blasting east wind, threaten much mischief, and to carry all before them, Jehovah, from whom they have their commission, and who holds the winds in his fist, represses them, stops the violence of them, and gradually abates the force of them, and quite stills them, when they have answered the end for which they are sent: or "he meditateth" (y); or speaketh, as Jarchi interprets it, "by his rough wind in the day of his east wind"; God sometimes meditates hard things against his people, and speaks unto them by the rough dispensations of his providence, admonishes them of their sins, and brings them to a sense and acknowledgment of them, which is his view in suffering them to befall them; or, "he removes by his rough wind" (z); their fruit, so Kimchi interprets it; as a rough wind blows off the blossoms and fruits, so the Lord, by afflictions, removes the unkind blossoms and bad fruit from his people, their sins and transgressions, as it follows. (x) "in emittendo eam", Montanus. (y) "meditatus est", V. L. so it is used in Psal. i. 2. It sometimes intends a great sound and noise, such as the roaring of a lion, Isa. xxxi. 4. and Gussetius here interprets it of thunder, Ebr. Comment. p. 202. so Castalio renders it, "sonans suo duro spiritu". (z) "Removit in vento suo duro", Pagninus, Montanus; "removebit", Vatablus; "abstulit", Tigurine version, Piscator; so Ben Melech observes that the word has the signification of removing in Prov. xxv. 4, 5.

Verse 9

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,.... Or "expiated", or "atoned" (a); not that afflictions are atonements for sin, or give satisfaction to divine justice for it; but they are the means of bringing the Lord's people to a sense of their sins, and to repentance and humiliation for them, and confession of them, and of leading them to the blood and sacrifice of Christ, by which they are expiated and atoned, and which the Spirit of God brings near, and applies unto them; whereby their sins, they are convicted of by means of afflictions, and which lay heavy upon their consciences, are purged away, and removed from them: and this is all the fruit, to take away sin; this is the design and use of afflictions, the profit and advantage of them to the saints, that, being humbled for their sins, they depart from them, leave and forsake them; as well as the guilt of them is taken away from their consciences, through the application of pardoning grace, upon their repentance; see Job 36:8 this shows another difference between the afflictions of God's people and of others: namely, in the use and end of them. The sin of idolatry seems to be particularly designed by what follows; unless the sin of the present Jews, in their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, should be rather intended; which, through their long affliction, they will be convinced of in the latter day, and it will be taken away from them, and be purged and expiated through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the Saviour and Deliverer, they will embrace, Rom 11:25, when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder; that is, when Jacob, or the people of the Jews, being convinced of their idolatry by their afflictions, shall pull down all their idolatrous altars; perhaps particularly referring to that which Ahaz made, Kg2 16:10 and remove the stones thereof, and break them to pieces, as chalkstones for lime, which is easily done: the groves and the images shall not stand up; erect, to be worshipped; but shall be thrown down, demolished, and broke to pieces; and, by thus abandoning their idols and idolatrous practices, they will show the sense they have of their sins, and the sincerity of their repentance; and it is to be observed, that the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, never practised idolatry more, not in the literal sense; perhaps some respect may be had here to the time when they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn; and when they shall renounce all their legal sacrifices, traditions of the elders, and their own righteousness, their idols, and look alone to the sacrifice of Christ, and declare against all the idolatry of the church of Rome, and all antichristian worship. (a) "propitiabitur", Pagninus, Montanus; "expiabitur", Piscator.

Verse 10

Yet the defenced city shall be desolate,.... Or "but", or "notwithstanding" (b); though the Lord deals mercifully with his own people, and mixes mercy with their afflictions, and causes them to issue well, and for their good; yet he does not deal so with others, his and their enemies: for by the "defenced city" is not meant Jerusalem, as many interpret it, so Kimchi; nor Samaria, as Aben Ezra; nor literal Babylon, as others; but mystical Babylon, the city of Rome, and the whole Roman or antichristian jurisdiction, called the "great" and "mighty" city, Rev 18:10 which will be destroyed, become desolate, or "alone" (c), without inhabitants: and the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; or "habitations"; the singular for the plural; even beautiful ones, as the word (d) signifies, the stately palaces of the pope and cardinals, and other princes and great men, which, upon the destruction of Rome, will be deserted, and become as a wilderness, uninhabited by men: there shall the calf feed: not Ephraim, as Jarchi, from Jer 31:18 nor the king of Egypt, as Kimchi, from Jer 46:20 nor the righteous that shall attack the city, and spoil its substance, as the Targum; see Psa 68:30 but literally, and which is put for all other cattle, or beasts of the field, that should feed here, without any molestation or disturbance: there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof; which the Targum interprets of the army belonging to the city; it denotes the utter destruction of it, and its inhabitants; see Rev 18:2. Some of the Jewish writers (e) interpret this passage of Edom or Rome, and of the Messiah being there to take vengeance on it. (b) "sed", Junius & Tremellius, Forerius; "tamen, nihilominus", Calvin. (c) "solitaria", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (d) "amoenum habitaculum", Tigurine version; Piscator (e) Shemot Rabba, sect. 1. fol. 91. 3.

Verse 11

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off,.... This city is compared to a tree, whose branches are not only gnawed and consumed by cattle, as in the former verse Isa 27:10; but which, in a hot dry summer, are withered and dried up, and so are easily broken, and are fit for nothing but the fire; hence it follows: the women come and set them on fire; or "gather" them (f) in order to burn them; as is commonly done with withered branches, Joh 15:6 it may design the burning of the whore of Rome by the kings of the earth; for as antichrist is signified by a woman, so the ten kings that shall hate her, and burn her flesh with fire, may be signified by women; see Rev 17:16. The word here used signifies to illuminate, or give light, which is done when wood is set on fire; hence the Vulgate Latin renders it, "women coming, and teaching it"; and so the Targum, "women shall come into the house of their gods, and teach them;'' as the woman Jezebel does, Rev 2:20 the former sense is best: for it is a people of no understanding; or "understandings": that is, the people that inhabit the above city, they are sottish and stupid, have no understanding of God and divine things, of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of them; among whom this maxim obtains, that ignorance is the mother of devotion; they are under a judicial blindness, are given up to strong delusions to believe a lie, Th2 2:10, therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them will show them no favour; but his wrath shall be poured out upon them to the uttermost, which will be fulfilled in the seven vials, and in the destruction of Rome, and the everlasting ruin of the worshippers of the man of sin; see Rev 16:1 no argument can be taken from men's being God's creatures and offspring, and from his being the former and maker of them, to their salvation; or because they are so, therefore shall be saved when they are sinful and sottish; for, being like brutes without understanding, they shall perish as they, without mercy. (f) So Abendana in Miclol Yophi observes, this is the sense some give of the word, taking it to be the same as is used in Cant. v. 1.

