Isaiah 27:10

10 For the fenced city [is] alone, A habitation cast out and forsaken as a wilderness, There doth the calf delight, And there it lieth down, And hath consumed its branches.

Isaiah 27:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 27:10

Yet the defenced city [shall be] desolate
Or "but", or "notwithstanding" ^F2; though the Lord deals mercifully with his own people, and mixes mercy with their afflictions, and causes them to issue well, and for their good; yet he does not deal so with others, his and their enemies: for by the "defenced city" is not meant Jerusalem, as many interpret it, so Kimchi; nor Samaria, as Aben Ezra; nor literal Babylon, as others; but mystical Babylon, the city of Rome, and the whole Roman or antichristian jurisdiction, called the "great" and "mighty" city, ( Revelation 18:10 ) which will be destroyed, become desolate, or "alone" ^F3, without inhabitants: [and] the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
or "habitations"; the singular for the plural; even beautiful ones, as the word ^F4 signifies, the stately palaces of the pope and cardinals, and other princes and great men, which, upon the destruction of Rome, will be deserted, and become as a wilderness, uninhabited by men: there shall the calf feed:
not Ephraim, as Jarchi, from ( Jeremiah 31:18 ) nor the king of Egypt, as Kimchi, from ( Jeremiah 46:20 ) nor the righteous that shall attack the city, and spoil its substance, as the Targum; see ( Psalms 68:30 ) but literally, and which is put for all other cattle, or beasts of the field, that should feed here, without any molestation or disturbance: there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof;
which the Targum interprets of the army belonging to the city; it denotes the utter destruction of it, and its inhabitants; see ( Revelation 18:2 ) . Some of the Jewish writers ^F5 interpret this passage of Edom or Rome, and of the Messiah being there to take vengeance on it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (yk) "sed", Junius & Tremellius, Forerius; "tamen, nihilominus", Calvin.
F3 (ddb) "solitaria", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F4 (hwn) "amoenum habitaculum", Tigurine version; Piscator
F5 Shemot Rabba, sect. 1. fol. 91. 3.

Isaiah 27:10 In-Context

8 In measure, in sending it forth, thou strivest with it, He hath taken away by His sharp wind, In the day of an east wind,

9 Therefore by this is the iniquity of Jacob covered, And this [is] all the fruit -- To take away his sin, in His setting all the stones of an altar, As chalkstones beaten in pieces, They rise not -- shrines and images.

10 For the fenced city [is] alone, A habitation cast out and forsaken as a wilderness, There doth the calf delight, And there it lieth down, And hath consumed its branches.

11 In the withering of its branch it is broken off, Women are coming in setting it on fire, For it [is] not a people of understanding, Therefore pity it not doth its Maker, And its Former doth not favour it.

12 And it hath come to pass, in that day, Beat out doth Jehovah from the branch of the river, Unto the stream of Egypt, And ye are gathered one by one, O sons of Israel.