Isaiah 63:2
“The Divine Warrior and Vengeance”Isaiah 63:1–6
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- מַדּוּעַma·Du·a'why?H4069InterrogParticle Interrogative
- אָדֹם'a·Dom[does] rednessH122Adj-msAdjective Singular Masculine Absolute
- לִלְבוּשֶׁךָlil·vu·She·kha[belong] to your clothingH3830Prep-l ¦ N-msc ¦ 2msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixלִ[belong] toלְבוּשֶׁclothingךָyour
- וּבְגָדֶיךָu·ve·ga·Dei·khaand [are] your garments?H899Conj-w ¦ N-mpc ¦ 2msNoun Plural Masculine Construct with suffixוּandבְגָדֶי[are] garments?ךָyour
- כְּדֹרֵךְke·do·Rekhlike [one who] treadsH1869Prep-k ¦ V-Qal-Prtcpl-msVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Absoluteכְּlikeדֹרֵךְ[one who] treads
- בְּגַתbe·Gatin a winepressH1660Prep-b ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteבְּinגַתa winepress
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 63:1–6. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
It is a glorious victory that is here enquired into first and then accounted for. 1. It is a victory obtained by the providence of God over the enemies of Israel; over the Babylonians (say some), whom Cyrus conquered and God by him, and they will have the prophet to make the first discovery of him in his triumphant return when he is in the country of Edom: but this can by no means be admitted, because the country of Babylon is always spoken of as the land of the north, whereas Edom lay south from Jerusalem, so that the conqueror would not return through that country; the victory therefore is obtained over the Edomites themselves, who had triumphed in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Psalm 137:7) and cut off those who, making their way as far as they could from the enemy, escaped to the Edomites (Obadiah 1:12, Obadiah 1:13), and were therefore reckoned with when Babylon was; for no doubt that prophecy was accomplished, though we do not meet in history with the accomplishment of it (Jeremiah 49:13), Bozrah shall become a desolation. Yet this victory over Edom is put as an instance or specimen of the like victories obtained over other nations that had been enemies to Israel. This over the Edomites is named for the sake of the old enmity of Esau against Jacob (Genesis 27:41) and perhaps with an allusion to David's glorious triumphs over the Edomites, by which it should seem, more than by any other of his victories, he got himself a name, Psalm 60:1-12, title, 2 Samuel 8:13, 2 Samuel 8:14. But this is not all: 2. It is a victory obtained by the grace of God in Christ over our spiritual enemies. We find the garments dipped in blood adorning him whose name is called The Word of God, Revelation 19:13. And who that is we know very well; for it is through him that we are more than conquerors over those principalities and powers which on the cross he spoiled and triumphed over.
In this representation of the victory we have,
I.An admiring question put to the conqueror, Isaiah 63:1, Isaiah 63:2.
It is put by the church, or by the prophet in the name of the church. He sees a mighty hero returning in triumph from a bloody engagement, and makes bold to ask him two questions: - 1. Who he is. He observes him to come from the country of Edom, to come in such apparel as was glorious to a soldier, not embroidered or laced, but besmeared with blood and dirt. He observes that he does not come as one either frightened or fatigued, but that he travels in the greatness of his strength, altogether unbroken.
Triumphant and victorious he appears,
And honour in his looks and habit wears.
How strong he treads! how stately doth he go!
Pompous and solemn is his pace,
And full of majesty, as is his face;
Who is this mighty hero - who!
- Mr. Norris
The question, Who is this? perhaps means the same with that which Joshua put to the same person when he appeared to him with his sword drawn (Joshua 5:13): Art thou for us or for our adversaries? Or, rather, the same with that which Israel put in a way of adoration (Exodus 15:11): Who is a God like unto thee? 2. The other question it, "Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel? What hard service hast thou been engaged in, that thou carriest with thee these marks of toil and danger?" Is it possible that one who has such majesty and terror in his countenance should be employed in the mean and servile work of treading the wine-press? Surely it is not. That which is really the glory of the Redeemer seems, prim facie - at first, a disparagement to him, as it would be to a mighty prince to do the work of the wine-dressers and husbandmen; for he took upon him the form of a servant, and carried with him the marks of servitude.
II.An admirable answer returned by him.
