Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 27:8

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Shameful exile and glorious return (27:2-13)

From its beginning, Israel was God’s chosen people. God compares the nation to a beautiful vineyard, which he has cared for and guarded continually (2-3). Israel’s enemies are likened to thorns and briars, and unless they repent of their wrongdoing and seek God’s forgiveness, they will suffer a fiery destruction (4-5). Israel, by contrast, will flourish like a giant tree and bring blessing to the whole world (6).
Before that can happen, however, God must deal with Israel because of its sins. The nation, in both its northern and southern kingdoms, must be punished because it has turned away from the true God to serve the false gods of its neighbours. God does not punish his people as severely as he punishes his enemies. Those nations he destroys, but his own people he only sends into captivity, so that when their sins are removed they can return to their own land (7-9).
The desolation of their homeland is a just punishment that God sends upon his rebellious people (10-11). But when their punishment is ended, they will be gathered from many places back into their land, as grain is gathered together after it has been threshed (12-13).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"In measure, when thou sendest them away, thou dost contend with them; he hath removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind."

This verse is ambiguous. Cheyne stated that `in measure' here or `in exact measure' means, "dealing out punishment in carefully adjusted quantities";T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, p. 160. The Hebrew word used for dry measure here is "`[~seah],' meaning one-third of an ephah."Ibid. This surely reminds us of the judgments connected with the trumpets in Revelation 8:7-8; Revelation 8:10, where we read that only "one third" was allowed in the various destructions prophesied.

In this light, we find it difficult to believe that only God's judgments of Northern Israel are in view here. It appears to us that this is simply a promise of restraint on God's part in those judgments poured out on mankind in general during the Messianic age, that clearly being the teaching in the great judgment passages of the Apocalypse.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

In measure ... - This verse in our translation is exceedingly obscure, and indeed almost unintelligible. Nor is it much more intelligible in Lowth, or in Noyes; in the Vulgate, or the Septuagint. The various senses which have been given to the verse may be seen at length in Vitringa and Rosenmuller. The idea, which I suppose to be the true one, without going into an examination of others which have been proposed, is the following, which is as near as possible a literal translation:

In moderation in sending her (the vineyard)

Away didst thou judge her,

Though carrying her away with a rough tempest

In the time of the east wind.

The word rendered ‘measure’ (סאסאה sa's^e'âh) occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. It is probably derived from סאה s^e'âh, “a measure;” usually denoting a measure of grain, containing, according to the rabbis, a third part of an ephah, that is, about “a peck.” The word used here is probably a contraction of סאה סאה s^e'âh s^e'âh literally, “measure by measure,” i: e., “moderately,” or in moderation. So the rabbis generally understand it. The idea is ‘small measure by small measure,’ not a large measure at a time; or, in other words, moderately, or in moderation. It refers, I suppose, to the fact that in inflicting judgment on his people, it had not been done with intolerable severity. The calamity had not been so overwhelming as entirely to cut them off, but had been tempered with mercy.

When it shooteth forth - This expression does not convey an intelligible idea. The Hebrew, בשׁלחה b^eshall^echâh - literally, “in sending her forth,” from שׁלח shâlach “to send,” or “to put forth” - refers, I suppose, to the fact that God had sent her, that is, his vineyard, his people, forth to Babylon; he had cast them out of their own land into a distant country, but when it was done it was tempered with mercy and kindness. In this expression there is indeed a mingling of a metaphor with a literal statement, since it appears rather incongruous to speak of sending forth a “vineyard;” but such changes in expressions are not uncommon in the Hebrew poets.

Thou wilt debate with it - Or, rather, thou hast “judged” it; or hast punished it. The word ריב riyb means sometimes to debate, contend, or strive; but it means also to take vengeance 1 Samuel 25:39, or to punish; to contend with anyone so as to overcome or punish him. Here it refers to the fact that God “had” had a contention with his people, and had punished them by removing them to Babylon.

