1 In that day lay a charge doth Jehovah, With his sword -- the sharp, and the great, and the strong, On leviathan -- a fleeing serpent, And on leviathan -- a crooked serpent, And He hath slain the dragon that `is' in the sea.
For by fire and by His sword, Doth Jehovah do judgment with all flesh. And many have been Jehovah's pierced ones.'
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah, Awake, as `in' days of old, generations of the ages, Art not Thou it that is hewing down Rahab, Piercing a dragon!
Speak, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I `am' against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt! The great dragon that is crouching in the midst of his floods, Who hath said, My flood `is' my own, And I -- I have made it `for' myself.
Thou hast broken by Thy strength a sea-`monster', Thou hast shivered Heads of dragons by the waters, Thou hast broken the heads of leviathan, Thou makest him food, For the people of the dry places.
and the rest were killed with the sword of him who is sitting on the horse, which `sword' is proceeding out of his mouth, and all the birds were filled out of their flesh.
`Reform! and if not, I come to thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
And there came one of the seven messengers, who were having the seven vials, and he spake with me, saying to me, `Come, I will shew to thee the judgment of the great whore, who is sitting upon the many waters,
and I saw `come' out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs --
and they did bow before the dragon who did give authority to the beast, and they did bow before the beast, saying, `Who `is' like to the beast? who is able to war with it?'
`Son of man, lift up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and thou hast said unto him: A young lion of nations thou hast been like, And thou `art' as a dragon in the seas, And thou comest forth with thy flowings, And dost trouble the waters with thy feet, And thou dost foul their flowings. Thus said the Lord Jehovah: And -- I have spread out for thee My net, With an assembly of many peoples, And they have brought thee up in My net. And I have left thee in the land, On the face of the field I do cast thee out, And have caused to dwell upon thee every fowl of the heavens, And have satisfied out of thee the beasts of the whole earth. And I have put thy flesh on the mountains, And filled the valleys `with' thy hugeness,
O dweller on many waters, abundant in treasures, Come in hath thine end, the measure of thy dishonest gain.
Ho, sword of Jehovah, till when art thou not quiet? Be removed unto thy sheath, rest and cease.
For soaked in the heavens was My sword, Lo, on Edom it cometh down, On the people of My curse for judgment. A sword `is' to Jehovah -- it hath been full of blood, It hath been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and he-goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For a sacrifice `is' to Jehovah in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
For, lo, Jehovah is coming out of His place, To charge the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth upon him, And revealed hath the earth her blood, Nor doth she cover any more her slain!'
He `is' a beginning of the ways of God, His Maker bringeth nigh his sword;
And Job answereth and saith: -- Truly -- ye `are' the people, And with you doth wisdom die. I also have a heart like you, I am not fallen more than you, And with whom is there not like these? A laughter to his friend I am: `He calleth to God, and He answereth him,' A laughter `is' the perfect righteous one. A torch -- despised in the thoughts of the secure Is prepared for those sliding with the feet. At peace are the tents of spoilers, And those provoking God have confidence, He into whose hand God hath brought. And yet, ask, I pray thee, `One of' the beasts, and it doth shew thee, And a fowl of the heavens, And it doth declare to thee. Or talk to the earth, and it sheweth thee, And fishes of the sea recount to thee: `Who hath not known in all these, That the hand of Jehovah hath done this? In whose hand `is' the breath of every living thing, And the spirit of all flesh of man.' Doth not the ear try words? And the palate taste food for itself? With the very aged `is' wisdom, And `with' length of days understanding. With Him `are' wisdom and might, To him `are' counsel and understanding. Lo, He breaketh down, and it is not built up, He shutteth against a man, And it is not opened. Lo, He keepeth in the waters, and they are dried up, And he sendeth them forth, And they overturn the land. With Him `are' strength and wisdom, His the deceived and deceiver. Causing counsellors to go away a spoil, And judges He maketh foolish. The bands of kings He hath opened, And He bindeth a girdle on their loins. Causing ministers to go away a spoil And strong ones He overthroweth. Turning aside the lip of the stedfast, And the reason of the aged He taketh away. Pouring contempt upon princes, And the girdle of the mighty He made feeble. Removing deep things out of darkness, And He bringeth out to light death-shade. Magnifying the nations, and He destroyeth them, Spreading out the nations, and He quieteth them. Turning aside the heart Of the heads of the people of the land, And he causeth them to wander In vacancy -- no way! They feel darkness, and not light, He causeth them to wander as a drunkard.