Verse 12

And it shall come to pass in that day,.... When the song will be sung, Isa 27:2 when God will appear to have taken particular care of his church, and is about to bring it into a flourishing condition; when its troubles and afflictions will come to an end, with a sanctified use of them; and when the city of Rome will be destroyed, and all the antichristian powers, then will be the conversion of the Jews; for antichrist stands in the way of that work: that the Lord shall beat off; or "beat out" (g); alluding either to the beating off of fruit from a tree, or to the beating out of grain from the ear; and signifies the separating of the Lord's people in the effectual calling from the rest of the world; as the fruit beaten off is separated from the tree, and corn beaten out is separated from the ear and chaff; for this beating off does not intend judgment, but mercy; and is done not by the rod of affliction, but by the rod of the Lord's strength sent out of Zion, even the Gospel, the power of God to salvation; which, in the ministration of it, should reach from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt; from the river Euphrates, on the banks of which was the city of Babylon, to the river Nile in Egypt, which were the limits and boundaries of the land of Israel, Deu 11:24 and in which places many Jews (h) were, or would be, as in the following verse Isa 27:13. The Septuagint version is, "from the ditch of the river to Rhinocorura;'' which, Jerom says, is a town on the borders of Egypt and Palestine. The meaning is, that the Lord would find out his people, wherever they were, in those parts, and separate and call them by his grace, and gather them to himself, and to his church and people, as follows: and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel; as fruit is gathered up, when beaten off of the tree; and the phrase "one by one" denotes either the fewness of them, and the gradual manner in which they will be gathered; or rather, since this does not so well suit with the conversion of the Jews, which will be of a nation at once, it may signify the completeness of this work, that they shall be everyone gathered, not one shall be left or lost, but all Israel shall be saved; or it may be also expressive of the conjunction of them, and union of them one to another, in the Gospel church state, into which they shall be gathered, as fruit beaten off, and gathered up, is laid together in a storehouse. To this sense agrees the Targum, "ye shall be brought near one to another, O ye children of Israel (i).'' (g) "excutiat", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius. (h) Ben Melech interprets the river of the river Sabation or the Sabbatical river, beyond which the Jews generally suppose the ten tribes are, and from whence they will come at the time of their restoration; and, as this writer says, will come to Egypt, and there be gathered together with their brethren, the children of this captivity, Judah and Benjamin, which are scattered in every corner, and join one another. (i) "ad unum unum", Montanus; "unus ad unum"; so some in Vatablus, Forerius.

Verse 13

And it shall come to pass in that day,.... When the Lord is about to do the above things, and in order to it. The Talmudists (k) apply this text to the world to come, or times of the Messiah, when the ten tribes shall be returned: that the great trumpet shall be blown; meaning not the edict or proclamation of Cyrus, but the ministration of the Gospel, called a "trumpet", in allusion to those that were ordered by Moses to be made for the congregation of Israel, Num 10:1, or to the jubilee trumpet, Lev 25:9 or with respect to any trumpet giving a musical sound; the Gospel being a joyful sound, a sound of love, grace, and mercy through Christ, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him; and which may be called a "great" one, the author of it, God, being great; and it is the effect of great love, and the produce of great wisdom; it proclaims and publishes great things, great promises, great truths, and a great salvation; it gives a great sound, which has and will again go into all the world, and reach to the ends of the earth; and has been, and will be, attended with great power; the "blowing" of it intends the ministry of the word, which to perform aright requires ability and skill; and here it respects the ministration of it in the latter day, when this Gospel trumpet will be blown more clearly, and without any jar, discord, and confusion; and more loudly, openly, and publicly; and more effectually, and to greater purpose: and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt; all mankind are in a perishing condition, but all are not sensible of it; some are, and they become so through the preaching of the word, attended with the power and Spirit of God; whereby they are convinced of sin, and of their lost estate by nature; their consciences are loaded with guilt, their souls are filled with a sense of wrath; they have a sight of sin, but not of a Saviour from it, or of the pardon of it; they have a view of a broken law, which curses and condemns, and of injured justice brandishing its sword against them, but see they have no righteousness to satisfy one or the other; and find themselves in a starving condition, ready to perish with hunger; and are like the wretched infant "cast out" into the open field, to the "loathing" of its person: and these now, whether in Assyria or in Egypt, or wherever they are, the Gospel trumpet will reach them, and encourage them to come; and powerful and efficacious grace accompanying it will engage and cause them to "come" first to Christ as poor perishing sinners, and venture their souls on him for life and salvation; they shall come to him in a way of believing, for pardon, cleansing, rest, food, righteousness, and life; and then they shall come to his churches, and give up themselves unto them, to walk with them: and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem; in the Gospel church, signified frequently by Mount Zion and Jerusalem; see Heb 12:22 where the Jews shall come, when converted, and join themselves, and worship God internally and externally, in spirit and in truth: and it may be true of Mount Zion, and of Jerusalem, in a literal sense, which will be rebuilt, and inhabited by the Jews, and become a place of divine worship. (k) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 110. 2. Midrash Kohelet. fol. 68. 3. Next: Isaiah Chapter 28