He stayeth - ( הגה hâgâh). This word means in one form “to meditate,” to think, to speak; in another, “to separate,” as dross from silver, to remove, to take away Proverbs 25:4-5. Here it means that he “had” removed, or separated his people from their land as with the sweepings of a tempest. The word ‘stayeth’ does not express the true sense of the passage. It is better expressed in the margin, ‘when he removeth it.’

His rough wind - A tempestuous, boisterous wind, which God sends. Winds are emblematic of judgment, as they sweep away everything before them. Here the word is emblematic of the calamities which came upon Judea by which the nation was removed to Babylon; and the sense is, that they were removed as in a tempest; they were carried away as if a violent storm had swept over the land.

In the day of the east wind - The east wind in the climate of Judea was usually tempestuous and violent; Job 27:21 :

The east wind carrieth him away and he departeth;

And, as a storm, hurleth them out of his place.

Jeremiah 18:17 :

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy.

(Compare Genesis 41:6; Exodus 10:13; Exodus 14:21; Job 38:24; Psalms 78:26; Habakkuk 1:6). This wind was usually hot, noxious, blasting and scorching (Taylor).

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

8.In measure. This is the second proof of the divine compassion towards all the elect, whom he chastises for this purpose, that they may not perish; and, by mitigating the punishments which he inflicts upon them, he pays such regard to their weakness that he never permits them to be oppressed beyond measure. As to the word בסאסאה, (bĕsăssĕāh,) in measure, all interpreters agree that it denotes moderation; for otherwise we could not bear the hand of the Lord, and would be overwhelmed by it; but he keeps it back, and “is faithful,” as Paul says,

“not to suffer us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear.”
(1 Corinthians 10:13.)

Thus also Jeremiah prays to the Lord to “chastise him in judgment,” that is, with moderation, accommodating the stripes to his weakness. (Jeremiah 10:24.)

In her shooting forth, בשלחה, (bĕshāllĕchāch.) Interpreters are not agreed as to the meaning of this word. Some think that it means, “by engaging them in internal wars with each other,” and others, “that God will punish their sins by that sword which they have drawn and put into his hand.” But as I cannot approve of either of those interpretations, I pass them by. I approve more highly of those who interpret it, “in her shootings forth,” that is, in plants; so as to mean, that in inflicting punishment, the Lord attacks not only their outward circumstances, but also their persons. We know that the Lord’s chastisements are various. The more light and moderate are those by which he takes from us only external blessings, which are called “the good things of fortune.” So then God punishes believers in such a manner as not only to afflict their persons, but to take from them what is necessary for the support of life, such as corn, wine, oil, and other things of that kind which the earth produces; for שלח (shālăch) signifies to “shoot forth,” and to “produce.”

But I have another exposition which comes nearer to the Prophet’s meaning, that in shooting forth God contends with the Church, because, though he cuts down the branches and even the trunk, yet his wrath does not extend to the roots, so as to prevent the tree from again shooting forth; for there is always some remaining vigor in the roots, which he never permits to die. And this agrees with what goes before, when he promised (Isaiah 27:6) that Israel would bring forth “fruit.” This explains what he formerly said, in measure; namely, that he will not pull up the root; for the Lord cuts down what appears outwardly, such as branches and leaves, but defends the root and preserves it safe. But, on the other hand, he tears up the reprobate by the roots, and cuts them down in such a manner that they can never rise again.

Though he blow with his violent wind. Some translate it, “he blew with his wind,” but I think that the meaning is made more clear by saying, “though he blow.” He continues the metaphor, by which he had alluded to herbs and plants, which a violent wind causes to wither, but only in appearance; for the root is always safe. Thus though the Lord attacks believers with great violence, and takes away all their beauty and comeliness, so that they appear to be entirely slain, yet he usually preserves in them some internal vigor.

