HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  26.6 Poor, needy. See 25.4.

  26.7–27.1 The community pleads for God’s judgment on the wicked, and a prophetic voice responds with a demand for patience and a promise that God’s intervention will soon come.

  26.7 O Just One. The characterization of God as just provides the basis for the community’s complaint that God’s justice is currently anything but evident (cf. Jer 12.1; Hab 1.12–13).

  26.9–11 Unless they are punished, the wicked neither acknowledge God nor change their behavior, so the community urges God to punish them.

  26.12–15 There will be deliverance for Judah, who acknowledges God, but destruction for its enemies.

  26.14 Cf. v. 19.

  26.16–18 Judah, under God’s chastening, was like a pregnant woman unable to give birth (2 Kings 19.3).

  26.19 Your dead. For his people, in contrast to the wicked (see v. 14), God promises a resurrection to new life (cf. Ezek 37.1–14).

  26.20–21 The people must be patient a little longer, however, until God’s judgment comes.

  ISAIAH 27

  Israel’s Redemption

  1On that day the LORD with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

  2On that day:

  A pleasant vineyard, sing about it!

  3I, the LORD, am its keeper;

  every moment I water it.

  I guard it night and day

  so that no one can harm it;

  4I have no wrath.

  If it gives me thorns and briers,

  I will march to battle against it.

  I will burn it up.

  5Or else let it cling to me for protection,

  let it make peace with me,

  let it make peace with me.

  6In days to comea Jacob shall take root,

  Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,

  and fill the whole world with fruit.

  7Has he struck them down as he struck down those who struck them?

  Or have they been killed as their killers were killed?

  8By expulsion,b by exile you struggled against them;

  with his fierce blast he removed them in the day of the east wind.

  9Therefore 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 polesc or incense altars will remain standing.

  10For 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.

  11When 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.

  12On that day the LORD will thresh from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. 13And on that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

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  a Heb Those to come

  b Meaning of Heb uncertain

  c Heb Asherim

  27.1 Well known from Canaanite myth, Leviathan and the dragon are mythological sea monsters (Ps 74.13–14) that personify the powers of chaos, evil, and destruction.

  27.2–13 This section is composed of several fragments, all of which portray Israel’s future salvation using agricultural imagery.

  27.2–6 A reversal of Isaiah’s earlier song of the vineyard (5.1–7); under God’s protection Israel will prove very fruitful.

  27.7–11 God has punished Israel, but for disciplinary reasons, not to destroy it as its enemies have been destroyed.

  27.9 Israel’s sin will be expiated by the removal of every symbol of its idolatry.

  27.11 People without understanding, an earlier characterization of Israel (1.3; 5.13). Will not have compassion. Cf. Hos 1.6.

  27.12–13 The Lord will gather up the remnant of Israel like the kernels of grain at the grain harvest.

  27.12 The Wadi of Egypt marks the traditional southwestern boundary of Canaan (Num 34.5) and is usually identified with the Wadi el-Arish, midway between Gaza and Pelusium.

  27.13 As the trumpet summoned Israel to assemble for worship (Num 10.2–10; Joel 2.15), so in the day of salvation it will summon the exiles back to Judah to worship on Mount Zion (cf. Mt 24.31; 1 Thess 4.16).

  ISAIAH 28

  Judgment on Corrupt Rulers, Priests, and Prophets

  1Ah, the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim,

  and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

  which is on the head of those bloated with rich food, of those overcome with wine!

  2See, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;

  like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,

  like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters;

  with his hand he will hurl them down to the earth.

  3Trampled under foot will be

  the proud garland of the drunkards of Ephraim.

  4And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

  which is on the head of those bloated with rich food,

  will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer;

  whoever sees it, eats it up

  as soon as it comes to hand.

  5In that day the LORD of hosts will be a garland of glory,

  and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;

  6and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,

  and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

  7These also reel with wine

  and stagger with strong drink;

  the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,

  they are confused with wine,

  they stagger with strong drink;

  they err in vision,

  they stumble in giving judgment.