Verse 1

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 sure to punish leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, every proud oppressing tyrant, that is the terror of the mighty, and, like the leviathan, is so fierce that none dares stir him up, and his heart as hard as a stone, and when he raises up himself the mighty are afraid, Job 41:10, Job 41:24, Job 41:25. The church has many enemies, but commonly some one that is more formidable than the rest. So Sennacherib was in his day, and Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his; so Pharaoh had been formerly, and is called leviathan and the dragon, Isa 51:9; Psa 74:13, Psa 74:14; Eze 29:3. The New Testament church has had its leviathans; we read of a great red dragon ready to devour it, Rev 12:3. Those malignant persecuting powers are here compared to the leviathan for bulk, and strength, and the mighty bustle they make in the world, - to dragons for their rage and fury, - to serpents, piercing serpents, penetrating in their counsels, quick in their motions, and which, if they once get in their head, will soon wind in their whole body, - crossing like a bar (so the margin), standing in the way of all their neighbours and obstructing them, - to crooked serpents, subtle and insinuating, but perverse and mischievous. Great and mighty princes, if they oppose the people of God, are in God's account as dragons and serpents, the plagues of mankind; and the Lord will punish them in due time. They are too big for men to deal with and call to an account, and therefore the great God will take the matter into his own hands. He has a sore, and great, and strong sword, wherewith to do execution upon them when the measure of their iniquity is full and their day has come to fall. It is emphatically expressed in the original: The Lord with his sword, that cruel one, and that great one, and that strong one, shall punish this unwieldy, this unruly criminal; and it shall be capital punishment: He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea; for the wages of his sin is death. This shall not only be a prevention of his doing further mischief, as the slaying of a wild beast, but a just punishment for the mischief he has done, as the putting of a traitor or rebel to death. God has a strong sword for the doing of this, variety of judgments sufficient to humble the proudest and break the most powerful of his enemies; and he will do it when the day of execution comes: In that day he will punish, his day which is coming, Psa 37:13. This is applicable to the spiritual victories obtained by our Lord Jesus over the powers of darkness. He not only disarmed, spoiled, and cast out, the prince of this world, but with his strong sword, the virtue of his death and the preaching of his gospel, he does and will destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, that great leviathan, that old serpent, the dragon. He shall be bound, that he may not deceive the nations, and that is a punishment to him (Rev 20:2, Rev 20:3); and at length, for deceiving the nations, he shall be cast into the lake of fire, Rev 20:10. II. Of mercy to the church. In that same day, when God is punishing the leviathan, let the church and all her friends be easy and cheerful; let those that attend her sing to her for her comfort, sing her asleep with these assurances; let it be sung in her assemblies, 1. That she is God's vineyard, and is under his particular care, Isa 27:2, Isa 27:3. She is, in God's eye, a vineyard of red wine. The world is as a fruitless worthless wilderness; but the church is enclosed as a vineyard, a peculiar place, and of value, that has great care taken of it and great pains taken with it, and from which precious fruits are gathered, wherewith they honour God and man. It is a vineyard of red wine, yielding the best and choicest grapes, intimating the reformation of the church, that it now brings forth good fruit unto God, whereas before it brought forth fruit to itself, or brought forth wild grapes, Isa 5:4. Now God takes care, (1.) Of the safety of this vineyard: I the Lord do keep it. He speaks this as glorying in it that he is, and has undertaken to be, the keeper of Israel. Those that bring forth fruit to God are and shall be always under his protection. He speaks this as assuring us that they shall be so: I the Lord, that can do every thing, but cannot lie nor deceive, I do keep it; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. God's vineyard in this world lies much exposed to injury; there are many that would hurt it, would tread it down and lay it waste (Psa 80:13); but God will suffer no real hurt or damage to be done it, but what he will bring good out of. He will keep it constantly, night and day, and not without need, for the enemies are restless in their designs and attempts against it, and, both night and day, seek an opportunity to do it a mischief. God will keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are no less dangerous. God's people shall be preserved, not only from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, but from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day, Psa 91:6. This vineyard shall be well fenced. (2.) Of the fruitfulness of this vineyard: I will water it every moment, and yet it shall not be overwatered. The still and silent dews of God's grace and blessing shall continually descend upon it, that it may bring forth much fruit. We need the constant and continual waterings of the divine grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to nothing. God waters his vineyard by the ministry of the word by his servants the prophets, whose doctrine shall drop as the dew. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase; for without him the watchman wakes and the husbandman waters in vain. 2. That, though sometimes he contends with his people, yet, upon their submission, he will be reconciled to them, Isa 27:4, Isa 27:5. Fury is not in him towards his vineyard; though he meets with many things in it that are offensive to him, yet he does not seek advantages against it, nor is extreme to mark what is amiss in it. It is true if he find in it briers and thorns instead of vines, and they be set in battle against him (as indeed that in the vineyard which is not for him is against him), he will tread them down and burn them; but otherwise, "If I am angry with my people, they know what course to take; let them humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and so take hold of my strength with a sincere desire to make their peace with me, and I will soon be reconciled to them, and all shall be well." God sees the sins of his people and is displeased with them; but, upon their repentance, he turns away his wrath. This may very well be construed as a summary of the doctrine of the gospel, with which the church is to be watered every moment. (1.) Here is a quarrel supposed between God and man; for here is a battle fought, and peace to be made. It is an old quarrel, ever since sin first entered. It is, on God's part, a righteous quarrel, but, on man's part, most unrighteous. (2.) Here is a gracious invitation given us to make up this quarrel, and to get these matters in variance accommodated: "Let him that is desirous to be at peace with God take hold of his strength, of his strong arm, which is lifted up against the sinner to strike him dead; and let him by supplication keep back the stroke. Let him wrestle with me, as Jacob did, resolving not to let me go without a blessing; and he shall be Israel - a prince with God." Pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord; let him take hold of that. Christ is the arm of the Lord, Isa 53:1. Christ crucified is the power of God (Co1 1:24); let him by a lively faith take hold of him, as a man that is sinking catches hold of a bough, or cord, or plank, that is within his reach, or as the malefactor took hold of the horns of the altar, believing that there is no other name by which he can be saved, by which he can be reconciled. (3.) Here is a threefold cord of arguments to persuade us to do this. [1.] Time and space are given us to do it in; for fury is not in God; he does not carry it towards us as great men carry it towards their inferiors, when the one is in a fault and the other in a fury. Men in a fury will not take time for consideration; it is, with them, but a word and a blow. Furious men are soon angry, and implacable when they are angry; a little thing provokes them, and no little thing will pacify them. But it is not so with God; he considers our frame, is slow to anger, does not stir up all his wrath, nor always chide. [2.] It is in vain to think of contesting with him. If we persist in our quarrel with him, and think to make our part good, it is but like setting briers and thorns before a consuming fire, which will be so far from giving check to the progress of it that they will but make it burn the more outrageously. We are not an equal match for Omnipotence. Woe unto him therefore that strives with his Maker! He knows not the power of his anger. [3.] This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to reconciliation: "Let him take this course to make peace with me, and he shall make peace; and thereby good, all good, shall come unto him." God is willing to be reconciled to us if we be but willing to be reconciled to him. 3. That the church of God in the world shall be a growing body, and come at length to be a great body (Isa 27:6): In times to come (so some read it), in after-times, when these calamities are overpast, or in the days of the gospel, the latter days, he shall cause Jacob to take root, deeper root than ever yet; for the gospel church shall be more firmly fixed than ever the Jewish church was, and shall spread further. Or, He shall cause those of Jacob that come back out of their captivity, or (as we read it) those that come of Jacob, to take root downward, and bear fruit upward, Isa 37:31. They shall be established in a prosperous state, and then they shall blossom and bud, and give hopeful prospects of a great increase; and so it shall prove, for they shall fill the face of the world with fruit. Many shall be brought into the church, proselytes shall be numerous, some out of all the nations about that shall be to the God of Israel for a name and a praise; and the converts shall be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness. The preaching of the gospel brought forth fruit in all the world (Col 1:6), fruit that remains, Joh 15:16.