In the day of the east wind. When the Prophet spoke of “the day of the east wind,” he had his eye on the situation of Judea, to which, as we learn from other passages, that easterly wind was injurious. We know that each country has its own particular wind that is injurious to it; for in some countries the north wind, in others the south wind, and in others the east or equinoctial wind, occasions great damage, throwing down the corn, scorching or spoiling all the fruits, blasting the trees, and scarcely leaving anything in the fields uninjured. By “the east wind” in this passage, is supposed to be meant “the equinoctial wind,” which in many countries is very destructive.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 27:

In that day ( Isaiah 27:1 )

Now what day? In the day in which God is bringing the Great Tribulation upon the earth.

In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent ( Isaiah 27:1 );

So Satan.

and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea ( Isaiah 27:1 ).

You saw the beast coming out of the sea in Revelation having ten horns and so forth and with a mouth of a dragon, the antichrist, Satan, the power of darkness.

In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine ( Isaiah 27:2 ).

Chapter 27 really goes back with those of twenty-six. "Now in that day sing unto her," that is, to Israel, "a vineyard of red wine."

I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 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 ( Isaiah 27:3-4 ).

You can't put a barbed wire to keep God out.

Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. 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 ( Isaiah 27:5-6 ).

Now here is just a neat little prophecy tucked in God's statement of how He's going to again bless the nation Israel. How He again is going to make them His vineyard. It's quite a contrast with chapter 5 where God speaks out the woes against His vineyard. How He had taken care of the vineyard and all but it didn't bring forth fruit. Brought forth just wild grapes, and so He let the vineyard go. Now God says the day is coming when He's going to take again His vineyard and watch over it and keep it and water it and dress it. And, "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."

Already we are seeing this prophecy fulfilled. Israel is blossoming and budding and filling the earth with fruit. Israel is the fourth largest exporter of fruit of any nation in the world. United States leads in the exporting of fruit. But Israel is the third largest fruit-exporting nation in the world. And yet it is smaller than the state of California. But not only has Israel gone into the exporting of fruit, all over Europe. Actually, there are these jumbo jets that are flying out of Tel Aviv every night to the major cities of Europe taking fruit and taking flowers.

In the wintertime you can buy fresh flowers in the flower shops throughout all of Europe. Where do they come from? They come from Israel. They grow the flowers year-round down in the Jordan Valley and they ship them out overnight on these jumbo jets to the markets of Europe. And the same with the fruit. You buy the oranges and the fruit from Israel in the markets of Europe. It is blossoming. It is budding, filling the earth with fruit and also with flowers. The interesting blossoming bud.

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 measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. 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 and images shall not stand up. Yet the defensed 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 ( Isaiah 27:7-10 ).

In other words, the bareness that would happen to the nation Israel, which did happen. The cities were destroyed and the land was a wilderness for so long.

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for the people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. But it shall come to pass ( Isaiah 27:11-12 )

They went through this barren wilderness.

But it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 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 ( Isaiah 27:12-13 ).

God's regathering of His people back into the land. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The future blessing and former discipline of Israel 27:2-11

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord had scattered His people when they needed punishment, but He had not destroyed them. Since Isaiah used a feminine suffix here, it is possible that he alluded to a husband sending his wife away in divorce. He had let the fierce winds of His anger blow on them, but, as with the sirocco, His anger eventually subsided.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it,.... Or, "when he sendeth it forth" x; when God sends forth an affliction on his people, or gives it a commission to them, as all are sent by him, he does it with moderation; he proportions it to their strength, and will not suffer them to be afflicted above what they are able to bear; and as, in afflicting, he debates and contends with his people, having a controversy with them, so he contends with the affliction he sends, and debates the point with it, and checks and corrects it, and will not suffer it to go beyond due bounds; and in this the afflictions of God's people differ from the afflictions of others, about which he is careless and unconcerned:

he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind: when afflictions, like a blustering and blasting east wind, threaten much mischief, and to carry all before them, Jehovah, from whom they have their commission, and who holds the winds in his fist, represses them, stops the violence of them, and gradually abates the force of them, and quite stills them, when they have answered the end for which they are sent: or "he meditateth" y; or speaketh, as Jarchi interprets it, "by his rough wind in the day of his east wind"; God sometimes meditates hard things against his people, and speaks unto them by the rough dispensations of his providence, admonishes them of their sins, and brings them to a sense and acknowledgment of them, which is his view in suffering them to befall them; or, "he removes by his rough wind" z; their fruit, so Kimchi interprets it; as a rough wind blows off the blossoms and fruits, so the Lord, by afflictions, removes the unkind blossoms and bad fruit from his people, their sins and transgressions, as it follows.

