Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 27:5

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

5. Or let him take hold, &c. ] Else must he take hold of my strength: lit. “my stronghold” or asylum: cf. 1Ki 1:50; 1Ki 2:28. The figure is relinquished; the idea expressed being that unconditional surrender to Jehovah on the part of the ungodly is the only alternative to his annihilation.

The two last clauses let him make peace differ only in the order of words, and should be translated alike (see R.V.).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Or let him – The Hebrew word rendered here or ( ‘o) means unless; and the sense is, the enemies of the Jewish people shall be completely destroyed as briers are by fire, unless they flee to God for a refuge.

Take hold of my strength – That is, let the enemy take hold of me to become reconciled to me. The figure here is taken probably from the act of fleeing to take hold of the horns of the altar for refuge when one was pursued (compare 1Ki 1:50; 1Ki 2:28).

That he may make peace with me – With me as the guardian of the vineyard. If this were done they would be safe.

And he shall make peace with me – That is, even the enemy of me and of my vineyard may be permitted to make peace with me. Learn,

(1) That God is willing to be reconciled to his enemies.

(2) That peace must be obtained by seeking his protection; by submitting to him, and laying hold of his strength.

(3) That if this is not done, his enemies must be inevitably destroyed.

(4) He will defend his people, and no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 27:5

Let him take hold of My strength

Taking hold of the Divine strength

I.

THE INVITATION. Let him take hold of My strength. This becomes an imperative duty–a duty universal in its application.

II. THE REASON of this invitation–that he may make peace with Me.

1. Observe how very unselfish it is, if we may so call it with reverence, on the part of God. It is not that He Himself may be benefited, but that the sinner might.

2. Consider, too, the cogency of this reason, resting as it does in that which all men most need, and most of us long for–peace.

3. Regard also the sublimity of this reason–peace with God.

III. THE POSITIVE ASSURANCE, or the certainty of the promise. And he shall make peace with Me. Nothing shall prevent it. Comply with the conditions, and then all is certain. Even the greatest enemies to God among men are permitted to make peace with Him. (W. Horwood.)

Man, seizing the strength of Omnipotence

Some substitute the word protection for strength here, and suppose the words refer to the horns of the altar which fugitives often laid hold of as an asylum. But the refuge of safety for any moral intelligence is nothing without Gods strength. For an insignificant creature like man to lay hold upon the strength of Omnipotence seems at first not only an absurd, but a blasphemous thought, and yet the thought is not without support in the Word of God. What meaneth the expression, Let Me alone, Moses, etc.?

I. It is POSSIBLE for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. In what does the real strength of a moral intelligence consist? Not in material bulk or muscle, if he has them; but in the leading disposition of his heart. This is the soul of strength, the sap in the oak, the steam in the engine, the vis in the muscle. He that can take hold of this in a man takes hold of his strength. Vanity is the leading disposition in some men; and if you would take hold of their strength you must flatter them. By adulation you will grasp them body and soul. Greed is the leading disposition in others. Avarice controls them, works their thoughts, and concentrates their energies. Minister to this greed and you will take hold of their strength, you will have them in your hands. Philanthropy is, thank God, the leading disposition of others. Present to them the claims of down-trodden slaves, of broken-hearted widows and starving orphans, and you will take hold of their strength. Now, the leading disposition of God, if I may so say, is benevolence. He not only loves, but is love. He, therefore, who appeals to His compassion takes hold of His strength. See how Omnipotence halted as Abraham prayed. See how in Christ it stood still on the road when two blind beggars said, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. Thus let the poor sinner go stricken in penitence and appeal in all his misery to the Great Father, and he will take hold of His strength.

II. It is NECESSARY for man to lay hold on the strength of Omnipotence. The only hope of sinful, dying man is to appeal to Gods compassion. If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin. Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye search for Me with all your heart. Elijah prayed, and God unsealed the heavens for him. Stephen prayed, and the Father drew the curtains of the invisible world and revealed to him the Son of God in all His glory. (Homilist.)