Verse 7

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 blossom and bud (Isa 27:6), but, 1. They shall be smitten and slain (Isa 27:7), some of them shall. If God find any thing amiss among them, he will lay them under the tokens of his displeasure for it. Judgment shall begin at the house of God, and those whom God has known of all the families of the earth he will punish in the first place. 2. Jerusalem, their defenced city, shall be desolate, Isa 27:10, Isa 27:11. "God having tried a variety of methods with them for their reformation, which, as to many, have proved ineffectual, he will for a time lay their country waste," which was accomplished when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans; then that habitation was for a long time forsaken. If less judgments do not do the work, God will send greater; for when he judges he will overcome. Jerusalem had been a defenced city, not so much by art or nature as by grace and the divine protection; but, when God was provoked to withdraw, her defence departed from her, and then she was left like a wilderness. "And in the pleasant gardens of Jerusalem cattle shall feed, shall lie down there, and there shall be none to disturb them or drive them away; there they shall be levant and couchant, and they shall eat the tender branches of the fruit-trees," which perhaps further signifies that the people should become an easy prey to their enemies. "When the boughs thereof are withered as they grow upon the tree, being blasted by winds and frosts and not pruned, they shall be broken off for fuel, and the women and children shall come and set them on fire. There shall be a total destruction, for the very trees shall be destroyed." And this is a figure of the deplorable state of the vineyard (Isa 27:2) when it brought forth wild grapes (Isa 5:2); and our Saviour seems to refer to this when he says of the branches of the vine which abide not in him that they are cast forth and withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Joh 15:6), which was in a particular manner fulfilled in the unbelieving Jews. The similitude is explained in the following words, It is a people of no understanding, brutish and sottish, and destitute of the knowledge of God, and that have no relish or savour of divine things, like a withered branch that has no sap in it; and this is at the bottom of all those sins for which God left them desolate, their idolatry first and afterwards their infidelity. Wicked people, however in other things they may be wits and politicians, in their greatest concerns are of no understanding; and their ignorance, being wilful, shall not only not be their excuse, but it shall be the ground of their condemnation; for therefore he that made them, that gave them their being, will not have mercy on them, nor save them from the ruin they bring upon themselves; and he that formed them into a people, formed them for himself, to show forth his praise, seeing they do not answer the end of their formation, but hate to be reformed, to be new-formed, will reject them, and show them no favour; and then they are undone: for, if he that made us by his power do not make us happy in his favour, we had better never have been made. Sinners flatter themselves with hopes of impunity, at least that they shall not be dealt with so severely as their ministers tell them, because God is merciful and because he is their Maker. But here we see how weak and insufficient those pleas will be; for, if they be of no understanding, he that made them, though he made them, and hates nothing that he has made, and though he has mercy in store for those who so far understand their interests as to apply to him for it, yet on them he will have no mercy, and will show them no favour. II. Here is a great deal of mercy mixed with this judgment; for there are good people mixed with those that are corrupt and degenerate, a remnant according to the election of grace, on whom God will have mercy and to whom he will show favour: and these promises seem to point at all the calamities of the church, for which God would graciously provide these allays. 1. Though they shall be smitten and slain, yet not to that degree, and in that manner, in which their enemies shall be smitten and slain, Isa 27:7. God has smitten Jacob, and he is slain. Many of those that understand among the people shall fall by the sword and by flame many days, Dan 11:33. But it shall not be as those are smitten and slain, (1.) Who smote him formerly, who were the rod of God's anger and the staff in his hand, which he made us of for the correction of his people, and to whose turn it shall come to be reckoned with even for that: the child is spared, but the rod is burnt. (2.) Who shall afterwards be slain by him, when he shall get the dominion, and repay them in their own coin, or slain for his sake in the pleading of his cause. God's people and God's enemies are here represented, [1.] As struggling with each other; so the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent have been, are, and will be. In this contest there are slain on both sides. God makes use of wicked men, not only to smite, but to slay his people; for they are his sword, Psa 17:13. But, when the cup of trembling comes to be put into their hand, it will be much worse with them than ever it was with God's people in their greatest straits. The seed of the woman has only his heel bruised, but the serpent has his head crushed and broken. Note, Though God's persecuted people may be great losers, and great sufferers, for a while, yet those that oppress them will prove to be greater losers and greater sufferers at last, here or hereafter; for God will render double to them, Rev 18:6. [2.] As sharing together in the calamities of this present time. They are both smitten, both slain, and both by the hand of God; for there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. But is Jacob smitten as his enemies are? No, by no means; to him the property is altered, and it becomes quite another thing. Note, However it may seem to us, there is really a vast difference between the afflictions and deaths of good people and the afflictions and deaths of wicked people. 