King James Version
Isaiah 27
13 verses with commentary
Deliverance of Israel
In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. piercing: or, crossing like a bar
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.</strong> This apocalyptic vision depicts God's final triumph over evil using ancient Near Eastern mythological imagery. The Hebrew <em>livyatan</em> (לִוִיָתָן) appears elsewhere in Job 41 and Psalm ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XXVII.
(1) **Leviathan the piercing serpent.**—Rather, *fleet, *or *fugitive. *The verse paints in vivid symbolic language the judgment of Jehovah on the great world-powers that had shed the blood of His people. The “sword of the Lord” (primarily, perhaps, representing the lightning-flash) is turned in its threefold character as sore, and swift, and strong, against three great empires. These are r...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
4. God's very "word" is "power." So the gospel word (Ro 1:16; He 4:12).
**who may say, &c.--**(Job 9:12; 33:13; Is 45:9; Da 4:35). Scripture does not ascribe such arbitrary power to earthly kings.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 27
**Verse 1**
We know not what a day may bring forth. This does not forbid preparing for to-morrow, but presuming upon to-morrow. We must not put off the great work of conversion, that one thing needful.
In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine .
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.</strong> This verse opens the Song of the Vineyard (vv.2-6), echoing but reversing Isaiah's earlier vineyard song (5:1-7) where Israel was an unproductive vineyard destined for judgment. Here <strong>in that day</strong> points to restoration after judgment. The Hebrew <em>kerem chemer</em> (כֶּרֶם חֶמֶר) literally means "vineyard of wi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **In that day sing ye . . .**—The prophet appears once again, as in Isaiah 26:1, as the hymn writer of the future day of the triumph of the redeemed. He had chanted a dirge over the vineyard that was unfruitful, and therefore given over to desolation. He now changes the wailing into a poem. The word translated “red wine” (comp. Deuteronomy 32:14) signifies “fiery,” or “foaming.” The LXX. seems...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. feel--**experience.
**time--**the neglect of the right "times" causes much of the sinful folly of the spiritually unwise (Ec 3:1-11).
**judgment--**the right manner [Holden]. But as God's future "judgment" is connected with the "time for every purpose" in Ec 3:17, so it is here. The punishment of persisting sinners (Ec 8:3) suggests it. The wise man realizes the fact, that as there is a f...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verse 2**
There may be occasion for us to justify ourselves, but not to praise ourselves.
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.</strong> God Himself becomes the vineyard's guardian, using emphatic first-person pronouns: <strong>I the LORD</strong> (<em>ani Yahweh notserah</em>, אֲנִי יְהוָה נֹצְרָהּ). The verb <em>natsar</em> (נָצַר) means to guard, watch over, preserve—the same root used for watchman. This divine w...
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(3) **I the Lord do keep **it.—The words imply a distinct reversal of the sentence passed in Isaiah 5:1-7. Instead of abandonment, there is constant care. Instead of the clouds being commanded to give no rain, the vineyard is watered whenever it requires watering. Instead of being wasted by the wild boar or by spoilers, Jehovah tends it both by day and night.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. therefore the misery, &c.--**because the foolish sinner does not think of the right "times" and the "judgment."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-4**
Those who have no command of their passions, sink under the load.
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. go: or, march against
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> God declares that His former <strong>fury</strong> (<em>chemah</em>, חֵמָה, burning anger) against the vineyard is gone—a dramatic reversal from chapter 5:25 where His anger burned against His people. The rhetorical question challenges any who would opp...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(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; 2Samuel 23:6-7; Ezekiel 2:6) ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. he--**the sinner, by neglecting times (for example, "the accepted time, and the day of salvation, 2Co 6:2), is taken by surprise by the judgment (Ec 3:22; 6:12; 9:12). The godly wise observe the due times of things (Ec 3:1), and so, looking for the judgment, are not taken by surprise, though not knowing the precise "when" (1Th 5:2-4); they "know the time" to all saving purposes (Ro 13:11).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-4**
Those who have no command of their passions, sink under the load.
