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 Yahweh With his sword—the hard and the great and the strong, Bring punishment Upon Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, And upon Leviathan, the crooked serpent, —And will slay the monster which 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, A Wine-Vineyard! sing ye unto her:
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—Yahweh, am Watching over her, Every moment, will I water her, —Lest anyone injure her, Night and day, will I watch over her.
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,
Fury, have I none, —Oh that there were delivered to me briars and thorns, in battle! I would march in among them I would set fire to them one and all.
5 unless they request me to protect them; I strongly invite them to make peace with me [DOU]!”
Else, let one lay hold of my protection, Let him make peace with me, —Peace, let him make 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 times, shall Jacob strike root, Israel, shall blossom and bud, —Then shall they fill the face of 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?
Was it, with the smiting of his smiter, that he smote him? Or as with the slaying of his slayer, was he slain?
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.
By driving her away—by dismissing her, wouldest thou contend with her? He removed her by his rough wind in, a day of 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.
Therefore hereby, shall a propitiatory—covering be put over the iniquity of Jacob, And all, this, is the fruit of taking away his sin, —When he maketh all the stones of an altar like chalk-stones that soon crumble, Sacred Stems and Sun Images, shall not arise.
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 solitary, The dwelling forsaken and left as a wilderness, —There, shall the calf feed, And, there, lie down And shall consume the branches thereof:
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 the cut-off boughs thereof are dry, they shall be broken to pieces, Women, coming, are kindling it! For it is not a people of understanding, For this cause, Will he that made him, not have compassion upon him, And, he that formed him, will shew him no favour.
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].
And it shall come to pass, in that day, That Yahweh will beat off his fruit from the stream of the River ["Euphrates"], unto the torrent-valley of Egypt, —And, ye, shall be picked up, one by one O sons 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.
And it shall come to pass in that day, That there shall be a blowing with a great horn, Then shall come in Such as have wandered in the land of Assyria, And such as have been outcasts in the land of Egypt, —And they shall bow themselves down unto Yahweh In the holy mountain, In Jerusalem.