2. Though God will debate with them, yet it shall be in measure, and the affliction shall be mitigated, moderated, and proportioned to their strength, not to their deserts, Isa 27:8. He will deal out afflictions to them as the wise physician prescribes medicines to his patients, just such a quantity of each ingredient, or orders how much blood shall be taken when a vein is opened: thus God orders the troubles of his people, not suffering them to be tempted above what they are able, Co1 10:13. He measures out their afflictions by a little at a time, that they may not be pressed above measure; for he knows their frame, and corrects in judgment, and does not stir up all his wrath. When the affliction is shooting forth, when he is sending it out and giving it its commission, then he debates in measure, and not in extremity. He considers what we can bear when he begins to correct; and when he proceeds in his controversy, so that it is the day of his east-wind, which is not only blustering and noisy, but blasting and noxious, yet he stays his rough wind, checks it, and sets bounds to it, does not suffer it to blow so hard as was feared; when he is winnowing his corn, it is with a gentle gale, that shall only blow away the chaff, but not the good corn. God has the winds at his command, and every affliction under his check. Hitherto it shall go, but no further. Let us not despair when things are at the worst; be the winds ever so rough, ever so high, God can say unto them, Peace, be still. 3. Though God will afflict them, yet he will make their afflictions to work for the good of their souls, and correct them as the father does the child, to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts (Isa 27:9): By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged. This is the design of the affliction, to this it is adapted as a proper means, and, by the grace of God working with it, it shall have this blessed effect. It shall mortify the habits of sin; by this those defilements of the soul shall be purged away. It shall break them off from the practice of sin: This is all the fruit, this is it that God intends, this is all the harm it will do them, to take away their sin, than which they could not have a greater kindness done them, though it be at the expense of an affliction. Therefore, because the affliction is mitigated and moderated, and the rough wind stayed, therefore we may conclude that he designs their reformation, not their destruction; and, because he deals thus gently with us, we should therefore study to answer his ends in afflicting us. The particular sin which the affliction was intended to cure them of was the sin of idolatry, the sin which did most easily beset that people and to which they were strangely addicted. Ephraim is joined to idols. But by the captivity in Babylon they were not only weaned from this sin, but set against it. Ephraim shall say, What have I do to any more with idols? Jacob has his sin taken away, his beloved sin, when he makes all the stones of the altar, of his idolatrous altar, the stones of which were precious and sacred to him, as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder; he not only has them in contempt, and values them no more than chalk-stones, but he conceives an indignation at them, and, in a holy revenge, beats them asunder as easily as chalk-stones are broken to pieces. The groves and the images shall not stand before this penitent, but they shall be thrown down too, never to be set up again. This was according to the law for the demolishing and destroying of all the monuments of idolatry (Deu 7:5); and according to this promise, since the captivity in Babylon, no people in the world have such a rooted aversion to idols and idolatry as the people of the Jews. Note, The design of affliction is to separate between us and sin, especially that which has been our own iniquity; and then it appears that the affliction has done us good when we keep at a distance from the occasions of sin, and use all needful precaution that we may not only not relapse into it, but not so much as be tempted to it, Psa 119:67. 4. Though Jerusalem shall be desolate and forsaken for a time, yet there will come a day when its scattered friends shall resort to it again out of all the countries whither they were dispersed (Isa 27:12, Isa 27:13); though the body of the nation is abandoned as a people of no understanding, yet those that are indeed children of Israel shall be gathered together again, as the sheep of the flock when the shepherds that scattered them are reckoned with, Eze 34:10-19. Now observe concerning these scattered Israelites, (1.) Whence they shall be fetched: The Lord shall beat them off as fruit from the tree, or beat them out as corn out of the ear. He shall find them out, and separate them from those among whom they dwelt, and with whom they seemed to be incorporated, from the channel of the river Euphrates north-east, unto Nile, the stream of Egypt, which lay south-west - those that were driven into the land of Assyria, and were captives there in the land of their enemies, where they were ready to perish for want of necessaries, and ready to despair of deliverance - and those that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, whither many of those that were left behind, after the captivity in Babylon, went, contrary to God's express command (Jer 43:6, Jer 43:7), and there lived as outcasts: God has mercy in store for them all, and will make it to appear that, though they are cast out, they are not cast off. (2.) In what manner they shall be brought back: "You shall be gathered one by one, not in multitudes, not in troops forcing your way; but silently, and as it were by stealth, dropping in, first one, and then another." This intimates that the remnant that shall be saved consists but of few, and those saved with difficulty, and so as by fire, scarcely saved; they shall not come for company, but as God shall stir up every man's spirit. (3.) By what means they shall be gathered together: The great trumpet shall be blown, and then they shall come. Cyrus's proclamation of liberty to the captives is this great trumpet, which awakened the Jews that were asleep in their thraldom to bestir themselves; it was like the sounding of the jubilee-trumpet, which published the year of release. This is applicable both to the preaching of the gospel, by which sinners are gathered in to the grace of God, such as were outcasts and ready to perish (those that were afar off are made nigh; the gospel proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord), and also to the archangel's trumpet at the last day, by which saints shall be gathered to the glory of God, that lay as outcasts in their graves. (4.) For what end they shall be gathered together: To worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. When the captives rallied again, and returned to their own land, the chief thing they had their eye upon, and the first thing they applied themselves to, was the worship of God. The holy temple was in ruins, but they had the holy mount, the place of the altar, Gen 13:4. Liberty to worship God is the most valuable and desirable liberty; and, after restraints and dispersions, a free access to his house should be more welcome to us than a free access to our own houses. Those that are gathered by the sounding of the gospel trumpet are brought in to worship God and added to the church; and the great trumpet of all will gather the saints together, to serve God day and night in his temple.

