Bible Strands
Isaiah 27:7
Has the LORD struck Israel as He struck her oppressors? Was she killed like those who slayed her?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Israel, positioning the verse between a promise of future agricultural restoration (Isaiah 27:6) and a reminder of past exile and divine warfare (Isaiah 27:8).
The words — הִכָּ֑הוּ (hi.Ka./hu) means "has he struck it," and כְּ/הֶ֥רֶג (ke./He.reg) translates to "like [the] slaughter of."
The thread — The language of divine striking and slaughter appears in Isaiah 37:36, Isaiah 10:20, and Isaiah 14:22.
Why it lands — The text poses a rhetorical question contrasting Israel's measured discipline with the total destruction of her oppressors, requiring the reader to acknowledge God's precise justice rather than assume equal punishment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Isaiah 10:20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 14:22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.
- Isaiah 17:3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 17:14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
- Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”
- Jeremiah 50:33 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them.
- Jeremiah 50:40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
- Jeremiah 51:24 Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.
- Daniel 2:31 As you, O king, were watching, a great statue appeared. A great and dazzling statue stood before you, and its form was awesome.