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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 27

1 At that time the Lord will punish with his destructive, great, and powerful sword Leviathan the fast-moving serpent, Leviathan the squirming serpent; he will kill the sea monster.⁠ 2 When that time comes, sing about a delightful vineyard! 3 “I, the Lord, protect it; I water it regularly. I guard it night and day, so no one can harm it. 4 I am not angry. I wish I could confront some thorns and briers! Then I would march against them for battle; I would set them all on fire, 5 unless they became my subjects and made peace with me; let them make peace with me.” 6 The time is coming when Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce will fill the surface of the world. 7 Has the Lord struck down Israel as he did their oppressors? Has Israel been killed like their enemies? 8 When you summon her for divorce, you prosecute her; he drives her away with his strong wind in the day of the east wind. 9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: They will make all the stones of the altars like crushed limestone, and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. 10 For the fortified city is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the wilderness. Calves graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. 11 When its branches get brittle, they break; women come and use them for kindling. For these people lack understanding, therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them; the one who formed them has no mercy on them. 12 At that time the Lord will shake the tree, from the Euphrates River to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. 13 At that time a large trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 27:1 and Jonathan Isaiah 27:1

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah 27 uses mythological language about Leviathan to describe divine victory over chaos. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan interprets this as a reference to real empires, comparing Rome to earlier rulers like Pharaoh and Sennacherib.

Passages

Isaiah 27:1

Hebrew Bible
1 At that time the Lord will punish with his destructive, great, and powerful sword Leviathan the fast-moving serpent, Leviathan the squirming serpent; he will kill the sea monster. 2 When that time comes, sing about a delightful vineyard! 3 “I, the Lord, protect it; I water it regularly. I guard it night and day, so no one can harm it.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Jonathan Isaiah 27:1

Targum
1 At that time the LORD will punish with His great, mighty, and strong sword the king who has magnified himself like Pharaoh the first, and the king who has exalted himself like Sennacherib the second; and He will slay the king who is strong as the dragon that is in the sea. 2 At that time the congregation of Israel, which is like a vineyard planted in a good land, will sing concerning that vineyard, 3 “I, the LORD, keep the covenant of their fathers with them, that I may not destroy them; but at the time they provoked me to anger, I gave them the cup of their punishment to drink; yet their sins were the cause of their punishment; nevertheless, my Memra will protect them by day and by night.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... The punishment of Leviathan in the Masoretic text occasions a Targumic reference to Roman power at sea, and a comparison between the Emperor and two earlier enemies, Pharaoh and Sennacherib (verse 1). The obvious point is that Rome is to prove as weak before God as the Egyptians and Assyrians ..."
Bruce D. Chilton, The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus and Notes, ArBib 11 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987), 53.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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