to guard · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
water
אַשְׁקֶ֑נָּה'ash.Ke.nah
H8248
to quaff · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
moment
לִרְגָעִ֖יםlir.ga.'Im
H7281
a wink (of the eyes) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
hurt
יִפְקֹ֣דyif.Kod
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
keep
אֶצֳּרֶֽנָּה'etz.tzo.Re.nah
H5341
to guard · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
night
לַ֥יְלָהLay.lah
H3915
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
day
וָי֖וֹםva.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · conjunction + 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 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden,…
John 15:1-2 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
1 Samuel 2:9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
Psalms 121:3-5 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Ezekiel 34:11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
Ezekiel 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it…
Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,…
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…
lest any hurt it--attack it [MAURER]. "Lest aught be wanting in her" [HORSLEY].
John Gill on Isaiah 27:3
I the Lord do keep it,.... The vineyard, the church, not only by his ministers, called the keepers of it, Sol 8:12 but by himself, by his own power; for unless he keeps it, who is Israel's keeper, the watchmen wake in vain; he keeps his church and people from sin, that it does not reign over them; and from Satan's temptations, that they are not destroyed by them; and from the malice of the world, and the poison of false teachers, that they are not ruined thereby; and from a final and total falling away; the Lord's preservation of his church and people will be very manifest in the latter day:
I will water it every moment; both more immediately with the dews of his grace, and the discoveries…
I Jehovah keep it. Here the Lord asserts his care and diligence in dressing and guarding the vine, as if he had said, that he left nothing undone that belonged to the duty of a provident and industrious householder. Not only does he testify what he will do, when the time for gladness and congratulation shall arrive, but he relates the blessings which the Jews had already received, that their hope for the future may be increased. Yet we must supply an implied contrast with the intermediate period, during which God appeared to have laid aside all care of it, so that at that time it differed little from a wilderness. This then is the reason why the Lord's vineyard was plundered and laid waste;…
The Church Fathers
It is the soul, too, that says, "I am a strong city, a city besieged." The city is besieged through Christ, the city is that heavenly Jerusalem, in which there are interpreters of God's law and men skilled in doctrine in great abundance; through them one seeks the Word of God.
You have in Isaiah the speech made by the soul of a just man or of the church: "I am a strong city, I am a city besieged," defended by Christ and besieged by the devil. But one whom Christ aids ought not to be fearful of a siege. [Such a person] is defended by spiritual grace and is besieged by the perils of this world. Hence also it is said in the Song of Songs, "I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower." The wall is the church, and the towers are her priests, who have full power to teach the natural and the moral sciences.
Therefore let us flee these evils and elevate our soul to the image and likeness of God. The flight from evils is the likeness of God, and the image of God is gained through the virtues. And so, like a painter, he has painted us with the colors of the virtues. "See, I have painted your walls, Jerusalem." Let us not wipe away with the brush of neglect the props of the painted walls of our soul. And so "I have painted the walls," with which we can turn away the enemy. The soul has its walls; from them it stands forth and concerning them it says, "I am a strong city, a city besieged." By these walls it is guarded, and by them it is protected under siege. And truly the soul is a wall, which stretches forth over the camp. And therefore the bride says in the Song of Solomon, "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers." The wall that the Lord painted is good, even as he says: "On my hands I have painted your walls, and you are always in my sight."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Church, The · The object of the grace of God — The object of the grace of God
Emblems Of The Holy Spirit, The · Fertilising — Fertilising
Parables · Of the vineyard — Of the vineyard
Providence Of God, The · Is ever watchful — Is ever watchful
Vineyard · Parables of — Parables of
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).
The prophecy here passes for the fourth time into the tone of a song. The church recognises itself in the judgments upon the world, as Jehovah's well-protected and beloved vineyard.
In that day a merry vineyard - sing it!
I, Jehovah, its keeper,
Every moment I water it.
That nothing may come near it,
I watch it night and day.
Wrath have I none;
O, had I thorns, thistles before me!
I would make up to them in battle,
Burn them all together.
Men would then have to grasp at my protection,
Make peace with me,
Make peace with me.
Instead of introducing the song with, "In that day shall this song be sung," or some such introduction, the prophecy passes at once into the song. It consists i…
God identifies himself as the Lord of the covenant to assure his people that what he says and does is reliable (see Exod 6:2-3). The phrase is used many times throughout Isaiah. • watch . . . watering . . . watch: The Lord will provide even greater care and protection for his ultimate vineyard than he did for Israel, his first vineyard (see Isa 5:1-2).
Rashi on Isaiah 27:3
I, the Lord, guard it in the time of exile.
every moment I water it Little by little I water it with the cup of retribution that comes upon it, lest I visit upon it at once and I destroy it. Therefore, night and day I ponder about it. Jonathan renders: Were it not that I visit upon them the iniquities that they are accustomed to commit before Me, I would guard it day and night.
