Isaiah 27

KJV · Chapter 27/66

1In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

3I the Lord do 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 go through them, I would burn them together.

5Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

7Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

12And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God promises to defeat 'Leviathan,' a symbol of chaotic and hostile forces, and to care for Israel like a carefully guarded vineyard. The chapter ends with the promise that Israel's scattered people, both from Assyria and from Egypt, will one day return to worship in Jerusalem.

Explanation

'Leviathan' was a mythological sea creature mentioned in various cultures of the ancient Near East (it also appears in Job 41 and Psalm 74) as a symbol of chaos and evil; here Isaiah promises that God will decisively defeat these hostile forces, whether oppressive nations or spiritual evil itself. The return of the vineyard image (already used in chapter 5) now shows God tending it with constant care, a contrast with the neglected and destroyed vineyard of before — a sign of restoration. The final promise to gather the exiles 'with a great trumpet' from Assyria and Egypt anticipates the people's physical return to their land, something that would be fulfilled centuries later. The application today is that God has power over all forces that seem uncontrollable, and his promise of restoration includes gathering what was scattered.

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