“When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 27:11 Mean?
Isaiah describes a people so spiritually dull that the imagery is devastation: when the branches are withered and broken off, women come and set them on fire. The dead wood is good for nothing but fuel.
"It is a people of no understanding" — the diagnosis is intellectual and spiritual. The people lack understanding — not because the truth is unavailable, but because they have refused to engage with it.
"Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour" — the maker withdraws mercy from what he made. The former refuses favor to what he formed. The rejection comes from the creator — the one who has the most reason to preserve.
The withdrawal of mercy is not arbitrary. It is the consequence of persistent refusal to understand. When a people choose ignorance long enough, the one who made them withholds the mercy that understanding would have secured.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does chosen ignorance differ from accidental not-knowing — and why are the consequences different?
- 2.What does the maker withdrawing mercy from what he made reveal about the seriousness of persistent refusal?
- 3.Where are you avoiding understanding because it would require change?
- 4.How are understanding and mercy connected — and what happens when one is refused?
Devotional
It is a people of no understanding. No understanding. Not insufficient understanding. No understanding — the faculty has been abandoned. The people who were designed to know God have stopped knowing.
Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them. Therefore. The lack of understanding triggers the withdrawal of mercy. The maker — the one who formed them, designed them, brought them into existence — withholds mercy from his own creation.
He that formed them will shew them no favour. The former withdraws favor. The one whose hands shaped them refuses to extend kindness. The intimacy of the relationship — maker to made — makes the withdrawal more devastating.
This is what persistent ignorance produces: the withdrawal of the mercy that could have saved. The understanding was available. The people refused it. And the mercy that accompanies understanding was withdrawn with it.
The verse is a warning about the consequences of chosen ignorance. Not accidental not-knowing. Chosen not-understanding. When you deliberately refuse to engage with what God has revealed, you forfeit the mercy that comes with the engagement.
Is there truth you are refusing to understand? Understanding you are avoiding because it would require change? The mercy is connected to the understanding. The two travel together. Refuse one and you risk losing both.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off,.... This city is compared to a tree, whose branches are…
When the boughs thereof are withered - This is a further description of the desolation which would come upon Babylon.…
Here is the prophet again singing of mercy and judgment, not, as before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to the…
women come, and set them on fire i.e. come thither to gather fuel.
a people of no understanding (lit. "not a people of…
Cross References
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