Isaiah 27:2

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

In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. In that day ... - In that day, when leviathan shall be destroyed, the vineyard (Psalms 80:8), the Church of God, purged of its blemishes, shall be lovely in God's eyes.

In that day; when this potent enemy shall be destroyed· A vineyard of red wine: the words in the Hebrew text lie thus, A vineyard (Behold, a vineyard; or, Jacob or Israel, my church and people, which is sufficiently understood from the next verse, and is expressed , shall be a vineyard, shall be defended and dressed, shall thrive and flourish like a vineyard) of red wine, (i.e. of the choicest and best wine, which in those parts was red, as appears both from Scripture, as , whence it is called the blood of the grape, , and from other authors,) sing ye (O you faithful souls, sing with joy and thanksgiving to God) to (or of, or concerning, as this prefix is elsewhere used) her, or it, to wit, the vineyard, or church, (which is frequently compared to a vineyard, as , and elsewhere,) now delivered from her great enemy, and blessed with peace and prosperity.

Isaiah 27:2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.Ver. 2. In that day sing ye to her.] Or, Of her, a new song for a new deliverance. Haply this shall be done by the Christian Churches upon the conversion of the Jews, after the Turks’ downfall; like as at the building of the second temple, the people sang and shouted, "Grace, grace unto it." A vineyard of red wine,] i.e., Of rich and generous wine, Vini meri, non labruscarum, ut pure wine not wild, Isaiah 5:12 Proverbs 23:31 Genesis 49:22. By this red wine Oecolampadius understandeth Christ’ s blood, wherewith the Church is purged and beautified. Sanguis Christi venustavit genas meas, the blood of Christ made my eyes attractive, said a certain good woman, a martyr.

(2) In that day sing ye . . .—The prophet appears once again, as in Isaiah 26:1, as the hymn writer of the future day of the triumph of the redeemed. He had chanted a dirge over the vineyard that was unfruitful, and therefore given over to desolation. He now changes the wailing into a poem. The word translated “red wine” (comp. Deuteronomy 32:14) signifies “fiery,” or “foaming.” The LXX. seems to have followed a different text, giving (with the alteration of a single letter) the meaning, “a pleasant vineyard.”

Verse 2. Sing ye unto her] אנו לה anu lah. Bishop Lowth translates this, Sing ye a responsive song; and says that ענה anah, to answer, signifies occasionally to sing responsively; and that this mode of singing was frequently practised among the ancient Hebrews. See De Poes. Sac. Heb. Prael. xix., at the beginning. This, indeed, was the ancient method of singing in various nations. The song was divided into distinct portions, and the singers sang alternately. There is a fine specimen of this in the song of Deborah and Barak; and also in the Idyls of Theocritus, and the Eclogues of Virgil. This kind of singing was properly a dialogue in verse, sung to a particular tune, or in the mode which is now termed recitativo. I have seen it often practiced on funeral occasions among the descendants of the aboriginal Irish. The poems of Ossian are of this kind. The learned Bishop distinguishes the parts of this dialogue thus: - 3. JEHOVAH. It is I, JEHOVAH, that preserve her; I will water her every moment: I will take care of her by night; And by day I will keep guard over her. 4. VINEYARD. I have no wall for my defence: O that I had a fence of the thorn and brier! JEHOVAH. Against them should I march in battle, I should burn them up together. 5. Ah! let her rather take hold of my protection. VINEYARD. Let him make peace with me! Peace let him make with me! 6. JEHOVAH. They that come from the root of Jacob shall flourish, Israel shall bud forth; And they shall fill the face of the world with fruit. A vineyard of red wine] The redder the wine, the more it was valued, says Kimchi. Bishop Lowth translates, To the beloved vineyard. For חמר chemer, red, a multitude of MSS. and editions have חמד chemed, desirable. This is supported by the Septuagint and Chaldee.

2–6. The song of the vineyard,—the counterpart of ch. Isaiah 5:1 ff. This peculiar and perplexing passage has little relation to the context. It seems to fall into two stanzas; the first (Isaiah 27:2-4 a) expresses Jehovah’s satisfaction in his vineyard (the Theocratic nation), the second (Isaiah 27:4 b–5, which however is obscure) states what He would do if it should again be injured by wicked men. Isaiah 27:6 forms an appendix.

Sing ye unto her - That is, sing unto, or respecting the vineyard.

2-5. God’s work of overthrow and vindication being accomplished, what more appropriate than the ode which follows? In that day — The day or period in which leviathan is destroyed.