to give · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
briers
שָׁמִ֥ירsha.Mir
H8068
a thorn · noun, common masculine singular absolute
thorns
שַׁ֙יִת֙sha.yit
H7898
scrub or trash · noun, common masculine singular absolute
battle
בַּמִּלְחָמָ֔הba.mil.cha.Mah
H4421
a battle (i.e. the engagement) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
go
אֶפְשְׂעָ֥ה'ef.se.'Ah
H6585
to stride (from spreading the legs) · verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
burn
אֲצִיתֶ֥נָּה'a.tzi.Te.nah
H6702
to blaze · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
together
יָּֽחַדYa.chad
H3162
properly · 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 10:17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day…
Hebrews 6:8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
Matthew 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with un…
2 Samuel 23:6 But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
Psalms 85:3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
Psalms 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
Isaiah 12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst…
Isaiah 26:20-21 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 indigna…
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…
Fury is not in me--that is, I entertain no longer anger towards my vine.
who would set . . . in battle--that is, would that I had the briers, &c. (the wicked foe; Isa 9:18; Isa 10:17; Sa2 23:6), before me! "I would go through," or rather, "against them."
John Gill on Isaiah 27:4
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…
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…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 4, 5.) Indignation is not mine: who will give me a thorn and a thistle in battle? I will march over it: I will set it on fire together. Or rather, shall I hold onto my strength? It will bring me peace, it will bring me peace. LXX: There is nothing that does not seize it. Who will appoint me as a keeper of the straw in the field? Because of this adversary, I have repelled it. Therefore, the Lord has done all that He has planned: I am consumed; its inhabitants will say, we will make peace with it: we will make peace with him. According to the Hebrew, the meaning here is: I who, day and night, have always kept my vineyard, so that the boar from the forest would not destroy it, nor the beasts devour it. Do I not have indignation? And do I not know how to strike the sinner and give to each what he deserves? Where the eagle placed a thorn and a bramble, in Hebrew it is written 'Samir' and 'Saith', which means adamant and places full of thorns. Therefore, he says: Who will teach me to be firm and overcome my mercy, and to proceed fiercely in battle: so that I may walk over the vineyard which I kept, and burn it down which I enclosed with my wall? Or should my courage rather do this, that I postpone anger and save those who are not saved by the authority of the Law, with the mercy of the Gospel? But emphatically, according to the Hebrew reading, it is said: Who will make me hard and cruel, that I may overcome my nature? This is indeed signified in the desert and in thorns: that I may crush and burn it as if in battle, which I have always kept guarded by my diligence. Or should I hold onto my courage, which is undoubtedly Christ, and of which we read: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), so that it may itself make peace for me and reconcile the world? According to the Septuagint, here is the meaning: Let us understand it from the perspective of the Church: I am a strong city, a city surrounded by many enemies, to whom I have given in vain the cups of my enemy, the Synagogue. For she will be captured at night, and her wall will fall, and there will be no power of adversaries that will not seize her. Again I will say: What profit is it for me to guard her, which has straw in herself, not grain: which is so uncultivated, that it is full of disgrace and thorns, which I wanted to save? But because she treats me hostilely, I have…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (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 27:4
I have no wrath I have no mouth (var. excuse) to arouse My wrath on the nations, for Israel sins as well, and the standard of justice accuses.
would that I were thorns and briers against [the objects of My] war Against those with whom I wage war, namely Ishmael (ms. Esau). Would that I could visit upon them and the standard of justice would not be able to protest, i.e., that Israel would repent, and that would give Me thorns and briers against the enemies! I would tread upon the standard of justice and I would visit upon them even more and additional punishment over their iniquity, and I would ignite them together. Jonathan rendered it in this manner, as referring to the nations. Our Sages…