If I have sharpened the brightness of My sword, And My hand doth lay hold on judgment, I turn back vengeance to Mine adversaries, And to those hating Me -- I repay! I make drunk Mine arrows with blood, And My sword devoureth flesh, From the blood of the pierced and captive, From the head of the freemen of the enemy.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 27
Commentary on Isaiah 27 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Upon whom the judgment of Jehovah particularly falls, is described in figurative and enigmatical words in Isaiah 27:1 : “In that day will Jehovah visit with His sword, with the hard, and the great, and the strong, leviathan the fleet serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea.” No doubt the three animals are emblems of three imperial powers. The assertion that there are no more three animals than there are three swords, is a mistake. If the preposition were repeated in the case of the swords, as it is in the case of the animals, we should have to understand the passage as referring to three swords as well as three animals. But this is not the case. We have therefore to inquire what the three world-powers are; and this question is quite a justifiable one: for we have no reason to rest satisfied with the opinion held by Drechsler, that the three emblems are symbols of ungodly powers in general, of every kind and every sphere, unless the question itself is absolutely unanswerable. Now the tannin (the stretched-out aquatic animal) is the standing emblem of Egypt (Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 74:13; Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2). And as the Euphrates-land and Asshur are mentioned in Isaiah 27:12, Isaiah 27:13 in connection with Egypt, it is immediately probable that the other two animals signify the kingdom of the Tigris, i.e., Assyria, with its capital Nineveh which stood on the Tigris, and the kingdom of the Euphrates, i.e., Chaldea, with its capital Babylon which stood upon the Euphrates. Moreover, the application of the same epithet Leviathan to both the kingdoms, with simply a difference in the attributes, is suggestive of two kingdoms that were related to each other. We must not be misled by the fact that nâchâsh bâriach is a constellation in Job 26:13; we have no bammarōm (on high) here, as in Isaiah 24:21, and therefore are evidently still upon the surface of the globe. The epithet employed was primarily suggested by the situation of the two cities. Nineveh was on the Tigris, which was called Chiddekel ,
(Note: In point of fact, not only does Arab. tyr signify both an arrow and the Tigris, according to the Neo-Persian lexicons, but the old explanation “Tigris, swift as a dart, since the Medes call the Tigris toxeuma ” (the shot or shot arrow; Eustath, on Dion Perieg. v. 984), is confirmed by the Zendic tighri , which has been proved to be used in the sense of arrow or shot ( Yesht 8, 6, yatha tighris mainyavacâo ), i.e., like a heavenly arrow.)
on account of the swiftness of its course and its terrible rapids; hence Asshur is compared to a serpent moving along in a rapid, impetuous, long, extended course ( bâriach , as in Isaiah 43:14, is equivalent to barriach, a noun of the same form as עלּיז , and a different word from berriach , a bolt, Isaiah 15:5). Babylon, on the other hand, is compared to a twisted serpent, i.e., to one twisting about in serpentine curves, because it was situated on the very winding Euphrates, the windings of which are especially labyrinthine in the immediate vicinity of Babylon. The river did indeed flow straight away at one time, but by artificial cuttings it was made so serpentine that it passed the same place, viz., Arderikka, no less than three times; and according to the declaration of Herodotus in his own time, when any one sailed down the river, he had to pass it three times in three days (Ritter, x. p. 8). The real meaning of the emblem, however, is no more exhausted by this allusion to the geographical situation, than it was in the case of “the desert of the sea” (Isaiah 21:1). The attribute of winding is also a symbol of the longer duration of one empire than of the other, and of the more numerous complications into which Israel would be drawn by it. The world-power on the Tigris fires with rapidity upon Israel, so that the fate of Israel is very quickly decided. But the world-power on the Euphrates advances by many windings, and encircles its prey in many folds. And these windings are all the more numerous, because in the prophet's view Babylon is the final form assumed by the empire of the world, and therefore Israel remains encircled by this serpent until the last days. The judgment upon Asshur, Babylon, and Egypt, is the judgment upon the world-powers universally.
The prophecy here passes for the fourth time into the tone of a song. The church recognises itself in the judgments upon the world, as Jehovah's well-protected and beloved vineyard.
In that day a merry vineyard - sing it!
I, Jehovah, its keeper,
Every moment I water it.
That nothing may come near it,
I watch it night and day.
Wrath have I none;
O, had I thorns, thistles before me!
I would make up to them in battle,
Burn them all together.
Men would then have to grasp at my protection,
Make peace with me,
Make peace with me.