Isaiah 27:2-12

2 On that day sing about a delightful vineyard.

3 I, the LORD, watch over it. I water it continually. I watch over it day and night so that no one will harm it.

4 I am no longer angry. If only thorns and briars would confront me! I would fight them in battle and set all of them on fire.

5 Or else let them come to me for protection. Let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.

6 In times to come Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom, bud, and fill the whole world with fruit.

7 Will the LORD hurt Israel as he hurt others who hurt them? Will he kill them as he killed others?

8 He punished Israel by sending it away. He removed it with a fierce blast from the east winds.

9 In this way the wrongdoings of the descendants of Jacob are covered up. This is the way they will turn from their sins-- when they turn all the altar stones into powdered chalk and no poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah or incense altars are left standing.

10 The fortified city is isolated. The homestead is left deserted, abandoned like the desert. Calves will graze there. They will lie down. They will feed on the branches.

11 When the branches are dried up, they will be broken off. Women will come and build a fire with them. These people don't understand [these things]. That is why their maker won't have compassion on them, and their Creator won't have pity on them.

12 On that day the LORD will begin his threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt. People of Israel, you will be gathered one by one.

Isaiah 27:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 27

This chapter refers to the same times as the two foregoing ones Isa 25:1-26:21; and is a continuation of the same song, or rather a new one on the same occasion; it is prophetical of the last times, and of what shall be done in them, as the destruction of the antichristian powers, and Satan at the head of them, Isa 27:1 the happy state of the church, and its fruitfulness under the care and protection of the Lord, and his affection for it, Isa 27:2-4 its peace, prosperity, and flourishing condition, Isa 27:5,6 the nature, use, and end of all its afflictions and chastisements, Isa 27:7-9 the ruin and destruction of the city of Rome, and its inhabitants, and of its whole jurisdiction, Isa 27:10,11 a great gathering and conversion of the Lord's people, both Jews and Gentiles, by the ministry of the Gospel, Isa 27:12,13.