Isaiah 27:8

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it,.... Or, "when he sendeth it forth" (x); when God sends forth an affliction on his people, or gives it a commission to them, as all are

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

In measure; with moderation, in certain proportions which God meteth out and fitteth to their strength. When it shooteth forth; when the vine shooteth forth its luxuriant branches, he, like the vine-dresser, cutteth them off, but so as not to spoil or destroy the vine. Or, as divers interpreters render it, and the word properly and frequently signifies, in or by casting, or dismissing, or sending her or it out; or, when thou dost cast or send her out, to wit, out of her own land, in which she was planted, into captivity. He alludes to a man that divorceth his wife, which is expressed by this word; but withal intimates that this shall not be peremptory and perpetual, as other divorces were. Thou wilt debate with it; God is said to debate or contend with men, when he executeth his judgments upon them, as . He stayeth his rough wind; he mitigateth the severity of the judgment. But I must confess I do not meet with any of the ancient or modern translators that agree with ours in this version; nor is the Hebrew verb used, so far as I know, in the signification of staying or restraining; besides, our translation takes no notice of the Hebrew preposition. But this word unquestionably signifies to remove or take away, as ,5, and thus most interpreters understand it. And so the place is very fitly thus rendered, he (or, when he, which particle may easily be understood out of the former clause, as is usual) removeth (understand either it, to wit, the vine; or them, to wit; the enemies of God and his people. And so this agreeth with the former verse, in representing the different way of God’ s proceeding against his people, and his and their enemies. Either way there is only a defect of the pronoun, which I have before showed in divers places to be very usual in the Hebrew language) with or by his rough wind; by which sometimes vines and other trees are pulled up by the roots, as that did, , whereby he understands his most terrible judgments. In the day of the east wind; in the time when he sendeth forth his east wind; which he mentions, because that wind in those parts was most violent, and most hurtful to trees and fruits, as hath been oft observed, and therefore is used to signify the most grievous calamities.

Isaiah 27:8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.Ver. 8. In measure.] Heb., Modio i.e., exigua mensura, in a small measure (by peck peck), and as his people are able to bear; ad emendationem, non ad internecionem. When it shooteth forth.] Or, In the branches; not at the root, as God smiteth at a wicked man, resolving to have him down. See here his different dealing with his own and others. Upon his children he doth but sprinkle a parcel of his wrath, some few sparks of his displeasure, but the wicked he utterly consumeth and burneth up with the fire of his indignation. Thou wilt debate with it.] Deiudicabis, will give final judgment, thou wilt put a difference, or "discern between the righteous and the wicked." He stayeth his rough wind, &c., ] i.e., Such afflictions as would shake his plants too much, or quite blow them down. But he letteth out of his treasury, even he who "holdeth the winds in his fist," such a wind as shall make them fruitful, and blow away their unkindly blossoms and leaves. In the day of the east wind.] That boisterous and blasting and blustering wind, this Euroclydon. Dr Godwyn. Flagella tantum quaedam decutiuntur. - Scultet.

(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 debate With it.—Better, When thou didst put her away, thou didst plead with her. The prophet falls back upon the thought of Hosea 1-3, that Israel was the adulterous wife to whom Jehovah had given, as it were, a bill of divorcement, but against whom He did not carry the pleadings to the furthest point that the rigour of the law allowed. Comp. for this meaning Isaiah 1:1; Deuteronomy 24:1; Malachi 2:16. He stayeth his rough wind . . .—The words have become familiar, as expressing the loving-kindness which will not heap chastisement on chastisement, lest a man should be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow, which keeps the “rough wind” from completing the devastation already wrought by the scorching “east wind.” That rendering, however, can scarcely be maintained. The word translated “stay” is found elsewhere in Proverbs 25:4-5, and there has the sense of “separating,” or “sifting.” And this is its sense here also, the thought expressed asserting, though in another form than the traditional rendering, the compassion of Jehovah, in that He sifts with his rough wind in the day of east wind; though punishment come on punishment, it is reformatory, and not simply penal, to sift, and not to destroy. A rendering accepted by some critics gives, He sigheth with His rough wind, as though with a sorrowing pity mingled with the chastisement.

8. A very difficult verse. The first word in the Hebr. is supposed to be a contracted reduplication of ṣ ?ìâh (the third part of an ephah); hence “by seah and seah” = “in exact measure,” “dealing out punishment in carefully adjusted quantities” (Cheyne and Kay). But this cannot be right. A better, though still precarious, sense is reached by the help of a word (sa’sa’a) which the Arabs use in driving animals. The first half of the verse would thus read: By driving her forth, by sending her away, thou contendest with her (i.e. Israel). The allusion is to the Exile, and perhaps the figure may be that of a divorced wife. The last clause reads: he hath removed (her) with his rough blast in a day of east wind (nearly as R.V.).

In measure ... - This verse in our translation is exceedingly obscure, and indeed almost unintelligible. Nor is it much more intelligible in Lowth, or in Noyes; in the Vulgate, or the Septuagint.

7, 8. Him — That is, Israel. The question, in form, calls for a negative answer. Not to the degree God has punished his enemies has he punished Israel. He has punished in measure, only moderately.