1In that day Jehovah with His great and fierce and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent; Leviathan, that twisted serpent; and He shall kill the dragon in the sea. 2In that day sing to her, a vineyard of desirable wine. 3I, Jehovah, keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4Fury is not in Me; who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would march through them; I would burn them together. 5Or let them take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me. 6He shall cause those who come from Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. 7Has He struck him, as He struck those who struck Him? Is He slain according to the slaughter of those slain by Him? 8In driving and sending her away, you contend with her. He removes His fierce wind, in the day of the east wind. 9Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be atoned; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in pieces, the groves and idols shall not stand. 10Yet the fortified city shall be desolate, and the dwelling forsaken and left like a wilderness; there shall the calf feed, and there shall it lie down and finish off its branches. 11When its branches are dried up, they shall be broken off; the women come and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them, and He who formed them will show them no favor. 12And it shall be in that day that Jehovah will thresh from the flowing stream to the river of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O children of Israel. 13And it shall be in that day that the great shofar shall be blown, and those about to perish in the land of Assyria shall come, along with the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall bow down to Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 CONTINUATION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH, TWENTY-FIFTH, AND TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTERS. (
Ησ. 27:1-
Ησ. 27:13)
sore--rather, "hard," "well-tempered."
leviathan--literally, in Arabic, "the twisted animal," applicable to every great tenant of the waters, sea-serpents, crocodiles, &c. In
Ιεζ. 29:3;
Ιεζ. 32:2;
Δαν. 7:1, &c.
Αποκ. 12:3, &c., potentates hostile to Israel are similarly described; antitypically and ultimately Satan is intended (
Αποκ. 20:10).
piercing--rigid [LOWTH]. Flying [MAURER and Septuagint]. Long, extended, namely, as the crocodile which cannot readily bend back its body [HOUBIGANT].
crooked--winding.
dragon--Hebrew, tenin; the crocodile.
sea--the Euphrates, or the expansion of it near Babylon.
2 In that day when leviathan shall be destroyed, the vineyard (
Ψαλ. 80:8), the Church of God, purged of its blemishes, shall be lovely in God's eyes; to bring out this sense the better, LOWTH, by changing a Hebrew letter, reads "pleasant," "lovely," for "red wine."
sing--a responsive song [LOWTH].
unto her--rather, "concerning her" (see on
Ησ. 5:1); namely, the Jewish state [MAURER].
3 lest any hurt it--attack it [MAURER]. "Lest aught be wanting in her" [HORSLEY].
4 Fury is not in me--that is, I entertain no longer anger towards my vine.
who would set . . . in battle--that is, would that I had the briers, &c. (the wicked foe;
Ησ. 9:18;
Ησ. 10:17;
2Σαμ. 23:6), before me! "I would go through," or rather, "against them."
5 Or--Else; the only alternative, if Israel's enemies wish to escape being "burnt together."
strength--rather, "the refuge which I afford" [MAURER]. "Take hold," refers to the horns of the altar which fugitives often laid hold of as an asylum (
1Βασ. 1:50;
1Βασ. 2:28). Jesus is God's "strength," or "refuge" which sinners must repair to and take hold of, if they are to have "peace" with God (
Ησ. 45:24;
Ρωμ. 5:1;
Εφεσ. 2:14; compare
Ιώβ 22:21).
6 He--Jehovah. Here the song of the Lord as to His vineyard (
Ησ. 27:2-
Ησ. 27:5) ends; and the prophet confirms the sentiment in the song, under the same image of a vine (compare
Ψαλ. 92:13-
Ψαλ. 92:15;
Ωσ. 14:5-
Ωσ. 14:6).
Israel . . . fill . . . world-- (
Ρωμ. 11:12).
7 him . . . those--Israel--Israel's enemies. Has God punished His people as severely as He has those enemies whom He employed to chastise Israel? No! Far from it. Israel, after trials, He will restore; Israel's enemies He will utterly destroy at last.
the slaughter of them that are slain by him--rather, "Is Israel slain according to the slaughter of the enemy slain?" the slaughter wherewith the enemy is slain [MAURER].
