A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 25: Triumph of the Righteous

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 25: Triumph of the Righteous

In our last presentation, The City of God, we hope to have demonstrated that in these chapters of Isaiah, ancient Tyre is a prophetic type for the Mystery Babylon of the Revelation, and Jerusalem is a type for the City of God which is ultimately described in the final chapters of the Revelation. So in the course of this description of Jerusalem, the strong city in the land of Judah, the people are portrayed as fixing their minds on God and trusting in Him, as emulating the path of the just, and as desiring and awaiting the judgment of God. With that, the high and lofty city, corresponding to Mystery Babylon, is tread down by the feet of the poor and needy. This evokes the words of the 37th Psalm: “10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 12 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. 14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. 16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.” Now here at the end of this chapter of Isaiah, and throughout the following chapter, there is another promise of the destruction of the wicked, and the triumph of the righteous. 

As for the correlation of the righteous with the poor and needy, which is an element of that psalm, while some of the men whom Christ had justified during the course of His earthly ministry had been wealthy, such as Joseph of Arimathaea and Zacchaeus the chief publican, this would not be the case for most of the righteous who would follow Christ. Even today, many righteous Christians are oppressed by the wealthy, and most of them are not even aware of their oppression. However a wealthy man may live a humble life, and even the room where the disciples of Christ had prepared the feast on the day before His trials had been owned by a man of substance who must have also been righteous. So while a wealthy man may certainly have a place in the Kingdom of God, as we read in the words of Christ in Luke chapter 6: “20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.” Having made enemies with the wicked society for the sake of Christ, whether wealthy or poor a man certainly shall be humble. Joseph of Arimathaea was secretly a disciple of Christ, as John had explained in his Gospel (John 19:38). But through his wealth he was able to fill a significant role in the quite significant events of the final days of His earthly ministry. 

In the course of this chapter of Isaiah, the prophet had portrayed the people as glorifying God because He had increased the nation even as it had been removed “far unto all the ends of the earth.” Here, although the prophet is using the past tense, this has not yet been fulfilled when he had written, so it is another instance of a prophetic past tense, which we illustrated several times earlier in this commentary. However even if they had been increased they would nevertheless be troubled, as Isaiah had portrayed them as turning to God only once they had been chastened. So until they turn to Him they would suffer a punishment as painful as a woman in travail, as it had been described in verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 26, and they would bewail the fact that they could not deliver themselves by their own hand, because furthermore, as they had also lamented, “neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen”, and it is at that point at which we had left off in our commentary on Isaiah.

We have discussed the nature of the first 18 verses of this chapter, which represent a song that had been attributed to the children of Israel, which they would sing “in that day”. The reference to “that day” is obviously to the last event described in chapter 25, where we read of the destruction of the high and lofty city, and the removal of the veil cast over the eyes of the people. Now here at the end of this song, this lamentation attributed to the children of Israel, that “neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen”, may seem to conflict with another sentiment which had been attributed to them earlier in the song, in verse 9 of the chapter where there is a declaration that “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” However, once the context is better understood, the conflict should evaporate. 

So when we encountered that verse, we had explained that the children of Israel themselves are the “world” of the Scriptures. The wicked are never expected to learn righteousness. However while there is a world which Yahweh God loves, which is described in John chapter 3, there is also a world of the wicked which is hostile to Him, and which Christians are expected to hate, as He professed in John chapter 12, “31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” So where He said a little further on in that same chapter, “47 … for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world”, it is apparent that in the end He shall save the world by ridding it of the wicked. So Israel is promised salvation, and salvation was only promised to Israel, and Israel is the world which He shall save. This is apparent even a little further on, in John chapter 13 where we read: “1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”

For this same reason, that there is a world which Christ had come to save, and a world which is wicked, did the apostle James write, in chapter 4 of his lone epistle: “4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Loving this world is adultery in the eyes of God, so this world as we know it is not the world which God had loved, and for that reason also, true Christians, the children of Israel, should seek the world to come. Paul wrote in Hebrews chapter 6 of those that “5 … have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come”. Likewise, Paul wrote of Christ in Ephesians chapter 1 and described Him as being “21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” Having that expectation, whenever Christians encounter Biblical references to the world, they should consider which world is being referenced. The world to come is the world of the children of Israel which had first been established at Mount Sinai and represented in the four rows of stones on the breastplate of the garment of the high priest, and that is also the substance of the City of God which descends from Heaven, as it is described in the Revelation. 

