Isaiah 27

Deliverance of Israel

1 In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
2 In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.
4 I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
7 Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare[a] and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles[b] or incense altars will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one.
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 27 Commentary

Chapter 27

God's care over his people. (1-5) A promise of their recall to Divine favour. (6-13)

Verses 1-5 The Lord Jesus with his strong sword, the virtue of his death, and the preaching of his gospel, does and will destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, that old serpent. The world is a fruitless, worthless wilderness; but the church is a vineyard, a place that has great care taken of it, and from which precious fruits are gathered. God will keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are not less dangerous. God also takes care of the fruitfulness of this vineyard. We need the continual waterings of Divine grace; if these be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to nothing. Though God sometimes contends with his people, yet he graciously waits to be reconciled unto them. It is true, when he finds briers and thorns instead of vines, and they are set in array against him, he will tread them down and burn them. Here is a summary of the doctrine of the gospel, with which the church is to be watered every moment. Ever since sin first entered, there has been, on God's part, a righteous quarrel, but, on man's part, most unrighteous. Here is a gracious invitation given. Pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord; let us take hold on that. Christ crucified is the power of God. Let us by lively faith take hold on his strength who is a strength to the needy, believing there is no other name by which we can be saved, as a man that is sinking catches hold of a bough, or cord, or plank, that is in his reach. This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to be saved. God is willing to be reconciled to us.

Verses 6-13 In the days of the gospel, the latter days, the gospel church shall be more firmly fixed than the Jewish church, and shall spread further. May our souls be continually watered and kept, that we may abound in the fruits of the Spirit, in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. The Jews yet are kept a separate and a numerous people; they have not been rooted out as those who slew them. The condition of that nation, through so many ages, forms a certain proof of the Divine origin of the Scriptures; and the Jews live amongst us, a continued warning against sin. But though winds are ever so rough, ever so high, God can say to them, Peace, be still. And though God will afflict his people, yet he will make their afflictions to work for the good of their souls. According to this promise, since the captivity in Babylon, no people have shown such hatred to idols and idolatry as the Jews. And to all God's people, the design of affliction is to part between them and sin. The affliction has done us good, when we keep at a distance from the occasions of sin, and use care that we may not be tempted to it. Jerusalem had been defended by grace and the Divine protection; but when God withdrew, she was left like a wilderness. This has awfully come to pass. And this is a figure of the deplorable state of the vineyard, the church, when it brought forth wild grapes. Sinners flatter themselves they shall not be dealt with severely, because God is merciful, and is their Maker. We see ( isaiah 27:12-13 ) the restoration of the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, and their recovery from their present dispersion. This is further applicable to the preaching of the gospel, by which sinners are gathered into the grace of God; the gospel proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord. Those gathered by the sounding of the gospel trumpet, are brought in to worship God, and added to the church; and the last trumpet will gather the saints together.

Cross References 43

  • 1. ver 13; S Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 28:5
  • 2. S Genesis 3:24; S Deuteronomy 32:41; Isaiah 31:8; Isaiah 34:6; Isaiah 65:12; Isaiah 66:16; Ezekiel 21:3; Nahum 3:15
  • 3. S Job 3:8
  • 4. Job 26:13
  • 5. S Psalms 68:30; S Psalms 74:13; Revelation 12:9
  • 6. Isaiah 24:21
  • 7. S Isaiah 5:1
  • 8. Jeremiah 2:21
  • 9. Isaiah 58:11
  • 10. S Psalms 91:4; S Isaiah 5:2
  • 11. S John 6:39
  • 12. S ver 11; S Isaiah 10:17; Matthew 3:12; Hebrews 6:8
  • 13. S Isaiah 25:4
  • 14. S Job 22:21; S Psalms 119:165; Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:20
  • 15. S 2 Kings 19:30; Isaiah 11:10
  • 16. S Genesis 40:10; Hosea 14:5-6
  • 17. S Psalms 72:16; Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 37:31; Ezekiel 17:23; Ezekiel 36:8; Hosea 14:8
  • 18. Isaiah 10:26; S Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 37:36-38
  • 19. Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 50:1; Isaiah 54:7
  • 20. S Genesis 41:6
  • 21. S Psalms 78:38
  • 22. Romans 11:27*
  • 23. S Exodus 23:24
  • 24. S Exodus 34:13
  • 25. S Leviticus 26:30; S 2 Chronicles 14:5
  • 26. S Genesis 1:2; S Deuteronomy 13:16; Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 32:14; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 26:6; Lamentations 1:4; Lamentations 5:18
  • 27. S Isaiah 5:5
  • 28. S Isaiah 5:17
  • 29. Isaiah 17:2
  • 30. S Isaiah 10:33
  • 31. S ver 4; Isaiah 33:12
  • 32. S Deuteronomy 32:28; S Isaiah 1:3; Jeremiah 8:7
  • 33. Deuteronomy 32:18; Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 43:1,7,15; Isaiah 44:1-2,21,24
  • 34. S Isaiah 9:17; Jeremiah 11:16
  • 35. S Isaiah 21:10; Matthew 3:12
  • 36. S Genesis 15:18
  • 37. S Deuteronomy 30:4; S Isaiah 1:9; S Isaiah 11:12; S Isaiah 17:6
  • 38. S ver 1
  • 39. S Leviticus 25:9; S Judges 3:27; S Matthew 24:31
  • 40. S Psalms 106:47
  • 41. S Isaiah 10:19; Isaiah 19:21,25
  • 42. S Genesis 27:29; S Psalms 22:29; S Psalms 86:9
  • 43. S Isaiah 2:2

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  • [b]. That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah

Chapter Summary

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.

Isaiah 27 Commentaries

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