Isaiah 27
27
The Judgment and Deliverance of Israel
1On that day,
The Lord will punish with his sword
that is cruel, great, and strong,
Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan the coiled serpent;
he will slay the dragon#Leviathan…dragon: the description of Leviathan is almost identical to a passage from a much earlier Ugaritic text. The sea dragon became a symbol of the forces of evil which God vanquishes even as he overcame primeval chaos; cf. notes on 30:7; 51:9–10; Jb 3:8; 7:12; no power can challenge God. Leviathan is even spoken of playfully in Ps 104:26. in the sea.#Jb 40:25–32; Ps 74:12–14; Ez 32:2.
2#This passage mitigates the harsh words on Israel as the Lord’s vineyard in 5:1–7; here is given the rain there withheld, though Israel’s welfare is still made dependent on fidelity. On that day—
The pleasant vineyard, sing about it!#Is 5:1; Am 5:11.
3I, the Lord, am its keeper,
I water it every moment;
Lest anyone harm it,
night and day I guard it.#Is 5:2–7.
4I am not angry.
But if I were to find briers and thorns,
In battle I would march against it;
I would burn it all.#Is 10:17.
5But if it holds fast to my refuge,
it shall have peace with me;#Jb 22:21.
it shall have peace with me.
6In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall sprout and blossom,
covering all the world with fruit.#Is 37:31–32; Hos 14:5–6.
7#Israel was not treated as sternly as were its enemies whom God used to punish it. God did, however, drive Israel from its land, and if it wants to make peace with God, it must change its former cultic practices, destroying its altars and sacred groves (cf. 17:7–11). Was he smitten as his smiter was smitten?
Was he slain as his slayer was slain?
8Driving out and expelling, he struggled against it,
carrying it off with his cruel wind on a day of storm.#Jer 18:17.
9This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob’s guilt,
this the result of removing his sin:
He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars
like pieces of chalk;
no asherahs or incense altars shall stand.
10For the fortified city shall be desolate,
an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness;
There calves shall graze, there they shall lie down,
and consume its branches.
11When its boughs wither, they shall be broken off;
and women shall come to kindle fires with them.
For this is not an understanding people;
therefore their maker shall not spare them;
their creator shall not be gracious to them.#Is 1:3; 5:13; Jer 4:22.
12On that day,
The Lord shall beat out grain
from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you shall be gleaned#Gleaned: God will harvest his people who have been scattered from Assyria to Egypt. Note the same language of gleaning to describe the remnant of the Northern Kingdom in 17:5–6. one by one, children of Israel.
13On that day,#The remnant of Israel will return to Jerusalem for worship; cf. 11:10–16.
A great trumpet shall blow,
and the lost in the land of Assyria
and the outcasts in the land of Egypt
Shall come and worship the Lord
on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.#Is 11:11–16.
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Isaiah 27: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Isaiah 27
27
1In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2In that day:
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest any one harm it,
I guard it night and day;
4I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would set out against them,
I would burn them up together.
5Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6In days to come#27.6 Heb Those to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7Has he smitten them as he smote those who smote them?
Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8Measure by measure,#27.8 Compare Syr Vg Tg: The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown by exile thou didst contend with them;
he removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
9Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes,
there he lies down, and strips its branches.
11When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them,
he that formed them will show them no favor.
12In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. 13#Mt 24.31; 1 Cor 15.52; 1 Thess 4.16. And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America