So as soon as the children of Israel had been portrayed here as having said that “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”, in the very next verse they exclaimed: “10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.” There the prophet distinguishes the two worlds, and the wicked shall not enter the land of uprightness. They are not a part of the world of the promises, but they are “the inhabitants of the world” whose presence is lamented by the children of Israel in captivity, where we read in verse 18: “… we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.” 

Ostensibly, Yahshua Christ is not in Heaven looking at men as individuals and calculating which of them is worthy to be saved. He has already long ago determined who shall be saved. For that reason, Paul of Tarsus had written, in Romans chapter 8, “28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Yahweh has deemed the children of Israel to be righteous, so in Romans chapter 9 Paul described Israel as “vessels of mercy”, compared to Edom, whom he described as “vessels of destruction”. The children of Israel alone are the foreknown, the predestinated, the called and the justified, according to Scripture. So of all the world’s current inhabitants, only the children of Israel have a share in the triumph of the righteous. 

Thus we read, in Isaiah chapter 45: “17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. 18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” So Yahweh declares what is right, and He has declared that Israel shall be justified, as we read in the final verse of that same chapter of Isaiah: “25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” For that reason, in Romans chapter 4 Paul of Tarsus had explained that it was not through the law that Israel would be justified, but “through the righteousness of faith”, referring to the faith of Abraham which is what Abraham had believed. 

The sheep, who are His people Israel, shall inherit the world to themselves, and the wicked shall be no more, as it is described in the Parable of the sheep and the goats: “34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…” But where he had next spoken of the goats, we read: “41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” These last are the inhabitants of the world which have not yet fallen. If the children of Israel had not gone off into sin, which is evident in the historical books of Scripture, then perhaps the inhabitants of the world would have fallen long ago, and Joshua would have given them rest, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Hebrews chapter 4. 

As we have already asserted several times in this Commentary on Isaiah, the purpose of the prophet was to describe the plans of Yahweh God for the children of Israel in captivity, and also for their future redemption and reconciliation. Our modern Christian expectation should be focused on the understanding that our redemption draws near, and that it could come to its fulfillment at any time. It is not the children of Israel, who are portrayed as making this lamentation, that were expected to fall. Rather, the inhabitants of the world must be those at whose expense the children of Israel were promised to inherit the earth. They are the wicked who must first fall before Israel can have peace in their inheritance, even as it had been described of them in the days of Joshua. So in the parable of the sheep and the goats, the goats are not judged for how they treated one another, but rather, the goats are judged for their treatment of the sheep, as it was pronounced to them, “45 … Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me”, for which reason they are described as being sent into everlasting punishment. 

This is more relevant today than it was in the time of Isaiah, and in that, the overarching purpose of his prophecy is fully revealed. More and more each passing day, the true children of Israel are despised by the inhabitants of the world, Christ is despised and publicly mocked and ridiculed, as He had been by His enemies two thousand years ago, and the world has once again slid to depths of depravity which have probably not been seen since the destruction of ancient Sodom. But as Paul had written in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, “3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

In the end, all of the goat nations go to the lake of fire, the same fire preserved for the devil and his angels, and all of the sheep nations enter the Kingdom of God, which is represented by Jerusalem here, and by the City of God descended from Heaven in the Revelation of Christ. The city has the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on its gates, because only the children of Israel are His sheep. So as it is in the 95th Psalm: “7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Then, in the 79th Psalm, expressing the same praise which we have seen in the mouths of the children of Israel here in Isaiah: “13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.” This will be fulfilled once Israel enters the world to come, in the triumph of the righteous. 