Seizing the strength of the Almighty

How can a man take hold on the strength of God? The following facts may give meaning to the phrase.

I. The pleading of the PROMISE OF ONE WHO IS FAITHFUL will take hold of his strength. If a man of incorruptible truthfulness were to make me a promise, and I pleaded the fulfilment of that promise, should I not, in a very emphatic sense, take hold of his strength in pleading it before him? I should seize not his mere limbs or any particular faculty, but himself, his inflexible sense of truthfulness.

II. The pleading of a RIGHT CLAIM TO ONE WHO IS RIGHTEOUS will take hold of his strength. If you have a righteous claim upon a righteous man you lay hold of him by urging it. You do not want law with such a man to enforce your obligation. He yields it by the necessity of his nature. There are claims which all moral beings who are commanded to love God with their hearts, souls, and strength have upon Him.

III. The pleading of MISERY TO ONE THAT IS LOVING will take hold of his strength. Thus the cry of a babe will take hold of the strength of a father, though he be the commander of armies, or the monarch of mighty peoples. By suffering and sorrow you can take hold of the most noble men on earth, and the most noble are the most loving. (Homilist.)

Strength taken hold of

Coriolanus was a mighty man. He is thus described by Shakespeare: The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corset with his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity, and a heaven to throne in. And yet his mother and wife, by appealing to the love in his nature, took hold of his strength; and hence we hear him exclaim, Ladies, you deserve to have a temple built you. All the swords in Italy and her confederate arms could not have made this peace. (Homilist.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. Or – “Ah”] For o I read oi, as it was at first in a MS. The yod was easily lost, being followed by another yod.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Or, or if at any time fury be, or seem to be, in me against my vineyard or people,

let him, my people, as is clearly implied from the following words; for there is no peace to those who are not Gods people, or to the wicked, Isa 57:21, and is expressed in the following verse; take hold of my strength, i.e. take hold of my arm, which is metonymically strength, and stay it from giving the blow, not by force, which is impossible, but by humble submission and earnest supplication. Or, strengthen himself, or be strong, (as this word properly signifies, and is elsewhere used,) by my strength; not by his own strength, which he will oppose to mine, but by my strength, which he may by humble and frequent prayers not only restrain from doing him hurt, but effectually engage to assist him, and do him good. He seems to allude to that history of Jacobs wrestling with the angel of God, Gen 32:28, which he could never have done but by a strength received from God.

That he may make peace with me; that instead of opposing me, he may in this manner reconcile himself to me. Or, and

he shall make peace with me, as the same words are rendered in the next clause; which may be repeated to assure them of that great and important favour, that God would make peace with them. Or the words may be rendered in both clauses, let him make peace with me, yea, let him make peace with me; this future verb being taken imperatively, as the other is in the former clause of the verse.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. OrElse; the onlyalternative, if Israel’s enemies wish to escape being “burnttogether.”

strengthrather, “therefuge which I afford” [MAURER].”Take hold,” refers to the horns of the altar whichfugitives often laid hold of as an asylum (1Ki 1:50;1Ki 2:28). Jesus is God’s”strength,” or “refuge” which sinners must repairto and take hold of, if they are to have “peace” with God(Isa 45:24; Rom 5:1;Eph 2:14; compare Job22:21).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Or let him take hold of my strength,…. Not on the law, as the Targum and Kimchi; but on Christ, as Jerom rightly interprets it; who is the strength and power of God, the man of his right hand he has made strong for himself; a strong tower, as the word signifies, a rock of defence, to whom saints may betake themselves, and be safe; in him they have righteousness and strength; in him is everlasting strength. The sense is, let the people of God, any and everyone of them, when afflicted and chastised by him particularly, and are ready to conclude that he is wroth with them, and is dealing with them in hot displeasure; let such look to Christ, and lay hold, and a strong hold, on him by faith, which will be greatly to their advantage and support. The Targum and Jarchi render , translated “or”, by “if”; and then the words are to be read thus, “if he will”, or “should, take hold of my strength”, or fortress s; or, as some render them, “O that he would t”, c. it follows,

