Isaiah 27

The Dragon Slain and the Vineyard Restored

The Lord defeats Leviathan, sings a new song over His vineyard, and gathers His children one by one at the sound of the great trumpet.

“In that day,” the last days Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 27 closes the “Isaiah apocalypse” (chapters 24–27). It has four movements, three of them introduced by “in that day”: the slaying of Leviathan (verse 1); a new Song of the…

Chapter 27 closes the “Isaiah apocalypse” (chapters 24–27). It has four movements, three of them introduced by “in that day”: the slaying of Leviathan (verse 1); a new Song of the Vineyard (verses 2–6); a reflection on how the Lord disciplines Israel “in measure” (verses 7–11); and the gathering of Israel at the sound of a great trumpet (verses 12–13).

The second vineyard song is best read side by side with the first one in Isa. 5:1–7. In chapter 5 the Lord’s vineyard produced wild grapes, and He tore down its wall. In chapter 27 He guards it night and day, and it fills the world with fruit. Something has changed.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 27 is a chapter of reversals, where the story of judgment turns into the story of restoration.

Isaiah 27 is a chapter of reversals, where the story of judgment turns into the story of restoration.

It begins with a cosmic battle (verse 1). Leviathan, the twisting sea-serpent and dragon of ancient myth, a symbol of chaos and evil, is slain by the Lord’s great sword. Before the vineyard can flourish, the power that threatens it must be destroyed.

Then comes the new vineyard song (verses 2–6), and its tone is completely different from chapter 5. There the Lord said: “I will take away the hedge… I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” (Isa. 5:5–6). Here He says: “I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment… I will keep it night and day.” In chapter 5 He looked for grapes and found wild grapes. Here, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” And instead of anger: “Fury is not in me.” The only enemies left are briars and thorns, and even they are offered peace: “let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me.”

Verses 7–11 explain how the change happened. The Lord disciplined Israel, but “in measure” (verse 8). He didn’t destroy them as He destroyed their oppressors. His discipline purged their idolatry.

And the chapter ends with the gathering (verses 12–13). Like a farmer beating out olives or threshing grain, the Lord will harvest His people from the Euphrates to the Nile, and they will be gathered “one by one.” Then the great trumpet sounds, and the lost and outcast come home to worship on the holy mountain.

The Gardener who once tore down His vineyard now guards it every moment, because the vineyard is His, and He never stopped loving it.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verse 1

Leviathan slain

In plain words

In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, with His fierce, great, and powerful sword. He will slay the monster of the sea.

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.

History & Setting #

Leviathan

Leviathan was a many-headed sea monster in ancient Near Eastern mythology, a symbol of chaos.

Leviathan was a many-headed sea monster in ancient Near Eastern mythology, a symbol of chaos. In the Canaanite texts discovered at Ugarit (Ras Shamra) in Syria, a sea monster called Lotan (the same name) is described in almost exactly Isaiah’s words: “the fleeing serpent… the twisting serpent.” Isaiah borrows that famous description, and the effect is powerful. The chaos monster that Canaanite gods battled is simply slain by the Lord.

Elsewhere in scripture, Leviathan represents the untamable forces God alone controls (Job 41; Ps. 74:13–14; Ps. 104:26). John saw the same creature in its final form: “the great dragon… that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (Rev. 12:9; Rev. 20:2). Before the vineyard can be safe, the dragon must be destroyed.

Sources: “Leviathan”, Bible Dictionary.

Verses 2–6

A new song of the vineyard

In plain words

In that day, sing about a fruitful vineyard: “I, the Lord, watch over it. I water it continually. I guard it day and night so no one can harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briars and thorns confronting Me! I would march against them and burn them all up. Or else let them cling to Me for protection; let them make peace with Me. Yes, let them make peace with Me.” In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

Imagery & Symbol #

The second vineyard song

This song deliberately answers the first Song of the Vineyard in Isa. 5:1–7.

This song deliberately answers the first Song of the Vineyard in Isa. 5:1–7. Compare them:

Isaiah 5	Isaiah 27
It brought forth wild grapes (5:2)	A vineyard of red wine (27:2)
I will take away the hedge (5:5)	I will keep it night and day (27:3)
I will command the clouds that they rain no rain (5:6)	I will water it every moment (27:3)
There shall come up briers and thorns (5:6)	Briers and thorns are burned or make peace (27:4–5)
He looked for judgment, but behold oppression (5:7)	Israel shall fill the world with fruit (27:6)

The same vineyard, the same Gardener, and a completely different outcome. What changed? The Lord’s discipline did its work (verses 7–9), and His covenant love never ended.

3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4 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.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

Witness of Christ #

Take hold of My strength

The Lord offers even His enemies a way out: “let him take hold of my strength.”

The Lord offers even His enemies a way out: “let him take hold of my strength.” The phrase can mean grasping His stronghold, taking refuge in Him, as a fugitive might grab the horns of the altar for sanctuary (1 Kgs. 1:50). And the Lord repeats it for emphasis: “he shall make peace with me.”

This is the gospel invitation. Jacob pleaded with his people to “be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ” (Jacob 4:11). The Lord says, “mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive” (3 Ne. 9:14). Peace with God comes not from our own strength, but from taking hold of His.

6 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.