Verse 1

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 twisted serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea." No doubt the three animals are emblems of three imperial powers. The assertion that there are no more three animals than there are three swords, is a mistake. If the preposition were repeated in the case of the swords, as it is in the case of the animals, we should have to understand the passage as referring to three swords as well as three animals. But this is not the case. We have therefore to inquire what the three world-powers are; and this question is quite a justifiable one: for we have no reason to rest satisfied with the opinion held by Drechsler, that the three emblems are symbols of ungodly powers in general, of every kind and every sphere, unless the question itself is absolutely unanswerable. Now the tannin (the stretched-out aquatic animal) is the standing emblem of Egypt (Isa 51:9; Psa 74:13; Eze 29:3; Eze 32:2). And as the Euphrates-land and Asshur are mentioned in Isa 27:12, Isa 27:13 in connection with Egypt, it is immediately probable that the other two animals signify the kingdom of the Tigris, i.e., Assyria, with its capital Nineveh which stood on the Tigris, and the kingdom of the Euphrates, i.e., Chaldea, with its capital Babylon which stood upon the Euphrates. Moreover, the application of the same epithet Leviathan to both the kingdoms, with simply a difference in the attributes, is suggestive of two kingdoms that were related to each other. We must not be misled by the fact that nâchâsh bâriach is a constellation in Job 26:13; we have no bammarōm (on high) here, as in Isa 24:21, and therefore are evidently still upon the surface of the globe. The epithet employed was primarily suggested by the situation of the two cities. Nineveh was on the Tigris, which was called Chiddekel, (Note: In point of fact, not only does Arab. tyr signify both an arrow and the Tigris, according to the Neo-Persian lexicons, but the old explanation "Tigris, swift as a dart, since the Medes call the Tigris toxeuma" (the shot or shot arrow; Eustath, on Dion Perieg. v. 984), is confirmed by the Zendic tighri, which has been proved to be used in the sense of arrow or shot (Yesht 8, 6, yatha tighris mainyavacâo), i.e., like a heavenly arrow.) on account of the swiftness of its course and its terrible rapids; hence Asshur is compared to a serpent moving along in a rapid, impetuous, long, extended course (bâriach, as in Isa 43:14, is equivalent to barriach, a noun of the same form as עלּיז, and a different word from berriach, a bolt, Isa 15:5). Babylon, on the other hand, is compared to a twisted serpent, i.e., to one twisting about in serpentine curves, because it was situated on the very winding Euphrates, the windings of which are especially labyrinthine in the immediate vicinity of Babylon. The river did indeed flow straight away at one time, but by artificial cuttings it was made so serpentine that it passed the same place, viz., Arderikka, no less than three times; and according to the declaration of Herodotus in his own time, when any one sailed down the river, he had to pass it three times in three days (Ritter, x. p. 8). The real meaning of the emblem, however, is no more exhausted by this allusion to the geographical situation, than it was in the case of "the desert of the sea" (Isa 21:1). The attribute of winding is also a symbol of the longer duration of one empire than of the other, and of the more numerous complications into which Israel would be drawn by it. The world-power on the Tigris fires with rapidity upon Israel, so that the fate of Israel is very quickly decided. But the world-power on the Euphrates advances by many windings, and encircles its prey in many folds. And these windings are all the more numerous, because in the prophet's view Babylon is the final form assumed by the empire of the world, and therefore Israel remains encircled by this serpent until the last days. The judgment upon Asshur, Babylon, and Egypt, is the judgment upon the world-powers universally.

Verse 2

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 I water it. That nothing may come near it, I watch it night and day. Wrath have I none; O, had I thorns, thistles before me! I would make up to them in battle, Burn them all together. Men would then have to grasp at my protection, Make peace with me, Make peace with me. Instead of introducing the song with, "In that day shall this song be sung," or some such introduction, the prophecy passes at once into the song. It consists in a descending scale of strophes, consisting of one of five lines (Isa 27:2, Isa 27:3), one of four lines (Isa 27:4), and one of three lines (Isa 27:5). The thema is placed at the beginning, in the absolute case: cerem chemer. This may signify a vineyard of fiery or good wine (compare cerem zaith in Jdg 15:5); but it is possible that the reading should be cerem chemed, as in Isa 32:12, as the lxx, Targum, and most modern commentators assume. ענּה ל signifies, according to Num 21:17; Psa 147:7 (cf., Exo 32:18; Psa 88:1), to strike up a song with reference to anything - an onomatopoetic word (different from ענה, to begin, literally to meet). Cerem (the vineyard) is a feminine here, like בּאר, the well, in the song of the well in Num 21:17-18, and just as Israel, of which the vineyard here is a symbol (Isa 3:14; Isa 5:1.), is sometimes regarded as masculine, and at other times as feminine (Isa 26:20). Jehovah Himself is introduced as speaking. He is the keeper of the vineyard, who waters it every moment when there is any necessity (lirgâ‛im, like labbekârim in Isa 33:2, every morning), and watches it by night as well as by day, that nothing may visit it. על פּקד (to visit upon) is used in other cases to signify the infliction of punishment; here it denotes visitation by some kind of misfortune. Because it was the church purified through afflictions, the feelings of Jehovah towards it were pure love, without any admixture of the burning of anger (chēmâh). This is reserved for all who dare to do injury to this vineyard. Jehovah challenges these, and says, Who is there, then, that gives me thorns, thistles! עיתּנני = לי יתּן, as in Jer 9:1, cf., Jos 15:19.) The asyndeton, instead of ושׁית שׁמיר, which is customary elsewhere, corresponds to the excitement of the exalted defender. If He had thorns, thistles before Him, He would break forth upon them in war, i.e., make war upon them (bâh, neuter, upon such a mass of bush), and set it all on fire (הצית = הצּית). The arrangement of the strophes requires that we should connect כּמּלחמה with אפשׂעה (var. אפשׂעה), though this is at variance with the accents. We may see very clearly, even by the choice of the expression bammilchâmâh, that thorns and thistles are a figurative representation of the enemies of the church (Sa2 23:6-7). And in this sense the song concludes in Isa 27:5 : only by yielding themselves to mercy will they find mercy. או with a voluntative following, "unless," as in Lev 26:41. "Take hold of:" hechezik b', as in Kg1 1:50, of Adonijah, who lays hold of the horns of the altar. "Make peace with:" ‛âsâh shâlōm l', as in Jos 9:15. The song closes here. What the church here utters, is the consciousness of the gracious protection of its God, as confirmed in her by the most recent events.

