On that day the Lord will visit with his sword, hard, great and strong, Leviathan the swift serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the Sea Monster that is in the sea.
א בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם.
Isaiah 24-27 are known as the Apocalypse of Isaiah, and describe the prophet’s vision of “that day”, a day of true justice and national resurrection of the people of Israel. But this section is notoriously difficult to interpret - what is “that day”?
This phrase structures the whole section, appearing at the beginning of chapter 26, our verse at the beginning of chapter 27, again in 27:2 as well as 27:12 and 13. Whereas chapter 26 is a long continuous vision, here the phrase seems to introduce a section of only a single verse, tantalising in its imagery but difficult to understand.
Is Isaiah prophesying about the literal destruction of a sea monster (or possibly 3 sea monsters)? or is it just a metaphor for the haughty city described in chapters 24-26?
When he refers to “that day”? Does he mean to indicate the final day, the eschaton, the messianic age? Or is he referring to future day coming within history, within the foreseeable future?
Whatever Isaiah originally meant (and much hinges on when you date this verse, and scholars put it anywhere between the 8th and 2nd centuries BCE) we have to ask - what does this verse have to say to us?
