John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 27:11

"When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have compassion upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favor." — Isaiah 27:11 (ASV)

When its harvest shall wither. Some think that the Prophet has in mind the metaphor of a vineyard, which he used at the beginning of the chapter, and therefore they translate קציר (kātzīr) as branches. The word is certainly ambiguous; but since קציר (kātzīr) also means a harvest, and since the metaphor of a harvest is more appropriate, I prefer to take it in that sense. Nor do I translate it, “When the harvest shall be withered,” but “When the harvest shall wither.” In this passage, wither means nothing other than to approach maturity. Before the harvest of the land is ripe, it shall be cut down; as if he had said, “The Lord will take away from you the produce which you thought to be already prepared for you and to be in your hand.”

The women coming shall burn it. When he says that “women shall come,” he means that God will have no need of robust soldiers to execute his judgment, and that he will only make use of the agency of women. This exhibits in a still stronger light the disgracefulness of the punishment, for he threatens that the calamity shall also be accompanied by disgrace; because it is more shameful and humiliating to be plundered by “women,” who are unused to war, than by men.

For it is a people of no understanding. Finally, he assigns the reason for such a heavy calamity. At first sight, it might seem excessively harsh that the Lord would allow the people he had chosen to be miserably tormented and scattered, and not offer them any help; for this is inconsistent with his kindness and fatherly love which he has for them. But the Prophet shows that God had good reason for punishing the Jews with such severity, because they lacked knowledge and sound “understanding.”

Nor is it without reason that he declares ignorance to be the source of all evils; for since the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; Psalms 111:10), those who despise God and obey the wicked passions of their flesh are justly condemned by the Spirit of God as blind and mad. And yet, such ignorance does not excuse us at all or lessen the guilt of our wickedness; for those who sin are conscious of their sinfulness, even though they are blinded by their lust.

Wickedness and ignorance are therefore closely connected, but the connection is such that ignorance proceeds from the sinful disposition of the mind. This is why “ignorance,” or “ignorances,” is the general name given by the Hebrew writers to every kind of sin, and also why Moses said,

O that they were wise and understood!
(Deuteronomy 32:29).

Anyone will easily perceive this, if one considers how great is the power of evil passions to trouble us; for when we have been deprived of the light of doctrine, and are lacking understanding, the devil drives us, so to speak, to madness, so that we do not dread the arm of God, and have no respect for his holy word.

Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. To heighten their terror further, he finally takes away all hope of pardon; for even if a remnant was preserved, the wrath of God did not therefore cease to rage against the multitude at large.

The Prophet here calls God the Maker and Creator of Israel, not in the same manner that he is called the Creator of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1), but insofar as he has formed his Church by the Spirit of regeneration. Likewise, Paul also declares, that in that sense we are αὐτοῦ ποίημα, his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), as we have already stated in the exposition of another passage (Isaiah 19:25). Isaiah made this statement in order to show more strongly the ingratitude of the people, and to show how justly they deserve to be punished, since, after having been formed and preserved by God, they treated him with dishonor and contempt.