Verse 6

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 "Behold, the days come," Jer 7:32, etc.), that the true language of prophecy commences again here. For the active וּמלאוּ, compare Jer 19:4; Eze 8:17, etc. The prophet here says, in a figure, just the same as the apostle in Rom 11:12, viz., that Israel, when restored once more to favour as a nation, will become "the riches of the Gentiles."

Verse 7

The prophet does not return even now to his own actual times; but, with the certainty that Israel will not be exalted until it has been deeply humbled on account of its sins, he placed himself in the midst of this state of punishment. And there, in the face of the glorious future which awaited Israel, the fact shines out brightly before his eyes, that the punishment which God inflicts upon Israel is a very different thing from that inflicted upon the world. "Hath He smitten it like the smiting of its smiter, or is it slain like the slaying of those slain by Him? Thou punishedst it with measures, when thou didst thrust it away, sifting with violent breath in the day of the east wind." "Its smiter" (maccēhū) is the imperial power by which Israel had been attacked (Isa 10:20); and "those slain by Him" (הרגיו) are the slain of the empire who had fallen under the strokes of Jehovah. The former smote unmercifully, and its slain ones now lay without hope (Isa 26:14). Jehovah smites differently, and it is very different with the church, which has succumbed in the persons of its righteous members. For the double play upon words, see Isa 24:16; Isa 22:18; Isa 10:16. When Jehovah put Israel away (as if by means of a "bill of divorcement," Isa 50:1), He strove against it (Isa 49:25), i.e., punished it, "in measure," i.e., determining the measure very exactly, that it might not exceed the enduring power of Israel, not endanger the existence of Israel as a nation (cf., bemishpât in Jer 10:24; Jer 30:11; Jer 46:28). On the other hand, Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel read בּסאסאה, from a word סאסא, (Note: Bttcher refers to a Talmudic word, הסיא (to remove), but this is to be pronounced הסּיא (= הסּיע), and is moreover, very uncertain.) related to זעזע, or even טאטא, "when thou didst disturb (or drive forth);" but the traditional text does not indicate any various reading with ה mappic., and the ancient versions and expositors all take the word as a reduplication of סאה, which stands here as the third of an ephah to denote a moderately large measure. The clause hâgâh berūchō is probably regarded as an elliptical relative clause, in which case the transition to the third person can be best explained: "thou, who siftedst with violent breath." Hâgâh, which only occurs again in Pro 25:4, signifies to separate, e.g., the dross from silver (Isa 1:25). Jehovah sifted Israel (compare the figure of the threshing-floor in Isa 21:10), at the time when, by suspending captivity over it, He blew as violently upon it as if the east wind had raged (vid., Job 2:1-13 :19). But He only sifted, He did not destroy.

Verse 9

He was angry, but not without love; He punished, but only to be able to pardon again. "Therefore will the guilt of Jacob be purged thus: and this is all the fruit of the removal of his son: when He maketh all altar-stones like chalk-stones that are broken in pieces, Astarte images and sun-pillars do not rise up again." With the word "therefore" (lâcēn) a conclusion is drawn from the expression "by measure." God punished Israel "by measure;" His punishment is a way to salvation: therefore it ceases as soon as its purpose is secured; and so would it cease now, if Israel would thoroughly renounce its sin, and, above all, the sin of all sins, namely idolatry. "Thus" (by this) refers to the בּשׂומו which follows; "by this," namely the breaking to pieces of the altars and images of the moon goddess; or possibly, to speak more correctly, the goddess of the morning-star, and those of the sun-god as well (see Isa 17:8). By the fact that Israel put away the fundamental cause of all mischief, viz., idolatry, the guilt for which it had yet to make atonement would be covered, made good, or wiped away (on cuppar, see at Isa 22:14). The parenthesis (cf., Isa 26:11) affirms that this very consequence would be all the fruit (cŏl-peri) desired by Jehovah of the removal of the sin of Israel, which the chastisement was intended to effect.

Verse 10

The prophet said this from out of the midst of the state of punishment, and was therefore able still further to confirm the fact, that the punishment would cease with the sin, by the punishment which followed the sin. "For the strong city is solitary, a dwelling given up and forsaken like the steppe: there calves feed, and there they lie down, and eat off its branches. When its branches become withered, they are broken: women come, make fires with them; for it is not a people of intelligence: therefore its Creator has no pity upon it, and its Former does not pardon it." The nation without any intelligence (Isa 1:3), of which Jehovah was the Creator and Former (Isa 22:11), is Israel; and therefore the fortress that has been destroyed is the city of Jerusalem. The standpoint of the prophet must therefore be beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, and in the midst of the captivity. If this appears strange for Isaiah, nearly every separate word in these two vv. rises up as a witness that it is Isaiah, and no other, who is speaking here (compare, as more general proofs, Isa 32:13-14, and Isa 5:17; and as more specific exemplifications, Isa 16:2, Isa 16:9; Isa 11:7, etc.). The suffix in "her branches" refers to the city, whose ruins were overgrown with bushes. Synonymous with סעפּים, branches (always written with dagesh in distinction from סעפים, clefts, Isa 2:21), is kâtzir, cuttings, equivalent to shoots that can be easily cut off. It was a mistake on the part of the early translators to take kâtzir in the sense of "harvest" (Vulg., Symm., Saad., though not the lxx or Luther). As kâtzir is a collective term here, signifying the whole mass of branches, the predicate can be written in the plural, tisshâbarnâh, which is not to be explained as a singular form, as in Isa 28:3. אותהּ, in the neuter sense, points back to this: women light it האיר, as in Mal 1:10), i.e., make with it a lighting flame (אור) and a warming fire (אוּר, Isa 54:16). So desolate does Jerusalem lie, that in the very spot which once swarmed with men a calf now quietly eats the green foliage of the bushes that grow between the ruins; and in the place whence hostile armies had formerly been compelled to withdraw without accomplishing their purpose, women now come and supply themselves with wood without the slightest opposition.

