Isaiah 27
1 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan, the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
At that time the Lord will take his sharp, large, and strong sword, and punish Leviathan, the slithering serpent, and Leviathan, the coiled serpent, and he will kill the sea dragon.
2 In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard!
At that time, sing about a beautiful vineyard.
3 I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.
I, the Lord, take care of it, watering it often. I guard it night and day so that nobody can damage it.
4 Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.
I'm not angry anymore. If there are thorns and brambles I would go and fight them, burning them all up,
5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”
Otherwise they should come to me for protection. They should make their peace with me, yes, make their peace with me.
6 In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.
In the future the descendants of Jacob will be like a tree taking root. Israel will flower and send out shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit!
7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?
Has the Lord hit Israel as he hit those that attacked them? Were they killed like their killers were killed?
8 In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
You dealt with them by sending them into exile, by banishing them. He drove them away with his powerful force, like when the east wind blows.
9 Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more.
Through this experience Jacob's guilt will be forgiven. The removal of their sins will come to fruition when they take all the pagan altar stones and crush them to pieces like chalk—no Asherah poles or altars of incense will be left standing.
10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
The fortified city will be abandoned, its houses as empty and lonely as a desert. Cattle will graze and rest there, stripping bare the branches of its trees.
11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
Their dry branches are broken off and used by women to make fires. This is a people that doesn't have any sense, so their Maker won't feel sorry for them, and their Creator won't help them.
12 It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
At that time the Lord will thresh the grain harvested from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you Israelites will be gathered up one by one.
13 It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
At that time a loud trumpet will sound, and those who were dying in Assyria will return along with those exiled in Egypt. They will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
