For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches.
10. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate Here the copulative ו (vau) is generally supposed to mean for, and some take it for otherwise. There will thus be a twofold interpretation; for if we translate it because, the Prophet will assign a reason for the former statement, but that exposition is rejected by the context, and is altogether absurd.
Here is the prophet again singing of mercy and judgment, not, as before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to the church, but judgment to the church and mercy mixed with that judgment. I. Here is judgment threatened even to Jacob and Israel. They shall blossom and bud (Isa 27:6), but, 1. They shall be smitten and slain (Isa 27:7), some of them shall.
Commenting on Isaiah 27:7-13
Yet the defenced city shall be desolate,.... Or "but", or "notwithstanding" (b); though the Lord deals mercifully with his own people, and mixes mercy with their afflictions, and causes them to issue well, and for their good; yet he does not deal so with others, his and their enemies: for by the "defenced city" is not meant Jerusalem, as many interpret it, so Kimchi; nor...