[that] he may make peace with me, [and] he shall make peace with me; or rather, “he shall make peace with me, peace shall he make with me”. The phrase is doubled for the certainty of it; and the meaning is, not that the believer who lays hold by faith on Christ, Jehovah’s strength, shall make peace with him; which is not in the power of any person to do, no, not the believer by his faith, repentance, or good works; but Christ the power of God, on whom he lays hold, he shall make peace, as he has, by the blood of his cross, and as the only peacemaker; and hereby the believer may see himself reconciled to God, and at peace with him; and therefore may comfortably conclude, under every providence, that there is no fury in God towards him.

s “si prehenderit munitionem meam”, Noldius. t “Utiuam, O si apprehenderit munitionem meam”, Forerius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

5. Will she take hold of my strength? או (ō,) is frequently a disjunctive conjunction, (196) and therefore this passage is explained as if the particle had been twice used, “ Either let her take hold of my strength, or let her make peace with me;” that is, “If she do not enter into favor with me, she will feel my strength to her great loss.” Others explain it somewhat differently, “Who shall take hold of my strength?” that is, “Who shall restrain me?” But I pass by this interpretation, because I consider it to be too far-fetched. I return to that which is more generally received.

It is supposed that God threatens the Jews in order to try all the ways and methods by which they may be brought back to the right path; for God is laid under a necessity to urge us in various ways, because we are accustomed to abuse his forbearance and goodness. On this account he frequently threatens to punish us for our ingratitude, as Isaiah appears to do in this passage, “If they do not choose to avail themselves of my kindness, and repent, that they may return to favor with me, they shall feel my strength, (197) which I have hitherto restrained.” Yet another meaning equally appropriate might perhaps be drawn from it, as if God exhorted his people to acknowledge his power, which leads them to seek reconciliation; for whence comes that brutish indifference which makes us view without alarm the wrath of God, but because we do not think of his power with due reverence?

But I prefer to view it as a question, as in other passages also it frequently has this meaning. (198) “Will he take hold of my strength, so as to enter into peace with me?” As if a father, anxious and perplexed about his son, were to groan and complain, “Will not this scoundrel (199) allow himself to receive benefit? for I know not how I ought to treat him; he cannot endure severity, and he abuses my goodness. What shall I do? I will banish him till he repent, and then he will feel how great is that fatherly power by which I have hitherto preserved him. Since he does not permit me to exercise forbearance, he must be treated with the utmost rigour of the law. Will he not then perceive how great my power is, that he may come into a state of favor with me?” We shall understand this better, if we consider that the source of all our distresses is, that we are not affected with a sense of the divine goodness; for if we should take into consideration the greatness of the blessings which we have received from God, we should quickly be drawn aside from our iniquities and transgressions, and should desire to return into a state of favor with him.

Here we see what care about our salvation is manifested by our Heavenly Father, who wishes us to take hold of his power and goodness, that we may know how great it is, and may partake of it more and more abundantly; for he would wish to deal with us on the same familiar terms as with his children, if we did not prevent him by our wickedness. Since, therefore, we are incapable of enjoying his fatherly tenderness, he must display his strength and majesty, that, being awed by it, and affected by the anticipation of the judgment, we may humbly entreat him, and sincerely implore peace and pardon. Now, this is done when we are truly (200) converted to him; for, so long as we please ourselves, and flatter our vices, we cannot but displease him; and, on the other hand, if we enter into peace with him, we must make war against Satan and sin.

How earnestly God desires to be reconciled to us appears still more clearly from the repetition of the words. He might have said, in a single word, that he is merciful and ready to bestow pardon; and therefore, when he twice repeats the words, that he may make peace with me, he declares that willingly and most earnestly he hastens to blot out all our offenses.