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.</strong> This verse offers stunning grace: enemies (the "briers and thorns" of v.4) can avoid destruction by taking hold of God's <strong>strength</strong> (<em>ma'uzzi</em>, מָעוּזִּי, literally "my stronghold" or "my fortress"). Instead of fighting God and being burned, they can flee TO ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Or let him take hold of my strength.**—Or, *Let him lay hold on my fortress: let him make peace with Me. *The thought implied is that even the enemies of Jehovah, if repentant, may find in Him “their castle and deliverer.” To them, too, there is the gracious invitation to make peace.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. spirit--**"breath of life" (Ec 3:19), as the words following require. Not "wind," as Weiss thinks (Pr 30:4). This verse naturally follows the subject of "times" and "judgment" (Ec 8:6, 7).
**discharge--**alluding to the liability to military service of all above twenty years old (Nu 1:3), yet many were exempted (De 20:5-8). But in that war (death) there is no exemption.
**those ... given ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-6**
Plain and faithful rebukes are better, not only than secret hatred, but than love which compliments in sin, to the hurt of the soul.
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.</strong> This prophecy shifts from individual peace-making (v.5) to corporate restoration of Jacob/Israel. The Hebrew <em>yashrish</em> (יַשְׁרִשׁ, cause to take root) uses agricultural imagery of deep, secure rooting—no longer the shallow planting vulnerable to rem...
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(6) **He shall cause them that come of Jacob . . .**—Better, *In the days that come Jacob shall strike root. *The figure of Israel as the vine of Jehovah’s vineyard is carried to its close. The true Israel of God shall go through its normal stages of growth, and its restoration shall be as “the riches of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:12; Hosea 14:6). With this picture of blessedness the psalm of the Ch...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. his own hurt--**The tyrannical ruler "hurts" not merely his subjects, but himself; so Rehoboam (1Ki 12:1-33); but the "time" of "hurt" chiefly refers to eternal ruin, incurred by "wickedness," at "the day of death" (Ec 8:8), and the "time" of "judgment" (Ec 8:6; Pr 8:36).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? as: Heb. according to the stroke of
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?</strong> This rhetorical double-question contrasts God's discipline of Israel with His judgment of Israel's enemies. The Hebrew uses wordplay with <em>nakah</em> (נָכָה, smite/strike): <strong>has He smitten him [Israel] as He smote those that smote him [Israel's ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **Hath he smitten him . . .**—The pronouns are left in the English Version somewhat obscure, but the use of capitals makes the meaning plain: “Hath *He *(Jehovah) smitten him (Israel) as *He *smote those that smote him; or is he slain according to the slaughter of those that are slain by Him?” A slight alteration in the last clause in the text gives, *according to the slaughter of his slayers....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. the wicked--**namely, rulers (Ec 8:9).
**buried--**with funeral pomp by man, though little meriting it (Jr 22:19); but this only formed the more awful contrast to their death, temporal and eternal, inflicted by God (Lu 16:22, 23).
**come and gone from the place of the holy--**went to and came from the place of judicature, where they sat as God's representatives (Psa 82:1-6), with pomp [H...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. it shooteth: or, thou sendest it forth he: or, when he removeth it with
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.</strong> This difficult verse describes God's measured, calibrated discipline. The phrase <strong>in measure</strong> (<em>bese'se'ah</em>, בְּסַאסְאָה, literally "by seah by seah," a unit of measurement) emphasizes proportionate, controlled judgment—not excessive or destroy...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **In measure . . .**—Literally, with the force of iteration, *with measure and measure. *The verse continues the thought of the preceding. The word for “measure” is strictly definite: the *seah, *or third part of an *ephah *(comp. Isaiah 5:10), and therefore used as proverbial for its smallness, to express the extreme moderation of God’s chastisements.
**When it shooteth forth, thou wilt debat...
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11. The reason why the wicked persevere in sin: God's delay in judgment (Mt 24:48-51; 2Pe 3:8, 9). "They see not the smoke of the pit, therefore they dread not the fire" [South], (Psa 55:19). Joab's escape from the punishment of his murder of Abner, so far from "leading him to repentance," as it ought (Ro 2:4), led him to the additional murder of Amasa.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. images: or, sun images
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.</strong> This verse reveals the purpose of measured discipline: purging sin. <strong>Iniquity...purged</strong> (<em>avon...yekupar</em>, עָוֺן...יְכֻפַּר) uses...
