Isaiah 27
PATlive, and rise again; see ver. 19- of this chapter. The prophet sees, the destruction of the wicked by faith, and speaks of it as a thing already done, (see note on xxi. 9.) though i( be not yet brought to pass. (Compare ver. 19. 21.) Therefore thou hast visited and destroyed them.] Or rather, because thou hast visited, &c. So tho particle lahenis used, Numb. x. 31. xiv. 43…. ARGUMENT. This chapter treats of the same subject with the two former, and describes that happy state of the church, when Satan and his agents shall be subdued, the church shall be enlarged and purged from idolatry, and the Jews shall be restored; all which are circumstances attending those glorious days, which the prophets often, foretell shall come to pass at or near the end of the world*..CHAP* XXVII.] UPpN ISAIAH;.
Isaiah 27:1
JlN that day the Lord; with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish leviathan. Tyrants and oppressors are often resembled to whales and other sea monsters, which devour the lesser fry: thus Pharaoh is called the leviathan, and the dragon or. whale in the waters; (Psal. lxxiv. 13, 14. Isa. li. 9. Ezek. xxix. 3.) and so the expressions of this verse denote in general those worldly potentates, who have been the noted oppressors of God’s people, and are, indeed, the instruments and types of Sa-; tan, so often celled the serpent in Scripture, to whom some interpreters apply the expressions here. (See the following note.) The piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.] The Hebrew word beriah, which our English translates piercing, is rcn-* dered in the margin crossing; i. e. having his mouth run out in length like a bar: it signifies likewise running away, and so it is rendered here by the Scptuagint. But in Job xxvi. •13. where the same phrase occurs, they render it Ap&Kovra tov’A7ro<rrari7v, the apostate dragon, as if they understood it of the ddvil. The word serpent is sometimes taken for a water animal: (see Amos ix. 13.) in which sense it is used here, and ranked with leviathan, and the dragon or whale’that is in the sea. The word tannin signifies any great fish, such as a whale, and so is plainly taken Gen. i. 21. and Psal. cxlviii. 7. Praise the Lord ye whales (not dragons) and all deeps. Bochart thinks it sometimes signifies a crocodile, particularly Ezek. xxix. 3. xxxii. 2. The word is very fitly rendered sea-monsters, by our translators, Lam. iv. 3.
Isaiah 27:2
In that day, sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine, I, the Lord, do keep it, &c. The church is often compared to a vineyard; (see v. 1. Jen ii. 21. Matt. xxi. 33.) and red wine was esteemed the best and most generous sort of wine. (Sec.Prow xxiii. 31.) The import of these two verses is. That when -the enemies of God’s people are destroyed, among other songs and thanksgivings to God, this acknowledgment shall be made to the praise of God, and of the church which he protects, that as she is fruitful in all good works, so God continually watches over her and defends her from danger. (Compare Psal. Ixxx. • Vcr. 4. Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and < thorns against me in battle, Sec] These arc still the words of God, who speaks to this purpose; Though fury doth not belong to mc, and vengeance be called my strange work: (xxviii. 21.) yet if the briers and thorns, i. e. the wicked •and incorrigible, bid defiance to me, they will find I shall soon destroy and consume them like fire; an instance of which I have given in the judgments mentioned xxvi. 21. xxvii. 1. By briers and thorns are meant sinners. (See note on ix. 18.)
Isaiah 27:5
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, &c. Or rather, let such a one return to mc, and make his peace with me, who am a sure refuge and strength to all that fly to me for succour. (Sec xxv.4.) - Ver. G. He shall cause them. that come of Jacob, to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud.] Compare xxxvii. 31. • Hos< xiv. 5, G. The words may be rendered, In times to •come he shall cause Jacob to take root. And fill the face of the world luithfndt.] Compare iv. 2. These, and the foregoing words, arc a description of the flourishing state of the Jews after their conversion, ^vhich shall be as new life from the dead, as St. Paul expresses it, (Rom.xi.l5.)andshalIoccaSion the fulness of the gentiles Coming inlo the church. All that Mr. White will have to be meant by these expressions is^ that the Jews x after Sennacherib’s overthrow, shall flourish again, and grow populous. The sense, he owns, must make the expressions very hyperbolical, or^lse his interpretation will hardly pass for a literal one. • v
Isaiah 27:7
Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him?. Him, that is, Israel: God never makes an utter destruction of his people, but always preserveth a remnant: (see note on i. 9.) whereas his enemies he threatens with utter destruction, and oftentimes puts the sentence in execution, as in the case of Amalek, (E*od. Xvii. 14. Numb. xxiv.20. ISam. xv. 3.) ■.
Isaiah 27:8
In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. The execution of God’s judgments is expressed by God’s having a controversy with his people, (Hos. iv. 1. Micah vi. 2.) which yet will be in measure, or with moderation, as the prophet here speaks. Some expositors think that the word beshallekah, which our English renders, when it shooteth forth, is a metaphor taken from the art of pruning, as if the prophet had said, God will cut off the superfluous branches, but spare the main body of the tree. Grotius renders the word, when thou sendest [the people] into captivity; and explains it, That God would not utterly destroy them in a foreign land, but preserve a remnant to return, and repossess their native country*. He stayeth his rough tvind in the day of the east wind.] That is, in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy. The east wind may allude to the shooting forth of the branches, mentioned in the foregoing words; that wind being very prejudicial to tender shoots. The east wind being a dry blasting wind, elsewhere signifies the calamities of war, and such-like wasting judgments." (Sec Jer. iv. 11. Ezek. xvii. 10. xix. 12. Hos. xiii. 15.)
