Isaiah 27:7
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? 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?
Isaiah's prophecies began around 760 B.C. The verse stands in the first part of Isaiah, in the varied prophecies of chapters 24-35 that look especially ahead to the last days and God's judgments on the earth. Within that setting it belongs to a prophecy of the earth's destruction and desolation because of sin and of the deliverance of God's children. Its warnings remain relevant because the sins and conditions of Isaiah's time resemble those of the last days.
It contrasts God's treatment of His people with the fate of their oppressors, for He does not strike or destroy His people as severely and fully as those who attacked them are struck and destroyed. His smiting of His own people is unlike His smiting of those who smote them, nor His slaying of them like the slaughter of their enemies. His afflicting of His people is measured, corrective chastening connected with the truth, given as a prominent means of sanctification to make them know themselves. If rightly improved, that chastening advances them in every excellence and purges the iniquity of Jacob.