Isaiah 27

IN that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan What kind of Creature the Leviathan is, see in my Notes on Iob 41. 1, &c. Whence it is evident, that it was a very great and terrible Sea-monster. But here it is certain that the Expression is metaphorical, and that by this Leviathan, Serpent, and Dragon, (for all signifie the same thing) he understands some very powerful Enemy or Enemies (for the Singular Number may be here put for the Plural, as it is in many other places) of God, and of his Church or People, which may well be called by these Names, partly for their great Might, and partly for the great Terrour and Destruction which they cause upon the Earth, as the Leviathan does in the Sea. He seems to have a special respect to some particular Enemy and Oppressor of God's People; either the Assyrian Emperour, who now was so; or rather the Babylonian, who should be so. Some understand this of the Devil: But although it may be applied to him in a mystical sense, it seems to be literally meant of some potent and visible Adversary; which seems more agreeable to the following Verses, and to the Usage of this and other Prophets. the piercing serpent Which by its Sting pierceth quickly and deeply into Mens Bodies. Or, the bar (as this Word is elsewhere used) serpent, as this may be called, either for its length, or strength, or swift motion., even Leviathan that crooked serpent Win... ing and turning it self with great variety and dexterity. Whereby he seems to signifie the Craftiness and Activity of this Enemy, which being added to his Strength, makes it more formidable., and he shall slay the dragon Or rather, the whale, as this Word is rendred Gen. 1. 21. Iob 7. 12. and elsewhere; which agrees better with the following Words, that is in the sea, which possibly were added only to limit that general and ambiguous Word to a Sea-monster, and not to describe the Place in which the Enemy signified by this Dragon had his abode. Although the sea, which here follows, may be metaphorically understood of the great largeness of his Empire, and the multitude of his Subjects, by comparing this with Revel. 17. 1, 15. that is in the sea.

In that day When this potent Enemy shall be destroyed. sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine The Words in the Hebrew Text lie thus, A vineyard (Behold, a vineyard; or, Iacob or Israel my Church and People, which is sufficiently understood from the next Verse, and is expressed v. 6. shall be a vineyard, shall be defended and dressed, shall thrive and flourish like a Vineyard) of red wine (i. e. of the choicest and best Wine, which in those Parts was Red, as appears both from Scripture, as Prov. 23. 31. whence it is called the blood of the grape, Gen. 49. 11. Deut. 32. 14. and from other Authors) sing ye (O you faithful Souls, sing with Joy and Thanksgiving to God) to (or of, or concerning, as this Prefix is elsewhere used) her, or it, to wit, the Vineyard or Church, (which is frequently compared to a Vineyard, as Psal. 80. 8. Isa. 5. 7. and elsewhere) now delivered from her great Enemy, and blessed with Peace and Prosperity..

I the LORD do keep it I will secure it, that neither Men, nor Beasts, nor Drought shall spoil it; which alone are the things that can hurt it. I will protect my Church from all the Assaults of her Enemies, and supply her with all necessary Provisions, with my Ordinances, and with my Spirit and Grace., I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

Fury To wit, against my Vineyard, or my People; which is easily understood both from the foregoing and following Verses. I have been displeased with them, and have chastised them; but I am not implacable towards them, and resolved utterly to destroy them, as their Enemies are, and would have me to be. is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battel? I would go through them, I would burn them together This is added as a Reason of the foregoing Clause and Assertion; which may be conceived either, 1. thus, I rather desire to contend with Briars and Thorns, i. e. with the wicked Enemies of my Church, who... hus called Isa. 10. 17. Ezek. 28. 24. and if my Wrath now kindled against them, as it is against my People i would be furious towards them, and never leave till utterly consumed them; but I will deal more indulgently with my People. Which Exposition seems to receive some and strength from v. 6, 7, 8. Or, 2. thus, For I consider the weakness of my People, that if I should let loose my Fury upon them, they could no more stand before me, than Briars and Thorns (to which God's People, when they fall into Sin, and provoke God, are not unfitly resembled) can stand before a devouring Fire, and therefore they would in an instant be utterly destroyed; which I will not do. And this Consideration of Mans Imbecillity is elsewhere alledged as a Reason of God's Indulgence, as Psal. 103. 13, 14, 15, 16. Isa. 57. 16. But this I deliver with submission..