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(9) **By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.**—The pronoun may refer either to the chastisement of the previous verse as the instrument of purification (preferably), or to the destruction of idols which follows as the result and proof of that purification, the end contemplated by Jehovah in His chastisements.
**This is all the fruit to take away his sin.**—Better, *of taking away...
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12. He says this, lest the sinner should abuse the statement (Ec 7:15), "A wicked man prolongeth his life."
**before him--**literally, "at His presence"; reverently serve Him, realizing His continual presence.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.</strong> After promises of restoration (vv.2-9), this verse describes ongoing desolation of enemy cities. <strong>The defenced city</strong> (<em>ir betsura</em>, עִיר בְּצוּרָה, fortified city) likely re...
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(10) **The defenced city shall be desolate . . .**—The key to this prediction is found in Isaiah 25:2, where the same words occur. The “defenced city” is that of the strangers, who are the enemies of God’s people, and its destruction is contrasted with the restoration of the purified Jerusalem of the preceding verse. To see in the “defenced city” which is to be laid low Jerusalem itself is at vari...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13. neither shall he prolong--**not a contradiction to Ec 8:12. The "prolonging" of his days there is only seeming, not real. Taking into account his eternal existence, his present days, however seemingly long, are really short. God's delay (Ec 8:11) exists only in man's short-sighted view. It gives scope to the sinner to repent, or else to fill up his full measure of guilt; and so, in either ca...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.</strong> This verse continues describing the desolate city, now using agricultural imagery. <strong>When the boughs thereof are withered</stron...
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(11) **When the boughs thereof are withered . . .**—The picture of the wasted city receives another touch. Shrubs cover its open spaces (perhaps the prophet thinks of the gardens and parks within the walls of a city like Babylon), and women come, without fear of trespassing, to gather them for firewood.
**For it is a people of no understanding.**—The words are generic enough, and may be applied, l...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14. An objection is here started (entertained by Solomon in his apostasy), as in Ec 3:16; 7:15, to the truth of retributive justice, from the fact of the just and the wicked not now receiving always according to their respective deserts; a cavil, which would seem the more weighty to men living under the Mosaic covenant of temporal sanctions. The objector adds, as Solomon had said, that the worldli...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.</strong> After judgment on enemies (vv.10-11), focus returns to Israel's restoration. <strong>In that day</strong> points eschatologically to God's final gathering. <strong>The LORD shall beat off</strong> ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **The Lord shall beat off . . .**—The English Version conveys scarcely any meaning. The verb used is that which we find in Isaiah 28:27 for the “beating out” of seeds from their husks, as a form of threshing. In Deuteronomy 24:20 it is used of the beating down of the olive crop. So understood, the words imply a promise, like that of Isaiah 17:6, but on a far wider scale. Instead of the gleani...
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**15. no better thing, &c.--**namely, for the "just" man, whose chief good is religion, not for the worldly.
**abide--**Hebrew, "adhere"; not for ever, but it is the only sure good to be enjoyed from earthly labors (equivalent to "of his labor the days of his life"). Still, the language resembles the skeptical precept (1Co 15:32), introduced only to be refuted; and "abide" is too strong lang...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
Read full commentary →And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.</strong> This climactic verse describes the eschatological gathering. <strong>The great trumpet</strong> (<em>shofar gadol</em>, שׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל)...
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(13) **The great trumpet** **shall be blown . . .**—The symbolism had a probable origin in the silver trumpets which were used in the journeys of the Israelites “for the calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps” (Numbers 10:1-10), and which were solemnly blown in the year of Jubilee on the eve of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9). It re-appears in the Apocalyptic eschatology...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16. Reply to Ec 8:14, 15. When I applied myself to observe man's toils after happiness (some of them so incessant as not to allow sufficient time for "sleep"), then (Ec 8:17, the apodosis) I saw that man cannot find out (the reason of) God's inscrutable dealings with the "just" and with the "wicked" here (Ec 8:14; Ec 3:11; Job 5:9; Ro 11:33); his duty is to acquiesce in them as good, because they ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**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 the...
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