The tephillâh now returns to the retrospective glance already cast in Isaiah 26:8, Isaiah 26:9 into that night of affliction, which preceded the redemption that had come. "Jehovah, in trouble they missed Thee, poured out light supplication when Thy chastisement came upon them. As a woman with child, who draws near to her delivery, writhes and cries out in her pangs, so were we in Thy sight, O Jehovah. We went with child, we writhed; it was as if we brought forth wind. We brought no deliverance to the land, and the inhabitants of the world did not come to the light." The substantive circumstantial clause in the parallel line, למו מוּסר, castigatione tua eos affilgente (ל as in Isaiah 26:9), corresponds to בּצּר; and לחשׁ צקוּן, a preterite עצוּק etire equals יצק, Job 28:2; Job 29:6, to be poured out and melt away) with Nun paragogic (which is only met with again in Deuteronomy 8:3, Deuteronomy 8:16, the yekōshūn in Isaiah 29:21 being, according to the syntax, the future of kōsh), answers to pâkad, which is used here as in Isaiah 34:16; 1 Samuel 20:6; 1 Samuel 25:15, in the sense of lustrando desiderare. Lachash is a quiet, whispering prayer (like the whispering of forms of incantation in Isaiah 3:3); sorrow renders speechless in the long run; and a consciousness of sin crushes so completely, that a man does not dare to address God aloud (Isaiah 29:4). Pregnancy and pangs are symbols of a state of expectation strained to the utmost, the object of which appears all the closer the more the pains increase. Often, says the perfected church, as it looks back upon its past history, often did we regard the coming of salvation as certain; but again and again were our hopes deceived. The first כּמו is equivalent to כּ, "as a woman with child," etc. (see at Isaiah 8:22); the second is equivalent to כּאשׁר, "as it were, we brought forth wind." This is not an inverted expression, signifying we brought forth as it were wind; but כמו governs the whole sentence in the sense of "(it was) as if." The issue of all their painful toil was like the result of a false pregnancy (empneumatosis), a delivery of wind. This state of things also proceeded from Jehovah, as the expression "before Thee" implies. It was a consequence of the sins of Israel, and of a continued want of true susceptibility to the blessings of salvation. Side by side with their disappointed hope, Isaiah 26:18 places the ineffectual character of their won efforts. Israel's own doings - no, they could never make the land into ישׁוּעת (i.e., bring it into a state of complete salvation); and (so might the final clause be understood) they waited in vain for the judgment of Jehovah upon the sinful world that was at enmity against them, or they made ineffectual efforts to overcome it. This explanation is favoured by the fact, that throughout the whole of this cycle of prophecies yōshbē tēbēl does not mean the inhabitants of the holy land, but of the globe at large in the sense of "the world" (Isaiah 26:21; Isaiah 24:5-6). Again, the relation of יפּלוּ to the תּפּיל in Isaiah 26:19, land the figure previously employed of the pains of child-birth, speak most strongly in favour of the conclusion, that nâphal is here used for the falling of the fruit of the womb (cf., Wis. 7:3, Il. xix. 110, καταπεσεῖν and πεσεῖν). And yōshbē tēbēl (the inhabitants of the world) fits in with this sense (viz., that the expected increase of the population never came), from the fact that in this instance the reference is not to the inhabitants of the earth; but the words signify inhabitants generally, or, as we should say, young, new-born "mortals." The punishment of the land under the weight of the empire still continued, and a new generation did not come to the light of day to populate the desolate land (cf., Psychol. p. 414).

Isaiah 27:1 Parallel Commentaries

with his

Isaiah 34:5,6 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down on Idumea, and on the people of my curse, to judgment...

Isaiah 66:16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.

Deuteronomy 32:41,42 If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my enemies...

Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach to him.

Psalm 45:3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O most mighty, with your glory and your majesty.

Jeremiah 47:6 O you sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere you be quiet? put up yourself into your scabbard, rest, and be still.

Revelation 2:16 Repent; or else I will come to you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth...

Leviathan

Job 12:1 And Job answered and said,

Psalm 74:14 You brake the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Psalm 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom you have made to play therein.

piercing. or, crossing like a bar
crooked

Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat...

Job 26:13 By his spirit he has garnished the heavens; his hand has formed the crooked serpent.

the dragon

Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old...

Psalm 74:13,14 You did divide the sea by your strength: you brake the heads of the dragons in the waters...

Jeremiah 51:34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel...

Ezekiel 29:3 Speak, and say, Thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt...

Ezekiel 32:2-5 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, You are like a young lion of the nations...

Revelation 12:3-17 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns...

Revelation 13:2,4,11 And the beast which I saw was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion...

Revelation 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast...

Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

in the sea

Jeremiah 51:13 O you that dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.

Revelation 13:1 And I stood on the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns...

Revelation 17:1,15 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying to me, Come here...