Or Or if at any time Fury be, or seem to be in me against my Vineyard or People. let him My People, as is clearly implied from the following Words; for, there is no peace to those who are not God's People, or to the wicked, Isa. 57. 21. and is expressed in the following Verse. take hold of my strength i. e. Take hold of my Arm, which is metonymically called strength, and stay it from giving the Blow, not by Force, which is impossible, but by humble Submission and earnest Supplication. Or, strengthen himself or be strong (as this Word properly signifies, and is elsewhere used) by my strength; not by his own Strength, which he will oppose to mine, but by my Strength, which he may by humble and frequent Prayers not only restrain from doing him hurt, but effectually engage to assist him, and do him good. He seems to allude to that History of Iacob's wrestling with the Angel of God, Gen. 32. 28. which he could never have done but by a Strength received from God., that he may make peace with me That in stead of opposing me, he may in this manner reconcile himself to me. Or, and he shall make peace with me, as the same Words are rendred in the next Clause; which may be repeated to assure them of that great and important Favour, that God would make Peace with them. Or, the Words may be rendred in both Clauses, let him make peace with me, yea let him make peace with me, this Future Verb being taken Imperatively, as the other is in the former clause of the Verse., and he shall make peace with me.

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root To be firmly setled in their Possessions, and not tossed hither and thither, as they have been.: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit Their Posterity shall be so numerous, that their own Land shall not be sufficient for them, but they shall be forced to seek Habitations in other Countries, and shall replenish them with People. But this seems to be understood of the Spiritual Seed of Iacob, or of Believers, who are oft called God's Israel, as Rom. 9. 6. and elsewhere..

Has he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him The Question implies a Denial; He has not so smitten him, to wit, Iacob. He has not dealt so severely with his People, as he has dealt with his and their Enemies, whom he has utterly destroyed. This may look either, 1. backward upon Times past. If you consult former Experiences, you will find, that God has done so, has spared and restored his People, and in Judgment remembred Mercy to them, when he has totally ruined their Enemies; or, 2. forward upon the time to come, of which he speaks as of a thing past, after the manner of the Prophets, and of which he speaks in the next Verse.? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him Of those who were slain by Israel, or rather by God at the Prayer and on the behalf of Israel. Heb. of his slain ones, i. e. of those of his Smiters or Enemies who were slain. Which Exposition is favoured by comparing this with the foregoing Clause.?

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 Vinedresser, 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 Isa. 49. 25. & 57. 16. Amos 7. 4.: 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 ever 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 2 Sam. 20. 13. Prov. 25. 4, 5. and thus most Interpreters understand it. And so the Place is very fitly thus rendred, be (or, when be, 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 1 Kings 19. 11. 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 has been oft observed, and therefore is used to signifie the most grievous Calamities..

