Isaiah 27:12

12 In that day from the river Euphra'tes to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel.

Isaiah 27:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 27:12

And it shall come to pass in that day
When the song will be sung, ( Isaiah 27:2 Isaiah 27:3 ) when God will appear to have taken particular care of his church, and is about to bring it into a flourishing condition; when its troubles and afflictions will come to an end, with a sanctified use of them; and when the city of Rome will be destroyed, and all the antichristian powers, then will be the conversion of the Jews; for antichrist stands in the way of that work: [that] the Lord shall beat off;
or "beat out" ^F7; alluding either to the beating off of fruit from a tree, or to the beating out of grain from the ear; and signifies the separating of the Lord's people in the effectual calling from the rest of the world; as the fruit beaten off is separated from the tree, and corn beaten out is separated from the ear and chaff; for this beating off does not intend judgment, but mercy; and is done not by the rod of affliction, but by the rod of the Lord's strength sent out of Zion, even the Gospel, the power of God to salvation; which, in the ministration of it, should reach from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt;
from the river Euphrates, on the banks of which was the city of Babylon, to the river Nile in Egypt, which were the limits and boundaries of the land of Israel, ( Deuteronomy 11:24 ) ( Joshua 1:4 ) ( 13:3 ) and in which places many Jews ^F8 were, or would be, as in the following verse ( Isaiah 27:13 ) . The Septuagint version is,

``from the ditch of the river to Rhinocorura;''

which, Jerom says, is a town on the borders of Egypt and Palestine. The meaning is, that the Lord would find out his people, wherever they were, in those parts, and separate and call them by his grace, and gather them to himself, and to his church and people, as follows: and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel;
as fruit is gathered up, when beaten off of the tree; and the phrase "one by one" denotes either the fewness of them, and the gradual manner in which they will be gathered; or rather, since this does not so well suit with the conversion of the Jews, which will be of a nation at once, it may signify the completeness of this work, that they shall be everyone gathered, not one shall be left or lost, but all Israel shall be saved; or it may be also expressive of the conjunction of them, and union of them one to another, in the Gospel church state, into which they shall be gathered, as fruit beaten off, and gathered up, is laid together in a storehouse. To this sense agrees the Targum,

``ye shall be brought near one to another, O ye children of Israel ^F9.''

---

FOOTNOTES:

F7 (jbxy) "excutiat", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius.
F8 Ben Melech interprets the river of the river Sabation or the Sabbatical river, beyond which the Jews generally suppose the ten tribes are, and from whence they will come at the time of their restoration; and, as this writer says, will come to Egypt, and there be gathered together with their brethren, the children of this captivity, Judah and Benjamin, which are scattered in every corner, and join one another.
F9 (dxa dxal) "ad unum unum", Montanus; "unus ad unum"; so some in Vatablus, Forerius.

Isaiah 27:12 In-Context

10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes, there he lies down, and strips its branches.

11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, he that formed them will show them no favor.

12 In that day from the river Euphra'tes to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel.

13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.