x בשלחה "in emittendo eam", Montanus. y הגה "meditatus est", V. L. so it is used in Psal. i. 2. It sometimes intends a great sound and noise, such as the roaring of a lion, Isa. xxxi. 4. and Gussetius here interprets it of thunder, Ebr. Comment. p. 202. so Castalio renders it, "sonans suo duro spiritu". z "Removit in vento suo duro", Pagninus, Montanus; "removebit", Vatablus; "abstulit", Tigurine version, Piscator; so Ben Melech observes that the word has the signification of removing in Prov. xxv. 4, 5.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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?   8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.   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 and images shall not stand up.   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 show them no favour.   12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.   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.

      Here is the prophet again singing of mercy and judgment, not, as before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to the church, but judgment to the church and mercy mixed with that judgment.

      I. Here is judgment threatened even to Jacob and Israel. They shall blossom and bud (Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 27:6), but, 1. They shall be smitten and slain (Isaiah 27:7; Isaiah 27:7), some of them shall. If God find any thing amiss among them, he will lay them under the tokens of his displeasure for it. Judgment shall begin at the house of God, and those whom God has known of all the families of the earth he will punish in the first place. 2. Jerusalem, their defenced city, shall be desolate,Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 27:11. "God having tried a variety of methods with them for their reformation, which, as to many, have proved ineffectual, he will for a time lay their country waste," which was accomplished when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans; then that habitation was for a long time forsaken. If less judgments do not do the work, God will send greater; for when he judges he will overcome. Jerusalem had been a defenced city, not so much by art or nature as by grace and the divine protection; but, when God was provoked to withdraw, her defence departed from her, and then she was left like a wilderness. "And in the pleasant gardens of Jerusalem cattle shall feed, shall lie down there, and there shall be none to disturb them or drive them away; there they shall be levant and couchant, and they shall eat the tender branches of the fruit-trees," which perhaps further signifies that the people should become an easy prey to their enemies. "When the boughs thereof are withered as they grow upon the tree, being blasted by winds and frosts and not pruned, they shall be broken off for fuel, and the women and children shall come and set them on fire. There shall be a total destruction, for the very trees shall be destroyed." And this is a figure of the deplorable state of the vineyard (Isaiah 27:2; Isaiah 27:2) when it brought forth wild grapes (Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 5:2); and our Saviour seems to refer to this when he says of the branches of the vine which abide not in him that they are cast forth and withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:6), which was in a particular manner fulfilled in the unbelieving Jews. The similitude is explained in the following words, It is a people of no understanding, brutish and sottish, and destitute of the knowledge of God, and that have no relish or savour of divine things, like a withered branch that has no sap in it; and this is at the bottom of all those sins for which God left them desolate, their idolatry first and afterwards their infidelity. Wicked people, however in other things they may be wits and politicians, in their greatest concerns are of no understanding; and their ignorance, being wilful, shall not only not be their excuse, but it shall be the ground of their condemnation; for therefore he that made them, that gave them their being, will not have mercy on them, nor save them from the ruin they bring upon themselves; and he that formed them into a people, formed them for himself, to show forth his praise, seeing they do not answer the end of their formation, but hate to be reformed, to be new-formed, will reject them, and show them no favour; and then they are undone: for, if he that made us by his power do not make us happy in his favour, we had better never have been made. Sinners flatter themselves with hopes of impunity, at least that they shall not be dealt with so severely as their ministers tell them, because God is merciful and because he is their Maker. But here we see how weak and insufficient those pleas will be; for, if they be of no understanding, he that made them, though he made them, and hates nothing that he has made, and though he has mercy in store for those who so far understand their interests as to apply to him for it, yet on them he will have no mercy, and will show them no favour.

