Isaiah 27:10 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 27:10 mean?

Isaiah 27:10 pictures a fortified city reduced to an empty place where livestock roam. Its strong defenses have not kept it from ruin. The image gives the first hearers a stark picture of a once-inhabited place losing its people and ordered life.

A calf feeding and lying down suggests that the city is quiet enough for an animal to settle there. Its eating the branches adds to the picture of a place no longer tended by its inhabitants.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 27:10

• “defenced” — בָּצַר (batsar): This word can describe something made inaccessible or fortified. It brings out the contrast between the city’s strong defenses and its desolate condition.
• “habitation” — נָוֶה (naveh): This word can mean a dwelling place. Here it points to a place where people once lived, now left empty.
• “consume” — כָּלָה (kalah): This word can carry the sense of finishing or using something up. The calf is pictured eating away the branches, not merely resting among them.

Why Isaiah 27:10 matters

• The verse’s image reaches beyond damaged walls to abandoned daily life. “The habitation” is “forsaken,” and the calf takes the place of people in the scene.
• The city’s defenses make its desolation more striking. “Defenced” describes a place built for protection, while “left like a wilderness” describes its condition afterward.
• The picture continues into verse 11, where the branches dry and break. Together, the images show a place exposed to grazing and decay.