Now, continuing with Isaiah chapter 26 from where we had left off at verse 19, we shall see once again that the sheep enter the City of God, but from a different perspective, where the song of the children of Judah who glorified God for their “strong city” has now come to an end, and Yahweh God Himself is portrayed as having answered their song with a promise:

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has the first sentence of this verse to read “But your dead will live, their dead bodies will rise.” The American Standard Version, English Revised Version and other lesser-known versions have “my dead bodies”. The New King James Version agrees with the King James Version here, and so does Webster’s Bible Translation. The Literal Standard Version and Young’s Literal Translation have “my dead body”, and Smith’s Literal Translation has “my corpse”. In addition to these, other variations are found among many more obscure versions, including the Catholic versions. Some of these translations seem to be purposely dishonest, and for motives which seem to relate to the doctrinal beliefs of the translators.

The first two words of the Hebrew read יחיו מתיך or “your dead shall live” in the first clause of the sentence, but the third word of the sentence, נבלתי or nebelah, is clearly “my corpse”, which is a singular noun having been affixed with the first person singular suffix meaning my. The form of the noun is feminine, but the form is always feminine even when it is affixed with a masculine suffix (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23, Jeremiah 26:23), so it only describes a male or female body depending on the context. The fourth word in the sentence, יקומון, is evidently “they shall arise”, as the same form of the word appears in five other Old Testament passages (cf. Deuteronomy 33:11, 2 Samuel 22:39, Psalms 35:11 and Daniel 7:10 and 7:17). 

Therefore, writing “Your dead shall live, My body, they shall arise” seems to be the most honest way to translate the clause from Hebrew, and that is consistent with Scripture, as the children of Israel collectively are also the Body of Christ. So here in this verse, the Body of Christ is described, but not in a way which is consistent with the doctrines of the modern churches. While the King James Version has added the preposition with to the text, and even the phrase together with, there is no direct support for that addition in the Hebrew grammar of the verse as it is found in the Masoretic Text. Of course, Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate. But translating the passage to say “Your dead shall live, with My body they shall arise”, even if it does not actually create a false doctrine, nevertheless adds a concept which is not necessarily intended in the original words. Evidently, sometimes in Hebrew the word with seems to be inferred, but I would not want to add it if the passage may be understood without any additions. 

In Scripture, the earliest explicit profession of a resurrection from death seems to be in Job chapter 19: “25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” From internal evidence in the book itself, we would date Job to the middle of the Judges period. Among other evidence, the law is already established in Exodus chapter 23, wherein the men of Israel are required to appear before Yahweh three times a year, which is apparent in Job chapter 1 (1:6), and a young man is mentioned in Job chapter 32, who is described as “Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram”. Being in the land of Judah, since it is evident that Ram was a notable ancestor of David, Elihu was apparently one of his early kinsmen.

So not too long after Job, the Psalms of David are replete with promises of resurrection, for example, in the 16th Psalm where we read: “10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” This Psalm was cited by the apostles in reference to Christ in Acts chapters 2 and 13, but it is nevertheless also true in reference to David in his own life. In the prophets, there are allusions to resurrection found in Hosea, and a more explicit prophecy in Hosea chapter 13: “14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” Setting that alongside this passage in Isaiah, the verses compliment one another, and the promise of resurrection is certain. Other similar promises here in subsequent chapters of Isaiah are just as explicit. While there shall be many Israelites invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, as it is described in Revelation chapter 19, the triumph of the righteous is ultimately found in the resurrection of the dead.

There is a passage in Mathew chapter 27 which, on the surface, seems to fulfill this prophecy in the manner in which the King James Version had translated it, where we read of events in the aftermath of the Crucifixion: “52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Of course there is no reason to dispute the validity of the passage, nothing more is known of this event from Matthew or from other Scriptures, and it is certainly not a complete fulfillment of the prophecy.

As a digression, just this past weekend, and just as our last commentary stopped short of this verse, I argued with someone whom I had encountered on social media, who cited these last three verses of Isaiah chapter 26 as support for the so-called “rapture” doctrine upheld by certain evangelical churches. However the plain language of verse 20 refutes a rapture doctrine, rather than supporting it:

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 

If they had already been in heaven, having been raptured into the clouds, they would not have had to hide in the chambers as Yahweh executes His judgment upon the earth, so these verses refute a rapture, rather than supporting the insanity.

