isaiah 27 and 28

Read Isaiah 27 and 28 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Isa 27:1 {s} YHVH will punish Leviathan + slay the dragon that is in the sea
Isa 27:2-6 {p} The Lord keeps His vineyard/ let them make peace with Me + then the world will be filled with fruit
Isa 27:7-11 {p} Jacob’s iniquity covered, when he turns from his idols
Isa 27:12 {p} YHVH will gather His fruit (the children of Israel) from the Euphrates to the Nile
Isa 27:13 {p} On the day of the great trumpet, they will be gathered from Assyria + Egypt to worship YHVH
Isa 28:1-4 {s} The pride of Ephraim will be eaten up by a tempest of hail + destroying storm, mighty and strong
Isa 28:5-6 {s} In that day, instead of pride, the crown of the remnant of His people will be YHVH of hosts
Isa 28:7-8 {p} Priest + prophet err in vision + stumble in judgment because they are intoxicated
Isa 28:9-13 {p} The people who would not hear YHVH’s way of rest will fall + be broken + snared
Isa 28:14-14 {p} Because the scoffers have made a covenant with death + lies to escape the sourge
Isa 28:16-17 {s} YHVH lays in Zion the precious cornerstone: righteousness + justice the plumb line
Isa 28:18-22 {p} Their covenant with death will be annulled: the scourge will pass over them
Isa 28:23-29 {p} Breaking up the hardened soil does not last forever + there is an end to threshing

The strong themes:

Isa 27:1-6 {s+p} YHVH will slay the dragon + keep His vineyard, gather its fruit filling the whole world
Isa 27:7-11 {p} Jacob’s iniquity covered, when he turns from his idols
Isa 27:12 {p} YHVH will gather His fruit (the children of Israel) from the Euphrates to the Nile
Isa 27:13 {p} On the day of the great trumpet, they will be gathered from Assyria + Egypt to worship YHVH
Isa 28:1-8 {s+s+p} Instead of pride, the crown of His remnant will be YHVH/ intoxication of priest + prophet
Isa 28:9-13 {p} The people who would not hear YHVH’s way of rest will fall + be broken + snared
Isa 28:14-14 {p} Because the scoffers have made a covenant with death + lies to escape the sourge
Isa 28:16-22 {s+p} Cornerstone in Zion: righteousness + justice the plumb line; covenant with death annulled
Isa 28:23-29 {p} Breaking up the hardened soil does not last forever + there is an end to threshing

Chiastic structures in today’s reading (I have a feeling they are all elements of a larger structure that we cannot uncover yet):

Isa 27:1-13a {s+px3}:

1a) Isa 27:1 {s} In that day YHVH will slay the dragon that is in the sea;

1b) Isa 27:2-6 {p} The fruitfulness of YHVH’s vineyard, which He tends + keeps, and with whom He has made peace;

1c) Isa 27:7, Has He struck + slain him as He struck + slaughtered those who struck him?

1d) Isa 27:8, In full measure YHVH sent her away + removed her with the east wind;

central axis) Isa 27:9, “Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones that are beaten to dust, so that the Asherim and the sun images shall rise no more;”

2d) Isa 27:10-11a, The fortified city will be desolate + its boughs withered + burnt;

2c) Isa 27:11b {p} For it is a people of no understanding, therefore He will not have mercy;

2b) Isa 27:12 {p} YHVH will beat off His fruit from the Euphrates to the Nile;

2a) Isa 27:13a, So it shall be in that day: a great trumpet will be blown.

This structure makes it seem as if the day of the blowing of the great trumpet (the last trumpet at the Feast of Trumpets to come?) is tied to the day of the slaying of the great dragon.

An overlapping structure can be made from Isa 27:12-13 {p+p}:

1a) Isa 27:12 {p} YHVH will beat off His fruit from the Euphrates (Assyria) to the Nile (Egypt);

central axis) Isa 27:13a, So it shall be in that day: a great trumpet will be blown;

2a) Isa 27:13b {p} They will come who were lost in the land of Assyria, and they who were dispersed in the land of Egypt, and they shall worship YHVH in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Isaiah has mentioned Assyria and Egypt coming to His worship before:

Isa 19:23-25 {s+s} In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. {s} In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” {s}

The overlapping structure makes it seem as if the day of the blowing of the great trumpet is tied to the redemption of Assyria (modern-day northern Iraq overlapping into Syrian and Turkish territory; the present homeland of the Kurds) and Egypt.

Isa 28:1-8 {s+s+p}:

1a) Isa 28:1-4a, Woe to the crown of pride + drunkards of Ephraim overcome with wine: they will be trampled underfoot;

central axis) Isa 28:4b {s} They will be eaten like a first fruit of summer;

2a) Isa 28:5-8 {s+p} In that day YHVH of hosts will be their crown of glory + beauty, for they erred because of intoxicating drink.

Keeping in mind that Ephraim is a metaphor for the ten tribes dispersed by Assyria, who ate them like a first fruit of summer in 721 BC.

Isa 28:9-29 {p+p+s+p+p} :

1a) Isa 28:9-13 {p} Ephraim did not grasp knowledge + understanding, that they might be broken;

1a) Isa 28:9-10, Knowledge + understanding cannot come to the child just weaned, therefore it must be precept by precept;
1b) Isa 28:11, For with stammering lips + another tongue it shall be spoken to this people;
central axis) Isa 28:12a, To whom He said, “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing;”
2b) Isa 28:12b, Yet they would not hear;
2a) Isa 28:13 {p} The word of YHVH was to them precept by precept that they might be broken + caught;

(Since they closed their ears to YHVH’s message of rest by walking in His ways, a people of another language (Assyria) who they can hear but cannot understand, will speak to them.)

1b) Isa 28:14a, Therefore hear the word of YHVH;

1c) Isa 28:14b, You scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem;

1d) Isa 28:15a, You have made a covenant with death: the overflowing scourge shall not pass over us;

1e) Isa 28:15b {p} For we have made lies our refuge + hidden ourselves under falsehood:

central axis) Isa 28:16-17a, Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not make haste. And I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet;”

2e) Isa 28:17b {s} The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies + waters overflow the hiding place;

2d) Isa 28:18-21, Your covenant with death will be annulled: the overflowing scourge will trample you down;

2c) Isa 28:22a, Therefore do not be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong;

2b) Isa 28:22b {p} I have heard from YHVH of hosts: destruction determined upon the whole earth;

2a) Isa 28:23-29 {p} Ephraim will not be broken forever: YHVH will instruct + teach him in right judgment;

1a) Isa 28:23, Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech;
1b) Isa 28:24-25, The plowman does not plow forever, but when he is done, he sows his seed;
central axis) Isa 28:26, For He instructs him in right judgment, his God teaches him;
2b) Isa 28:27-28, Cumin + wheat is not threshed forever, but beaten out + ground into flour;
2a) Isa 28:29 {p} This is from YHVH, wonderful in counsel + excellent in wisdom.