Isaiah 27:4

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

Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Fury is not in me - i:e., I entertain no longer anger toward my vine.

Fury, to wit, against my vineyard, or my people; which is easily understood both from the foregoing and following verses. I have been displeased with them, and have chastised them; but I am not implacable towards them, and resolved utterly to destroy them, as their enemies are, and would have me to be. I would go through them, I would burn them together: this is added as a reason of the foregoing clause and assertion; which may be conceived either, 1. Thus, I rather desire to contend with briers and thorns, i.e. with the wicked enemies of my church, who are thus called, ; and if my wrath was now kindled against them, as it is against my people, I would be furious towards them, and never leave till I had utterly consumed them; but I will deal more indulgently with my people. Which exposition seems to receive some light and strength from . Or, 2. Thus, For I consider the weakness of my people, that if I should let loose my fury upon them, they could no more stand before me than briers and thorns (to which God’ s people, when they fall into sin, and provoke God, are not unfitly resembled) can stand before a devouring fire, and therefore they would in an instant be utterly destroyed; which I will not do. And this consideration of man’ s imbecility is elsewhere alleged as a reason of God’ s indulgence, as . But this I deliver with submission.

Isaiah 27:4 Fury [is] not in me: who would set the briers [and] thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.Ver. 4. Fury is not in me.] Whatever you may think of me, because of my many dreadful menaces, and your heavy calamities, Non est in me sed in vobis culpa istarum calamitatum, the fault is not in me but in yourselves; do you but mend, and all shall be soon well between us. It is but displeased love that maketh me chide or strike my dear children, lop my vines, Ut bonus vinitor vires luxuriantes falce Tatar et purgat; αιρει, καθαιρει; leaves and luxuriances must be taken off, or it will be worse. Better the vine should bleed than die; better be preserved in brine, than perish in honey. But assure yourselves, I am not implacable; as your sins have put thunderbolts into my hands, so by sound repentance you may soon disarm me. Who would set the briers and thorns.] God’ s vineyard is not without briers and thorns, his field without tares, his Church without hypocrites, which prick God and his people, galling them to the heart. These he will make a hand of, take an order with, by treading them down and burning them up, especially if once they shall be so mad and mankind, as they say, as to bid him battle. See Job 9:4. I would burn them together.] Or, I will burn them out of it. See 2 Samuel 23:7.

(4) Fury is not in me.—Better, There is no wrath in me. Who will set briars and thorns before me? With war will I go forth against them; I will burn them up together. The reversal of the sentence is continued. Wrath against this vineyard has passed away from Jehovah. Should briars and thorns (symbols of the enemies of His people, as in Isaiah 9:18; Isaiah 10:17; 2 Samuel 23:6-7; Ezekiel 2:6) spring up, he will do battle against them, and consume them utterly.

Verse 4. Fury is not in me - "I have no wall"] For חמה chemah, anger, the Septuagint and Syriac read חומה chomah, wall. An ancient MS. has חימה cheimah. For בה bah, in her, two MSS. read בם bam, in them, plural. The vineyard wishes for a wall and a fence of thorns - human strength and protection, (as the Jews were too apt to apply to their powerful neighbours for assistance, and to trust to the shadow of Egypt:) JEHOVAH replies, that this would not avail her, nor defend her against his wrath. He counsels her, therefore, to betake herself to his protection. On which she entreats him to make peace with her. From the above note it appears that the bishop reads, חומה chomah, wall, for חמה chemah, anger or fury, in accordance with the Syriac and Septuagint. The letter ו vau makes the only difference, which letter is frequently absent from many words where its place is supplied by the point cholem: it might have been so here formerly; and in process of time both vau and cholem might have been lost. The Syriac supports the learned bishop's criticism, as the word [Syriac] shora is there used; which word in the plural is found, Hebrews 11:30: "By faith the walls of Jericho." The bishop thinks the Septuagint is on his side: to me, it seems neither for nor against the criticism. The words in the Vatican copy are εγωπολιςοχυρα, I am a fortified city; which the Arabic follows: but instead of οχυρα, the Codex Alexandrinus has ισχυρα, I am a STRONG city. The word חומה chomah, wall, is not found in any MS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, nor in any of my own MSS. However, one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. has חימה cheimah; but probably that which now appears to be a י yod was formerly a ו vau, and now partially obliterated. This song receives much light from being collated with that in chap. v.; and perhaps the bishop's criticism will find its best support from such a collation. In Isaiah 5:5 of that chapter, God threatens to take away the wall of his vineyard: this was done; and here the vineyard complains, I have no wall, and wishes for any kind of defense rather than be thus naked. This is the only natural support of the above criticism. "About Tripoli there are abundance of vineyards and gardens, inclosed, for the most part, with hedges, which chiefly consist of the rhamnus, paliurus, oxyacantha," c. Rawolf, p. 21, 22. A fence of thorns is esteemed equal to a wall for strength, being commonly represented as impenetrable. See Micah 7:4 Hosea 2:6. Who would set the briers and thorns against me - "O that I had a fence of the thorn and brier"] Seven MSS., (two ancient,) and one edition, with the Syriac, Vulgate, and Aquila, read ושית veshayith, with the conjunction ו vau prefixed: Who would set the briers and thorns.

4. Fury is not in me] Or, wrath have I none. These words naturally go with the first stanza, expressing, as they seem to do, Jehovah’s contentment with the condition of His vineyard. who would set … battle] The phrase “Who will give?” is the well known Hebrew equivalent of the Latin utinam, “Would that!” Hence the R.V.: O that the briers and thorns were against me in battle!briers and thorns] (ch. Isaiah 5:6) must here mean heathen intruders. The next clause reads as in R.V.: I would march upon them. Cf. 2 Samuel 23:6 f.

Fury is not in me - That is, I am angry with it no more. He had punished his people by removing them to a distant land. But although he had corrected them for their faults, yet he had not laid aside the affection of a Father.

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.