This evokes language which we had seen in Isaiah chapter 24, describing the fall of Tyre, where it reads in verse 10: “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.” It also evokes thoughts of the first Passover, where in Exodus chapter 12 the children of Israel had been instructed to strike the lintel and side posts of the doors to their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb, so that the angel of death which had come to smite Egypt would pass over them. Today, which is when this prophecy is most relevant, Christians are covered by the Blood of the Lamb, which is the blood of Christ, and Yahweh God does not really need painted doorposts to know where His people are. So in that manner, the Exodus account is also a prophetic type for the coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and that is described by this verse as well as what follows:

21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. 

The book known as Ecclesiastes which was written by Solomon speaks throughout of the vanity of all of the efforts of men, and then, in its final verses, it makes an attestation which says: “13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” However speaking to His adversaries, Christ Himself had also attested, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 11 and translated in the Christogenea New Testament: “49 For this reason also the wisdom of Yahweh says: ‘I shall send to them prophets and ambassadors, and some of them they shall kill and they shall persecute’, 50 in order that the blood of all the prophets spilled from the foundation of the Society should be required from this race, 51 from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias who was killed between the altar and the house. Yeah, I say to you, it shall be required from this race!” Then again, in the closing verses of Revelation chapter 18 and the description of the fall of Mystery Babylon, there is another related attestation which concludes: “24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” So apparently, with the triumph of the righteous there also comes a full revelation of the authors of evil, whoare the same people whom Christ had spoken to and had held accountable for the blood of Abel. We shall also see another description of them in the opening of Isaiah chapter 27, as we shall now proceed with that chapter:

1 In 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. 

In the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, the words piercing and crooked are translated instead as gliding and coiling, which describe movements naturally made by serpents. I must also state, that there are significant differences in this chapter as it is represented in the Septuagint, which we shall not discuss this evening. If I decide to discuss them at all, it may in our next presentation, however the translation found in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible is very similar and supports the Masoretic Text as it is presented here in the King James Version, even in spite of the differences in the translations.

Returning to this opening verse of Isaiah chapter 27, here once again, the words of the prophet Isaiah presage the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. In Revelation chapter 12 we read: “9 And the great dragon had been cast down, that Serpent of old, who is called the False Accuser and the Adversary; he who deceives the whole inhabited earth had been cast into the earth, and his messengers had been cast down with him.” Likewise, this serpent here is not an actual sea creature. Rather, serpent and dragon are collective labels, as Satan and devil are also often used, to describe the enemies of God. As there is a promise that this serpent, or dragon, shall be destroyed, the serpent, which is the devil and Satan, is also destined for the Lake of Fire in the closing chapters of the Revelation, and with all certainty they are one and the same entity. 

As we had discussed in our commentary on the burden of The Desert of the Sea which is found in Isaiah chapter 21, the sea is often an allegory for the mass of the world’s people. In the ancient world, the world of Isaiah, as well as the Roman world of the time of Christ, this sea had this same serpent in its depths, as Christ had told His disciples, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 10: “18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” The word translated as beheld in verse 18 is in the imperfect tense, which refers to a past event, even if it may also refer to an event of the past which may be ongoing as the words were spoken. So in reference to the passages from Revelation chapter 12 and Luke chapter 10, in Part 16 of our Commentary on the Revelation, titled The Nature of the Devil and Satan, I wrote the following:

This event to which Christ had referred in Luke must have happened in the past, and in the remote past, since here in the Revelation we see the dragon equated with “that Serpent of old, who is called the False Accuser [or Devil] and the Adversary [or Satan]”. We read in Matthew chapter 13 that Yahshua Christ had come to reveal things which were kept secret from the founding of the world. That statement was made in relation to the parable of the wheat and the tares, which in turn had explained how there were people who were tares, and that their origin was with the devil. This is in the explanation of the parable of the wheat and the tares, so the words must be taken at face value, and not as allegories, or it would not be an explanation. Here in Revelation 12:9 we see that the Dragon, Satan, the Devil and the Serpent of Genesis chapter 3 are all the same entity, and by this we know that the Serpent is surely not a literal snake, although that is readily evident in the Genesis 3 account as it is. Now we shall take this one step further, and assert that these fallen angels were already in the garden along with the serpent when Adam was created in Genesis chapter 2, but there they are called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in Genesis chapter 6 they are referred to in Hebrew as Nephilim, a word mistakenly translated as giants, because they were not all literal giants. There is no etymological reason to interpret Nephilim as giants.