Verse 12

But when Israel repents, the mercy of Jehovah will change all this. "And it will come to pass on that day, Jehovah will appoint a beating of corn from the water-flood of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and ye will be gathered together one by one, O sons of Israel. And it will come to pass in that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and the lost ones in the land of Asshur come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and cast themselves down before Jehovah on the holy mountain in Jerusalem." I regard every exposition of Isa 27:12 which supposes it to refer to the return of the captives as altogether false. The Euphrates and the brook of Egypt, i.e., the Wady el-Arish, were the north-eastern and south-western boundaries of the land of Israel, according to the original promise (Gen 15:18; Kg1 8:65), and it is not stated that Jehovah will beat on the outside of these boundaries, but within them. Hence Gesenius is upon a more correct track, when he explains it as meaning that "the kingdom will be peopled again in its greatest promised extent, and that as rapidly and numerously as if men had fallen like olives from the trees." No doubt the word châbat is applied to the beating down of olives in Deu 24:20; but this figure is inapplicable here, as olives must already exist before they can be knocked down, whereas the land of Israel is to be thought of as desolate. What one expects is, that Jehovah will cause the dead to live within the whole of the broad expanse of the promised land (according to the promise in Isa 26:19, Isa 26:21). And the figure answers this expectation most clearly and most gloriously. Châbat as the word commonly applied to the knocking out of fruits with husks, which were too tender and valuable to be threshed. Such fruits, as the prophet himself affirms in Isa 28:27, were knocked out carefully with a stick, and would have been injured by the violence of ordinary threshing. And the great field of dead that stretched from the Euphrates to the Rhinokoloura, (Note: Rhinokoloura (or Rhinokoroura): for the origin of this name of the Wady el-Arish, see Strabo, xvi. 2, 31.) resembled a floor covered over with such tender, costly fruit. There true Israelites and apostate Israelites lay mixed together. But Jehovah would separate them. He would institute a beating, so that the true members of the church would come to the light of day, being separated from the false like grains sifted from their husks. "Thy dead will live;" it is to this that the prophet returns. And this view is supported by the choice of the word shibboleth, which combines in itself the meanings of "flood" (Psa 69:3, Psa 69:16) and "ear" (sc., of corn). This word gives a fine dilogy (compare the dilogy in Isa 19:18 and Hab 2:7). From the "ear" of the Euphrates down to the Peninsula of Sinai, Jehovah would knock - a great heap of ears, the grains of which were to be gathered together "one by one," i.e., singly (in the most careful manner possible; Greek, καθεῖς κατη ̓ ἓνα). To this risen church there would be added the still living diaspora, gathered together by the signal of God (compare Isa 18:3; Isa 11:12). Asshur and Egypt are named as lands of banishment. They represent all the lands of exile, as in Isa 19:23-25 (compare Isa 11:11). The two names are emblematical, and therefore not to be used as proofs that the prophecy is within the range of Isaiah's horizon. Nor is there any necessity for this. It is just as certain that the cycle of prophecy in chapters 24-27 belongs to Isaiah, and not to any other prophet, as it is that there are not two men to be found in the world with faces exactly alike.

Verse 1

27:1 Israel adapted the imagery of Leviathan to refer to evil powers that oppose God. Leviathan’s death symbolizes the end of evil, Satan, the demonic, and the dominion of forces hostile to God (see 51:9; Pss 74:14; 104:7-9, 26; see also the serpent in Gen 3; Rev 12; 13; 16:13; 20:2, 10).

Verse 2

27:2-6 The Song of the Fruitful Vineyard, in which the vineyard represents God’s people (cp. 5:1-7).

Verse 3

27:3 God identifies himself as the Lord of the covenant to assure his people that what he says and does is reliable (see Exod 6:2-3). The phrase is used many times throughout Isaiah. • watch . . . watering . . . watch: The Lord will provide even greater care and protection for his ultimate vineyard than he did for Israel, his first vineyard (see Isa 5:1-2).

Verse 5

27:5 God expects all his people to turn to him and to trust him for help. • Let them make peace with me is God’s offer of reconciliation for his people.

Verse 6

27:6 Jacob’s descendants will take root and the remnant will increase (37:31; cp. 5:24; 14:30; for application to the Messiah, see 11:1, 10). • fill the whole earth: The fulfillment of this prophecy extends beyond the restoration of Israel from exile to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. It includes all the righteous children of God—Jews and Gentiles—who suffer but remain obedient as they wait for the fullness of redemption (see 26:18; John 15:1-8).

Verse 7

27:7-11 Isaiah reminded readers of the reasons for the Exile and judgment: Israel’s sinfulness, God’s righteous judgment, and the absence of divine compassion.

27:7 Despite being God’s covenant people, Israel was struck and punished like any other wicked nation. However, Israel was not completely destroyed; a remnant remained.

Verse 8

27:8 The Assyrians exiled large numbers of citizens from the northern kingdom of Israel when Samaria fell in 722 BC. The Babylonians exiled many from Judah from 605 to 586 BC. • Storms from the east were known for their destructive effects (see Job 27:21; 38:24; Jer 4:11).

Verse 9

27:9 God’s justice requires him to punish sin. That punishment is designed to correct behavior and to purify. Being conquered and exiled wasThe Exile occurred so that to purge Israel’s wickedness and to take away all her sin (see Rom 11:27). • This was to be the end of all the pagan worship in Israel, including the incense altars and the poles that were used in worshiping the goddess Asherah.

Verse 10

27:10 Places previously associated with human power and accomplishment would be ruined to the extent that animals would graze in them.

Verse 11

27:11 The people were outside of God’s covenantal care; they foolishly turned away from him.

Verse 12

27:12 Yet: God’s withholding of mercy from Israel (27:11) will be temporary. • from the Euphrates River . . . to the Brook of Egypt: God’s remnant will return from Assyria and Egypt to the territory that God promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18; see 1 Kgs 4:21).

Verse 13

27:13 The great trumpet was used to gather the people (see Matt 24:31).