      II. Here is a great deal of mercy mixed with this judgment; for there are good people mixed with those that are corrupt and degenerate, a remnant according to the election of grace, on whom God will have mercy and to whom he will show favour: and these promises seem to point at all the calamities of the church, for which God would graciously provide these allays.

      1. Though they shall be smitten and slain, yet not to that degree, and in that manner, in which their enemies shall be smitten and slain, Isaiah 27:7; Isaiah 27:7. God has smitten Jacob, and he is slain. Many of those that understand among the people shall fall by the sword and by flame many days,Daniel 11:33. But it shall not be as those are smitten and slain, (1.) Who smote him formerly, who were the rod of God's anger and the staff in his hand, which he made us of for the correction of his people, and to whose turn it shall come to be reckoned with even for that: the child is spared, but the rod is burnt. (2.) Who shall afterwards be slain by him, when he shall get the dominion, and repay them in their own coin, or slain for his sake in the pleading of his cause. God's people and God's enemies are here represented, [1.] As struggling with each other; so the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent have been, are, and will be. In this contest there are slain on both sides. God makes use of wicked men, not only to smite, but to slay his people; for they are his sword, Psalms 17:13. But, when the cup of trembling comes to be put into their hand, it will be much worse with them than ever it was with God's people in their greatest straits. The seed of the woman has only his heel bruised, but the serpent has his head crushed and broken. Note, Though God's persecuted people may be great losers, and great sufferers, for a while, yet those that oppress them will prove to be greater losers and greater sufferers at last, here or hereafter; for God will render double to them, Revelation 18:6. [2.] As sharing together in the calamities of this present time. They are both smitten, both slain, and both by the hand of God; for there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. But is Jacob smitten as his enemies are? No, by no means; to him the property is altered, and it becomes quite another thing. Note, However it may seem to us, there is really a vast difference between the afflictions and deaths of good people and the afflictions and deaths of wicked people.

      2. Though God will debate with them, yet it shall be in measure, and the affliction shall be mitigated, moderated, and proportioned to their strength, not to their deserts, Isaiah 27:8; Isaiah 27:8. He will deal out afflictions to them as the wise physician prescribes medicines to his patients, just such a quantity of each ingredient, or orders how much blood shall be taken when a vein is opened: thus God orders the troubles of his people, not suffering them to be tempted above what they are able,1 Corinthians 10:13. He measures out their afflictions by a little at a time, that they may not be pressed above measure; for he knows their frame, and corrects in judgment, and does not stir up all his wrath. When the affliction is shooting forth, when he is sending it out and giving it its commission, then he debates in measure, and not in extremity. He considers what we can bear when he begins to correct; and when he proceeds in his controversy, so that it is the day of his east-wind, which is not only blustering and noisy, but blasting and noxious, yet he stays his rough wind, checks it, and sets bounds to it, does not suffer it to blow so hard as was feared; when he is winnowing his corn, it is with a gentle gale, that shall only blow away the chaff, but not the good corn. God has the winds at his command, and every affliction under his check. Hitherto it shall go, but no further. Let us not despair when things are at the worst; be the winds ever so rough, ever so high, God can say unto them, Peace, be still.