8 In measure--not beyond measure; in moderation (
Ιώβ 23:6;
Ψαλ. 6:1;
Ιερ. 10:24;
Ιερ. 30:11;
Ιερ. 46:28).
when it shooteth--image from the vine; rather, passing from the image to the thing itself, "when sending her away (namely, Israel to exile;
Ησ. 50:1, God only putting the adulteress away when He might justly have put her to death), Thou didst punish her" [GESENIUS].
stayeth--rather, as Margin, "when He removeth it by His rough wind in the day," &c.
east wind--especially violent in the East (
Ιώβ 27:21;
Ιερ. 18:17).
9 By this--exile of Israel (the "sending away,"
Ησ. 27:8).
purged--expiated [HORSLEY].
all the fruit--This is the whole benefit designed to be brought about by the chastisement; namely, the removal of his (Israel's) sin (namely, object of idolatry;
Δευτ. 9:21;
Ωσ. 10:8).
when he--Jehovah; at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, His instrument. The Jews ever since have abhorred idolatry (compare
Ησ. 17:8).
not stand up--shall rise no more [HORSLEY].
10 city--Jerusalem; the beating asunder of whose altars and images was mentioned in
Ησ. 27:9 (compare
Ησ. 24:10-
Ησ. 24:12).
calf feed-- (
Ησ. 17:2); it shall be a vast wild pasture.
branches--resuming the image of the vine (
Ησ. 27:2,
Ησ. 27:6).
11 boughs . . . broken off--so the Jews are called (
Ρωμ. 11:17,
Ρωμ. 11:19-
Ρωμ. 11:20).
set . . . on fire--burn them as fuel; "women" are specified, as probably it was their office to collect fuel and kindle the fire for cooking.
no understanding--as to the ways of God (
Δευτ. 32:28-
Δευτ. 32:29;
Ιερ. 5:21;
Ωσ. 4:6).
12 Restoration of the Jews from their dispersion, described under the image of fruits shaken from trees and collected.
beat off--as fruit beaten off a tree with a stick (
Δευτ. 24:20), and then gathered.
river--Euphrates.
stream of Egypt--on the confines of Palestine and Egypt (
Αρ. 34:5;
Ιησ. 15:4,
Ιησ. 15:47), now Wady-el-Arish, Jehovah's vineyard, Israel, extended according to His purpose from the Nile to the Euphrates (
1Βασ. 4:21,
1Βασ. 4:24;
Ψαλ. 72:8).
one by one--gathered most carefully, not merely as a nation, but as individuals.
13 great trumpet--image from the trumpets blown on the first day of the seventh month to summon the people to a holy convocation (
Λευ. 23:24). Antitypically, the gospel trumpet (
Αποκ. 11:15;
Αποκ. 14:6) which the Jews shall hearken to in the last days (
Ζαχ. 12:10;
Ζαχ. 13:1). As the passover in the first month answers to Christ's crucifixion, so the day of atonement and the idea of "salvation" connected with the feast of tabernacles in the same seventh month, answer to the crowning of "redemption" at His second coming; therefore redemption is put last in
1Κορ. 1:30.
Assyria--whither the ten tribes had been carried; Babylonia is mainly meant, to which Assyria at that time belonged; the two tribes were restored, and some of the ten accompanied them. However, "Assyria" is designedly used to point ultimately to the future restoration of the ten fully, never yet accomplished (
Ιερ. 3:18).
Egypt--whither many had fled at the Babylonish captivity (
Ιερ. 41:17-
Ιερ. 41:18). Compare as to the future restoration,
Ησ. 11:11-
Ησ. 11:12,
Ησ. 11:16;
Ησ. 51:9-
Ησ. 51:16 ("Rahab" being Egypt).
The twenty-eighth through thirty-third chapters form almost one continuous prophecy concerning the destruction of Ephraim, the impiety and folly of Judah, the danger of their league with Egypt, the straits they would be reduced to by Assyria, from which Jehovah would deliver them on their turning to Him; the twenty-eighth chapter refers to the time just before the sixth year of Hezekiak's reign, the rest not very long before his fourteenth year.