1.He tells who he is: I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. He is the Saviour. God was Israel's Saviour out of the hand of their oppressors; the Lord Jesus is ours; his name, Jesus, signifies a Saviour, for he saves his people from their sins. In the salvation wrought he will have us to take notice,
(1.)Of the truth of his promise, which is therein performed: He speaks in righteousness, and will therefore make good every word that he has spoken with which he will have us to compare what he does, that, setting the word and the work the one over against the other, what he does may ratify what he has said and what he has said may justify what he does.
(2.)Of the efficacy of his power, which is therein exerted: He is mighty to save, able to bring about the promised redemption, whatever difficulties and oppositions may lie in the way of it.
'Tis I who to my promise faithful stand,
I, who the powers of death, hell, and the grave,
Have foil'd with this all-conquering hand,
I, who most ready am, and mighty too, to save.
- Mr. Norris
2.He tells how he came to appear in this hue (Isaiah 63:3): I have trodden the wine-press alone. Being compared to one that treads in the wine-fat, such is his condescension, in the midst of his triumphs, that he does not scorn the comparison, but admits it and carries it on. He does indeed tread the wine-press, but it is the great wine-press of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:19), in which we sinners deserved to be cast; but Christ was pleased to cast our enemies into it, and to destroy him that had the power of death, that he might deliver us. And of this the bloody work which God sometimes made among the enemies of the Jews, and which is here foretold, was a type and figure. Observe the account the conqueror gives of his victory.
(1.)He gains the victory purely by his own strength: I have trodden the wine-press alone, Isaiah 63:3. When God delivered his people and destroyed their enemies, if he made use of instruments, he did not need them. But among his people, for whom the salvation was to be wrought, no assistance offered itself; they were weak and helpless, and had no ability to do any thing for their own relief; they were desponding and listless, and had no heart to do any thing; they were not disposed to give the least stroke or struggle for liberty, neither the captives themselves nor any of their friends for them (Isaiah 63:5): "I looked, and there was none to help, as one would have expected, nothing of a bold active spirit appeared among them; nay, there was not only none to lead, but, which was more strange, there was none to uphold, none that would come in as a second, that had the courage to join with Cyrus against their oppressors; therefore my arm brought about the salvation; not by created might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, my own arm." Note, God can help when all other helpers fail; nay, that is his time to help, and therefore for that very reason he will put forth his own power so much the more gloriously. But this is most fully applicable to Christ's victories over our spiritual enemies, which he obtained by a single combat. He trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath alone, and triumphed over principalities and powers in himself, Colossians 2:15. Of the people there was none with him; for, when he entered the lists with the powers of darkness, all his disciples forsook him and fled. There was non to help, none that could, none that durst; and he might well wonder that among the children of men, whose concern it was, there was not only none to uphold, but that there were so many to oppose and hinder it if they could.
(2.)He undertakes the war purely out of his own zeal. It is in his anger, it is in his fury, that he treads down his enemies (Isaiah 63:3), and that fury upholds him and carries him on in this enterprise, Isaiah 63:5. God wrought salvation for the oppressed Jews purely because he was very angry with the oppressing Babylonians, angry at their idolatries and sorceries, their pride and cruelty, and the injuries they did to his people, and, as they increased their abominations and grew more insolent and outrageous, his anger increased to fury. Our Lord Jesus wrought out our redemption in a holy zeal for the honour of his Father and the happiness of mankind, and a holy indignation at the daring attempts Satan had made upon both; this zeal and indignation upheld him throughout his whole undertaking. Two branches there were of this zeal that animated him: - [1.] He had a zeal against his and his people's enemies: The day of vengeance is in my heart (Isaiah 63:4), the day fixed in the eternal counsels for taking vengeance on them; this was written in his heart, so that he could not forget it, could not let it slip; his heart was full of it, and it lay as a charge, as a weight, upon him, which made him push on this holy war with so much vigour. Note, There is a day fixed for divine vengeance, which may be long deferred, but will come at last; and we may be content to wait for it, for the Redeemer himself does so, though his heart is upon it. [2.] He had a zeal for his people, and for all that he designed to make sharers in the intended salvation: "The year of my redeemed has come, the year appointed for their redemption." There was a year fixed for the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and God kept time to a day (Exodus 12:41); so there was for their release out of Babylon (Daniel 9:2); so there was for Christ's coming to destroy the works of the devil; so there is for all the deliverances of the church, and the deliverer has an eye to it. Observe, First, With what pleasure he speaks of his people; they are his redeemed; they are his own, dear to him. Though their redemption is not yet wrought out, yet he calls them his redeemed, because it shall as surely be done as if it were done already. Secondly, With what pleasure he speaks of his people's redemption; how glad he is that the time has come, though he is likely to meet with a sharp encounter. "Now that the year of my redeemed has come, Lo, I come; delay shall be no longer. Now will I arise, saith the Lord. Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh." Note, The promised salvation must be patiently waited for till the time appointed comes; yet we must attend the promises with our prayers. Does Christ say, Surely I come quickly; let our hearts reply, Even so come; let the year of the redeemed come.