Isaiah 27:9
By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin [or, of taking’away his sin. ; when hemakes all the stones of the aU tar as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder.] This shall be the most remarkable effect of that reformation, which God’s chastisements shall produce; viz. the abolishing of all the monuments of idolatry, such as altars, groves, and images. (Sec xvii, 8.) The word altar, in the singular number, is taken distributively, for any altar, concerning which phrase, see the note on xxvi. 19. These altar-stones, the prophet saith, shall be beaten to dust like chalk-stones, in order to the abolishing the very memory of idolatrous worship. So Moses ground the golden calf to powder, (see Exod. xxxii. 20. Dcut. ix. 21*) and Asa stamped his mother’s idol to pieces, (2 Chron. xv. 1G.) It hath been already observed, that when the prophets speak of an entire reformation, they always mention the utter abolishing of idolatry, especially out of the church, as if that w r crc one of the last enemies of God’s truth that should be destroyed. (Sec the note on i. 29.) The groves and images shall not stand up.] Or, so that the groves and images may not rise again. The Hebrew language wants the potential or subjunctive mood, whichis often supplied by the future tense. (Sec a like instance, vii. 25. V^r. 10. Yet the defenced city shall be forsaken, &c] The
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou.hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Thou hast spread or enlarged the church, called tho righteous nation, ver. 2. (Compare ix. 3.) Here too the expressions are in the preter-perfect tense, as in the foregoing verse; but the words will be signally verified, when all God’s enemies shall be made his footstool, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ, (Rev. xi. 15.).
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. Or, remembered thee: this and the two following verses represent the sense of God’s people under their afflictions..
Like as a woman with child that draweth near the time of her travail is in pain, &e. A comparison often used to express men’s consternation under public calamities. (See xiii. 8. Psal. xlviii. 6. Jer. iv. 31. vi. 24. xxx. 6. Hos.xiii. 13.),
We have as it were brought forth wind, we have not brought any deliverance in the earth. The latter part of the sentence explains the former: We have had no good issue, saith the prophet, of all our pangs and throes; they did not produce ease and deliverance, as in the case of travailing, women, but all our own labours proved abortive; in vain we struggled with our enemies, who are still too mighty for’ us, and it is from God alone we must expect our deliverance., To bring forth wind, is much the same phrase with feeding upon wind, and reaping wind, (Hos. viii. 7. xii. 1.) and signifies to take a great deal of jiains to no purpose. * " -Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.] By our means: tho inhabitants of the world mean the same as the, men of the worlds Psal. xvii. 14. The world is often taken for the “wicked, who make the greatest part of the world, and have the greatest share in it. See John vii. 7. xii. 31. xv. 18. xvi. 8. xvii. 14. 16. 25.. Ver.’ 19. Thy dead men shall live.] This and the following verses contain God’s answer to the former complaints of his people: wherein he promiseth thein a revival, or new life, after all their miseries, which had brought them to death’s door.. The restoration of the Jews, whether after the Babylonish captivity, or after their dispersions in following times, is represented as arising again from the dead by Ezekicl, xxxvii.l, &c. And perhaps this verse may in its primary sense mean no more; especially if the last sentence of it, which our English renders, and the earth shall cast out the dead, be thus translated, but thou wilt cast down the land of the oppressors; which sense is followed by the Septuagint: the word rephaim, which is translated the dead in our English version, both here and in the fourteenth verse, signifies originally giants, and from thence is applied to wicked men or oppressors. But I doubt not but this verse was ono of those texts upon which the anpicnt Jews grounded their belief of the resurrection, the hope of which was founded upon tho writings of the law and the prophets^ as St. Paul tells them, Acts xxiv. 14. And the Jews from ancient time? have used the “words “of a text parallel to this, lxvi. 14. as a form over a person interred, at the same time throwing gTass into the grave, as in some places with us they do rosemary, to testify their belief of a resurrection: and this is what tho true and genuine sense of the words plainly imports. Together with my dead body shall they arise.] The Hebrew runs thus, my dead body [or bodies] shall arise: the noun is in the singular number, arid the verb in the plural; so the singular is taken distributively for every dead body; just as it is Psal. xii. 7. " Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve him from this generation for ever:”, where the word him is taken for every one of them, as tho sense is explained in the margin. These two sentences, thy dead men shall live, and my dead bodies shall arise, are equivalent; they are called the church’s dead in the former sentence, as being members of that mystical body, and God * or Christ’s dead in the latter sentence, from the interest he hath in them, and because he hath promised to raise them up at the last day. (See John vi. 39.)
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. The words are an allusion to that command given to the Israelites in Egypt, not to go out of the doors of their houses till morning, when the destroying angel was to pass through the land of Egypt, (Exod. xii. 22, 23.) So God here promises to be a hiding-place to his people in the midst of those terrible judgments which should destroy his adversaries: this probably may be meant of those days of extraordinary trouble at the end of the world, spoken of Dan. xii. 1. Matt. xxiv. 21. in which many of the righteous should bo saved, but so as by fire; i.e. by passing through a fiery trial; but tho wicked should be finally destroyed;* (2 Pet.’ iii. 7.) Whereupon the righteous are described as coming out of great tribulation, Rev. vii. 14. (See notes on ver. 6. of this, chapter, and iv. 2. 4. and compare xxiv. 13, 14.)
For behold the Lord cometh out of his place. God is elsewhere described as coming down from heaven to Judgment, because of the visible effects of his power and presence upon earth. (See Micah i. 3.) To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.] These are called the inhabitants of the world,ver. 18. (See the note there.) These expressions, ^especially when compared with the context, must be of a larger extent, than barely to signify the Assyrian army destroyed before Jerusalem, (x’xxvii. 36.) as Grotius and some others would confine the sense of the words. The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.] The number of the slain shall be so great, that the earth can neither give them burial, nor soak up their blood. (Compare xxxiv. 3. lxvi. 16. Rev. xiv. 20.)