(196) Bogus footnote

(197) Bogus footnote

(198) Bogus footnote

(199) Bogus footnote

(200) Bogus footnote

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Or let him take hold of my strength.Or, Let him lay hold on my fortress: let him make peace with Me. The thought implied is that even the enemies of Jehovah, if repentant, may find in Him their castle and deliverer. To them, too, there is the gracious invitation to make peace.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

I place this verse alone, in order that the Reader may consider it somewhat more particularly. It is Jehovah the Father who is here speaking, and therefore it may be supposed that he is speaking, in the first sense, of the person of our glorious Mediator. And the words will then be as if Jehovah said, “Let him, as God, for such he is, and as such he is able, let him take hold of me. For having both natures, as God and man in one person, he is able, by virtue of both, to take hold of both parties, God and man, and in the strength of Jehovah, make peace between both, “by the blood of his cross.” And if we regard the words as the direction given to the Church, though still with reference to Christ; the direction is, “Let the poor sinner in every state, and under every exercise, take hold of Christ, my strength, and rest upon him by faith, in a firm dependence upon his salvation; and he shall find peace with me.” Reader! what a precious promise, founded on a precious Saviour!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isa 27:5 Or let him take hold of my strength, [that] he may make peace with me; [and] he shall make peace with me.

Ver. 5. Or let him take hold of my strength, ] i.e., Of mine arm, wherewith I am about to smite him, or to throw the fire of my wrath at him; let him by true repentance appease me, as submitting Abigail once did angry David; let him but meet me with entreaties of peace, and he shall have peace, yea, he shall be sure of it. See Job 22:21 . See Trapp on “ Job 22:21 “ To run into God is the way to escape sin, as to close and get in with him that would strike you doth avoid the blow.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah

THE GRASP THAT BRINGS PEACE

Isa 27:5 .

Lyrical emotion makes the prophet’s language obscure by reason of its swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main drift here is discernible. God is guarding Israel, His vineyard, and before Him its foes are weak as ‘thorns and briers,’ whose end is to be burned. With daring anthropomorphism, the prophet puts into God’s mouth a longing for the enemies to measure their strength against His, a warrior’s eagerness for the fight. But at once this martial tone gives place to the tender invitation of the text, and the infinite divine willingness to be reconciled to the enemy speaks wooingly and offers conditions of peace. All this has universal application to our relations to God.

I. The Hostility.

That our relations with God are ‘strained,’ and that men are ‘enemies of God,’ is often repelled as exaggeration, if not as directly false. And, no doubt, the Scripture representation has often been so handled as to become caricature rather than portraiture. Scripture does not deny the lingering presence in men of goodness, partial and defective, nor does it assert that conscious antagonism to God is active in godless men. But it does assert that ‘God is not in all their thoughts,’ and that their wills are ‘not subject to the law of God.’ And in such a case as man’s relations to God, indifference and forgetfulness cannot but rest upon divergence of will and contrast of character. Why do men ‘not like to retain God in their knowledge, ‘but because they feel that the thought of Him would spoil the feast, like the skeleton in the banqueting chamber? Beneath the apparent indifference lie opposition of will, meeting God’s ‘Thou shalt’ with man’s ‘I will not’; opposition of moral nature, impurity shrinking from perfect purity; opposition of affection, the warmth of human love being diverted to other objects than God.

II. The entreating Love that is not turned aside by hostility.

The antagonism is wholly on man’s part.

True, man’s opposition necessarily turns certain sides of the divine character to present a hostile front to him. Not only God’s physical attributes, if we may so call them, but the moral attributes which guide the energies of these, namely, His holiness and His righteousness, and the acts of His sovereignty which flow from these, must be in opposition to the man who has set himself in opposition to God. ‘The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’ If it were not, He would not be God.

But still, God’s love enfolds all men in its close and tender clasp. As the context says, in close connection with the threat to burn the briers and thorns, ‘Fury is not in Me.’ Man’s hostility does not rouse God’s. He wars against the sin because He still loves the sinner. His love ‘must come with a rod,’ but, at the same time, it comes ‘with the spirit of meekness.’ It gives its enemy all that it can; but it cannot give all that it would.

