Isaiah 27:12

12 And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.

Isaiah 27:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 27:12

And it shall come to pass in that day
When the song will be sung, ( Isaiah 27:2 Isaiah 27:3 ) 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" ^F7; 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, ( Deuteronomy 11:24 ) ( Joshua 1:4 ) ( 13:3 ) and in which places many Jews ^F8 were, or would be, as in the following verse ( Isaiah 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 ^F9.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (jbxy) "excutiat", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius.
F8 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.
F9 (dxa dxal) "ad unum unum", Montanus; "unus ad unum"; so some in Vatablus, Forerius.

Isaiah 27:12 In-Context

10 Yet the fortified city will be desolate, The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down And consume its branches.

11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off; The women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding; Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them, And He who formed them will show them no favor.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.

13 So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, the Euphrates