< Isaiah 27 >
1 In that day, the LORD with his fierce and great and mighty sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the serpent that is in the sea.
In that day, the Lord will visit, with his harsh and great and strong sword, against Leviathan, the barred serpent, and against Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and he will slay the whale that is in the sea.
2 In that day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard.
In that day, the vineyard of pure wine will sing to them.
3 I, the LORD, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.
I am the Lord, who watches over it. I will suddenly give drink to it. I will watch over it, night and day, lest perhaps someone visit against 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.
Indignation is not mine. Who will be a thorn and a brier to me in battle? I will advance against them. I set them on fire together.
5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."
Or will he, instead, take hold of my strength? Will he make peace with me? Will she make 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.
As they advance with violence against Jacob, Israel will flourish and spring forth, and they will fill the face of the world with offspring.
7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been killed as their killers were killed?
Has he struck him with the scourge that he himself used to strike others? Or has he killed in the manner that he himself used to kill his victims?
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 will judge this by comparing one measure to another, when he has been cast out. He has decided this, by his stern spirit, for the day of heat.
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 Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.
Therefore, concerning this, the iniquity of the house of Jacob will be forgiven. And this is the reward of all: that their sin be taken away, when he will have made all the stones of the altar to be like crushed cinders. For the sacred groves and the shrines shall not stand.
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.
For the fortified city will be desolate. The shining city will be abandoned and will be left behind like a desert. In that place, the calf will pasture, and in that place, he will lie down, and he will feed from its summits.
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.
Its harvest will be crushed by dryness. Women will arrive and teach it, for it is not a wise people. Because of this, he who made it will not take pity on it, and he who formed it will not spare it.
12 It will happen in that day, that the LORD will thresh from the flowing stream of the Perath to the Wadi of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will strike, from the channel of the river, even to the torrent of Egypt. And you shall be gathered together, one by one, O sons of Israel.
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 the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
And this shall be: in that day, a noise will be made with a great trumpet. And those who had been lost will approach from the land of the Assyrians, with those who had been outcasts in the land of Egypt. And they will adore the Lord, on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.