Isaiah 27:2-11

2 On that day: A pleasant vineyard, sing about it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. I guard it night and day so that no one can harm it;
4 I have no wrath. If it gives me thorns and briers, I will march to battle against it. I will burn it up.
5 Or else let it cling to me for protection, let it make peace with me, let it make peace with me.
6 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has he struck them down as he struck down those who struck them? Or have they been killed as their killers were killed?
8 By expulsion, by exile you struggled against them; with his fierce blast he removed them in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore 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 sacred poles or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; the calves graze there, there they lie down, and strip its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without understanding; therefore he that made them will not have compassion on them, he that formed them will show them no favor.

Isaiah 27:2-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 27

This chapter refers to the same times as the two foregoing ones Isa 25:1-26:21; and is a continuation of the same song, or rather a new one on the same occasion; it is prophetical of the last times, and of what shall be done in them, as the destruction of the antichristian powers, and Satan at the head of them, Isa 27:1 the happy state of the church, and its fruitfulness under the care and protection of the Lord, and his affection for it, Isa 27:2-4 its peace, prosperity, and flourishing condition, Isa 27:5,6 the nature, use, and end of all its afflictions and chastisements, Isa 27:7-9 the ruin and destruction of the city of Rome, and its inhabitants, and of its whole jurisdiction, Isa 27:10,11 a great gathering and conversion of the Lord's people, both Jews and Gentiles, by the ministry of the Gospel, Isa 27:12,13.

Footnotes 3

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.