Restoration Insight #

Filling the world with fruit

This is one of Isaiah’s great promises of the latter-day gathering. Jacob “takes root,” and Israel blossoms until its fruit covers the face of the earth.

Latter-day Saints see the promise being fulfilled as the restored gospel spreads to every nation. Zenos’s allegory ends the same way. After the last great labor in the vineyard, the trees “had become again the natural fruit,” and the Lord of the vineyard rejoiced that His fruit was good (Jacob 5:74–75). The Lord told Joseph Smith that the gospel would “roll forth… until it has filled the whole earth” (D&C 65:2; see Dan. 2:34–35).

Verses 7–11

Discipline in measure

In plain words

Has the Lord struck Israel as He struck those who struck Israel? Has Israel been killed as its killers were killed? No. By warfare and exile You contended with her, measuring the punishment. With His fierce breath He drove her out, as on a day when the east wind blows. So this is how Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of removing his sin: when he crushes all the altar stones to pieces like chalk, and no Asherah poles or incense altars are left standing. The fortified city is deserted, abandoned like the wilderness. Calves graze there and lie down, stripping its branches. When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women use them to make fires. For this is a people without understanding, so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

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.

Liken It #

Discipline in measure

“In measure” (besasseʾah) means with measured, moderated punishment. The Lord disciplined Israel, but not as He destroyed its enemies (verse 7).

“In measure” (besasseʾah) means with measured, moderated punishment. The Lord disciplined Israel, but not as He destroyed its enemies (verse 7). “He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind”: even in the scorching east wind of judgment, He holds back the full blast.

This is how the Lord chastens those He loves: carefully, proportionately, and for a purpose (Heb. 12:5–11; D&C 95:1). Jeremiah heard the same promise: “I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished” (Jer. 30:11). He knows exactly how much we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13; Alma 13:28).

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 shew them no favour.

Verses 12–13

Gathered one by one

In plain words

In that day the Lord will thresh from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, people of Israel, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

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.

Restoration Insight #

Gathered one by one

The Lord “beats off” (threshes, as with olives or grain) the whole region from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, the ideal boundaries of the promised land (Gen. 15:18).

The Lord “beats off” (threshes, as with olives or grain) the whole region from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, the ideal boundaries of the promised land (Gen. 15:18). But the gathering is not a mass relocation. It happens one by one.

Jeremiah said something similar: “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jer. 3:14). That is exactly how the latter-day gathering has worked: individuals and families choosing to come to Christ and make covenants, one conversion at a time. The Savior’s own ministry had the same pattern. At Bountiful He blessed the Nephite children “one by one” and let the multitude come to Him “one by one” to feel the prints in His hands (3 Ne. 11:15; 3 Ne. 17:21).

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.

Restoration Insight #

The great trumpet

A great trumpet (the shofar, a ram’s horn) summoned Israel to assemble and announced the Jubilee, the year of release and return (Lev. 25:9–10).

A great trumpet (the shofar, a ram’s horn) summoned Israel to assemble and announced the Jubilee, the year of release and return (Lev. 25:9–10). Here it calls home those “ready to perish in the land of Assyria” and “the outcasts in the land of Egypt,” the scattered of Israel, to worship on the holy mountain.

Jesus said that at His coming He would send His angels “with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds” (Matt. 24:31; JS—M 1:37). The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of the trumps that will sound before His coming (D&C 29:13; D&C 88:92–110). Moroni is often depicted with a trumpet on Latter-day Saint temples, a symbol of the everlasting gospel being preached to every nation (Rev. 14:6; D&C 133:36–37).

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 27

Isaiah 27 shows Jesus Christ as the Dragon-Slayer who defeats Leviathan, the old serpent (Rev. 12:9; Gen. 3:15). He is the Gardener who waters His vineyard every moment and says, “Fury is not in me” (verses 3–4). He offers even His enemies peace: “let him take hold of my strength” (verse 5). And He is the Shepherd who gathers His people one by one (verse 12), as He blessed the Nephite children one by one (3 Ne. 17:21).

The whole chapter is a picture of His Atonement at work. The chaos is defeated, the discipline is measured, sin is purged, and His people are brought home to worship Him on His holy mountain.

Liken it to yourself

Compare Isaiah 5 and Isaiah 27. Which vineyard song describes my life right now? What might move me from the first to the second?
“Take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me” (verse 5). What part of my life needs to be reconciled to God? What would it look like to take hold of His strength instead of my own?
The Lord disciplines “in measure” (verse 8). Can I see His measured care in the hard things I’ve been through?
The gathering happens “one by one.” Who is one person I could help come closer to the Savior?

Worth exploring next

Two vineyard songs. Read Isa. 5:1–7 and Isa. 27:2–6 side by side, then read Jacob 5:70–77. How does each vineyard story end?
The dragon. Trace the serpent and dragon through Gen. 3:15, Isa. 27:1, Isa. 51:9, Rev. 12:7–9, and Rev. 20:1–3.
One by one. Read 3 Ne. 11:14–17 and 3 Ne. 17:21–24. What does “one by one” teach about how the Savior gathers?

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Isa. 5:1–7 — The first Song of the Vineyard, which this chapter reverses.
Jacob 5 — Zenos’s allegory of the tame and wild olive trees.

Sources & further reading

“Leviathan”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 15: Prophecies of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times (Isaiah 24–35), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.

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