(3.)He will obtain a complete victory over them all. [1.] Much is already done; for he now appears red in his apparel; such abundance of blood is shed that the conqueror's garments are all stained with it. This was predicted, long before, by dying Jacob, concerning Shiloh (that is, Christ), that he should wash his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes, which perhaps this alludes to, Genesis 49:11.
With ornamental drops bedeck'd I stood,
And wrote my vict'ry with my en'my's blood.
- Mr. Norris
In the destruction of the antichristian powers we meet with abundance of blood shed (Revelation 14:20, Revelation 19:13), which yet, according to the dialect of prophecy, may be understood spiritually, and doubtless so may this here. [2.] More shall yet be done (Isaiah 63:6): I will tread down the people that yet stand it out against me, in my anger; for the victorious Redeemer, when the year of the redeemed shall have come, will go on conquering and to conquer, Revelation 6:2. When he begins he will also make an end. Observe how he will complete his victories over the enemies of his church. First, He will infatuate them; he will make them drunk, so that there shall be neither sense nor steadiness in their counsels; they shall drink of the cup of his fury, and that shall intoxicate them: or he will make them drunk with their own blood, Revelation 17:6. Let those that make themselves drunk with the cup of riot (and then they are in their fury) repent and reform, lest God make them drunk with the cup of trembling, the cup of his fury. Secondly, He will enfeeble them; he will bring down their strength, and so bring them down to the earth; for what strength can hold out against Omnipotence?
Historical interpretation
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He likewise, when mentioning the cup and making the New Testament to be sealed “in his blood,” affirms the reality of Christ’s body. For no blood can belong to a body that is not a body of flesh. If any sort of body were presented to our view, which is not one of flesh, not being fleshly, it would not possess blood. In order, however, that you might discover how anciently wine is used as a figure for blood, turn to Isaiah, who asks, “Who is this that comes from Edom, from Bosor with garments dyed in red, so glorious in his apparel, in the greatness of his might? Why are your garments red, and your clothing as his who comes from the treading of the full winepress?” The prophetic Spirit contemplates the Lord as if he were already on his way to his passion, clad in his fleshly nature; and as he was to suffer therein, he represents the bleeding condition of his flesh under the metaphor of garments dyed in red, as if reddened in the treading and crushing process of the winepress, from which the laborers descend reddened with the wine juice, like men stained in blood.
The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said, “Who is this King of glory?” And yet some said, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in.” In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted.
(Version 2.) Why then is your garment red, and your clothing like one who treads in the winepress? LXX: Why are your garments red, and your clothes like those who tread the winepress, full of trampled grapes? Where it is now spoken of as red, in Hebrew it is read as Edom (). Therefore, even above where Edom is written, it is not a place name, but the name of blood. Again, the Angels inquire and say: We have learned that you are the one who speaks of justice, and salvation for all is established in your judgment. Now we want to know why your clothes are stained as if with wine, or what could have caused the tunic, which is woven from above and cannot be torn, to have such whiteness from the virgin womb, as no fuller could achieve on earth, reddened with bloody blood? For mercy is more fitting for you than cruelty: whiteness is more fitting than blood. To these the Lord responded, not with one verse as before, but with many words, in order to teach all those who are ignorant, so that they may not be compelled to seek again.
Similarly, in Isaiah, “who is this that comes from Edom, in radiant garments?” Notice what the angels do; they proclaim his beauty but are silent about his essence.