As we have also often explained, the word Nephilim is from a Hebrew word which means fallen ones, and that describes the Serpent, or the Devil and his angels, as they are portrayed in Luke chapter 10 and Revelation chapter 12. The Serpent of that chapter of the Revelation is called the Devil, from a Greek word which means false accuser, and Satan, which is from a Hebrew word that means enemy or adversary, which is the same Satan found in those words of Christ in Luke chapter 10 where He said “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Furthermore, in the Old Testament there are two words which the King James Version had translated as devils, each of them on two occasions. In Leviticus chapter 17 and 2 Chronicles chapter 11, the Hebrew word is שעיר or satyr, which is a reference to a figure that represented an embodied or human-like devil, and in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and the 106th Psalm the Hebrew word is שד or shed, which is a demon, or a disembodied devil. Unfortunately, even in the New Testament the King James Version did not distinguish between embodied and disembodied devils, but only caused confusion where it had translated both δαίμων and διάβολος as devil. 

However it is clear in several New Testament Scriptures, that both refer to the same collective Satanic entity which is opposed to God and Christ. Where the apostle James wrote “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”, he was speaking of embodied devils (James 4:7). Where Peter wrote in his first epistle “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”, he was speaking of embodied devils (1 Peter 5:8). Where Paul had written Timothy and explained that a man lifted with pride may fall “into the condemnation of the devil”, and then he had warned him that men should “have a good report of them which are without”, meaning those who are outside of the Christian congregation, “lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil”, he was also speaking of embodied devils (1 Timothy 3:6-7). Where the apostle John wrote in his first epistle “1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”, he was speaking of embodied spirits, and he later used the term antichrist to describe them collectively (1 John 4:1-3). When Christ told His adversaries “Ye are of your father the devil”, he was speaking of their origin with the serpent and those angels who fell with him, and the genealogy of the Edomites of Judaea can certainly be traced back to them in the Old Testament, and in multiple ways. 

The reference to the serpent here in Isaiah is the same serpent after whom the enemies of Christ were identified on many occasions in the Gospel accounts. It may be argued, that the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is an allegory for this Serpent and his angels, as the Serpent of Genesis represented that tree, and in Matthew chapter 12 Christ Himself had associated the two, where he challenged His adversaries and said: “33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Likewise, Christ had asked His adversaries, in Matthew chapter 23, “33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” These are the wicked who shall be destroyed on the day of the triumph of the righteous. Thus we read, in verse 2 of this chapter:

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

The judgment of God is often described as a vineyard and the harvesting of grapes. In the Revelation, in chapter 14, in verse 15 an angel is told to execute the harvest of the earth which is parched, and the King James Version and other versions have mistranslated a word that means parched as ripe. Then in verse 17 another angel is told to execute the harvest of “the vine of the earth” which is ripe. So just as we see in Matthew chapter 13 and The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, there are two harvests of the earth, the first of tares, or parched grapes, and the second of the wheat, or the ripe grapes.

In later prophecies in Isaiah, aspects of the first harvest, that of the tares, are once again described. First, in chapter 34 where we read, in part: “6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.” Then later, in chapter 63, it is even described in terms of the grape harvest: “1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” This day of vengeance is the same as the one we see in this chapter, the day of the destruction of the dragon.

Now Yahweh assures us that He shall keep His vineyard:

3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 

This must be the same vineyard which had been described in the Parable of the Vineyard in Isaiah chapter 5, where we read in part: “7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant…” So here is yet another promise that He shall preserve Israel and Judah, even if at this point in Isaiah, most of Israel had already been taken off into captivity, which is referenced later in this chapter.

Interestingly, when Adam was created, “15 … the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” But here in Isaiah we learn that only Yahweh can tend His vineyard, and man is ultimately compelled to admit that “we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth”, even if man was created to have dominion over the earth, as we are informed in the creation account of Genesis chapter 1. So the lesson here seems to be that man, apart from God, cannot keep the garden, or the vineyard.

