What Does Isaiah 27:1 Mean?
In that day the LORD will visit with his hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and upon Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the sea-dragon that is in the sea.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.THE KEY
The serpent is named by the motions that make it seem untouchable, flight, twisting, and the deep, and each form falls within the LORD’s reach.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s sword reaches the force that flees, twists, and dwells in the sea; the blade is named as hard, great, and strong, and the dragon is slain. Nothing in its flight, coil, or deep dwelling places it beyond this judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the most elusive terror can evade judgment by slipping into the deep.
THE ROOT
יִפְקֹד
yifqod
GROWS FROM
פקד
p-q-d
Attend to, visit, muster, or appoint; in this setting, call to account.
“visit” in this verse is yifqod. The English ‘punish’ carries the blow, while פקד (paqad) also carries the sense of visiting, attending to, or taking account of. The serpent’s elusiveness ends in a direct summons under the LORD’s judgment.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: Attend to, visit, muster, or call to account.
פָּקַד
The word brings the serpent into the LORD’s direct notice and reckoning.
pequddah: Oversight, charge, or appointed responsibility.
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch carries the sense of something placed under oversight, like the serpent here.
בָּרִיחַ
bariakh
GROWS FROM
ברח
b-r-ḥ
Flee or escape; the related noun can also mean a bar or bolt.
“fleeing” in this verse is bariakh. Alongside the force of ‘piercing,’ בָּרִיחַ (bariakh) carries the motion of flight or escape. Paired with the next serpent, described as twisted, it names evasion and entanglement among the forms the sword reaches.
ALSO GROWS
baraḥ: Flee or escape.
בָּרַח
The serpent’s name carries the image of a force that slips away.
beriaḥ: Bar or bolt.
בְּרִיחַ
The same consonants also name a bar that blocks passage, adding a sense of force held across a way.
עֲקַלָּתוֹן
ʿaqallaton
GROWS FROM
עקל
ʿ-q-l
Twist, bend, or coil.
“crooked” in this verse is ʿaqallaton. The serpent is described by its twisting shape, not only by a name. This root also describes winding paths, so the serpent’s crookedness echoes a course that coils away from a straight line.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqal: Twist or bend.
עָקַל
The root puts the serpent’s crooked form into motion.
ʿaqalqalot: Winding, crooked paths.
עֲקַלְקַלּוֹת
The same root describes a path that coils, echoing the serpent’s twisting form.
THE PATTERN
The LORD brings the shapes of chaos, fleeing, twisting, and sea-dwelling, under judgment.
You split the sea by your strength; you break the heads of the sea-dragons upon the waters.And he grips the dragon, that ancient serpent, the Slanderer, and the Adversary, and binds him for a thousand years.THE THREAD
By his breath he adorns the heavens, and his hand pierces the slipping serpent.Job uses the same rare Hebrew form עֲקַלָּתוֹן (ʿaqallaton), translated ‘crooked serpent,’ and places it within the work of God’s hand. Isaiah then shows that same twisting creature under judgment: the word links its formation and its defeat.
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