For he appeared to the powers above not only in the form in which he came for us, that is, as a human, but also showing the signs of his passion. Thus, we say that after his resurrection from the dead the marks of the nails and the other things of his wounds were marked on the holy flesh.… So that the angels asking each other might say, “Who is this?” He considers and replies to them, “I speak justice and the judgment of salvation.” He calls “justice” the divine and good news-bearing message or every just word that the Lord speaks. And the judgment of salvation refers to the judgment we receive. He indicated the world also to Satan, who was accusing it, and he saved those burdened by terrible greed. And he expelled the rebel and foreign usurper from among them, saying, “Now is the judgment of this world.”
“Who is this that comes from Edom?” It seems that the prophet sees God under the aspect of a warrior who marches at the head of his people, and, after destroying the Edomites, has come back and arrives; and the prophet asks who is this that comes from Edom and Bozrah, their royal cities.
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This verse
The prophet asks why the warrior’s clothes are red, like the clothes of a man who has been treading grapes in a winepress.
“Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel,”
A second question, about the colour this time, ʼâdôm. The red is the most striking thing about him.
“and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?”
The comparison is with a grape-treader in the vat, whose clothes were splashed with juice. The answer will show that these stains are blood.
Passage studyIsaiah 63:1–6
The LORD Returns from Edom Mighty to Save
Summary
In Isaiah 63:1–6 the prophet sees a figure marching up from Edom and its city Bozrah, splendid in his clothing and yet stained red, and he asks who it is. The answer comes from the warrior himself: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” It is the LORD. Asked why his clothes are red like a grape-treader’s, he says that he has trodden the winepress alone and that the stains are the blood of his enemies. He acted because the day of vengeance was in his heart and the year of his redeemed had come, and when he looked for help and found none, his own arm brought salvation. These six verses show us a God who judges evil in person and saves his people by his own strength, and the New Testament takes up their picture of the blood-stained garments and the winepress for Christ’s return in glory.
Who is this that cometh from Edom?
The scene follows Isaiah’s great promises of restoration for Zion in chapters 60 to 62, which end with Zion’s vindication and salvation (Isaiah 62). Those chapters show the peace God means to give his people, and this one shows him removing by force everything that stands in its way. After it comes the people’s long lament and prayer (Isaiah 63:7–64:12), and the book closes with the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65–66). God’s salvation, as Isaiah shows it here, includes a righteous conquest of evil and rebellion.
The prophet speaks for Israel as he watches the figure approach, and he notices where he has come from, the state of his clothes and his bearing. The word for “dyed”, châmêts, has a basic sense of something sharp or sour, and it is used of leaven, but here it describes a vivid colour. The verses that follow make plain that the colour is blood, the mark of a battle just fought and finished. The warrior is also “glorious in his apparel”. The verb hâdar means to swell up, to honour or to be high, and here it speaks of majesty and splendour, the bearing of a king coming home from a decisive victory. He comes “travelling in the greatness of his strength”, marching in a might that marks him out as divine.
The question gets its answer in the warrior’s own words: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” He is the LORD himself. Everything he says and does rests on righteousness, which takes in his justice, his moral uprightness and his faithfulness to his covenant. “Mighty” is rab, abundant, great or much, and “to save” is yâshaʻ, to deliver, rescue or set free, a verb that Strong’s traces to being open, wide or free. Together they declare a power to deliver that is abundant and unmatched. The strength that has just judged Edom is the same strength that saves his people, and Isaiah has already called him “a just God and a Saviour” (Isaiah 45:21). A psalm rejoices that the LORD comes to judge the earth (Psalm 96:13), and Zephaniah speaks of the LORD in the midst of his people as mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17).
Why Edom and Bozrah?
Edom lay to the southeast of Judah, and its people came from Esau, Jacob’s elder brother (Genesis 25:25, Genesis 36:1). All through Israel’s history Edom was hostile and often sided with Israel’s enemies. A psalm asks the LORD to remember what the children of Edom did in the day of Jerusalem (Psalm 137:7), and Obadiah condemns Edom’s violence and treachery against Jacob when Jerusalem fell (Obadiah 1:10–14). Bozrah was one of Edom’s chief cities and a strong fortress.