He stoops to sue for our amity. It is the creditor who exhausts beseechings on His debtor, so much does He wish to ‘agree with His adversary quickly.’ The tender pleading of the Apostle was but a faint echo of the marvellous condescension of God, when he, ‘in God’s stead, besought: ‘Be ye reconciled to God.’

III. The grasp which ends alienation.

The word for ‘strength’ here means a stronghold or fortified place, which serves as an asylum or refuge. There may be some mingling of an allusion to the fugitive’s taking hold of the horns of the altar, and so being safe from the vengeance of his pursuers. If we may take this double metaphor as implied in the text, it vividly illustrates the essence of the faith which brings us into peace with God. That faith is the flight of the soul to God, and, in another aspect, it is the clinging of the soul to Him. How much more these two metaphors tell of the real nature of faith than many a theological treatise! They speak of the urgency of the peril from which it seeks deliverance. A fugitive with the hot breath of the avenger of blood panting behind him, and almost feeling the spear-point in his back, would not let the grass grow under his feet. They speak of the energetic clutch of faith, as that of the man gripping the horns of the altar. They suggest that faith is something much more vital than intellectual assent or credence, namely, an act of the whole man realising his need and casting himself on God.

And they set in clear light what is the connection between faith and salvation. It is not the hand that grasps the altar that secures safety, but the altar itself. It is not the flight to the fortress, but the massive walls themselves, which keeps those who hunt after the fugitive at bay. It is not my faith, but the God on whom my faith fastens, that brings peace to my conscience.

IV. The peace that this grasp brings.

In Christ God has ‘put away all His wrath, and turned Himself from the fierceness of His anger.’ And He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. It is a one-sided warfare that men wage with Him, and when we abandon our opposition to Him, the war is ended. We might say that God, clasped by faith and trusted in and loved, is the asylum from God opposed and feared. His moral nature must be against evil, but faith unites us to Jesus, and, by union with Him, we receive the germ of a nature which has no affinity with evil, and which God wholly delights in and loves. To those who live by the life, and growingly bear the image of His Son, the divine Nature turns a face all bright and favouring, and His moral and physical attributes are all enlisted on their side. The fortress looks grim to outsiders gazing up at its strong walls and frowning battlements, but to dwellers within, these give security, and in its inmost centre is a garden, with flowers and a springing fountain, whither the noise of fighting never penetrates. We have but to cease to be against Him, and to grasp the facts of His love as revealed in the Cross of Christ, the sacrifice who taketh away the sin of the world, and we are at peace with God. Being at peace with Him, the discords of our natures warring against themselves are attuned into harmony, and we are at peace within. And when God and we are at one, and we are at one with ourselves, then all things will be on our side, and will work together for good. To such a man the ancient promise will be fulfilled: ‘Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Or: i.e. if such enemies wish to avert My wrath, let them make peace with Me.

My strength = Me, as a refuge or protection.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

let him: Isa 25:4, Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4, Isa 45:24, Isa 56:2, Isa 64:7, Jos 9:24, Jos 9:25, Jos 10:6, Job 22:21, Luk 13:34, Luk 14:32, Luk 19:42, Heb 6:18

and he: Isa 57:19, Eze 34:25, Eze 34:26, Hos 2:18-20, Rom 5:1-10, 2Co 5:19-21, Eph 2:16, Eph 2:17, Col 1:20, Col 1:21

Reciprocal: Isa 56:4 – take hold Joh 20:26 – Peace Act 12:20 – but 2Co 5:20 – be Col 3:15 – the peace

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

27:5 Or let him {e} take hold of my strength, [that] he may make peace with me; [and] he shall make peace with me.

(e) He marvels that Israel will not come by gentleness, unless God make them to feel his rods, and so bring them to him.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Enemies of the vineyard could come to the Lord for His protection and He promised to provide it (cf. Isa 16:4-5). Peace would be possible for any enemies of God’s people. In the Hebrew text the emphasis is on "with Me" in the first "Let him make peace with Me" and on "peace" in the second.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)