Isaiah 27:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 27:1
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.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָה֩Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
sore
הַקָּשָׁ֜הha.ka.Shah
H7186
severe (in various applications) · definite article + adjective, feminine singular absolute
great
וְהַגְּדוֹלָ֣הve.ha.ge.do.Lah
H1419
great (in any sense) · conjunction + definite article + adjective, feminine singular absolute
strong
וְהַֽחֲזָקָ֗הve.ha.cha.za.Kah
H2389
strong (usu. in a bad sense · conjunction + definite article + adjective, feminine singular absolute
sword
בְּחַרְב֨וֹbe.char.Vo
H2719
drought · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
punish
יִפְקֹ֣דyif.Kod
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
leviathan
לִוְיָתָן֙liv.ya.Tan
H3882
a wreathed animal · noun, masculine singular absolute
piercing
בָּרִ֔חַba.Ri.ach
H1281
a fugitive · adjective, masculine singular absolute
serpent
נָחָ֣שׁna.Chash
H5175
a snake (from its hiss) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
leviathan
לִוְיָתָ֔ןliv.ya.Tan
H3882
a wreathed animal · noun, masculine singular absolute
crooked
עֲקַלָּת֑וֹןa.ka.la.Ton
H6129
tortuous · adjective, masculine singular absolute
serpent
נָחָ֖שׁna.Chash
H5175
a snake (from its hiss) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
slay
וְהָרַ֥גve.ha.Rag
H2026
to smite with deadly intent · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
dragon
הַתַּנִּ֖יןha.ta.Nin
H8577
a marine or land monster · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sea
בַּיָּֽםbai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Ra…
Isaiah 66:16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
Ezekiel 29:3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his r…
Revelation 12:3-13:2 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head…
Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Psalms 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Psalms 74:13-14 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 27:1-6
The prophet is here singing of judgment and mercy,
I. Of judgment upon the enemies of God's church (Isa 27:1), tribulation to those that trouble it, Th2 1:6. When the Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth (Isa 26:21), he will be sure to punish leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, every proud oppressing tyrant, that is the terror of the mighty, and, like the leviathan, is so fierce that none dares stir him up, and his heart as hard as a stone, and when he raises up himself the mighty are afraid, Job 41:10, Job 41:24, Job 41:25. The church has many enemies, but commonly some one that is more formidable than the rest. So Sennacherib was in his day, and Nebucha…
In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword,.... Meaning either the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than a twoedged sword, Ephesians 6:17 or else some sore judgment of God: some understand it of the Medes and Persians, by whom the Lord would destroy the Babylonish monarchy; or rather it is the great power of God, or his judiciary sentence, and the execution of it, the same with the twoedged sword, which proceeds out of the mouth of the Word of God, by which the antichristian kings and their armies will be slain, Revelation 19:15,
shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent (i), even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the…
In that day. Here the Prophet speaks in general of the judgment of God, and thus includes the whole of Satan's kingdom. Having formerly spoken of the vengeance of God to be displayed against tyrants and wicked men who have shed innocent blood, he now proceeds farther, and publishes the proclamation of this vengeance.
On leviathan. The word "leviathan" is variously interpreted; but in general it simply denotes either a large serpent, or whales and sea-fishes, which approach to the character of monsters on account of their huge size. [189] A1though this description applies to the king of Egypt, yet under one class he intended also to include the other enemies of the Church. For my own part, I…
The Church Fathers
Let us earnestly endeavor, therefore, to flee every crooked and tortuous act, and let us keep our mind and the judgment of our soul as straight as a rule, in order that the praise of the Lord may be permitted to us since we are upright. In the same way the serpent, which is the author of sin, is called crooked, and the sword of God is drawn against the dragon, the crooked serpent, which makes many twists and turns in its progress.… Therefore one who follows the serpent shows that his life is crooked, uneven and filled with contrarieties; but one who follows after the Lord makes his paths straight and his footprints right.
For who is described by the designation of the "serpent" but our old enemy, at once slippery and crooked, who for the deceiving of humankind spoke with the mouth of a serpent? Of whom it is said by the prophet, "Leviathan the serpent, the crooked one"; who was for this reason allowed to speak with the mouth of a serpent, that by Leviathan's vessel humanity might learn what he was that dwelt within. For a serpent is not only crooked but slippery as well; and so because he stood not in the uprightness of truth, he entered into a crooked animal.… He spoke to man by means of a slippery animal because if one does not resist him, he secretly slips into the interior of the heart. Now "the dens" of this serpent were the hearts of wicked people.
For "Leviathan" is interpreted to be "their addition." Whose "addition," then, but the "addition" of people? And it is properly styled "their addition," for since by his evil suggestion he brought into the world the first sin, he never ceases to add to it day by day by prompting to worse things.Or indeed it is in reproach that he is called Leviathan, that is, styled "the addition of men." For he found them immortal in Paradise, but by promising the divine nature to immortal beings, he as it were pledged himself to add somewhat to them beyond what they were. But while with flattering lips he declared that he would give what they did not have, he robbed them cunningly even of what they had. And hence the prophet describes this same Leviathan in these words, "Leviathan, the serpent: even Leviathan that crooked serpent." For this Leviathan crept near to people with tortuous windings through the false promise of what he would give them; for while he falsely promised things impossible, he really stole away even those which were possible.
Dictionary and topics
Leviathan — A transliterated Hebrew word (livyathan), meaning “twisted,” “coiled.” In Job 3:8, Revised Version, and marg. of Authorized Version, it denotes the dragon which, according to Eastern tradition, is an…
Whale — The Hebrew word tan (plural, tannin) is so rendered in Job 7:12 (A.V.; but R.V., “sea-monster”). It is rendered by “dragons” in Deut. 32:33; Ps. 91:13; Jer. 51:34; Ps. 74:13 (marg., “whales;” and…
Dragon · Of the sea — Of the sea
Dragon, The · A species of, in rivers — A species of, in rivers
Leviathan · “The crooked (R. V.) serpent.” — “The crooked (R. V.) serpent.”
Serpents · Called crooked — Called crooked
Titles And Names Of The Devil · Crooked serpent — Crooked serpent
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Upon whom the judgment of Jehovah particularly falls, is described in figurative and enigmatical words in Isa 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 theref…
Israel adapted the imagery of Leviathan to refer to evil powers that oppose God. Leviathan’s death symbolizes the end of evil, Satan, the demonic, and the dominion of forces hostile to God (see 51:9; Pss 74:14; 104:7-9, 26; see also the serpent in Gen 3; Rev 12; 13; 16:13; 20:2, 10).
Rashi on Isaiah 27:1
on leviathan the barlike serpent Jonathan renders: On the king who aggrandized himself like Pharaoh the first king, and upon a king who was as haughty as Sennacherib the second king. בָּרִיחַ is an expression of ‘straight’ like a bar, since he is the first. (The matter of simplicity is related to oneness. Since Pharaoh was the first great king, he is referred to as ‘the barlike serpent,’ a straight, penetrating serpent, that does not coil.)
crooked An expression of ‘double,’ since he is the second one. (I.e. the bend in the serpent indicates duality, thus the number two.) And I say that these are three important nations: Egypt, Assyria, and Edom. He, therefore, stated concerning these as he…