27:1“That day” is a reference to the end of the evil world as we know it. In ancient Aramean (Ugaritic) literature, Leviathan was a seven-headed monster, the enemy of God’s created order. Thus, Isaiah is comparing God’s slaughter of the wicked to the conquering of a great enemy. Although evil is a powerful foe, God will crush it and abolish it from the earth forever.
Life Application Study BibleIsaiahChapter 27
Isaiah 27
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1130, 1131
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
27Isaiah 27
1In that day the LORD will take his terrible, swift sword and the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He I of the sea.
2“Tn that day,sing about the fruitful vineyard.
3I, the LORD, will watch over it,watering it carefully.Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.
4My anger will be gone.If I find briers and thorns growing,I will attack them;I will burn them up—5 unless they turn to me for help.Let them make peace with me;yes, let thern make peace with me.”
6The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.Israel will bud and blossomand fill the whole earth with fruit!
7Has the LORD struck Israelas he struck her enemies?Has he punished heras he punished them?
8No, but he exiled Israel to call her to account.She was exiled from her landas though blown away in a storm from the east.
9The LORD did this to purge Israel’s* wickedness,to take away all her sin.Asa result, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust.No Asherah pole or pagan shrine will be left standing.
10The fortified towns will be silent and empty,the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds.Calves will graze there,chewing on twigs and branches.
11The people are like the dead branches of a tree,broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots.Israel is a foolish and stupid nation,for its people have turned away from God.Therefore, the one who made themwill show them no pity or mercy.
12Yet the time will come when the LORD will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them—from the Euphrates River* in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west. 13In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the LORD on his holy mountain.
4. Jerusalem’s true and false hopes
A Message about Samaria
2 8 1 What sorrow awaits the proud city of Samaria—the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel.*It sits at the head of a fertile valley,but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower.It is the pride of a peoplebrought down by wine.? For the LORD will send a mighty army against it.Like a mighty hailstorm and a torrential rain,they will burst upon it like a surging floodand smash it to the ground.3 The proud city of Samaria—the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel*—will be trampled beneath its enemies’ feet.
Textual footnotes
- literature.
- glory of the drunks of Ephraim, referring to Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.
- crowning glory of the drunks of Ephraim; see note on 28:1.
- 27:1 The identification of Leviathan is disputed, ranging from an earthly creature to a mythical sea monster in ancient
- 27:9 Hebrew Jacob's. See note on 14:1.
- 27:12 Hebrew the river.
Life Application Notes 4 notes
27:2-6The trampled vineyard of chapter 5 will be restored in God’s new earth. God will protect and care for the vineyard, his people. It will no!onger produce worthless fruit but will produce enough good fruit for the whole world. Gentiles will come to know God through Israel.
27:9Only God can take away sin, but to be driven out of the land was considered the penalty that would purify God’s people. Deuteronomy 28:49-52, 64 explains God's warning about these consequences.
27:11Isaiah compares the state of israel’s spiritual life with dead branches of a tree that are broken off and used to make tires. Trees in Scripture often represent spiritual life. The trunk is the channel of strength from God; the branches are the people who serve him. Tree branches sometimes waver and blow in the wind. Like Israel, they may dry up from internal rottenness and become useless for anything except building a fire. What kind of branch are you? If you are withering spiritually, check to see if you are.firmly attached to God.