Isaiah 27:4

Fury 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. FURY IS NOT IN ME - i:e., I entertain no longer anger toward my vine. WHO WOULD SET THE BRIERS AND THORNS AGAINST ME IN BATTLE? - i:e., would that I had the briers, etc. (the wicked foe: ; ; ), before me! I WOULD GO THROUGH - literally, 'I would go forward (as an enemy) in them.' My contest is no longer with my vineyard, but with the thorns that have molested it....

4._Fury is not in me. _This verse contains excellent consolation; for it expresses the incredible warmth of love which the Lord bears towards his people, though they are of a wicked and rebellious disposition. God assumes, as we shall see, the character of a father who is grievously offended, and who, while he is offended at his son, still more pities him, and is naturally inclined to exercise compassion, because the warmth of his love rises above his anger. In short, he shews that he cannot hate his elect so as not to bear fatherly kindness towards them, even while he visits them with very severe punishments. Scripture represents God to us in various ways. Sometimes it exhibits him as burning with indignation, and having a terrific aspect, and sometimes as shewing nothing but gentleness and mercy; and the reason of this diversity is, that we are not all capable of enjoying his goodness....

1-5 The Lord Jesus with his strong sword, the virtue of his death, and the preaching of his gospel, does and will destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, that old serpent. The world is a fruitless, worthless wilderness; but the church is a vineyard, a place that has great care taken of it, and from which precious fruits are gathered. God will keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are not less dangerous. God also takes care of the fruitfulness of this vineyard. We need the continual waterings of Divine grace; if these be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to nothing. Though God sometimes contends with his people, yet he graciously waits to be reconciled unto them. It is true, when he finds briers and thorns instead of vines, and they are set in array against him, he will tread them...

Verse Isaiah 27:4. _FURY_ IS _NOT IN ME_ - "I have no wall"] For חמה _chemah,_ _anger_, the _Septuagint_ and _Syriac_ read חומה _chomah, wall_. An ancient MS. has חימה _cheimah_. For בה _bah, in her_, two MSS. read בם _bam, in them_, plural. The vineyard wishes for a wall and a fence of thorns - human strength and protection, (as the Jews were too apt to apply to their powerful neighbours for assistance, and to trust to the shadow of Egypt:) JEHOVAH replies, that this would not avail her, nor defend her against his wrath. He counsels her, therefore, to betake herself to his protection. On which she entreats him to make peace with her. From the above note it appears that the bishop reads, חומה _chomah, wall_, for חמה _chemah, anger_ or _fury_, in accordance with the _Syriac_ and Septuagint

FURY IS NOT IN ME - That is, I am angry with it no more. He had punished his people by removing them to a distant land. But although he had corrected them for their faults, yet he had not laid aside the affection of a Father. WHO WOULD SET - Hebrew, ‘Who would give me.’ The Septuagint renders this, ‘Who would place me to keep the stubble in the field?’ Great perplexity has been felt in regard to the interpretation of this passage. Lowth translates it: ‘O that I had a fence of the thorn and the brier;’ evidently showing that he was embarrassed with it, and could not make of it consistent sense. The whole sentence must refer either to the people of God, or to his enemies. If to his people, it would be an indication that they were like briers and thorns, and that if his fury should rage they would be consumed, an

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 27:1 THE TRIPLE JUDGMENT ON THE POWERS OF DARKNESS. The crowning judgment of all is now briefly described. "In that day"—the day of God's vengeance—when all his other enemies have been put down, Jehovah shall finally visit with his sword three mighty foes, which are described under three figures—the first as "Leviathan, the swift serpent;" the second as "Leviathan, the crooked serpent; "and the third as "the dragon that is in the sea." It has been usual to see in these three monsters three kingdoms inimical to God—either Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt; or Assyria, Egypt, and Tyre; or Media, Persia, and Egypt. But this diversity of interpretation shows that there is no particular fitness in the emblems to sym

FURY [IS] NOT IN ME,.... Against his vineyard he takes so much care of, his church and people, whom he has loved with an everlasting love; they are indeed deserving of his wrath, but he has not appointed them to it, but has appointed his Son to bear it for them, who has delivered them from wrath to come, and they being justified by his blood and righteousness, are saved from it; and though the Lord chastises them for their sins, yet not in wrath and sore displeasure; there is no wrath or fury in his heart towards them, nor any expressed in the dispensations of his providence: WHO WOULD SET THE BRIERS [AND] THORNS AGAINST ME IN BATTLE? either suggesting the weakness of his people, who, was he to deal with them as their sins and corruptions deserved, for which they may be compared to thorns and briers, they would be as unable to bear his wrath and fury as briers and thorns could to withst...

Isaiah 27:1. _In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, That is to say, he will punish those who are like leviathan; the proudest, the greatest, and the most powerful sinners shall not escape divine justice._ God's laws are not, like cobwebs, meant to catch the little flies while the great ones break through, but he will strike leviathan, he will surely punish the mightiest sinners of the earth. Isaiah 27:1. _Even leviathan that crooked serpent;_ Hard to come at, difficult to find, he shall not escape the sword of the Lord. Isaiah 27:1. _And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea._ If men sh

CHAPTER 27 ISRAEL'S ENEMIES OVERTHROWN AND THE GREAT RESTORATION 1. _Assyria, Babylon and Egypt punished (Isaiah 27:1)_ 2. _What Jehovah has done and will do (Isaiah 27:2)_ 3. _The vineyard established and the glorious consummation (Isaiah 27:12) _ This is a fitting finale to the second section of this book. Israel's chief enemies are indicated by the leviathan, the serpent and the dragon. Behind them stands the serpent and the dragon, Satan. When these enemies are overthrown and Satan is bound then “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” The last word tells of Israel's literal regathering under the blowing of the trumpet...

YAHWEH'S CHERISHED VINEYARD. Here another song is inserted. The text and meaning are alike most uncertain, but apparently the general thought is that Israel is Yahweh's pleasant vineyard (_mg.),_ tended and protected by Him with the most assiduous care. He is not angry with it, but with its enemies, whom He is longing to destroy, but whom He is willing to spare if they will surrender their hostility. Israel will become a vine that will fill the world with fruit. On this interpretation the song forms a striking contrast to Isaiah's song of the ungrateful vineyard (Isaiah 5:1). There Israel is threatened with judgment, here Israel's foes. ISAIAH 27:3. LEST ANY HURT IT: read lest its leafage be missing. Isai