In the prophets Edom often stands for every nation and power that sets itself against God and his people, and Isaiah has already spoken of God’s judgment on the nations (Isaiah 34). So the warrior’s return from Edom announces his triumph over all wickedness and rebellion, and his stained clothes show that the battle is over and won.
Why are his garments red?
The prophet asks a second question: “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” The word for red, ʼâdôm, comes from ʼâdam, to be red or rosy. “Apparel”, lᵉbûwsh, is a general word for clothing, and “garments”, beged, means cloth, covering or clothes. The red is the first thing anyone would see, and it is what the prophet asks about.
Every Israelite knew the sight he compares it to. At harvest the grapes were put into a large vat, the winefat or winepress, gath, and workers trod them barefoot to press out the juice, which splashed their clothes red. The verb dârak is the ordinary word for treading, walking or marching, used here of treading grapes. The question still speaks of grapes, and the answer in verse 3 shows that the red on these clothes is the blood of the LORD’s enemies.
Scripture often uses the winepress as a picture of judgment, where those who oppose God are crushed like grapes. Joel pictures the nations ripe for judgment with the words “for the press is full” (Joel 3:13). Lamentations uses the same picture for the LORD’s judgment on Judah herself (Lamentations 1:15). Revelation speaks of the great winepress of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:19–20). Behind all of these stands the word of Deuteronomy that vengeance and recompense belong to the LORD (Deuteronomy 32:35).
I have trodden the winepress alone
The warrior’s first words of explanation are about being alone: “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.” The word behind “none” is ʼîysh, a man or an individual, so the sense is that not one man stood with him. Treading grapes was usually work for many hands, and this press was trodden by one. He did the whole work without any helper, human or angelic.
Then the verbs gather force. He will “tread them in mine anger”, with dârak again, “and trample them”, râmaç, “in my fury”. “Them” are God’s adversaries, those who persistently oppose his will and oppress his people. The word for anger, ʼaph, is literally the nose or nostril, and it is linked with the hard breathing of anger. Fury, chêmâh, means heat, and figuratively anger, hot displeasure or even poison. The same word returns in verses 5 and 6, and in God it names a holy, righteous indignation against sin and injustice.
Then come the stains: “and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” The word for blood here, Nêtsach, means the juice of the grape, used figuratively of lifeblood, so it carries the winepress picture straight into the answer. “Sprinkled” is nâzâh. “Stain” is gâʼal, to soil, defile, pollute or stain, a word usually tied to impurity. On the LORD’s garments it is the visible mark of a righteous victory, and of a judgment carried through to its end.
None to help
Verse 5 returns to the LORD’s solitude. “And I looked, and there was none to help.” The verb nâbaṭ means to look, see or gaze. “And I wondered that there was none to uphold”: the LORD speaks of astonishment at finding nobody to stand by him in his work of saving and judging. Isaiah has said this of the LORD once already, when his own arm brought salvation in the same way (Isaiah 59:16).
“Therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me.” The arm, zᵉrôwaʻ, stands for force and power, and especially for power in action, stretched out to do a task. A psalm praises the LORD whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory (Psalm 98:1), and Israel sang at the Red Sea, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name” (Exodus 15:3). The deliverance of his people and the defeat of their enemies are both his work alone, done directly and by his own strength.
“And my fury, it upheld me.” The same fury, chêmâh, that drove the treading in verse 3 is what held him up. Where nobody else would uphold him, his righteous anger against evil gave him the strength and resolve to finish the work.
Did the LORD need help?
The LORD’s looking and wondering show how completely the human race had failed. There was nobody with the righteousness, courage or strength to share in this work, and that makes his lone action all the more striking. God speaks of himself here in human terms, as Scripture often does, so that we feel how alone he stood. His will goes forward when every human effort fails or is missing, for “our God is in the heavens” (Psalm 115:3).
The day of vengeance and the year of my redeemed
Verse 4 gives the reason for everything the warrior has done: “For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” “Day”, yôwm, means a day or a span of time, and here it marks an appointed time that God has set. “Vengeance”, nâqâm, is God’s righteous settling of accounts with those who have defied his authority and oppressed his people. It restores the moral order he made and upholds his holiness, and it is free of the malice that drives human revenge.
