Isaiah 27
1 At that time, Yahweh will punish Leviathan, the swift-moving monster/dragon, that coiling serpent that lives in the sea. Yahweh will kill it with his sharp, huge, and powerful sword.
In that day will Jehovah punish with his sword, His hard, and great, and strong sword, The leviathan, that fleet serpent, Even the leviathan, that winding serpent; Yea, he will slay the monster, that is in the sea.
2 At that time, [Yahweh will say], “You [Israeli people, who are like] [MET] a fruitful vineyard, must sing!
In that day, sing ye thus concerning the vineyard:
3 I will [protect you] [like a farmer] [MET] waters his crops carefully [in order that they will grow well]. I will guard you day and night, in order that no one harms you.
“I, Jehovah, am its guardian; I will water it every moment; That no one may assault it, I will watch it day and night.
4 I am no [longer] angry [with my people]; [if any of your enemies try to injure you like briers and thorns injure people] [MET], I will attack them [in battles]; I will get rid of them completely,
There is no fury in me; But let me find the thorns and thistles in battle. I will go against them, And burn them up together,
5 unless they request me to protect them; I strongly invite them to make peace with me [DOU]!”
Unless they take hold of my protection, And with me make peace, And make peace with me.”
6 There will be a time when the (descendants of Jacob/Israeli people) will [prosper like] a plant that has good roots; they will be like [MET] trees that bud and blossom and bear a lot of fruit; [what they do will bless] all the people in the world.
In coming days shall Jacob take root, And Israel flourish and bud forth, And fill the world with fruit.
7 [But now I ask], has Yahweh punished us Israelis like he punished our enemies? Has he punished us as much as he punished them?
Did he smite Israel, as he smote those that smote him? Was he slain as those that slew him?
8 [No, he has not done that], [but] he punished us Israeli people and (exiled us/forced us to leave our country); we were taken away from our land as though [SIM] we were struck by a windstorm from the east.
In measure, by sending her away, didst thou punish her, Taking her away in the rough tempest, in the day of the east wind.
9 Yahweh did that in order to punish us for our sins, and remove our guilt. As a result [of our being exiled], all the altars to other gods [in Israel] will be demolished, and we will be forgiven for the sins that we have committed. There will be no more poles for worshiping the goddess Asherah, or altars for burning incense to other gods; they will all be torn down.
By this, therefore, is the iniquity of Jacob expiated, And this is wholly the fruit of the removal of his sin, That He has made the stones of the altar like limestones broken in pieces, And that the images of Astarte and the sun-pillars no more stand.
10 The cities that have strong walls around them will be empty; like the desert, they will have no one living in them. The houses will be abandoned, and the streets will be full of weeds. Calves will eat grass there and lie down there; they will chew up all the leaves on the trees.
For the fortified city is desolate, A habitation forsaken, deserted like a wilderness; There doth the calf feed, and there doth he lie down, And consume her branches.
11 [The Israeli people are like] [MET] dry branches on a tree; women break them off and use them to make fires [under their cooking pots]. Our Israeli people do not have any sense; so Yahweh, who created them, will not act mercifully toward them or be kind to them.
When her boughs are withered, they are broken off; Women come, and burn them; For it was a people of no understanding; Therefore he that made him had not mercy on him, And he that formed him showed him no favor.
12 [However], there will be a time when Yahweh will gather them together [again; he will separate them from the people who have conquered them, like people] separate wheat from chaff. He will bring them [back to Israel], one by one, from [the land between] the Euphrates River [in the northeast] and the brook at the border of Egypt [in the southwest].
But it shall come to pass in that day, That Jehovah shall gather fruit From the stream of the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, And ye shall be gathered, one by one, ye children of Israel!
13 At that time, a trumpet will be blown very loudly. And those who were exiled to Assyria and Egypt and who almost died there will return to Jerusalem, to worship Yahweh on [Zion], his holy hill.
In that day shall a great trumpet be sounded, And they shall come who are lost in the land of Assyria, And are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship Jehovah upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