  8All tables are covered with filthy vomit;

  no place is clean.

  9“Whom will he teach knowledge,

  and to whom will he explain the message?

  Those who are weaned from milk,

  those taken from the breast?

  10For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

  line upon line, line upon line,

  here a little, there a little.”a

  11Truly, with stammering lip

  and with alien tongue

  he will speak to this people,

  12to whom he has said,

  “This is rest;

  give rest to the weary;

  and this is repose”

  yet they would not hear.

  13Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them,

  “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

  line upon line, line upon line,

  here a little, there a little;”b

  in order that they may go, and fall backward,

  and be broken, and snared, and taken.

  14Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers

  who rule this people in Jerusalem.

  15Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,

  and with Sheol we have an agreement;

  when the overwhelming scourge passes through

  it will not come to us;

  for we have made lies our refuge,

  and in falsehood we have taken shelter”

  16therefore thus says the Lord GOD,

  See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone,

  a tested stone,

  a precious cornerstone, a s
ure foundation:

  “One who trusts will not panic.”

  17And I will make justice the line,

  and righteousness the plummet;

  hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

  and waters will overwhelm the shelter.

  18Then your covenant with death will be annulled,

  and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

  when the overwhelming scourge passes through

  you will be beaten down by it.

  19As often as it passes through, it will take you;

  for morning by morning it will pass through,

  by day and by night;

  and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

  20For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,

  and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.

  21For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim,

  he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon

  to do his deed—strange is his deed!—

  and to work his work—alien is his work!

  22Now therefore do not scoff,

  or your bonds will be made stronger;

  for I have heard a decree of destruction

  from the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land.

  23Listen, and hear my voice;

  Pay attention, and hear my speech.

  24Do those who plow for sowing plow continually?

  Do they continually open and harrow their ground?

  25When they have leveled its surface,

  do they not scatter dill, sow cummin,

  and plant wheat in rows

  and barley in its proper place,

  and spelt as the border?

  26For they are well instructed;

  their God teaches them.

  27Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

  nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin;

  but dill is beaten out with a stick,

  and cummin with a rod.

  28Grain is crushed for bread,

  but one does not thresh it forever;

  one drives the cart wheel and horses over it,

  but does not pulverize it.

  29This also comes from the LORD of hosts;

  he is wonderful in counsel,

  and excellent in wisdom.

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  a Meaning of Heb of this verse uncertain

  b Meaning of Heb of this verse uncertain

  28.1–33.24 Oracles concerning Ephraim and Judah.

  28.1–29 An early oracle against Ephraim (vv. 1–6) is used to introduce an elaborate oracle against Judah (vv. 7–29).

  28.1–6 This oracle against Ephraim was probably originally composed at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite war (7.1–6).

  28.1 Garland, a metaphor for the walls of Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom.

  28.2 Overflowing waters, Assyria (see 8.7).

  28.4 Like a first-ripe fig, a simile that underscores how open to hostile attack Israel will be (cf. 17.6).

  28.5–6 Israel’s remnant will turn to God as its garland of pride (see 10.20–23).

  28.7–13 This former judgment on Israel’s leaders is now applied to the drunken leaders of Judah (see 5.11–12, 22).

  28.7 Strong drink. See note on 5.11. Priest and prophet, presumably those who opposed Isaiah’s counsel.

  28.9–10 The opponents mocked Isaiah’s teaching. The Hebrew behind precept and line may not represent actual words, but simply nonsense sounds uttered in mockery of the prophet’s speech.

  28.11–13 Since the leaders rejected as unintelligible nonsense the prophet’s simple message that would have given them rest (see 30.15), God will speak to them in the incomprehensible stammering lip and alien tongue of the Assyrians.

  28.14–22 The foolish plans of these scoffers who sought a military alliance with Egypt against Assyria will be destroyed by God’s strange work in Zion.