      3. Though God will afflict them, yet he will make their afflictions to work for the good of their souls, and correct them as the father does the child, to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts (Isaiah 27:9; Isaiah 27:9): By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged. This is the design of the affliction, to this it is adapted as a proper means, and, by the grace of God working with it, it shall have this blessed effect. It shall mortify the habits of sin; by this those defilements of the soul shall be purged away. It shall break them off from the practice of sin: This is all the fruit, this is it that God intends, this is all the harm it will do them, to take away their sin, than which they could not have a greater kindness done them, though it be at the expense of an affliction. Therefore, because the affliction is mitigated and moderated, and the rough wind stayed, therefore we may conclude that he designs their reformation, not their destruction; and, because he deals thus gently with us, we should therefore study to answer his ends in afflicting us. The particular sin which the affliction was intended to cure them of was the sin of idolatry, the sin which did most easily beset that people and to which they were strangely addicted. Ephraim is joined to idols. But by the captivity in Babylon they were not only weaned from this sin, but set against it. Ephraim shall say, What have I do to any more with idols? Jacob has his sin taken away, his beloved sin, when he makes all the stones of the altar, of his idolatrous altar, the stones of which were precious and sacred to him, as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder; he not only has them in contempt, and values them no more than chalk-stones, but he conceives an indignation at them, and, in a holy revenge, beats them asunder as easily as chalk-stones are broken to pieces. The groves and the images shall not stand before this penitent, but they shall be thrown down too, never to be set up again. This was according to the law for the demolishing and destroying of all the monuments of idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:5); and according to this promise, since the captivity in Babylon, no people in the world have such a rooted aversion to idols and idolatry as the people of the Jews. Note, The design of affliction is to separate between us and sin, especially that which has been our own iniquity; and then it appears that the affliction has done us good when we keep at a distance from the occasions of sin, and use all needful precaution that we may not only not relapse into it, but not so much as be tempted to it, Psalms 119:67.

      4. Though Jerusalem shall be desolate and forsaken for a time, yet there will come a day when its scattered friends shall resort to it again out of all the countries whither they were dispersed (Isaiah 27:12; Isaiah 27:13); though the body of the nation is abandoned as a people of no understanding, yet those that are indeed children of Israel shall be gathered together again, as the sheep of the flock when the shepherds that scattered them are reckoned with, Ezekiel 34:10-19. Now observe concerning these scattered Israelites, (1.) Whence they shall be fetched: The Lord shall beat them off as fruit from the tree, or beat them out as corn out of the ear. He shall find them out, and separate them from those among whom they dwelt, and with whom they seemed to be incorporated, from the channel of the river Euphrates north-east, unto Nile, the stream of Egypt, which lay south-west--those that were driven into the land of Assyria, and were captives there in the land of their enemies, where they were ready to perish for want of necessaries, and ready to despair of deliverance--and those that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, whither many of those that were left behind, after the captivity in Babylon, went, contrary to God's express command (Jeremiah 43:6; Jeremiah 43:7), and there lived as outcasts: God has mercy in store for them all, and will make it to appear that, though they are cast out, they are not cast off. (2.) In what manner they shall be brought back: "You shall be gathered one by one, not in multitudes, not in troops forcing your way; but silently, and as it were by stealth, dropping in, first one, and then another." This intimates that the remnant that shall be saved consists but of few, and those saved with difficulty, and so as by fire, scarcely saved; they shall not come for company, but as God shall stir up every man's spirit. (3.) By what means they shall be gathered together: The great trumpet shall be blown, and then they shall come. Cyrus's proclamation of liberty to the captives is this great trumpet, which awakened the Jews that were asleep in their thraldom to bestir themselves; it was like the sounding of the jubilee-trumpet, which published the year of release. This is applicable both to the preaching of the gospel, by which sinners are gathered in to the grace of God, such as were outcasts and ready to perish (those that were afar off are made nigh; the gospel proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord), and also to the archangel's trumpet at the last day, by which saints shall be gathered to the glory of God, that lay as outcasts in their graves. (4.) For what end they shall be gathered together: To worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. When the captives rallied again, and returned to their own land, the chief thing they had their eye upon, and the first thing they applied themselves to, was the worship of God. The holy temple was in ruins, but they had the holy mount, the place of the altar,Genesis 13:4. Liberty to worship God is the most valuable and desirable liberty; and, after restraints and dispersions, a free access to his house should be more welcome to us than a free access to our own houses. Those that are gathered by the sounding of the gospel trumpet are brought in to worship God and added to the church; and the great trumpet of all will gather the saints together, to serve God day and night in his temple.