Now the Word of Yahweh challenges whomever may oppose Him in His keeping of His vineyard:

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

Briers and thorns are often used as allegories referencing the enemies of God, which is evident in Numbers chapter 33, Joshua chapter 23 and Judges chapter 2, where we read in part: “3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.” In the earlier passages they were also described as pricks in their eyes. In Isaiah chapter 7 we read: “24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.” Of course, bows and arrows would not do well to eradicate literal briers and thorns, something for which axes, saws and pitchforks may be much more useful. So here, the reference to briers and thorns seems to describe anyone who would resist Yahweh in keeping His vineyard, who may otherwise have peace if they did not resist Him.

However the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has these same verses to read: “4 I have no anger. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me in battle! I would march against them, and I would set them all on fire. 5 Or else let it [the vineyard] rely on my protection; let it make peace with me, let it make peace with me.” This seems to insinuate that Yahweh would rather see His enemies oppose Him, than His Own people, and if the vineyard relied on His protection, whereby it would have to serve Him, then it would be at peace with Him. Ultimately, according to the song in Isaiah chapter 26, that they shall eventually be compelled to do, and once they do, we read:

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

This is the entire purpose of Yahweh God in Scripture, ever since the unconditional promises which He had made to Abraham in Genesis chapters 12 and 15, which He must fulfill, lest He denies Himself. So in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats the sheep are set on the right hand, and we read: “ 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But the goats are set on the left, and they are all destined for destruction. In that parable, it is evident that the sheep are good, and the goats are evil, not on account of their individual behavior, but on account of their general character. All of the sheep enter the kingdom, simply because they are sheep, and all of the goats are cast into the fire, simply because they are goats. Goats have no natural affection for sheep. Then the promise, as it was described by Paul of Tarsus, shall be fulfilled, where he wrote in Romans chapter 4: “13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” That faith he then described as the faith of Abraham, as what Abraham had believed, and Abraham believed that his seed would become as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, and inherit the world. While the entire purpose of Yahweh was not so explicit in the wording of the promises of Genesis, the intent is evident, and it becomes more explicit in the words of Isaiah and the other prophets.

Now there is a reference to the punishment of Israel in captivity, and this prophecy seems to be from a perspective of hindsight, since the smiting of which it speaks is not yet complete, and at this point in the ministry of Isaiah, it has not even begun for most of Judah :

7 Hath 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? 

In other words, has Yahweh smitten Israel as Yahweh smote those who smote Israel? Or is Israel slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by Yahweh? So Jacob had increased in numbers in captivity, but during the time of Jacob’s captivity, all of the nations which had smitten ancient Israel had been completely destroyed by God. They are gone, but Israel is still in captivity, awaiting the triumph of the righteous and the fulfillment of the promises in Christ. Yet Israel may not realize it until it is finally fulfilled:

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

So with this translation it is apparent that even in the day of fulfillment, the children of Israel shall debate, not even knowing what had happened, or why it happened, because in their blindness they do not even know that they are Israel. The final clause may be representative of the mercy they shall receive. “He stayeth His rough wind” so they do not suffer the same destruction as that of the wicked, “in the day of the east wind”, the east wind having been a hot, parching wind.

That is first evident in Scripture in the ears of corn in the dream of the pharaoh, which had been interpreted by Joseph, where in Genesis chapter 41 we read in part “26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. 27 And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.”

However the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has a different reading: “8 By banishment, by exile you contended with them; he removed them in the day of the east wind with his fierce blast.” This statement is more straightforward, and the reading is also appropriate in the context of the prophet’s message. However Yahweh had been speaking in answer to the song of Israel in chapter 26, and it is not certain whether He is still speaking in the first clause of this verse. His answer seems to at least continued through verse 7, but the second clause of verse 8 is surely from the perspective of the prophet. If the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible is correct, then Yahweh has stopped speaking in verse 7, and verse 8 represents the words of the prophet.

