Isaiah — Chapter 27

In die illa visitabit Dominus in gladio suo duro et grandi et forti super Leviathan

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, the crooked serpent, and shall slay the dragon in the sea. Christ's cross is the great sword by which Satan (Leviathan) was slain at the Passion (John 12:31, 'Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out'). The full victory comes at the end of time when Satan is cast into the lake of fire (Apoc 20:10). Lapide distinguishes three aspects of Leviathan: 'piercing' = the direct assault of open persecution; 'tortuous/crooked' = the indirect assault of heresy and subtle temptation; 'dragon that is in the sea' = the devil's empire over the turbulent mass of pagan humanity.

In that day there shall be singing to it. A vineyard of pure wine: I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I water it every moment. God's vineyard = the Church; He waters it constantly (with grace, the sacraments, the Apostles) and guards it from all harm. Contrast with ch.5's vineyard that was abandoned — here God never abandons His Church.

When they shall rush in upon Jacob, they shall fill him with flowers: and Israel shall bud forth, and shall blossom, and shall fill the face of the world with seed. The Church of Israel/Jacob filling the whole world with spiritual seed = the Apostolic mission. 'He shall cause them to bud and blossom' = the spread of the faith from Jerusalem throughout the world.

Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit that the sin of him should be taken away. The condition of Jacob's forgiveness: total renunciation of idols (crushing the altar stones like chalk, removing groves and images). Applied allegorically: Jacob's sin removed only when Israel finally accepts Christ at the end of time (Paul, Rom.11:26).

Et erit in die illa percutiet Dominus ab alveo fluminis usque ad torrentem Aegypti

In that day the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O children of Israel. The final ingathering of dispersed Israel — from the Euphrates to the Nile (the traditional boundaries of the Promised Land in its ideal extent). Lapide reads this eschatologically: the conversion of the Jews at the end of time (Rom 11:25-26), gathered from their dispersion throughout all nations into the Church. The great trumpet of v.13 = the final preaching of the Gospel to all nations before the end.

And it shall come to pass, that in that day a great trumpet shall sound, and they that were lost in the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come and shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem. The great trumpet of the Last Day (or of the Gospel), calling all dispersed Israel home. Lapide: the trumpet = the preaching of the Apostles; its sound reached from Assyria to Egypt, i.e., to all nations.