  28.14 Scoffers…in Jerusalem, the Judean authorities.

  28.15 Covenant with death, presumably a treaty with Egypt (30.1–2; cf. 22.13). Overwhelming scourge, Assyria (8.7–8; cf. 30.28).

  28.16 Foundation stone. God’s presence in Jerusalem will constitute either a rock of sanctuary or a stone of stumbling (see 8.14).

  28.17 Just as line and plummet are used to check the alignment of walls, so justice and righteousness will be the criteria used to determine whether one has built on God’s firm foundation. Refuge of lies, military preparation that depended on deceitful alliances and oppressive demands on the populace (see 30.12; cf. 22.10).

  28.20 Proverbial description of an impossible situation.

  28.21 As God once fought on Mount Perazim (2 Sam 5.17–21) and at Gibeon (Josh 10.10) against Judah’s enemies, now he will rise up to do his strange work, to fight against his own city Jerusalem (29.1–3).

  28.23–29 An agricultural parable showing that just as a farmer adjusts his actions to fit the crop and the season, so even God’s strange work makes sense in terms of God’s larger purpose.

  28.27–28 Just as a farmer is careful not to destroy his crop when harvesting it, so God’s work of judgment is measured and is not intended to destroy the harvest (27.12–13).

  ISAIAH 29

  The Siege of Jerusalem

  1Ah, Ariel, Ariel,

  the city where David encamped!

  Add year to year;

  let the festivals run their round.

  2Yet I will distress Ariel,

  and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

  and Jerusalema shall be to me like an Ariel.b

  3And like Davidc I will encamp against you;

  I will besiege you with towers

  and raise siegeworks against you.

  4Then deep from the earth you shall speak,

  from low in the dust your words shall come;

  your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,

  and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

  5But the multitude of your foesd shall be like small dust,

  and the multitude of tyrants like flying chaff.

  And in an instant, suddenly,

  6you will be visited by the LORD of hosts

  with thunder and earthquake and great noise,

  with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

  7And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

  all that fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,

  shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

  8Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating

  and wakes up still hungry,

  or a thirsty person dreams of drinking

  and wakes up faint, still thirsty,

  so shall the multitude of all the nations be

  that fight against Mount Zion.

  9Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,

  blind yourselves and be blind!

  Be drunk, but not from wine;

  stagger, but not from strong drink!

  10For the LORD has poured out upon you

  a spirit of deep sleep;

  he has closed your eyes, you prophets,

  and covered your heads, you seers.

  11The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.” 12And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot read.”

  13The Lord said:

  Because these people draw near with their mouths

  and honor me with their lips,

  while their hearts are far from me,

  and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;

  14so I will again do

  amazing things with this people,

  shocking and amazing.

  The wisdom of their wise shall perish,

  and the discernment of the discerning shall be
hidden.

  15Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the LORD,

  whose deeds are in the dark,

  and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

  16You turn things upside down!

  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?

  Shall the thing made say of its maker,

  “He did not make me”

  or the thing formed say of the one who formed it,

  “He has no understanding”?

  Hope for the Future

  17Shall not Lebanon in a very little while

  become a fruitful field,

  and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?

  18On that day the deaf shall hear

  the words of a scroll,

  and out of their gloom and darkness

  the eyes of the blind shall see.

  19The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,

  and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

  20For the tyrant shall be no more,

  and the scoffer shall cease to be;

  all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—

  21those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit,

  who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate,

  and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

  22Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

  No longer shall Jacob be ashamed,

  no longer shall his face grow pale.

  23For when he sees his children,

  the work of my hands, in his midst,

  they will sanctify my name;

  they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

  and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

  24And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,

  and those who grumble will accept instruction.

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  a Heb she

  b Probable meaning, altar hearth; compare Ezek 43.15

  c Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

  d Cn: Heb strangers

  29.1–8 God first besieges and humiliates Jerusalem before coming to its rescue (cf. 1.21–28).