Now the purpose of the captivity of Israel is explained:

9 By 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 [or Asherim] and images shall not stand up. 

In Romans chapter 11, Paul of Tarsus had paraphrased a passage found in Isaiah chapter 59, however the manner in which his citation was made also very well describes what we have seen here, where he wrote: “25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the [Nations] be come in. 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” The epistle to the Romans reveals in many ways that Paul knew that he was writing to Israelites, and he was essentially teaching them the fulfillment of these prophecies in themselves, in part, in the Romans. But in Romans chapter 1, Paul had chastised them for their idolatry, and here in verse 9 we also see that Jacob’s sins are not purged until he tears down the altars, the groves and the images of his idols.

Now there is what is evidently another reference to ancient Tyre, which we would continue to assert is a type for the Mystery Babylon of the Revelation:

10 Yet 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. 11 When 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. 

So perhaps this indicates that even when Yahweh purges iniquity from Jacob, and tends to Israel as His Own vineyard, the concept of large mercantile cities shall be obsolete, as they are a product of this world. For that reason, here in the end of verse 10 and in verse 11, the city is described as having branches that are useless, and can only be burned in the fire, in spite of the language that makes it apparent that Yahweh Himself is described as having been their Creator. Ostensibly, these verses may be correlated to Daniel chapter 12, and the foreboding statement concerning the deliverance of the children of Israel, where it says “2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

On the other hand however, this may only describe a temporal punishment, and Yahweh would have no mercy on them in this life. This is seen also in the fall of Mystery Babylon in Revelation chapter 18 where we read “4 … Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” There may be people of Israel who do not come out of Babylon, and who therefore shall suffer along with the wicked in her punishments.

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

The Hebrew word translated as channel here, שׁבלת or shiboleth (# 7641), may also be a branch or a stream. In this context, the phrase “channel of the river” seems to be a reference to the river Euphrates, since it is set opposite the Nile. This is the manner in which both the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and the New American Standard Bible had interpreted the Hebrew phrase הנהר or ha nahar, which is the word for river with the definite article, referring to a particular river. 

If this is so, then the reference describes the utmost extent of the land of Israel at its height, in the time of David. This we read in 1 Chronicles chapter 18: “1 Now after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them, and took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines. 2 And he smote Moab; and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts. 3 And David smote Hadarezer king of Zobah unto Hamath, as he went to stablish his dominion by the river Euphrates.”

However even if Yahweh would thresh the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, which may or may not be a prophecy parallel to what is found in Malachi chapter 1, in verses 4 and 5, that does not mean that He will gather Israel from that land, as the next and final verse of the chapter indicates that He shall gather Israel from the places of their captivity. So maybe this verse only uses the rivers as an allegory for the extremities of the habitation of Israel in the time of their captivity:

13 And 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. 

The children of Israel who were “ready to perish in the land of Assyria” went off into Assyrian captivity, but they did not remain in Assyria. Likewise, many of the Israelites who had been in the captivity of Egypt had left Egypt by sea, rather than having accompanied Moses in the Exodus. However the evidence of these things are found mostly in sources outside of the Bible, and are sometimes only alluded to in Scripture. Yet even in the time between the captivities, there is evidence within and outside of Scripture that Israelites had been leaving Palestine and settling in places in Europe, and around the Mediterranean coasts. In earlier chapters of this commentary on Isaiah, in The Burden of Tyre, we discussed this in relation to Carthage and Iberia.

Other examples are found in the histories of Diodorus Siculus, where there are explicit statements that when the strangers in Egypt had departed with Moses, many of them had instead chose to depart by sea and settle in various places in Europe. Later in Isaiah there are indications that the Israelites of the Assyrian captivity had also gone to Europe. This is found especially in Isaiah chapter 66, in verse 19, where there is an explicit mention of the places to which the Israelites in the Assyrian captivity would be sent, and several places are listed beginning from the area of the Black Sea to as far west as Iberia, by which we know that Israel had been sent to Europe. Israel has never yet been gathered from those places, however the apostles of Christ had brought the Gospel to those places, and in that manner, having accepted the Gospel, they returned to Him.

In this manner we should understand the words of the opening verses 107th Psalm: “1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”

Here the children of Israel regathered to Yahweh in Christ are described as having been “ready to perish in the land of Assyria” and as “outcasts in the land of Egypt”. This expresses the fact that they only have life in the mercy of God, and while He has deemed them as righteous, the triumph of the righteous can only come by the hand of God.

This concludes our commentary on Isaiah through chapter 27.