The heart, lêb, is the whole inner life: the will, the mind, the feelings and the very core of a person. When God says the day of vengeance is in his heart, he means that it was purposed and settled within him, a deliberate part of his will and character.
Beside the day stands a year: “the year of my redeemed is come.” “Redeemed” is gâʼal, to redeem or to act as kinsman-redeemer, the goel of Israel’s law, who bought back a relative’s property or person from debt, bondage or danger. It is a different word from the gâʼal of verse 3 that means to stain, though the two are written alike in English letters. God calls his people “my redeemed”, the ones he himself buys back and restores to freedom, to their inheritance and to fellowship with him. A day of judgment is set beside a whole year of redemption, and “is come” tells us that the appointed time has arrived.
The year likely echoes the Jubilee laid down in Leviticus 25. Every fiftieth year land went back to the families it first belonged to and Hebrew slaves went free, and so the Jubilee pictures God’s great act of setting his people free and giving them back their inheritance. Isaiah has already joined the two times, promising both a year of the LORD’s favour and “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:1–2).
The day of vengeance belongs with what the prophets call the Day of the LORD (Joel 2:31), God’s decisive coming into history to judge evil, which Zephaniah calls the great day of the LORD (Zephaniah 1:14–18). Isaiah has spoken of judgment since his call (Isaiah 6), and of the restoration and comfort of God’s people (Isaiah 49:8–13). A psalm says that with the LORD there is full redemption for Israel (Psalm 130:7–8). Both the day and the year come at the time God has fixed, and his word accomplishes what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11). In his one plan, his wrath serves his purpose to redeem.
The peoples brought down to the earth
Verse 6 completes the LORD’s answer: “And I will tread down the people in mine anger.” “Tread down” is bûwç, a different verb from the dârak of verses 2 and 3, meaning to trample, literally or figuratively. “The people” are the nations that stand against God and his people, and the anger is ʼaph once more.
“And make them drunk in my fury”: the verb is shâkar, to make drunk, and the fury is chêmâh again. God’s wrath overwhelms his enemies so that they reel like drunken men, confused and helpless, with no strength left to resist or escape. The psalms and the prophets speak of a cup of God’s wrath that he gives the wicked and the nations to drink (Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15).
“And I will bring down their strength to the earth.” “Bring down” is yârad, to go down or bring down. “Strength” is Nêtsach, the same word as “blood” in verse 3, the juice of the grape used figuratively of lifeblood. The KJV renders it “strength” in this verse, and the word carries the winepress picture to its end, with the lifeblood of God’s enemies brought down to the ground and their opposition finished.
For a people suffering under the power of foreign nations, this was assurance that God saw their affliction and would act on their behalf. Deuteronomy promises that God will avenge his people and make atonement for his land and his people (Deuteronomy 32:43).
Is the LORD cruel in this vengeance?
The wrath in these verses is God’s holy and righteous answer to persistent sin, unrepentant rebellion and the oppression of his people. Human anger is often stained by malice or impulse, and God’s wrath is always perfectly just and controlled, with no evil in it. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne as surely as his love and mercy (Psalm 89:14). A psalm calls God a righteous judge (Psalm 7:11), Nahum says that he is jealous and avenges (Nahum 1:2–3), and Paul writes that God’s wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness (Romans 1:18) and that a day of his righteous judgment is coming (Romans 2:5–6). Because God is both loving and just, he will bring unrighteousness to an end. His compassion reaches those who repent and turn to him, and his judgment falls on those who defiantly oppose him and harm his people.
The warrior and Jesus Christ
The warrior of these verses is the LORD, and the New Testament shows that God carries out his judgment through the Son: “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). Revelation draws on this very passage when Christ rides out to judge, “clothed with a vesture dipped in blood”, and “he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:11–16). Jesus himself spoke of the Son of Man coming in his glory to judge the nations (Matthew 25:31–33), and after the final judgment comes the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1–4). The blood on the warrior’s garments in verse 3 is the blood of his enemies, and so these verses look ahead to Christ’s second coming.
His first coming was marked by humility and sacrifice, as Isaiah foretold of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53). God sent his Son into the world to save it (John 3:17), and Jesus came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), shedding his own blood for our redemption (Hebrews 9:22). In the synagogue at Nazareth he read the words of Isaiah 61 and proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favour (Luke 4:18–19). He is the true kinsman-redeemer, the goel, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), in whom we have redemption through his blood (Ephesians 1:7), and who has reconciled all things through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). On the cross he triumphed over the powers of darkness (Colossians 2:15). The day of vengeance waits for his return.
