In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
In measure - Hebrew, bªca'cª'aah (H5432), a contraction for bª-ce'ah-ce'ah, 'in measure by measure.' The seah х ce'ah (H5429)] was one-fourth of a bushel: thus 'seah by seah,' not the whole bushel at once. Not beyond measure-in moderation (Job 23:6; Psalms 6:1; Jeremiah 10:24; Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28).
When it shooteth forth - image from the vine. Rather (Hebrew, bªshalchaah (H7971), from shaalach (H7971), to send), passing from the image to the thing itself, when sending her away (namely, Israel to exile: Isaiah 50:1, God only putting the adulteress away when He might justly have put her to death). Thou wilt debate with it - rather, thou didst punish her. Hebrew, tªriybenaah (H7378), from riyb (H7378), to hold a controversy-to deal with one judicially (Gesenius).
He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. So Isaiah 48:9; Psalms 78:38, "He did not stir up all His wrath." Hagah is translated by the Septuagint, Chaldaic, Vulgate, Arabic, and Syriac, 'He meditated:' the common meaning of the Hebrew. There is 'in,' or 'in respect to' [bª-], in the Hebrew, before "His rough wind;" may not the English version sense be retained, by construing, 'He taketh away (so the Hebrew means, Proverbs 25:4-5) in respect to His rough wind,' etc., Piscator translates as margin, '(when) He removed it by His rough wind in the day of the east wind' - i:e., by hostile invasion of the Babylonians and Romans successively, and finally Antichrist. This is the very image in Jeremiah 4:11-12; Jeremiah 18:17. But the insertion of 'when' is gratuitous. If the English version be rejected, I prefer, from the parallelism to Isaiah 27:7, Grotius' views: the contrast in Isaiah 27:7 between God's temporary chastisements of His people and His eternal destruction of their enemies, is continued in this 8th verse. In moderate measure thou didst punish Israel; but He (the change to the third person marks estrangement) removes the enemy (or else, the enemy is removed) by His rough wind in the day of the east wind.
East wind - especially violent in the East (Job 27:21; Jeremiah 18:17).