By this By this manner of God's dealing with his People. therefore That the difference between Iacob and his Enemies, in their several Sufferings, may appear. shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Heb. expiated or forgiven upon their true Repentance, which shall be the happy effect of their Chastisement., and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin The effect hereof shall not be to destroy the Sinner, as it is in other Men, but only to take away the guilt and power of their Sins.: * when he maketh Which Sin of Iacob's shall be purged and taken away, and the Judgment removed, when he shall truly repent of all his Sins, and especially of his Idolatry, to which they were most inclined, and for which the most of God's Judgments which they had hitherto felt had been inflicted upon them. all the stones of the altar Which by an usual Enallage may be put for the Altars, to wit, their Idolatrous Altars, as is evident from the following Words. Possibly he may say the altar with respect to that particular Altar which Ahaz had set up in the place of God's own Altar; and this Prophecy might be delivered either to the Prophet, or by him to the People, in Ahaz his time, while that Altar stood and was used. as chalk-stones When he shall break all those goodly Altars in pieces, which God by his Law had enjoyned. that are beaten in sunder Which kind of Stones are of themselves apt to break into small pieces, and by the Artificer are broken into smaller pieces for making Mortar. He seems to allude to that Fact of Moses, who, to show his detestation of Idolatry, took the golden calf, and burnt it, and ground it to powder; and intimates, that when their Repentance should be sincere, it would discover it self by their Zeal in destroying the Instruments of their Idolatry., the groves Which were frequently erected to the Honour of Idols, of which we have many Instances in Scripture, which God therefore commanded his People to destroy, Deut. 7. 5. & 12. 3. and ‖ images shall not stand up Shall be thrown down with Contempt and Indignation..

Yet Yet before this glorious Promise concerning the removal of Israel's Sin and Calamity be fulfilled, a dreadful and desolating Judgment shall first come upon them. the defenced city Ierusalem and the rest of the Defenced Cities in the Land, the Singular Number being put for the Plural. shall be desolate, and the habitation The most inhabited and populous Places. Or, as the Hebrew Word properly signifies, their pleasant habitations, whether in the City or Country. forsaken and left like a wilderness Which was fulfilled in the time of the Babylonish Captivity.: there shall the calf Which is Synechdochically put for all sorts of Cattel, which may securely feed there, because there shall be no Men left to disturb or annoy them. feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof Of their pleasant Habitation; of the young Trees which shall grow up in that ruinated Country..

When the boughs thereof are withered When they shall begin to wither, as they will when they are thus gnawed and cropped by Cattel., they shall be broken off That there may be no hopes nor possibility of their Recovery.: the women He mentions women, either because it is their usual Work in the Country to make Fires, and to gather Fewel for them; or to signifie, that the Men should be generally destroyed. come and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding They do not understand either me or themselves, either my Word or Works; they know not the things which concern their own Peace and Happiness, but like bruit Beasts, made to be destroyed, they blindly and wilfully go on in those Courses which will bring them to certain ruine.: therefore he that made them Both as they are Creatures, and as they are his People; for this also is expressed by making or forming, as Psal. 100. 3. & 102. 18. & 149. 2. Thus he overthroweth their false and presumptuous Conceits, that God would never destroy the Work of his own Hands, nor the Seed of Abraham his Friend for ever, and plainly declareth the contrary., will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them, will show them no favour.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off Or, shall beat out: Which is not meant in a way of Punishment, which is rather designed by threshing, as Isa. 21. 10. & 25. 10. than by beating; but as an Act of Mercy, as is evident from the following Clause of this, and from the next Verse. It is a Metaphor from some Grains which were beaten our with a Rod or Staff, of which see Isa. 28. 27, 28. and then were carefully gathered and laid up for the use of man. from the chanel of the river unto the stream of Egypt From Euphrates to Nilus, which were the two Borders of the Land of Promise, Ios. 1. 4. & 13. 3. All the Israelites which are left in the Land; which are here opposed to those of them that are dispersed into Foreign Parts, such as Assyria and Egypt., and ye shall be gathered one by one Which signifies either the smallness of the Remnant of that numerous People; or rather God's exact and singular Care of them, that not one of them should be lost., O ye children of Israel.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet Which may be heard even to the remotest Parts of the Earth. God shall summon them all together as it were by Sound of Trumpet, to wit, by an eminent Call or Act of his Providence on their behalf. He alludes to the Custom of calling the Israelties together with Trumpets; of which see Numb. 10. 2, 3. shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria Where the Ten Tribes were carried Captive., and the out-casts in the land of Egypt Where many of the Iews were, as is manifest both from Scripture, as Ier. 43. 7. & 44 28. Hos. 8. 13. Zech. 10. 10. and from other Authors., and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.