The LORD’s words “there was none to help” also fit the cross. No human arm was strong enough and no human will pure enough to make atonement, and Christ did that work alone. God made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), he entered once into the holy place by his own blood (Hebrews 9:12), and he has delivered us from the power of darkness into his kingdom (Colossians 1:13–14). There he bore the full wrath of God against sin for his people, and in that sense the cross can be seen as a treading of the winepress on our behalf, so that those who believe in him escape the judgment these verses describe. Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:9). The one who is mighty to save through his sacrifice is the one who will come again to judge.
A just God and a Saviour
These verses give us a God who sees every wrong done to his people and has fixed a day to set it right. When evil is strong and the oppressor has his way for a time, the day of vengeance is still in the LORD’s heart, and it will come. The stains on his garments are also a solemn warning, because his patience, vast as it is, comes to an end for those who persist in rebellion against him.
They show us, too, where our salvation rests. The LORD looked and found none to help, so his own arm brought salvation, and that is why it is sure. It rests entirely on his power and his righteous character. For those who belong to him, the warrior from Edom is the Redeemer whose year has come, and the strength that brings down his enemies is the strength that is mighty to save. Isaiah looks ahead to the end of all this warfare, when the nations will beat their swords into plowshares under the LORD’s rule (Isaiah 2:4).
Isaiah 63:1
“Who is this that cometh from Edom,”
The prophet, speaking for Israel, sees a figure approaching from the land of Esau’s descendants, Israel’s old enemy, and asks who he is.
“with dyed garments from Bozrah?”
Bozrah was one of Edom’s chief cities and a fortress. The stained clothing, châmêts, is the first sign of a battle just fought there.
“this that is glorious in his apparel,”
His majesty shines through the stains, the splendour, hâdar, of a king coming home in triumph.
“travelling in the greatness of his strength?”
He marches in overwhelming might, with the bearing of God himself.
“I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
The warrior answers for himself. His word is righteous, and his power to save, rab and yâshaʻ, is abundant.
Isaiah 63:2 This verse
“Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel,”
A second question, about the colour this time, ʼâdôm. The red is the most striking thing about him.
“and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?”
The comparison is with a grape-treader in the vat, whose clothes were splashed with juice. The answer will show that these stains are blood.
Isaiah 63:3
“I have trodden the winepress alone;”
The LORD takes up the prophet’s comparison and makes it his own picture of judgment.
“and of the people there was none with me:”
Among all the peoples he found nobody, ʼîysh, to stand beside him.
“for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury;”
“Them” are his enemies, and anger and fury together show the strength of his righteous indignation.
“and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments,”
The blood is the grape-juice word Nêtsach, so the winepress picture holds to the end.
“and I will stain all my raiment.”
All his clothing bears the mark, gâʼal, a sign of a judgment fully carried out.
Isaiah 63:4
“For the day of vengeance is in mine heart,”
“For” gives the reason for the treading. The time of judgment was settled in God’s own purpose, his lêb.
“and the year of my redeemed is come.”
“My redeemed” are the people God has bought back as their kinsman. Their year arrives with the day of vengeance, so judgment on the enemy and freedom for his people come together.
Isaiah 63:5
“And I looked, and there was none to help;”
The LORD looked among men for a helper in his work of saving and judging, and found none.
“and I wondered that there was none to uphold:”
His wonder shows how complete the human failure was.
“therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me;”
“Therefore” draws the conclusion: what nobody else would do, he did by his own arm, zᵉrôwaʻ.
“and my fury, it upheld me.”
His fury against evil, chêmâh, gave him the strength and resolve to finish.
Isaiah 63:6
“And I will tread down the people in mine anger,”
The verb is bûwç, to trample. “The people” are the nations that set themselves against God.
“and make them drunk in my fury,”
Overwhelmed by his wrath, they lose all power to resist, think clearly or escape.
“and I will bring down their strength to the earth.”
Their lifeblood, Nêtsach, goes down to the ground, and their opposition is ended for good.
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